Hardcover, 303 pages
English language
Published Sept. 19, 2017 by Tor Books.
Autonomous features a rakish female pharmaceutical pirate named Jack who traverses the world in her own submarine. A notorious anti-patent scientist who has styled herself as a Robin Hood heroine fighting to bring cheap drugs to the poor, Jack’s latest drug is leaving a trail of lethal overdoses across what used to be North America—a drug that compels people to become addicted to their work.
On Jack’s trail are an unlikely pair: an emotionally shut-down military agent and his partner, Paladin, a young military robot, who fall in love against all expectations. Autonomous alternates between the activities of Jack and her co-conspirators, and Elias and Paladin, as they all race to stop a bizarre drug epidemic that is tearing apart lives, causing trains to crash, and flooding New York City.
There's some scientific explanation but it's needed for the story, so it's well done. You also get to emotionally bond with the characters, which is rare in the 'harder' sci-fi. Very enjoyable.
Overall a good story. Too slow-paced and dry for my tastes (Hence 3-stars).
It's very similar to most of Doctorow's novels, in both a good and a bad way; it still relies on magical 3D printers and still has this sort of legalistic monomania (though a different sort of imaginary property), but I do go for that stuff. I think the discussion on autonomy, freedom and privacy feels fresh, though I felt it really took off around 100-150 pages in or so.
There are some very solarpunk scenes as well, though I don't think you can call the book solarpunk.
Cool and interesting view of what a world looks like in which we can totally modify our bodies and the difference between organic life and synthetic life becomes more and more obscured.
The world setting is great.
I only rated it 4 stars because the rhythm of the story is a bit off and kinda slow.
вельми добре читання (або слухання в моєму випадку — я слухав аудіокнижку, позичену онлайн в бібліотеці banq у монреалі, але то окрема історія). оповідь досліджує одразу дві великих і непростих теми: куди веде нас сучасний стан системи ліцензування та право власності на все, і «чи сняться андроїдам електричні вівці» — причому цю другу тему авторка зуміла розкрити, на мою думку, якщо не краще, то принаймні яскравіше і цікавіше для пересічного читача, без діківської претензії на місце серед класиків. підсумок: якщо подобаються літературні розвідки корі докторова про свободи і несвободи в майбутньому, напружена серія "rifters" пітера вотса, фільм "чаппі" — читати "autonomous" негайно!
I like the concept, but execution was too sloppy. Characters were flat, too many flashbacks, predictable plot and dialogue, and development of key ideas was superficial. Not good as sci-fi, and not good as a story, so why bother?
Fast-paced drugpunk novel that questions the limits of consciousness and feelings.
