"Autonomous" by Annalee Newitz

Review:

A pretty straight forwards and compelling sci-fi read that I liked. I enjoyed the female central protagonist - James Bond age, scarred and entering a tryst with a hapless but permissive younger man, along the way. And the high (i.e. balanced) number of other strong female characters. Perhaps merely realistic, given the bio-science setting.

Its 2144 setting seems extremely conservative, to someone like myself. Quite possibly aimed at a more mainstream audience - it was, indeed optioned by AMC for a TV adaptation (admittedly what brought it to be on my read list). In terms of personal freedoms and distopia it even seems a little quaint, naive, compared to the (rapidly deteriorating) contemporary political situations in many countries.

I didn't really feel like the cover tag-line was justified, calling it the Neuromancer of biotech and AI. But that William Gibbson story is a little over-hyped itself (and outdated, now). The fictional science and technology felt pretty prosaic - under-ambitious in scope and impact. Except for a use of viruses (at the end) that seemed to jump the shark in implausibility. The AI are all human equivalent robots, with no hint at the influence of trans-(or even sub-)human AI. Let alone why there's been no Singularity, etc.

Specifics [SPOILERS]:
I don't necessarily want to assert that the military robot main character (Paladin) represented a metaphor for (present day) non-binary gender individuals. But its narrative certainly focused a lot on society and individual's compulsion to gender individuals and assert spurious traits, one way or the other. Perhaps stemming  from excessive focus on one minor technical observation. E.g. the gender of the 'donor', who's brain is being used (as somewhat of a gimmick) for facial and emotional recognition, by said robot.

I've no idea how said brain was supposed to be maintained (in a healthy functional state), within the robot... Brains famously take about 20% of a human's metabolic energy to sustain (compared to 2% of body mass) and need a very carefully controlled physiological state. But no mention of the hardware needed to provide for these needs. Similar with the human-like robots with human flesh exteriors - how is Med even getting her motive power? Some solar generating capability is mentioned, but that's a small fraction of what would be needed.

Presumably Paladin has an entire brain in there, too. Not just the visual cortex (and emotional regions). Supposedly we can interface seamlessly between that and the AI mind architecture, but not access the memories of the deceased person. Hence not give humans robotic immortality, boringly. And no brain gates or data connections for regular humans.

Plot wise, I was kind of disappointed that Paladin apparently chose to stay 'in love' with the male human agent (Eliasz) who had apparently implanted a mess of control programs to create these motivations in 'her' in the first place. Massively abusing his administrator rights over her mind and exploiting her initial inability to perceive or question such directives. I mean, he was an enthusiastically vicious antagonist throughout, too. But then she was programmed for such brutality too, against humans, anyway.

Eliasz's flashbacks fleshed out his personality, rending him as more morally ambiguous, contradictory. But still unlikable. And his ultimate decision not to shoot Jack felt unbelievable. Especially in the context of the forced cliche trope of a time constraint forced decision between doing that and 'helping' his robot paramour. When shooting would take but a moment and he'd seemingly felt nothing more than sociopathic righteousness with all his previous killings and vicious beatings.

One exchange between Threezed and Med (driving up to help Jack, towards the end) felt comically emotionally overblown in it's sudden emotionality. Like the book suddenly tuned David Lynch for a moment. The end felt a little rushed in it's writing, too - it seemed to favour more exposition about characters actions and thoughts than previously. Only mildly disappointing, at worst. So overall still a good read.