Autonomous: A Novel Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Annalee Newitz (Author), Jennifer Ikeda (Narrator), Macmillan Audio (Publisher)

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From award winning tech-journalist and io9 founder Annalee Newitz comes a highly anticipated science fiction debut!

Autonomous will pull listeners into a dark and dirty world that feels, at times, a bit too familiar.

Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap scrips for poor people who can't otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane.

Hot on her trail, an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin. As they race to stop information about the sinister origins of Jack's drug from getting out, they begin to form an uncommonly close bond that neither of them fully understand.

And underlying it all is one fundamental question: Is freedom possible in a culture where everything, even people, can be owned?

Listening Length

10 hours and 27 minutes
Author

Annalee Newitz
Narrator

Jennifer Ikeda
Audible release date

September 19, 2017
Language

English
Publisher

Macmillan Audio
ASIN

B0753K8CVK
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Joe Karpierz

or new novels that are coming out from authors that I like. But every once in a while a novel ...

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

I don't necessarily read many debut novels during any given year, at least not until the Hugo Finalists are announced (as they be later today as I write this) and one or two are on that list. Ann Leckie's ANCILLARY JUSTICE comes to mind as the most recent example. I typically want to try to get through a few books on my to-read list, or new novels that are coming out from authors that I like. But every once in a while a novel is published that gets so much buzz that I can't ignore hearing about it, and if the story sounds like something I might be interested in, I'll give it a try. AUTONOMOUS, by Annalee Newitz, fits that description.

Jack is a pirate, but not the kind that has a hook for a hand, sails on a ship that flies the skull and crossbones, or is Johnny Depp. Rather she is a humanitarian pirate, one who is attempting, in her own way, to take down big pharma. She sells recreational and other fun drugs to raise money for her real cause: reverse engineering drugs that will help humanity. But as we all know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Jack reverse engineers a drug called Zacuity. Zacuity is a productivity drug, intended to help the people who take it, under controlled circumstances, become more focused and well, get more work done. The key phrase is "under controlled circumstances". Jack unleashes the reverse engineered drug on to the populace, and those who take it become addicted to it, to the point of focusing on tasks so intensely that many die because they don't eat, sleep, or do anything else that a person needs to do to survive.

Meanwhile, the IPC has traced the drug back to Jack. Newly awakenedd bot Paladin is teamed up with an IPC agent named Eliasz, and the pair go in search of Jack in order to bring her to justice. Jack, on her part, is desperately trying to find a drug that will cure the addiction and stop people from dying. She discovers that Zacuity, in fact, *is* addicting, and that the corporation that is marketing it did not perform sufficient testing to determine any nasty side effects. In effect, Jack perfectly reversed engineered the drug, and now she has to not only fix the problem she caused but try to take down the manufacturer in the process.

The novel, then, on the surface looks to be a standard, run-of-the-mill crime story, with the possible twist that the well-intentioned pirate may actually win the day and take down the big, bad, nasty pharmaceutical corporation in the process. Of course, things aren't that simple. And in fact, that particular story line is just a small part of what Newitz is doing here.

Bots, and some humans are born into indentured servitude, and must earn their way out. Humans also can voluntarily enter into this indentured life style because they don't have much choice. Paladin is an indentured bot, for example. Newitz explores the implications of this system and what it means to society. Newitz is also exploring the nature of sexuality and gender fluidity and the ability to make choices. Bots, for example, are generally considered male, and Paladin is presented with a choice she's never had before, a choice bots don't generally get to make.

Relationships and characters are explored in detail as well. Eliasz and Paladin develop a romantic relationship; we learn about Jack's past relationships and how her character developed to get to where it is at the time of the novel and *why* it developed the way it did. The bottom line here is that this is a very complex, layered novel that may be an adventure crime story on the surface but is really much much more than that by the time it is over.

Newitz also doesn't present any easy answers, doesn't tie anything up in a nice little bow for the characters or the reader. Life is dirty and messy, and the reality is that things rarely turn out such that people live happily ever after, and the big bad corporations rarely get their comeuppance.

AUTONOMOUS is a complex, involved, and many layered novel with engaging characters and terrifically written. Since I began this review earlier today, the 2018 Hugo finalists were announced, and AUTONOMOUS did not make the cut for Best Novel. It is a strong novel and deserved to be on that list. It certainly deserves your consideration the next time you're looking for something to read.

40 people found this helpful

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Amanda

Shipped quickly, book arrived in great condition, but the book itself is literary GARBAGE

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2021

Verified Purchase

Giving this 5 stars because the product itself was in excellent condition, despite being used, and because it was delivered quickly for a good price. That said, the book itself is trash. I regret having spent money on it.

I ordered this book because the synopsis of it is just so interesting. Pharmaceutical pirates living in submarines? A bountyhunting robot forming a bond with his partner? Hell yeah! Except, this book takes every cool aspect of itself and absolutely squanders it within the first 15% of its pages.

The main character, Jack, is SUPPOSED to be a likeable, goodhearted person. Instead, she's a waste of space who does really horribly immoral things without the book ever acknowledging that said things are immoral. And I'm not referring to her piracy as immoral. Somehow, the 15% of this book that I have read has managed to fetishize certain relationships to such an uncomfortable degree that it is unconscionable. That fun relational bond between the robot and his human partner is immediately sexualized despite little to no build up to any sort of emotional bond between the two. I suppose that's a very subjective thing; however, the sexualization of every single relationship in this book is overtly gross to a degree that I easily found multiple reviews online addressing the awful fetishization that takes place. This is not an uncoklon opinion, at the very least.

It's a shame. The worldbuilding has been decent so far. The premise was so intriguing. But all the characters are appalling. It's clear the author fetishsizes gay men. It's also clear that she does not mind characters sleeping with other characters that appear to be minors.

Garbage book. Don't waste your money.

3 people found this helpful

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Sun Wukong

It wasn’t that interesting

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2019

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I really like the world building that was accomplished with this book but I started to skip parts of it as the book progressed.

I started to skim through and then avoid the parts regarding Eliasz, the IPC agent, and Paladin, his indentured robot companion.

*Spoiler Alert*

I found Eliasz’s attraction to Paladin a little inexplicable. Paladin, as described, by the author, was only vaguely humanoid. There was nothing except for a brief passage about his past where he found a bot, that some teen-aged kids cobbled together from stolen or discarded parts, attractive. But that was a bot that the kids tried to look as human as possible, given their limited resources. Paladin, wasn’t even close to being human in appearance.

OK. Fine. So Eliasz has some unexplained attraction to his robot partner. I can give that a pass.

What really bothered me about these two, especially Eliasz, was the unfettered brutality of their actions. There was no inner moral justification, available to the reader, of how Eliasz and Paladin were able to commit all sorts of terrible acts on other characters in the book, not limited to blatant murder and outright torture, without question. The author tries to make on one hand, Eliasz and Paladin, somewhat sympathetic with their budding relationship and Paladin’s inner monologue about it (but nothing from Eliasz), but then lets them commit all sorts of atrocities without any monologue about those acts. Why does Paladin spend substantial parts of the book researching sex and relationships during its “AI awakening” but nothing about whether the system it is working for and the acts it demands from its enforcers are wrong or right? And Eliasz *must* have had doubts because in the end, he quits his job because he no longer liked it or wanted to do it anymore. But there was nothing in the other 99.9 % of the rest of the novel, which showed that Eliasz had any distaste or misgivings about his job and the actions that he took in the service of his job. And then all of the sudden, in the end, he “finds religion”, so to speak, and quits the IPC?

I found the most intriguing character in the book to be a supporting cast member, Med, or Medea Cohen. She’s supposed to be a free autonomous AI-bot that must have faced a lot of discrimination and obstacles in her past but was able to do what was “right” in the end. It would have been nice if the author had spent more time developing her backstory.

And about the chase of hunt for Jack, the pirate... When the author wrote about Threezed and how inexplicably a horribly treated slave was able to write an online blog abou his experiences and then restarted his blog to mention Jack and her activities and her location, I rolled my eyes. I knew what was coming. It was so blatantly telegraphed that this little plot twist would be the linchpin that would allow Eliasz and Paladin to track her down. Instead of methodically killing and torturing their way through everyone that may be connected to Jack, this deus ex machina, allows Eliasz and Paladin to leapfrog to their intended target.

Overall, some interesting concepts in the book, but some poorly written characters and plot devices, made this a book I wouldn’t recommend.

5 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Thomas Woolmer

A decent read

Reviewed in Canada on May 27, 2023

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There were lots of things to like about this book—decent writing, interesting ideas, especially about the exploitation of indentured workers and bots, and the whole underground drug culture against Big Pharma. But the romance with the bot and the pharma hitman-with-a-conscience was just cringe. And the ending was underwhelming. There was such a build-up, and then it ended not with a bang, but a whimper. I did appreciate the thinking about autonomy and bots, however. It was interesting being inside the mind of a bot, and for that, I appreciate the author’s willingness to take risks.

ReyJones

Autonomy

Reviewed in Canada on February 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

There is a lot of killing in this novel,
especially of main characters and you have to wonder if it's justified. Two field agents with seemingly Hegemonic powers and authority; in their duty to mete out justice, do so with brutal finality.
There is barely any attempts to arrest any of the suspects. This dystopian ideal of a future society gives cache to a higher authority without impunity. The world is balkanized into different continental sectors with the militarized power ensconced in one zone but able to effect their duty in any zone. Local authority still exist but they are rarely if ever included in any activity. Due process does not exist. Characters are dispatched due to association with the suspect with the arbitrary and liberal use of drugs and interrogations that go awry.
The future of work is an interesting duality between autonomy and indenture and how it is represented in the human scope relative to that of a robot...

Kilt_monster

Enthralling plot, clever science, great characters and a vivid world; would definitely recommend.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 30, 2018

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___OVERVIEW___
In a world of mature and advanced biotechnology humans regularly use drugs to prolong youth, upgrade themselves, change appearance and increase their functionality or productivity for work. It isn't a world of equals; everything has a price, some can't afford medicine, and many humans begin life as 'indentured' slaves - traded like property as they work their way to earn a 'franchise' which gives them freedom.

Judith 'Jack' Chen is a new variety of robin-hood, reverse engineering big-pharma's wonder drugs to sell bootlegged copies to poor regions and hospitals. Once a prodigy of biotechnology her experience of the world drives her to become a black/grey market rebel reminiscent of our 1970s anarchists. Usually working under the radar she suddenly finds herself amidst the front-line when a drug she bootlegs turns out to have illegal properties and sideffects which were covered up by the corporation which made it.

___REVIEW___
For me this book was excellent. I was drawn in by storytelling which by nature of the plot had a fast moving quality and intensity which was totally unforced. The world and circumstances around the characters is vivid and believable; so much it could be a slightly 'over-exposed' scary prophecy of things to come... The characters - their hurts, motivations, frustrations, desires, contradictions - are authentic and their situations definitely relatable to present day. The science itself, well it walks the line of clearly being boundless fantasy but with streaks of realism which make it feel possible.

The book opens up many questions on the ethics of freedom and identity, also the relation of consumer-corporate and corporate-government; the ambiguity of these interactions is explored - one person may see another as unwittingly supporting a corrupt regime, others may see that same regime as good for the world.

Overall outstanding book - 5 star by a margin; it makes a lot of other literature look very small and plain in comparison. Would recommend for any lover of sci-fi, science or fantasy.

3 people found this helpful

Aspidistra

Unconvincing and badly needs a rewrite

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 17, 2019

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The glowing endorsements led me to believe that this book might be something memorable, and indeed, all the ingredients are in place for a top notch story. It boasts an interesting cast of characters, a promising evil pharma conspiracy, sentient AI robots and a dystopian society where both people and bots are indentured in a highly unequal society. I settled down for what I hoped would be a good read.

I was sorely disappointed. Instead of ramping up the chase and giving the cast something thrillingly intelligent to do, the self absorbed characters fail to live up to their potential and argue, navel gaze about the past, failed relationships, broken dreams and the misery of servitude while the plot plods towards a resolution. The author skates uncertainly over the science and the action and there is no feel that we are in a future society. Newitz clearly hasn't set foot in a high tech biochemistry lab or worked with real scientists and her vision reads like an assembly from a tv shows and other fiction. Perhaps this is why she dwells on weirdly unconvincing sexual liaisons, skipping the 'get to know you part' and launching straight into the intimacy. It's toe curling, especially that between the pursuing military agent and his indentured bot. I'm sure there was supposed to be some great insight but I failed to spot it.

4 people found this helpful

marcus.d.1922

It's 2019, you really should read this novel

Reviewed in Canada on January 1, 2019

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Honestly, a must read. Newitz has masterfully synthesized much from her many years of journalistic writing—a synthesis, masterfully told and memorably created, is helpful. Many themes arise throughout the novel: propriety "rights" vs. the freedom/justice (The egalitarianism) of "open" platforms free from patents and IP, identity formation, geopolitics, etc. The synthesis of ideas certainly merits a 5+ stars rating; the writing is often at a 4 star rating—genuinely fresh metaphors do occur, but complexity of thought is often not captured in the structure of the language. At times the novel has an agenda; at times it is genuinely exploring. Newitz maintains an integrity that is always appreciable. Probably Newitz had too many supporters during the editing process, and too few who were willing to meaningfully challenge; fan boy/girl moments with an overly simplistic agenda do occur, and undermine the other moments when very thoughtful exploring sincerely occurs. Still, the overall sensibility is a mindset that his healing. It deserves the Nebula; it deserves to be read by those who normally don’t read Sci-fi. It is a direction that we all need to move in—that's a notable accomplishment for a novel. Somewhere in all of the above, there is a "thanks" to Annalee.

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