Autonomous

This was a ton of fun. Futuristic pharmaceutical piracy (complete with a stealth submarine!), evil corporations and capitalism run amok, forbidden (or at least socially unacceptable) human-bot love, issues of bot gender, sexuality, and . . . yeah, autonomy.

This definitely lives up to its name, allowing the reader to ponder questions about identity, free will, and love, by looking at a bot grappling with these issues, and seeing that his/her struggles apply equally to us.

But this isn't a stodgy think-piece - it's a swashbuckling tale with lovely characters and interesting relationships. Even the nastiest character gets some depth and sympathy. I almost think too much.

My one complaint is that this suffers from Quick Plot Resolution. Having artfully set all the characters in motion and developed their opposing points of view in a convincing and engaging way, the story left me a little disappointed when it wrapped things up quite suddenly. Where I expected the plot lines to meet, meld, and yield something new, they actually just intersected ever so briefly, which was the end of the story, except for a coda for each player.

It would have been interesting to see a little more detail and an actual redemption arc for the one character we see unapologetically choosing to murder people. There's a gesture in that direction, but I found it largely unsatisfying. I guess the explanation could be “aren't we all subject to programming that other sources installed,” but the story doesn't quite bring me to absolving everything on that basis.

Still, the trajectory set up at the end of the story does promise satisfying resolutions, and it's enough to hang your hat on. Given that everything up to that point was entertaining, thoughtful, and well written, I can easily give this 4 stars.