Experiment

by Cyma Rizwaan Khan

How do you survive in a world without hope?And what will it turn you into?Alien species are in control of the planet and Zyronian Citizens have no choice but to become slaves to both reigning species, the Zyre and the Khaltars. Life on Zyron for someone who is born a Citizen was bad enough but the constant riots within the regions have made survival impossible. So when Lane Volze, a twenty-two year old Citizen becomes the victim of a treacherous conspiracy, his brother Connor takes the help of resistance leader Jace Dyer and does everything in his power to get him out, but nothing is at it seems, and Connor keeps running into dead-ends. Lane on the other hand, struggles for survival in the prison from hell and is trying his best to come to terms with the fact that his life is over.WATCH TRAILER Connor get to the bottom of this conspiracy before it’s too late?

Genres: Science Fiction, Dystopia

372 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2014

Reviews

[Noel Coughlan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book takes place on planet Zyron. Lane and Connor are brothers. They are Citizens ruled by a Zyre government which is in turn a puppet of their Khaltar overlords. Connor works for the mob, but tries to keep his brother away from that environment. However, a confrontation changes both their lives forever.

The book starts out well, but about half-way through, once certain matters are resolved, it starts to lose focus. There are a few slips in logic, and the writing could do with more polish in places.

Some of the dialogue and character interaction is very good. One plot twist in particular was enjoyably reminiscent of Philip K. Dick. And the ending, though perhaps not everyone's taste, I enjoyed. I thought it was really gutsy. The writer is obviously willing to take risks.

[Jola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review also on www.jolasbookshelf.wordpress.com.

'Experiment' is a fascinating sci-fi novel. I found myself immersed in the world of Volze brothers. It had me surprised a few times and I always appreciate that in a story. The ending left me kind of speechless, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Not many authors decide to go in that directions and I admire Cyma for doing that.

Thanks to Cyma Rizwaan Khan for sending me an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

[Lisa Marie Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was offered a free copy of this book for an honest review but chose instead to use an Amazon Prime borrow as it looked like an interesting tale. I was not disappointed. What comes through to me immediately is the author’s enthusiasm for telling a story. Experiment has a good plot and the characters are well drawn. The writing is imaginative and well-paced for the most part.

For me, the success of characters is proportional to the emotional impact they have on me and the two main characters, Connor and Lane seemed very real and strong in that respect. Connor is so protective of Lane that it infuriated me at times and yet despite that protectiveness, Lane is thrown into an horrendous situation. Connor comes up trumps, succeeds apparently in achieving the impossible and rescuing him (though there is a twist in there which I won’t reveal) and yet he still tries to wrap his brother in cotton wool. Lane’s deterioration is very well written too.

At the start of the novel I was a little confused by the background story and I feel that it should perhaps have been part of the plot. That would have allowed Cyma Rizwaan Khan to explain more to us about the world in which the action takes place and a little more political and scientific background about the horrendous experiment itself. However, I was soon into the novel and enjoying what I read. The story moves well once under way and it is hard to put down.

On a more critical level, Experiment reads very much as YA so I was a little surprised at the short sex scenes which seemed to come out of nowhere and go nowhere. Considering there was a doctor/patient relationship involved and that Lane was vastly traumatised, sex scenes that read as little more than “quickies” seemed unlikely to me. I did not consider them to be particularly romantic or essential. I also think the book does need a careful proofread. There are the sort of spelling mistakes an automatic spell check won’t pick up, such as Chanel 6 instead of Channel 6, and at one point there were some odd symbols; ]/ \ if I remember right.

On the whole I found Experiment an enjoyable read and I think followers of YA dystopian science fiction would like it too.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy a high octane Sci-Fi Dystopian story that causes me to bite my nails to the quick. "Experiment" had all of the suspense, fear, and a very explosive ending that satisfied me as a reader.

Cyma R. Khan has a way of building a world that will have you feeling like you are on a journey with the Volze brothers. Human Citizens on the alien planet of Zyron are enslaved by the Khaltars. Resistance has meant certain death for many Citizens and any Zyronian sympathizers in the past. Many have given up and live on the dregs of society. Thirty year old Connor has done all of the dirty husslin to take care of his younger brother Lane. He wants his brother to have a chance at a better life. Life takes a turn for Lane one night and he is falsely arrested for the murder of a Zyron and sentenced to death. Many Citizens have been imprisoned under false accusations by Khaltar officials, and their families or lack there of have done nothing, but not Connor. He will do anything to save his brother from the torture that the "Black Wall" is notorious for. Before Connor can get to Lane, experiments and torture are unleashed on him on a daily basis. Lane is not the same young man upon his escape. He is a walking time bomb!!!

Did I say EXPLOSIVE ending?!! Yeah I was in shock. I didn't see that coming. What am I talking about? I recommend you read it. Great read! :)

[Amanda Lyles · Rating 4 out of 5]

It isn't the type of book I normally go for. That said it kept my attention to the point that I was surprised by people at work more than once. It was a quick read and while the end felt slightly anti-climatic it still ended very well. There were several times when I was surprised by the events. I never saw some of the twists and turns coming.


NOTE: This book was an ARC given to me by the author in exchange for a fair review.

[Annette Gisby · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the planet Zyron, if you're born a Citizen, that's all you can be. Citizens are the lowest class, lucky if they can get a poorly paid dead-end job and the unlucky ones are little more than slaves or have turned to crime as a way to make ends meet.

Connor Volze and his brother Lane have been alone since the death of their mother and Connor is a criminal, beholden to his crime boss, but he wants something better for his younger brother and tries to keep him out of that criminal underworld.

Framed for a murder he didn't commit, Lane is sent to the infamous prison of Black Wall, where few make it out alive and of those who do, no one is ever quite the same. For it is in Black Wall that the experiment of the title takes place. But what is the experiment? What do they want? And how did they know Lane's name? He wasn't arrested at random, he was targeted, but by whom and why?

Connor seeks the help of the resistance leader, Jace Dyer, to try and free Lane from the nightmare his life has become, but Jace Dyer is hiding secrets of his own too.

This was a fast paced book, the pages seem to turn themselves and I kept reading well into the night to see what was going to happen next. Connor and Lane were both sympathetic protagonists, despite their criminal dealings. Lane is tortured in prison, but it isn't overly graphic, you just get a sense of how horrible it was by his reactions to the things done to him.

It's a sci-fi book, but I didn't really get a sci-fi vibe from it at all. There was a bit of explanation of the different races and planets before the book started, I think that may have worked better if they were introduced at different periods throughout the book, because I couldn't really remember it all as I was reading the main section. There were some mentions of different technology, but nothing that said this was firmly a sci-fi book. It could have been set on Earth with any form of corrupt government or agency and it wouldn't have lost anything.

However, if you're after an intriguing tale, well-told, with characters you care about, you won't go far wrong with this one.

A great read.

Review copy from author.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I would like to say first that this is a beta copy of the book. I typically don't do beta reading, as I believe reviews should be on the content of the book and writing style of the author. Since this is in a beta reading, in my opinion, this definitely should not be offered on Amazon until the final editing is complete. The author isn't doing a justice to her readers.
That being said, I found the beginning of the book which explained the different races and their histories, to be very choppy and difficult to understand. I'm not quite sure how to make this better, but if there were a way to incorporate the histories into the story, that would be more enjoyable.
This book is categorized as a sci-fi book, but I don't see many science fiction qualities to it. It could just as easily be dystopian with the "different races" being different subsections of society.
The story itself was enjoyable and overall, the writing was decent. There is a lot of hard editing that needs to be done, misspellings and word choices. I brought the author's attention to a scene where it completely didn't make sense. Again, this really should have been caught before sending it out to a bookseller, in my honest opinion.

[Garrison Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Around the time I read this novel, I also started following a group on Face Book called Cop Block, which is an anti-police brutality page. The events happening in “Experiment” remind me a lot of what Cop Block reports: forced confessions, relentless beatings, draconian living conditions, and corruption. While this novel technically is science fiction and not a modern drama, it could be a call to arms for a revolution against those in charge in the real world. The concept of this story alone is one that should be cherished among reviewers. The parts that could use work, however, include some grammatical errors, instances of telling instead of showing, and the formatting of the e-book where the text is really big and the pages are many. But I’ve always said that the beautiful thing about self-publishing is it’s never too late to go back, fix things, and put out a second edition. All in all, the author put out something special. With those errors fixed, it could be even more special.

[Kel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was provided a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Experiment by Cyma Rizwaan Khan: In this dystopian Sci-Fi Khan takes you to a world that is full of riots and corrupt officials. Lane and his brother Connor are trying to survive in a society that thinks of them as slaves. Experiment is full of excitement, plot twists and a prison break. But what will happen when Lane gets to the dreaded Black Walls? I liked the book at parts, others… not so much.

I thought some of the story felt a bit forced, but the characters were fun and enjoyable. You kinda get attached to Lane and Connor.

[Corbin Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the premise, it was like a prison break novel and a dystopian in one! Very well written, nicely edited and I felt the violence and the grittier scenes, definitely a good thing. Just like The Hunger Games has an underlying message, this book does the same thing, its more than just showing a dark, depressing world. The story is set in the future, on a planet named Zyron (which closely resembles Earth), we get a look at the lives of a group of people who are treated like slaves because they were born with a different gene.

[Subhajit Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I am not really a big fan of science fiction, I did like this story. An experiment being conducted in an alien planet goes very wrong, producing some really horrible aftereffects. While I should not be divulging the story line itself here, I must mention that what I liked about the story are the underlying human elements in it. It is the play of human emotions that drive it through the treacherous terrains of hostile twists and turns. I would recommend this book to you if you are a science fiction buff.

[Shadow · Rating 5 out of 5]

COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN

I'm not too keen on dystopia and I wasn't so sure about this. But the blurb was interesting and sucked me in. I decided to gamble on it and I'm glad to say I didn't regret it at all.
The writing was great and the plot was intelligent and thrilling, keeping me on the edge of my seat. Couldn't put it down until I was done!

[Elodie Parkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Sci-Fi so I read lots of it. This is a surprisingly original and creative story. It had me turning the pages and glued to the story throughout. I loved the characters and the atmosphere of desperation in the descriptions of the settings. With great action, dialogue and a gripping story this is a must read. 5 stars

[Emma Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing was exceptional. Enjoyed it, very entertaining.

[Theresa Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Characters you want to get to know.
Creative storyline. Lots of twists and turns

[Shannon Haddock · Rating 2 out of 5]

My main problem with this story was that there were too many things that just didn’t make sense, too many times where a plot element came out of nowhere. There were some very cool plot twists, but far too often it seemed more like the author suddenly got an idea and ran with it instead of thinking about what would logically follow what had already happened. This got much worse the further into the book I got.

Another problem was the sheer number of typos, run-ons, verb tense errors, and misused words. There were far too many to ignore.

Other problems were too much redundancy, especially when something would happen that other characters would then need told about, enough mundane detail in spots that all of the emotion was sucked out of what should’ve been dramatic events, and out of nowhere near the end, not very well written sex scenes.

And then there were the little annoyances, like the book starting with a history lesson -- a pet peeve of mine that not everyone shares, I admit -- the phrase “I don’t know what to say” being extremely overused, and the story feeling far too much like it took place in the modern day. A few more distinctly sci-fi touches would’ve been nice, even if they were just in the names of buildings or drugs or something.

The book wasn’t all bad. Some of the characters felt very real, most of the time and the dialogue was fairly decent most of the time.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

[Joannes Rhino · Rating 5 out of 5]

One thing I love about reading sci-fi novel is the fact that I can explore my imagination to the maximum level. Experiment by Cyma is one of the examples of a good reading that has full imagination. I am so amazed knowing someone can write stuff like this. Brilliant imagination! All I can say that Experiment is a "dangerous" book. By dangerous, I mean you have to be prepared to pending your daily activities because once you start reading it, a small chance you will put it down the book before you reach the last page. Nicely done to the author!