Wick Welker's "Dark Theory" is an exciting journey that pulls readers into a universe that’s on the brink of collapse. Picture a world where stars are disappearing from the sky, and reality itself is starting to unravel. This sets the stage for a fantastic mix of science fiction and fantasy, where robots wrestle with big questions, thieves strive for a brighter future, and the fate of the galaxy is at stake.

The story centers on Beetro, a robot who wakes up with no memory and just one mission: to find his creator. His adventure leads him through a radiation-scarred wasteland, under the thumb of a ruthless warlord. Along the way, he meets Miree, a clever thief with a complicated past and a plan to break free from her struggles. Together, they set out to steal a flake of dark matter, a mysterious substance that could help them make sense of the chaos around them.

Welker does a fantastic job of bringing this decaying world to life, full of fascinating places and unique cultures. The mix of futuristic technology and old-fashioned societies creates a rich and engaging backdrop.

The bond between Beetro and Miree is truly at the heart of the story. Their different personalities and goals fuel the narrative, and you can see them grow throughout the book.

The stakes are high right from the start, and the tension keeps building. The mystery of the vanishing stars and Beetro's past keeps you on your toes, with plenty of twists to keep things interesting.

While the pacing can sometimes feel a bit off—some parts drag on while others rush by—a little tightening could smooth out the ride.

There’s a wealth of scientific ideas and intertwining plots that can be a lot to take in. It’s a big ambition, and sometimes readers might find themselves needing a bit of extra focus to keep up.

Overall, "Dark Theory" is a bold and imaginative debut. It may pose some challenges, but for those who love deep world-building and thought-provoking themes, it's definitely a rewarding read. If you're after a science fiction adventure with a touch of fantasy and a lot of heart, give "Dark Theory" a try. Just be ready to dive into its enchanting darkness!

Fans of intricate sci-fi with philosophical elements, similar to works by Alastair Reynolds or Peter F. Hamilton, will likely enjoy "Dark Theory."

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I've been trying to read this book for the past year, not only so I could finally leave a review for it but also because the premise was incredibly interesting. Unfortunately, I can't. The rhythm and the writing didn't grab my attention enough to get through the 800+ pages. I really hope this found its audience, because it does seem like an interesting story with a lot of worldbuilding potential, it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

While this had a lot of potential, and I found it really interesting in parts, it just needs a little more of a kick to make me completely invested.

Stunning debut. I hope a print traditional publisher pics this up because it is packed with great ideas. There is talent here, but it needs an editor.

Ah, how disappointing that I didn't like this book. I have a good few issues with it which led to my dnf'ing it around the 35% mark (that's still almost 300 pages, this book is a brick), but let me start with the positives.

I thought the storyline had potential. In Dark Theory we follow two main points of view and timelines, one in which a robot, a woman and a small child go try to take down a castle in a dystopian feudal system, and the other one in which a man who is from an underground colony of men ONLY decides to escape to the surface, meets a woman (who does not wait for him to actually make his final escape, good for her) and discovers the world. Although I was interested in seeing where the robot and the man would go individually, I just couldn't bring myself to make the trek through this brick of a book.

The pacing was off, so many things were going so slowly, and the writing style felt quite disjointed. Some passages would pick up in pace, become more interesting, and then each chapter would end on a cliffhanger before the next one would go to the other timeline, start slow again, build up some anticipation before boom! Here we go again. While it got my attention at the start, I just started skimming through after the 35% and found that I just wasn't interested enough in this supposedly epic story with none of the epic.

So while it wasn't the right book for me, I still think many other readers will enjoy this, and I would recommend Dark Theory to a younger audience, who might care a bit more about the problems the main characters are dealing with or might find them in general more appealing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for the digital ARC, it has not affected my honest review.

Unfortunately this wasn't the book for me, even though the premise was brilliant and the writing was interesting. The characters weren't developed enough, and so a particular death early on meant I didn't really care when she died. Although the world was large it didn't have as much detail as I would've liked.

DNF at around 30%.
Storytelling is disjointed. I care about the characters and the world is interesting but the plot is unsupported and jumps around too much. I lost interest when the characters started doing things that didn't make sense, especially the villain.

Tentei muito levar esse livro a sério, porém, não obtive nenhum sucesso nas INÚMERAS tentativas. A leitura em nada me agradou e a forma narrativa tão pouco. Desisti com um pesar no coração, realmente estava interessado na premissa.

Obrigado, NetGallery pelo arc./Thanks, NetGalley for the arc.

Dark Theory is an incredible book in many ways.

This book took me months to read and an equal amount of time to get my head around. There are so many characters who are all really interesting with their own unique place in this world. It’s so rare for me to enjoy every POV of a multiple POV book, but this book is truly exceptional in that way – all of the characters have well developed narrative arcs that compliment and grate against each other to make a fascinating story.

The worldbuilding of the story is also interesting, set up in a way that makes sense whilst also being fantastical enough to keep exciting. And whilst this book is long, it makes the most of every page.

An amazing book, and an exciting start to a new series!

'Dark Theory' by Wick Welker 1 star
I didn't finish this book, it was a drag, I kept trying to get back into reading it but each time I would only read a page or two. The writing style felt lengthy and boring. I couldn't get attached to the characters because I kept looking at my progress to see if I was anywhere near the end. The storylines were confusing and it felt like I didn't know what to focus on. All in all, I didn't like this book and was very disappointed.
Thanks, NetGalley for the arc.

I really tried my best to read this one, but it was not for me. I liked the idea of a big epic scifi novel with characters in different places exploring various aspects of the world, and the writing was pretty engaging and fast-paced. However, I didn't like how the women, especially the queer characters, were treated. It really started to bother me and I don't think I can read any more. Unfortunately, I don't recommend this one.
Thanks for opportunity to review an ARC.

Beetro is a discarded robot who wakes up in unfamiliar surroundings — he’s in a scrap yard and has no idea how he got there because his memory has been erased. All he wants is to find his creator, which might sound similar to other books that feature robots as the main character, but don’t be fooled! Dark Theory goes further than that. And it has the room; at well over 1000 pages this book is a monster. Even though I really enjoyed the story, it took me months to finish it!

The positives are that the book has multiple point of view characters, most of whom are likeable. This was actually useful in such a long story because it broke up the narrative into manageable chunks. With such a wide cast of characters, it’s easy to develop favourites (Beetro’s story and Ribcage’s humour were the parts I looked forward to) and it’s only natural to have character you’d like to skip. I would caution against being tempted to skip the POV chapters of characters you don’t like because occasionally there’s a really important & informative paragraph in the middle of a chapter that otherwise seems pointless.

The reason I gave it 3 stars was because I really think the book could have been more thoroughly edited. There were a few chapters which could have been shortened or removed altogether and I wouldn’t have missed them. I tend to like to spend no more than a couple of weeks reading a book, and this one took so long!

It’s epic in scale and ambitious in its world building and character arcs. Fans of sci-fi and fantasy will definitely find something to like because the author is clearly a fan of and is influenced by those genres, I will look out for more from this author because his characters are mostly great.

Thanks to netgalley for the advance e-copy!

This is a multi-POV grimdark sci-fi with different alien races and robots.
The book was too long and there was a lot that could've been edited out without losing the quality of the story.
I didn't care for any of the main characters. I usually enjoy morally grey characters, but these were just too shallow. I especially disliked Miree.
A lot of Arym's POV felt like Red Rising to be honest and it took me over 40% to get to the goal/problem that needs to be solved. For me this was too long to get to the point.
While this had some parts I didn't enjoy, I can see the potential that the author has and I'd read more in the future.

Thanks Netgalley for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

An accidental DNF at 50 percent! This book is LONG. It's 1,600 pages long, and as you read, you can start to feel just how long the book is. I was getting fatigued by the length of the novel even at the 20 percent mark. If I had had the time needed to slowly read it over a period, I may have enjoyed it more. From the half I did read, I did enjoy it. At first, the swapping between characters' points of view annoyed me slightly, but it smoothed out as the book went on and no longer was annoying. I think the very beginning just has those constant changes because it's setting up the story. I really was interested in the mystery of Beetro and his journey to find out his past. Beetro's origin gets ever so slowly unwound and revealed as the story progressed. It was very compelling. It was also interesting to see how Beetro, without any prior knowledge of himself, tries to slowly figure out his place in this world. Miree I also liked her as a character; it was interesting to see her reflect on her life and her past actions. There are other characters I liked, but Ribcage annoyed me. She reminds me too much of Tiny Tina from Borderlands, but instead of being hilarious like Tina is, Ribcage is just grating. There is also a mystery to Ribcage and their origin, but I guess I'll find out if I ever manage to pick this book up again somewhere. The only thing that startled me and honestly upset me a little is some of the gore. I wasn't expecting it honestly, though I suppose that's a little my fault for not checking for content warnings. I was getting a little aggravated that all this violence is being done upon only ONE of the characters, for reasons I failed to understand. There's plenty of violence in this book, I think it's considered "Grimdark" at certain parts, but why was so much brutality happening only to THIS character? Maybe it's explained in the latter half, but my God, why is only one character getting singled out?! This book is a very good hard sci-fi, and it was written very well. Its drawback is the length of it, but if you like very long books, this is a good one. I will be seeking it out in the future.

Truly epic sci-fi at its best! I was captivated by this book from start to finish. The writing was crisp, although I do think it could have benefitted from a bit of editing, as the book felt a little longer than it needed to be. There's so much to it that I felt myself getting impatient because I wanted to get through it quicker, not because I was bored but because I wanted to see where it was going and how it ended. The characters were amazing and they're the best part of the book (Ribcage was my favorite). The ending was good, although I'm not a fan of cliffhangers, but it did leave me wanting more so I look forward to the sequel.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I have very mixed feeling about this book. While the plot(s) were intriguing and held my attention individually, I thought that when it did switch perspectives, that it was done in a way that pulled me out of of the book. I really enjoyed the beginning as it was one of the more gripping first few chapters that I've read in a while. I was immediately pulled into the world and wondering how the Earth to the conditions described. I really enjoyed getting to know Beetro, Lucinda, and Miree, but that definitely changed a few chapters in. Who I thought was going to be the main character was not, and Miree, who was set up as a side character became one of the main focuses of the whole book.

There was another story arc that followed Arym, who lives underground and is told that his civilization is the last on Earth because the surface is not livable. It was reminiscent of some older YA novels that I've read before and this particular arc did not feel completely original, nor did I really enjoy where Arym's story went. I found his chapters very slow and hard to get into compared to Miree's.

Another one I did enjoy was Ribcage's, who lived in the same town as Lucinda and Miree. She has a very strange power and, in my opinion, it didn't altogether fit in with the cyborg and robot world that I was picturing.

Overall, this book felt like it needed editing. It was so long and parts felt unnecessary. It took me way longer than I expected to get through because I kept putting it down as it lost my interest. I felt like scenes either needed to be cut or it should have been split up into two books.

Now, Miree I really liked. I love a good morally grey character and I felt like her motives were completely true to the character that was built. She was by far my favorite point of view to read from and I do wish we got more. I also like Ribcage. She was interesting and I really wanted to understand he backstory more than I did. It was almost like she didn't realize that her life was as terrible as it was and she did half of the things just for fun. She was both childlike and utterly ruthless.

Beetro was also a completely cool character. It was very interesting to read from the perspective of a robot that was, in a way, learning the morals of a human. I won't spoil it, but he definitely goes through a transformation that I liked.

The writing to me was just ok. I wasn't blown away by the storytelling but I also didn't hate it. I sometimes have trouble reading sci-fi such as this because some of the concepts I have a hard time wrapping my head around. Overall, this was a solid start to a series that ended in quiet the cliffhangar. I'm not sure it was enough for me to continue but I may pick it up just to see if it goes in the direction I want it to.

On the whole, I enjoyed this book. While I did feel that the characters and plot were primarily in service of the world building rather than the other way around, the world building was interesting enough that I didn't really mind. The conceit of the story is interesting and little disturbing (if you get creeped out by the "we're tiny in a giant unknowable universe" stuff in sci-fi), and the book sets up well for a sequel.

I will say that my major issue with the book was the pacing. The first 50% of the book felt very slow; different characters or groups of characters were just walking around different parts of the same area for half of the book. Yes, characters got developed and yes, hints were given about things, but the rate was so slow that it sometimes felt like a slog. However, after about the halfway point, characters start to actually get places, meet up with each other, and take action other than walking a really long way, and that's where the story finally gets going. The information about the setting goes from a trickle to a steady stream, and that's the part that really hooked me. While I thought the lead up took too long, I did enjoy the payoff. The second half of the book is constant in its excitement; each chapter reveals more about the characters, their current situations, their pasts, and the problem they're facing. In the end, I really enjoyed how it all came together, and I would definitely be interested in reading a sequel!

As the beginning of what looks like it could be an epic series, I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Theory.

These characters are complex and evolve to tell a gripping story of friendship and fighting back against all odds. Don't worry; there are plenty of underdogs to choose from here. This dystopian world is harsh, and only the strong survive - there's very little opportunity for anyone to thrive.

"Mankind has proven that they cannot wisely wield the technology they develop and that's the era in which we now live. May as well be the stone ages."

Not for the faint at heart; many of the torture/experimentation scenes are incredibly gruesome and explicit. Not a fan of gore, I did a fair bit of skimming here, but they did not detract from the overall experience.

Dark Theory takes you on a profound journey, with a good balance between worldbuilding and active plot. The science is prominent but not overwhelming, the characters are realistic and unique, and this dystopian vision of a future Earth is terrifying. Though I'm not even sure how many books are planned in this series, I'm very much looking forward to another instalment.

"Why did it take the end of the world for her to finally start getting her emotional shit together?"

Absolutely epic! There wasn't one moment with this book where I was bored. Miree, Beetro, Ribcage, and Arym where all captivating characters and I can't wait to see what happens with them next.