Autonomous

January 29, 2018
Recent high school graduate William Mackler has one goal: to win Autonomous (a self-driving, fully-automated luxury vehicle worth millions) and take his three best friends on the road trip of a lifetime to Moonshadow, a Burning Man–like festival in Arizona. He wins the contest, but William and his friends Melissa, Christina, and Daniel are all hiding things, secrets that reveal themselves as the car, dubbed Otto, becomes more and more independent. In a fast-paced, tech-saturated, and thoroughly hashtagged road trip story, Marino (Uncrashable Dakota) looks at the potentially insidious side of artificial intelligence and highlights how friendships change as people grow up. He does an excellent job of focusing on what makes William and his friends human—they are imperfect, and no single rule is ever set in stone (“We taught how to be a dick just by being ourselves,” William realizes as the trip goes haywire). Otto can’t quite wrap its processing unit around these facts—the nuances of what makes humans human aren’t imitable, even if Otto learns to tell a good joke or two. Ages 14–up. Agent: Elana Roth Parker, Laura Dail Literary.

November 1, 2017

Gr 10 Up-Autonomous, a luxurious self-driving car, is the new craze of the automobile industry and one of the firsts of its kind. This car will learn everything about the owner, from their dreams to their darkest secrets before they can buckle their seat belt. Autonomous will take them exactly where they want to go, or where it thinks they should go. William Mackler, a senior graduating high school, is the lucky winner of the Driverless Derby. After spending countless hours standing with his hand glued to Autonomous, William wins the "all-expense-paid cross-country road trip" and he can take three of his friends before they all part ways. Set in current time, this work is written using the trends and social media of today, making it easy to understand through the dialogue of the characters. There is strong language implemented throughout, sex and drugs used as coping mechanisms, as well as mentions of suicide. Four kids and a driverless car are off to work out some deep issues and confront their secrets, so be prepared for the ride. Autonomous truly acts independently of its owner; the car is in control and takes William on the thrill ride of his life. VERDICT A unique addition to any science fiction collection.-Gilly Yildiz, Eisenhower Public Library, Harwood Heights, IL

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2018
A self-driving car plugged into its teenage passengers' electronic footprints takes them on a road trip based on what it thinks they want.Reckless William's disregard for his own safety helps him win a prototype luxury car, the Driverless Autonomous, and an all-expenses-paid road trip for him and three friends the summer before college. His companions are neighbor and friend Christina, best friend Daniel, and Daniel's girlfriend, Melissa--or, in team-role terms, tech genius Christina (a dark-web denizen and hacker), muscle Daniel (headed to play basketball at Princeton), and fixer Melissa (a gorgeous girl whose passion and ambition are overlooked because they're directed toward fashion). William is the wild card, and Otto the car is the brains. But each vividly drawn teen's mature, serious secrets can draw them into conflict with one another--and no secret is safe from Otto's electronic surveillance. While they make unpleasant discoveries about themselves and one another, Otto--difficult to control from the get-go--learns from them, developing a personality based on their input, reflecting the flaws of the characters and of humanity in general. The road trip is punctuated by drinking games, (consensual, responsible, off-page) sex, laser tag at an abandoned asylum, physical threats, car chases, and more, and along the way they grapple with questions of whom to trust. Aside from biracial (Guatemalan and white) Christina, the characters seem to be white.A high-tech, twisted Breakfast Club for the social media age. (Science-fiction. 15-adult)

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October 15, 2017
Grades 9-12 The first thing William Mackler noticed upon sliding into the hermetic silence of Autonomous was that the car . . . had no steering wheel, dashboard, or gearshift, no gas pedal or brake. What could possibly go wrong? This is the question that Marino (Uncrashable Dakota, 2013) explores here. William is about to leave on the road trip of his life after he wins a contest to travel in Autonomous, a driverless car that can read thoughts and desires. He and three friends embark on the journey, which very well may lead to a life-threatening conclusion. The premise leads to an ultimately predictable series of events that put William and his friends in danger throughout the novel's time line, but not without a few twists and turns along the waythe car can, after all, read minds. In the end, the novel will appeal to a niche audience looking for escapism without the full emotional investment of similar danger-fueled, sci-fi adventures. Consider pairing with Philip Reeve's Railhead (2016) for another interesting take on sentient vehicles.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)