Autonomous

A Novel

paperback, 304 pages

Published Sept. 4, 2018 by Tor Books.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-9208-4
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3 stars (3 reviews)

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.

2 editions

Boring, sorry

2 stars

The first 100 pages of this had me hooked, but then it all fell apart. The plot was boring, the writing grew really procedural and stale, and the Jack/Threezed half of the narrative didn’t hold up to the first few sections about Eliasz and Paladin. I appreciated the book’s themes and message about autonomy, but… lukewarm at best.