Autonomous
- 300
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- Lambda Literary Award
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Our view
“Autonomous” imagines a near future in which people and intelligent robots alike can be owned, and a pirate copies patented drugs. Some readers find this world its real strength: the pharmaceutical underground, the biotech, the outlaws set against corporate power. Some feel the story loses momentum in its second half. A debut, it suits readers who come to science fiction for ideas.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Autonomous is a 2017 science fiction novel by Annalee Newitz. It is Newitz's debut novel and was published by Tor Books on September 19, 2017. Set in a near future Earth, the book describes a world where both humans and intelligent robots can be owned as property. The events of the novel follow Jack, a "drug pirate" who manufactures illegal versions of patented drugs, and Paladin, a combat robot who is owned by the law enforcement agency searching for Jack after one of the drugs she reverse-engineered turns out to have dangerous side effects.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.3 across 234 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 61% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.4 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.2 | 10 | 4% |
| Hardcover | 7.3 | 224 | 96% |
Frequently asked
How long is Autonomous?
It has 300 pages — shorter than 81% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Science fiction — with scores between 7.4 and 7.5, closest to this book.
