Autonomous

I have to say that ultimately I was disappointed with this one. I'd heard a lot of good things about it, but it didn't quite pan out that way for me. It started promisingly, with an intriguing world set up, but for me at least, it just ran out of steam in the second half. The background to the novel is right up my street, all plucky anarchists versus big corporate power, and I found the pharma stuff and background about biodegrable organic tech really cool. In the end though, the characters are nothing like as interesting as the set up warrants - I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot more than I did the second. I honestly did not care about the fledgling relationship between Eliasz and Paladin, and their propensity for brutal murder didn't exactly help to make them sympathetic either. There's potential here, some good stuff, and I'll look out for Annalee Newitz' next book, but this one just doesn't ignite.