Autonomy - by Victoria Hetherington (Paperback)

About the Book

After being detained at the border of the New Canadian Protectorate, university counsellor Slaton meets an AI, Julian, who works interviewing detainees at the Canadian/American border. As a plague ravages the planet, they encounter a strange bubble of super-rich elite, whose ploy for immortality will spell danger for them all.

Book Synopsis

After being detained at the border of the New Canadian Protectorate, university counsellor Slaton meets an AI, Julian, who works interviewing detainees at the Canadian/American border. As a plague ravages the planet, they encounter a strange bubble of super-rich elite, whose ploy for immortality will spell danger for them all.

Review Quotes

Autonomy gives us a strange love story between a disembodied AI and a struggling woman in the midst of class strife, plague, and environmental disaster. Hetherington's depictions of the near-future are very nearly depictions of our present, with its surveillance and cruelty, its global wastes and losses. Hetherington's vision is bleak, but their glittering prose gives even the most monstrous realities of late-capitalism an unsettling glimmer.

Autonomy invites you to look deeper, and perhaps give it a re-read.

Autonomy is a beautifully written and profoundly enthralling novel that made me wonder if Joan Didion had started writing literary fiction. Set in a near future where Canada is a protectorate of the United States and highly advanced AI has begun to express its desire for embodiment, Victoria Hetherington's second novel is an interspecies love story as well as an apocalyptic cautionary tale. Mind-bending and affecting, it deserves a wide readership.

Autonomy is a novel about being human in a world that does not understand your value.

What separates Hetherington's dystopias from the usual forays into speculative terror is the elegance and poignancy of the writing, which floats from clause to clause like a butterfly perusing flowers.

Fictional encounters with artificial intelligence tend to end badly, Hetherington upends this trope. The relationship between Slaton and Julian, at times tender, at times tense, never flickers with malice, hidden or otherwise.

Hetherington's Autonomy is nominally a dystopian vision, but it is marinated so reasonably in what is now, that it's almost too late for it to be cautionary. Hetherington's real shocks are managed at sentence level - causal phrases that turn on precise, alarming language. A breathtaking book.

In Autonomy, Hetherington provides a philosophical rumination on the nature of human agency in the guise of a dystopian narrative about technology and a global pandemic.

Over punchy, effortless chapters Hetherington spins a delectably serpentine tale.

Set in the near future, Hetherington explores the relationship between a woman and her AI companion against the backdrop of a Canada on the brink of collapse. Hetherington leads us through a gripping account of what it means to exist - for the living and for the AI who desires life. Haunting and compelling in both vision and imagination, Autonomy is filled with powerful insights into our human need for survival, companionship, and constant questioning of mortality.

This is a remarkable work of fiction. Highly recommended.

Victoria Hetherington's intimate and eerie forewarning to a not-so-distant future is remarkable, and I couldn't put it down. Autonomy is an assured, grounded, and fresh feminine perspective in the world of science fiction storytelling. A much-needed voice!

Autonomy gives us a strange love story between a disembodied AI and a struggling woman in the midst of class strife, plague, and environmental disaster. Hetherington's depictions of the near-future are very nearly depictions of our present, with its surveillance and cruelty, its global wastes and losses. Hetherington's vision is bleak, but their glittering prose gives even the most monstrous realities of late-capitalism an unsettling glimmer.-- "Liz Harmer, author of The Amateurs and Strange Loops"

Autonomy invites you to look deeper, and perhaps give it a re-read.-- "Literary Treats"

Autonomy is a beautifully written and profoundly enthralling novel that made me wonder if Joan Didion had started writing literary fiction. Set in a near future where Canada is a protectorate of the United States and highly advanced AI has begun to express its desire for embodiment, Victoria Hetherington's second novel is an interspecies love story as well as an apocalyptic cautionary tale. Mind-bending and affecting, it deserves a wide readership.-- "Michael Redhill, award-winning author of Bellevue Square"

Autonomy is a novel about being human in a world that does not understand your value.-- "Foreword Reviews"

What separates Hetherington's dystopias from the usual forays into speculative terror is the elegance and poignancy of the writing, which floats from clause to clause like a butterfly perusing flowers.

-- "Quill & Quire (starred review)"

Fictional encounters with artificial intelligence tend to end badly, Hetherington upends this trope. The relationship between Slaton and Julian, at times tender, at times tense, never flickers with malice, hidden or otherwise.-- "Literary Review of Canada"

Hetherington's Autonomy is nominally a dystopian vision, but it is marinated so reasonably in what is now, that it's almost too late for it to be cautionary. Hetherington's real shocks are managed at sentence level -- causal phrases that turn on precise, alarming language. A breathtaking book.-- "Tony Burgess, screenwriter and author of Pontypool Changes Everything"

In Autonomy, Hetherington provides a philosophical rumination on the nature of human agency in the guise of a dystopian narrative about technology and a global pandemic.-- "The Shakespearean Rag"

Over punchy, effortless chapters Hetherington spins a delectably serpentine tale.-- "Toronto Star"

Set in the near future, Hetherington explores the relationship between a woman and her AI companion against the backdrop of a Canada on the brink of collapse. Hetherington leads us through a gripping account of what it means to exist -- for the living and for the AI who desires life. Haunting and compelling in both vision and imagination, Autonomy is filled with powerful insights into our human need for survival, companionship, and constant questioning of mortality.-- "Ann YK Choi, author of Kay's Lucky Coin Variety and Once Upon An Hour"

This is a remarkable work of fiction. Highly recommended.-- "Vancouver Sun"

Victoria Hetherington's intimate and eerie forewarning to a not-so-distant future is remarkable, and I couldn't put it down. Autonomy is an assured, grounded, and fresh feminine perspective in the world of science fiction storytelling. A much-needed voice!-- "Aisling Chin-Yee, Canadian film director, writer and producer"

About the Author

Victoria Hetherington worked as a butcher and an artist's model before graduating to writing just about anything you can imagine for money. Their debut novel, Mooncalves, was a finalist for the Amazon First Novel Award 2020. Victoria lives in Toronto.