Wednesday, October 18, 2017

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Autonomous by Annalee Newitz


Autonomous is the debut novel from io9 co-founder Annalee Newitz, coming just a year after fellow co-founder Charlie Jane Anders published her SFF debut novel, which won the Nebula Award last year.  So there were big expectations for this book from the start, which is truly unfair because this is a very different book than Anders' All the Birds in the Sky.  Unlike that book, which was a light and charming story of two friends, Autonomous is a serious thriller dealing with issues of patent abuse/piracy and well, the autonomy of both human beings and robots.

It should be noted, as I'll go into further detail below, that despite using a corrupt future involving the evils of Big Pharma and Patents as a basis for the plot, the book really isn't that interested in dealing seriously with questions about big pharma and patents and where things should go - the book has an obvious answer to this question from the start, and it shows no interest in grappling further.  What this book IS really interested in however, is questions about Autonomy, and what it means for individuals (whether biological or not) to have it.  Hence the title, really.

More after the Jump:



---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
In the year 2144, the world has undergone major changes.  International Conglomerates rule the world, and robots (Bots) are common technology.  Manufacturers of these bots are allowed to control their use for a certain amount of time, before being required to give these bots autonomy.  Meanwhile, with the creation of a new type of free and slaved being, the world adopts a system in which human beings without resources can find themselves "indentured," requiring them to earn their own enfranchisement.  And in this horrible system, some of the most powerful conglomerates remain that of Big Pharma, which uses the patent system to ensure that only the rich can afford essential and non-essential drugs.

Judith "Jack" Chen is a former scientist turned patent-pirate, who sells non-essential drugs she pirates (from reverse engineering patents) to the common people to finance her giving away of essential drugs to the common people who otherwise couldn't afford them.  But two things will change her dangerous life forever:  1) the drug Zaculty, which Jack carelessly sold into the common public, begins to start killing people by getting them literally addicted to their work to the extent they will refuse to do anything else; and 2) her coming across the indentured boy who goes only by the name "Threezed."

Meanwhile, as Jack tries to find a way to fix her lethal mistake of giving up Zaculty and to figure out what to do with Threezed, a military agent for the drug companies, Eliasz, and his robot companion Paladin are hot on their trail.  Paladin is a new bot, on his first mission, and doesn't understand humanity or what it means to possibly have autonomy, in a world in which Paladin will be forced to serve his masters for the next ten years.  But as their mission takes them closer and closer to Jack, Paladin will soon find that Eliasz has feelings for him such that Paladin could never have thought of in the past.

As Jack and Paladin converge on each other, each will need to figure out what it means to love and what it means to truly be free.
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Autonomous mainly alternates between chapters from Jack's point of view and those of Paladin's (I say mainly, because two other characters get short viewpoint snippets in between).  This really works because both Jack and Paladins' voices are really interesting, even as they both go in very very different directions.  And one of the two other characters who get snippets, a bot named Med, is excellent in her short time with us, which really makes this book very easy to read through rather quickly.  In general, all of the characters - Jack, Threezed, Paladin, and Med especially - are extremely well done and easy to care about.

As I mentioned before the jump, the book is really focused upon questions of what it means to be free, or "autonomous."  Every character grapples with what exactly that means - Jack wonders about whether she was truly free to take the life path she chose and about how her mistake with Zaculty has lethally cost others their freedoms; Paladin wonders what it means to be free from orders and whether Paladin truly has control of any of his own actions and what Paladin actually wants; Threezed wonders what he could actually do if he is freed from slavery; etc.  The book doesn't give any clear answers to some of these questions, because well, it's hard to see what those answers would be.  That said, the ending is well done, even without giving clear answers.

Again, while the book blurb may have you thinking this book is going to deal seriously with questions about big pharma, it's really not.  Big Pharma is the bad guy in this book from start to finish, and that's about all the book has to say about this issue.  The name of the book is "Autonomous" for a reason.

If the book has a weakness, it's in probably the fourth major character, Eliasz, the soldier who tries to teach Paladin as the two of them go about their mission of finding Jack and who falls in love with and has desires toward Paladin.  Around 2/3 of the way through the book, the book deals with part of his past involving the illegal slave/indenture trade, and it just felt to me at least like it came out of nowhere and didn't quite work (and this past plays a role in the book's conclusion to a small extent).  And while Paladin comes to reciprocate Eliasz's love, it feels very much like Eliasz is being kind of a creep in approaching it, which is awkward.  The book knows this is the case and seems to try to find ways to make Eliasz's actions more justifiable, but with Paladin's response, it just feels a bit off.  Again, some of this is definitely the author's intent, if not all, but it just didn't quite work for me there.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed Autonomous and would highly recommend it.

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