Science Fiction Saturday: Annalee Newitz' Autonomous

This is a good one! Terrific new biopunk. Neal Stephenson says: "Autonomous is to biotech and AI what Neuromancer was to the Internet." If you're an SF fan that should tell you about all you need to know. Here's what it's about:

Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap scrips for poor people who can’t otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane.

Hot on her trail, an unlikely pair: Eliasz, a brooding military agent, and his robotic partner, Paladin. As they race to stop information about the sinister origins of Jack’s drug from getting out, they begin to form an uncommonly close bond that neither of them fully understand.

And underlying it all is one fundamental question: Is freedom possible in a culture where everything, even people, can be owned?

Great stuff! Best biopunk I've read since Paul McAuley's Fairyland.