First off, I should make clear that this review is only based on the first 54 pages, which I received as a preview from the publisher via NetGalley. That said, the story and characters of Autonomous caught my interest from the start, and I enjoyed the world building which gave sufficient info to create a sense of time, place, and situation without resorting to huge info dumps. By the end I was certainly keen to learn what would happen next, and if I get the opportunity to read the rest of the book, I would like to do so. It's hard to rate without knowing how the story will progress, but judging solely on what I've read so far, I would give it four stars.

**A Tentative 5++ Goodreads Stars**

I was so thrilled to receive what I initially thought was an entire advanced reader copy of Annalee Newitz’s Autonomous, and as I started flying through it at lightning speed I quickly realized it was actually 5 chapters of the book (an excerpt). Thus, I won’t give a full review of the book until I’ve actually read the entire thing, but the 5 chapters I was given comprised of a book I would purchase in a heartbeat. Now I am eagerly (read: counting down the days until this book is published!!) awaiting the release of Autonomous because I could not put it down.

If Star Wars has been written by someone who cared about a society where intelligence mattered more than what’s between one’s legs, Autonomous is what it would look like. It is a fast-paced adventure that channels the best of sci-fi while coming up with an entirely new world, one is believable, smart, and imaginative.

The book’s author is editor in chief of i09, so she knows science and is able to incorporate her knowledge into the book without bogging the reader down with its intricacies. Better yet, Newitz is a brilliant storyteller, which is what makes the science come alive. You care about both the humans in the story (who make questionable choices in the name of both radicalism and profiteering) as well as the bots who are pursuing Jack, the lead character, who may have inadvertently created a dangerous, addictive drug destroying human society.

I’ll provide a full review once I get through the entire book, but you can bet that I will be done with it the day it is released!

We dont post sample reviews to the site.

This review really makes me want to read the full title. It seems that this book will be a great read and we cant wait to pick it up.

I was immediately drawn to this book by the promise of epic robot battles and mysterious destruction. The book starts off throwing you right into the action. The Sci-fi jargon is heavy, but perfect for this kind of book. Even though I only got a peak from the few chapters I received from Netgalley, I can't wait to pick up the book and finish it.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

I though it was the full novel, I don't do reviews for excerpts on my blog. So I didn't even downloaded this one. Sorry for the mistake!

I am beyond excited to read Autonomous. From the first sentence, it caught my attention. Whether it be cyborgs, robots, autonomy, I want it all. Newitz knows how to bring up current issues of artificial intelligence, free will, and similar issues in a fictional setting that is vivid. World building-wise, it shows, not tells us about the intricacies of the world in subtle ways. The writing has a clarity to it, a way that certain sentences cut through the plot to speak to something deeper: our universal need for purpose, for freedom.

I want to touch a little on the characters, I love that Jack is an Asian main character and her motivation and personality is fascinating. There's a whole range of characters from human to cyborg and everything in between. And it is all one hundred percent interesting. Just from the excerpt alone, they are complex, full of history, and hiding secrets.

This excerpt is phenomenal and it leaves you with all the right questions at the end.

Great scenario! I think I won't ask for more preview excerpts.
I want to continue the story!!!!

I LOVE where this book is going! In particular the way the robots speak - I' have a technical background, and it's literally a conversational TCP session. Beautifully handled, it's a new idea AND it made sense as soon as I saw it.
The human characters aren't too shabby either - Jack's realisation regarding the "bot" aboard her ship was chillingly slow to arrive.
All in all a fantastic snippet and I'm so excited to read the rest of this book when it's out.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Macmillan - Tor/Forge for allowing me to read a preview excerpt of this book.

Judith (Jack) Chen decided long ago to use her ability to reverse engineer the chemical formulations of expensive drugs and reproduce them for sale to those who can't afford the high price tag of just-released, patent protected drugs. From what she can tell her latest batch of a reng drug is having horrible side effects. People are becoming addicted to the drug extremely quickly. The work productivity segment of their brain goes into overdrive and they literally die from over working. A military bot called Paladin has been teamed on his first mission with a human called Eliasz to work for the International Property Coalition to find the drug pirate responsible.

Judging from this preview excerpt I would definitely want to read the remainder of this novel. This futuristic world is well constructed and the sciences and computer technology make the book wonderfully innovative and interesting sounding. Based on these first five chapters this is going to be a strong science fiction offering from Annalee Newitz. Just reading the technology involved in Jack's ability to operate her submarine outside the normal detection methods whet my appetite for what's to come. I really want to see what happens when Jack, Eliasz and Paladin meet up.