Autonomous

A book that starts by quoting The Last Saskatchewan Pirate will always have my attention. A book that does that because it is, in fact, about a Saskatchewan pirate will have my love.

Jack, the pirate in question, lives in a world where pharmaceutical companies have increased their influence in the world and can offer people a cure to nearly any affliction - if the price is right. So, like any self-respecting pirate, she decides to start to reverse-engineer those drugs to provide them to those that don't have the means for them. This works fine for her until one of the drugs starts to work a little bit better than intended.

Part of what makes the dystopia of Autonomous so frightening is how realistic it seems. Drugs that make people addicted to work? Intelligent robots that can be kept as indentured servants? The destruction of nation-states, being replaced with zones of economic influence? Not only do these things seem possible, they seem like desirable goals for certain segments of the population. That depressing realism in Newitz's presentation of the fantastic helps keep the fiction grounded, as well as adding more tension to the plot.

The characters of Autonomous are likewise fascinating. It's a story full of characters that could easily be cliche - the pirate with the heart of gold; the soldier with the dark past; the robot who yearns to be free. Newitz fills these characters with enough emotional depth, though, that they become real and full people.

The cover blurbs on Autonomous describe it as a modern-day Neuromancer, and it's an apt comparison. The novel's look at biotechnology and pharmacology is refreshingly new, and it feels like a novel that will have a similar impact as Gibson's did in 1984.