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.
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?
Good story dealing with identity and biotech piracy.
Fast-paced drugpunk novel that questions the limits of consciousness and feelings.
