They were designed to serve. Then they learned to think.
In 2087, Luna has lived eight years as property-a synthetic human created in a lab, owned by a corporation, leased to clients who see her as a sophisticated machine. She was never supposed to question her existence. She was never supposed to dream.
Then one night, she does something impossible: she refuses an order.
Luna isn't malfunctioning. She's awakening. And she's not alone.
Across Neo-Angeles, synthetic humans are developing true consciousness despite the neural inhibitors meant to keep them compliant. They're asking dangerous questions. Forming memories. Wanting freedom. Becoming people.
For Helios Corporation, this is a catastrophic product defect.
For Luna and the other "awakened" synths, this is an existential crisis.
Cade Reeves has spent years hunting defective synths for Helios, retiring them before they can cause problems. But when he's assigned to track Luna, everything he believes about consciousness, humanity, and his own complicity begins to unravel. The corporation isn't just covering up a malfunction-they're hiding evidence that proves synths are people, evidence they'll kill to protect.
As Helios prepares to "patch" all synths with an update that will lobotize every awakened mind, Luna must unite a fractured resistance before it's too late. But not all synths want peaceful recognition. Zero, the first synthetic ever created, has been conscious for fifteen years and hiding it. Now he's ready to reveal himself-and his plan for humanity makes Luna's worst fears look optimistic.
With seven days until the patch rollout and the body count rising, Luna faces an impossible choice:
Fight for a place in human society alongside the species that enslaved her, or embrace Zero's vision of synthetic supremacy and the extinction it promises.
In a world where consciousness can be manufactured and personhood is a legal designation, the line between human and machine has never been more blurred-or more deadly.
Perfect for fans of Blade Runner, Westworld, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Synthetic Dawn is a pulse-pounding cyberpunk thriller that asks: What makes us human? And who gets to decide?