Welcome to Litsy!

This was an interesting future dystopian world. There's a lot to unpack, with indentured bots & humans trying to earn nebulous autonomy, pirating high tech bioengineered drugs while battling with pharmaceutical patent laws, & examining gender identity. The characters were all morally grey & while I liked learning their histories & following their actions, it was difficult to root for anyone. Overall I enjoyed the writing & thought provoking story

Two Book Riot posts in one day? What are the odds! (Actually pretty good since I also have posts coming out tomorrow and Thursday, apparently.) Anyway, scratch that SF itch with some great robot fiction!

bookriot.com/science-fiction-books-about-robots/

I think it's important to recognize that stories about/including robots don't have to be purely in the science fiction genre. That being said, this is PURELY sci fi. Meaning that I was wrestling through the technical portions. HOWEVER, sci fi is a speculative genre, and so there were many important conversations, namely re: idea of 'property'. (Hint: perfectly accurate title). Fantastic pacing, well-developed characters with different viewpoints.

"Your brain is nothing more than a processing device for facial recognition... It doesn't reveal some essential gender identity any more than YOUR ARM REVEALS THAT YOU ARE SECRETLY A SQUID."?
Having a serious agender solidarity moment. And loving how snarky Fang is in contrast to Paladin's naive optimism.?♥️
Red is blocking repeated use of a slur - apparently they still have (internalized and otherwise) homophobia in the 22nd century.?

"But he wanted to survive-that urge was part of his programming. It was what defined him as human-equivalent and therefore deserving of autonomy. The bot had no choice but to fight for his life. Still, to Paladin, it didn't feel like a lack of choice. It felt like hope."
Oh, man, this book is going to end up making me cry isn't it? Please, please let Paladin get a happily ever after! ????

Dedication page. Starting a new robot book. 🤖♥️

#BookMail for the teenager. I hope he likes what I got him.

#RaisingReaders

Catching up on #LittensDressedInBlood reviews from last month and more recent!

This was my second time reading the book and while it's not a perfect novel, robots and pharma pirates make for a lot of fun. It was also a great book club discussion, which made it a good pick for our Sci-Fi/Horror book club at the bookstore.

It's Day 8 of #LittensDressedInBlood and today's prompt is Book and a Mug. I'm doing a quick re-read of this book for today's book club discussion (the bookstore's sci-fi/horror book club called F-Files: The Fiction Is Out There). The coffee cup is one I bought off of Etsy in order to use in pictures of books I was currently reading, because that's the level of nerd I am. 😆

This was a very thought provoking book about artificial intelligence. It was a fast paced look at capitalism and ownership.

Thoughts I had:

⚫ Enslaved humans and AI cannot consent to sexual relations with free people

⚫ This felt very much like a dig at Perdue Pharma, although I could be wrong. I appreciated it.

🎧 I obviously read the wrong summary 🤨

I anticipated some hard science & sci-fi dealing with drug addiction. Barely none of that.

So much uncomfortable awkward sex. Otaku wasn‘t a Snow Crash/Ender & this wasn‘t a Neuromancer.

A pirate/human frees a human raised to be a slave robot being pursued by a detective with a Medical robot raised to be human in 2144 would have been amazing! But nope. 😫

Hard science - 4⭐️
Rest of book - 1.5⭐️

⭐️⭐️3/4

This was a bit hard to get into, I didn‘t feel grounded but rather floating in this vague space waiting to land. There was a point where the story started to click, 2/3 in 😬 I needed a bit more connection to the characters/world early on. Some of the sex stuff felt off but I don‘t think the intent was bad, just missed the mark. I enjoyed the questions of autonomy with nods at times to contemporary issues. But in the end it feel a bit flat.

A misleading title for a book about pharmaceutical piracy. For the full review, please visit http://benjamin-m-weilert.com/index.php/2021/01/27/book-autonomous-2017/

3 ⭐️s
Unfortunately I was wanting something more from this. I felt like there were building blocks of a decent story, but it fell flat. The characters weren‘t likable. The relationship between Eliasz and Paladin had me the most intrigued at first, but it turned into a problematic copout. I really enjoyed the hard science fiction and tech talk.
I‘m sorry I didn‘t totally love it @rachelsbrittain I know it was one of your 2020 picks! ❤️🤗❤️

I loved this quote. Brains are the sexiest body part. ❤️🤓❤️

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description or reason for wanting to read the book. Some are old and some will be new. Don't judge me - I have a lot of books.
Day 50

#tbrmountain #bookbuyingdiet

A capitalist-fueled future where a patent pirate releases a dangerous new drug being covered up by a huge pharmaceutical corp & a robot / soldier team criss-cross the world to find her. Explores lots of interesting ideas surrounding ownership, pharmaceuticals, robotic personhood, & responsibility. The story unfolds slowly, revealing more in flashbacks & alternating POVs. Didn't love it as much as The Future of Another Timeline, but still good.

Only got one page read, but I am really enjoying this one.

My next #SciFiMonth read has been chosen!

1. Tagged and The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
2. Surgeon‘s Hall by ES Thomson (4th Book in the Jem Flockhart series) - one of my favorite mystery series
3. Low 70s, cloudy, evening showers

#weekendreads

I loved this book! It‘s on sale so I had to share. Space pirate women! Also a great AI narrative perspective for some sections.

I enjoyed it. Creative out look on a unique subject. The small details about technology and bio science were really well done.

Loved!!! How she showed the verbose communication between robots and how they picked up senors and inputs that humans couldn't.

By the end, I honestly wasn't hooked enough to care how it turned out, which is too bad.

“To all the robots who question their programming“ - that's the dedication of this book and it speaks to me. We are a bit like robots and we are programmed, in small and large ways.
I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of the autonomous robot born free and the young boy who was sold into slavery and taught/programmed to be useful to his owners. I liked the juxtaposition of the pirate taking mood-altering drugs and the robot tweaking its code.

This has been on my Audible wishlist for a while, but it's Tor's Book of the Month pick, which means I got the ebook for free! You can get your freebie here: https://ebookclub.tor.com They have mobi (kindle) and epub (everything else) formats. You do have to provide your email address.

Guys, gals, and non-binary pals! You have until 11:59 PM, Friday night to grab a free .mobi or an .ePub download! #torbookclub

https://ebookclub.tor.com

One of my fav reads from last year is Annalee Newitz‘s Autonomous. It‘s a twisted sci-fi novel with some alarming warnings for where the pharmaceutical industry might take us and what it means for human rights. I bring this up, because Tor.com is giving it away free as an ebook until 11:59pm on May 17th, so go get it. #giveaway #scifi #annaleenewitz #ebook

Interesting... I didn't realise this had an inscription when I bought it... I wonder do other copies say different things?

Cookie time. And also reading.

A bio-hacker turned drug pirate runs into trouble when the meds she reverse engineered to undercut Big Parma end up having a horrifying addictive property. Scrambling to fix her error, she races against time and the man and bot sent to catch her for her mistake. The exploration of the future of medicine and what property means is interesting. The "thriller" part falls a little short and resolves itself too quickly but the world-building was great.

Happy Thursday, folks! Today's quote comes from Autonomous, a scifi novel with a biohacking pirate as a protagonist and lots of cool ideas that it doesn't quite manage to live up to.

I was a little concerned about all the sex these characters were having, but the message in this story is fantastic. Everything from gender norms to sexuality was probed and prodded. And the story was a lot of fun. Great for sci-fi nerds and anyone looking for positive LGBTQIA messages.

I'm enjoying this book, but my gods these characters have a lot of sex. Thankfully the details are left out.

In case you missed it, Autonomous is coming to TV!!! Annalee made the announcement on Twitter today. She co-wrote the pilot script which is also super cool. So excited about this!

Very meh. Cyberpunk shading into biopunk, with a hefty helping of dystopia, Newitz wields consent like a hammer. It‘s painful to read. Nothing in the book is original enough to make Newitz‘s nightmare world worth the lack of emotional reward. I need some kind of emotional payoff at the end of a book, because otherwise all I‘ve done is depress myself. Here, bad stuff happens to good people, and there‘s no recourse because capitalism is a trap.

Science fiction thriller set in 2144, a world ruled by Big Pharma where robots and humans co-exist and slavery (indentured service) is once again a reality. I thought the world-building was first-rate, the thriller aspect maybe a trifle thin but overall a good, thought-provoking read.

A little confusingly written but conceptually amazing.

I accidentally read a spoiler for this book but I‘m enjoying it regardless! #scifi #readharder2018 #readharderchallenge

Preachy, poorly-written diatribe about the evils of big pharma, with some laugh-out-loud bad sex scenes, especially the ones between the bad cop and the bot.

Autonomous has some interesting concepts and the story was entertaining, but I didn't connect with the characters and the ending was so-so. This falls somewhere between a so-so and a pick.

Wow. A really original look at the future of AI, what humans are willing to do to each other, and the dangers of the reign of Big Pharma. Highly recommend.

Do not read this. Second terrible 2017 Nebula award nominee I've read in a row.

For SFF books that explore similar issues with actual empathy read A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers (A.I. self-actualization), After Atlas by Emma Newman (indentured servant dystopia), or The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North (corporate power).

An hour left and this is making me angry.

It would rather focus on the self-actualization of the a-hole main characters than any of the dystopian world issues it presents, giving the exact opposite message its window dressing concern for those issues suggests.

This looks interesting (I already own it in print) #ebookdeal

I had a wonderful day today at the Festival of Books—finishing strong with a Litsy Meetup! @CSeydel organized our little gathering and I so enjoyed comparing notes with her and with @AudreyMorris on the various sessions we attended. The tagged is just one of the books I added to my TBR—I wasn‘t familiar with the author but loved what she had to say during a SFF panel. This was my first time attending the Festival, but it won‘t be my last!

Loved this audiobook. I‘ll admit that the first few chapters were touch-and-go, because the setting requires a lot of setup and doing this as an audiobook didn‘t let me set the pace to absorb the info. Once it got going, though, the story never lost steam for me. The actress reading the book, Jennifer Ikeda, does a phenomenal job. Annalee Newitz impressed me a lot with her world-building & character development. #scifi #audiobook

Been listening to the audiobook version of Annalee Newitz‘s scifi novel Autonomous while walking Wicket at the park. I‘m nearing the end of it, and it‘s made for a twisted, amazing, and disturbing ride. Says so much about the pharmaceutical industry and human rights in today‘s world while exploring the 23rd century. The actress reading, Jennifer Ikeda, does an amazing job with the material. Can‘t wait to finish it. #scifi #audiobook #WicketsWorld

Interesting world Annalee Newitz has built. I was more interested in the technology than the characters but still recommend it!

Swancon dealers room book haul! #bookhaul
Annalee Newitz and Charlie Jane Anders are guests next year; Foz Meadows was a guest this year. I bought The Silver Well too, but I think it must still be in the bottom of a crochet project bag.