Autonomous

Newitz depicts an interesting (if dystopian) world in this novel. I also appreciated the handling of the issue of autonomy of persons which gets treated from different angles. It's pretty violent, though, and I felt like the question of wrongdoing was brushed over in the end. Two of the characters are basically the baddies and yet we seem to be expected to be okay with that. The main protagonist is also rather grey in her morals, and that isn't examined, either. It was a captivating listen but some things were a bit unbelievable to me or came off as forced.

Loved The Terraformers, so picked up Autonomous. I liked the former more, but it was such a high bar that Autonomous was still excellent. Different, though related themes. Terraformers is environmental where Autonomous is health care / pharmaceutical, but both tell deeply compelling future narratives about attempts to create survival and thriving in the face of terrible, dystopian, and yet believable futures. Appreciate wrestling with parallels between human freedoms and post-human freedoms, with both taking place in the context of capitalism that is recognizable today... On to Newitz's next work.

The world building was interesting and nerdy. I could do without some of the details about the IPC squad’s relationship. I wonder what a different look at the indenture/slavery angle would look like.