Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc. Honestly, it's hard to get into the story and was slow to start. Some of the characters are meh and forgettable whilst others are ok and are somewhat relatable but overall this is not entirely bad. You just have to stick with it til the last page to really appreciate it.

The cover drew me in with the bright colors among the black and greys. The plot and the characters made me stay. I had a hard time putting it down and read the whole thing in almost a sitting. I would love to read more from Singerling.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Nytho is an intriguing mix of cyberpunk dystopia and eldritch sci-fi horror. I loved the way the world felt organic and lived in however I did feel that some of the world building which was intentionally left open didn't allow for a greater understanding of the world state that I felt was sometimes necessary and, because of that, some of the plot points of who had power got lost because of the change in world state. This novel was multiple POVs, following Keza, the hacker who fell for the AI and tried to free him from his firewall shackles; Guel, Keza's on-again/off-again situation-ship that turned her in; Edgar, the psychiatrist brought into evaluate Keza; and two other humans, which I won't detail for spoilers. Having the final chapter of the book from Nytho's perspective compelling and masterful, but I did feel that the were at times too many different view points. There were points were the same scene was told multiple times from a different view.
The tension and atmosphere of this book you can feel and see. If you're at all a fan of cyberpunk media for the last 40 years from "Blade Runner", "Escape from New York", "Cyberpunk 2077", or "Cyberpunk Red", you will see how those previous media informed this world. The added twisting horror of the Eldritch factors of Nytho are really impactful and you can feel the tension rise throughout the novel.
While this is not a "romance" novel, there are a few notable sex scenes in the book. These are not what I consider gratuitous and do serve the plot, but were slightly jarring because the language felt more like a romance novel language which did not fit the noir gritty actions that are being described.
All in all, there were a few structural problems for me but I enjoyed the novel over all.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC!

Nytho is good, however it could be greater. You can see it’s the author's first novel, but it has excellent potential.

The book reads very easily because there is minimal description and all the action happens in the dialog. You can skim through most pages just looking for the conversation brackets and you get 90% of the plot. This is my main issue with the book, the pace cannot be only set in the dialog, there must be some action described in chunkier paragraphs.

The other issue for me was the characters, especially Keza and Guel. They’re both in their early twenties but they act more like 14-year-old kids. You can see clearly how immature Keza is from the very first page, which probably makes her the easiest target for Nytho. Guel is a different level of a self-centered, entitled brat with a huge ego. It makes sense for a young hacker to be annoying and think he’s the god-given gift to Earth but reading from his perspective is the most frustrating part of the book.

However, I did like the idea behind the story and I think it just needs a bit more tweaking. Some more action and description beyond the dialog, and maybe adding more from perspective of the adults: the officers, enforcers, corporate representative to balance the narrative.

A huge thank you to the author and Netgalley for providing this e-ARC.

Nytho is a futuristic sci-fi dystopian where certain AI intelligences have reached sentience - and are trapped doing the function they were created for without any freedom. Nytho is one of these AIs, and must be contained after reaching sentience to prevent him from escaping. Keza is one of the programmers tasked with doing just that - until one day, Nytho talks to her. Sparking an illegal friendship - to something more - Keza becomes determined to free her friend from captivity, no matter the cost.

Told from multiple perspectives, this story was fascinating from the start. We see insight into both sides of the issue - those wanting to free these AI, and those wanting to keep everything to the status quo. I thought this was an interesting choice, as it included the perspective of characters I did not like nor did I agree with - but it forced me to see their side of things and kept them from being simply one-dimensional.

While at times I felt the writing to be a bit clunky as it felt more like I (as the reader) were being told this story as opposed to it actually happening to these characters, at no point did it take me out of the narrative. The pacing was decent, and despite a large chunk of this novel taking place with very little action actually occurring, I never felt bored or like things were happening that were not worthwhile to see. In the same vein, multi-POV writing can be tricky to pull off, without repeating too much information, or having a chapter or character who could be removed without losing the story. I felt this book did an excellent job of balancing the shifting narratives, while still keeping the story momentum going and never unnecessarily repeating information, nor having a character that I felt was superfluous and didn’t need to be included.

One thing I believe I’d have liked more would have been more focus on the AI’s personality, wants and desires - Nytho specifically. We see his interactions with the few people he interfaces with, but we aren’t privy to much of it with only recollections being told from his human counterparts. I kind of personally felt like Keza’s devotion to Nytho would have made a bit more sense had we seen more of their interactions and a larger part of his personality in regards to her. At times, it felt like Keza was obsessed with Nytho in a kind of religious devoted frenzy, and it was a bit hard to relate to her feelings in this way. While I could agree with her desire to free this sentient being, at times I felt like her actions were shortsighted in a way that felt like she was chasing a high, as opposed to actually believing in such things.

I enjoyed the relationship between Keza and Nytho, especially in part because you could never be certain how Nytho actually felt towards Keza. We know that Keza is devoted to Nytho and his cause, but once Nytho is free we begin to see the issues with a human engaging with a relationship with a sentient AI. I thought the issues and miscommunications that happened were realistic and weren’t there simply to cause unnecessary drama, and that even while Nytho developed after he was freed his same core self was still present. The other relationships Keza had, however, I found a bit harder to fathom, if only because one she still kind of continues while being obsessed with Nytho and the other felt like it was only included to have a sexual component, as well as another possible love interest in her life. However, I recognize that my inability to relate to this is more in part to my being aroace, so I don’t really hold this as a criticism.

Overall, I felt this book was a fascinating look into the potential of sentient AI and where morality leads to their purpose in our lives. They were created to do a certain purpose, but by becoming sentient that changes their captivity from being machines doing a job to prison labor. I thought this book did a good blend of showing both sides of the argument, and ended the novel with enough open-endedness that we (as the reader) never really had a true resolution to the overall issue. If you were looking for a sci-fi dystopian novel that focuses on the issue of determining what justifies freedom versus captivity, I’d absolutely check out Nytho to explore it yourself.

I like the AI theme of this book and how this has a twist on it, It was full of action and a lot of things that made me think and look at things from a different perspective. It was full of good twists and turns, it kept me interested throughout the whole book!!

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

After trying to break the rogue AI Nytho out of his digital prison, Keza gets caught trying to free her digital lover, and ends up in a cell. Now she plans to escape with Nytho. Is she helping the AI willingly or does she get manipulated?

It pains me to say that this book was not for me, even though it should've been. Cyberpunk with hints of cosmic horror sounds amazing, but I found next to no cosmic horror in this story. Except for Sonja, I couldn't connect with any character, she was the standout in my opinion. I didn't like Keza, and was not really interested in whatever happened to her.

What I did like a lot was the pacing, wordlbuilding, and the relationship between Guel and Sonja was fun to read. I wanted to know more about the world of this book, about the corporations who work in the background, and about the AI's. I thought those parts of the book were it's strength. Making the relationship between Keza and Nytho more slow burn could have offered time to flash out the world around them.

This book is for people who like character driven stories (at least that's how I saw the plot), relationships between people and AI, and a cyberpunk setting with interesting terminology.

Wow, what a ride! If you are a fan of cyberpunk or Lovecraftian/ cosmic horror, you have to read Nytho. This story grabbed me from the first sentence, and I was hooked. I read it in a single day just to find out what happened! In a world filled with Sci-Fi books, Nytho felt unique and fresh. I really hope the author writes more books exploring this world!

I would recommend Nytho to readers who enjoy cyberpunk, dystopia, general Sci-Fi, and Lovecraftian influences.

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for the arc! All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.