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valerlance's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction and Slavery
Minor: Rape
howings's review
1.0
Overall, this book has an interesting plot & compelling themes but completely falls apart upon execution. Looking at autonomy in a world where all aspects of life are commodified starts out as interesting and then everything goes... weird? Between the author’s fetishization of master/servant relationships and the not-so-subtle orientalist views of Asian bodies (Threezed), this book left me feeling sick. Paladin “falls in love” (it’s a program) with his master and they live happily ever after. Threezed (a person who has been enslaved his whole life and is implied to have at some point been abused sexually) has sex with Jack (who he relies upon). This situation reads a lot like Jack not having actually freed him, but just taken over as his new master/abuser or, at best, sexually taken advantage of a traumatized and much younger person. At first, I thought that maybe the author depicts these abusive relationships to show how, even when one thinks they are operating outside of abject slavery, they can still lack autonomy in other ways. The “happy” ending for Paladin is what leads me to believe the author isn’t actually self-aware enough to pull that off. I regret reading this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Slavery
pastry's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
I did not love this book. There's queer characters, but there's also bury your gays, there's a trans robot who is sorta only trans because her partner wants her to be so he doesn't feel bad about being attracted to her, because if she were a guy he'd be gay, oh no, when it is repeatedly emphasized that robots have no gender but this dude just does not seem to get it, there's indenture, so basically slavery, which is sort of criticised but none of the characters care to actually try and change it, it's just accepted as part of the world, and some other shit I don't really want to get into. Fuck, I'm glad I don't have to read this again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Slavery and Rape
tqlikesbooks's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
“Everybody is an outsider, if you go deep enough. The trick is reassuring people that you’re their kind of outsider.”
Autonomous follows Jack, a drug pirate in the year 2144. She reverse engineers and manufactures drugs for those who can't afford to pay the monopolistic pharmaceutical corporations. When her latest pirated drug causes lethal side-effects, she finds herself pursued by military agents.
The IPC agents sent to stop Jack are Eliasz, and his indentured robot partner, Paladin; who start to form an bond neither of them expected.
My favourite aspect of this story is that we follow two rivalling narratives, who are clearly antagonists from each other's perspectives. We have no clear villain or hero in the story, yet we can sympathise with each of their motives to some extent (except that one character who just comes of as a creepy, authoritarian homophobe).
Newitz renders a bleak vision of the future in which indenture laws for both humans and robots has led to a lucrative form of slave labour and corporation patent laws have led to rocketing drug prices that ultimately only the wealthy can afford. The world-building is fascinating and explores lots of political, technological and societal ideas. There was a fair bit of build up throughout the story to what happened to be a fairly anti-climatic ending.
Overall I found I wanted a lot more from the story. I liked much of the story but I really loathed some others parts.
—why parts of this book belong in the bad place (possible spoiler territory below) —
Gender identity and sexuality is explored in some interesting ways, particularly with the character of Paladin, a genderless robot whose human companions project their own expectations (and desires in some cases) onto. This results in Paladin changing pronouns from 'he' to 'she' to appease another character (though Paladin still considers themself to be genderless). At points the relationship between Eliasz and Paladin was very uncomfortable to read, though the author clearly does not attempt to present this as a healthy representation of gender identity and sexual autonomy. However, it still manages manages to be very icky overall and is not addressed by the end of the story. The use of the f slur seemed completely unnecessary.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Slavery
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