Steinmetz, Ferrett. Automatic Reload. Tor, 2020.
Ferrett Steinmetz is becoming one of my favorite authors. I was very fond of the quirky Sol Majestic, which is about a boy who goes on a vision quest to find his “inevitable philosophy” and learn haute cuisine on a far-future space station. Automatic Reload is a much different sort of book. Its hero is a near future mercenary who specializes in rescuing kidnap victims for corporate clients. He is a quadriplegic who has replaced his missing limbs with robotic, weaponized appendages that are much more efficient that his original equipment. In the case that forms the central action of the plot, he rescues a woman who has been genetically enhanced and weaponized against her will. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and she from panic disorder, so they are a match made in, well, maybe not heaven. Steinmentz says in an author’s note that his book is in conversation with K. C. Alexander’s Necrotech, in that it made him wonder about how a cyborg might fieldstrip and maintain his equipment. ( )

This ARC is being mismarketed and will land badly with those expecting a “rom com,” jesus.

Contains potential triggers for sexual assault, for one.

We don‘t meet the female lead for the first 80 pages. When we do, it‘s as she‘s screaming herself awake from non-consensual body modification in a traumatic scene - but somehow the hero still has time to compare her new body favorably to a Barbie. While she‘s strapped to a table naked and spread--eagled and screaming. Y I K E S.

And after the book establishes liking classic movies as the male leads‘ primary non-combat character trait - which in this world is quirky and weird! instead of... basic - the woman reveals she‘s ALSO into classic films. So instead of being enthused, he starts with Fake Geek Girl style quizzing. A charming character trait that has never led to me not dating a guy in Real Life, surely.

The military-industrial plot is fine. The expositions on tactics in a computerized-battle-era are fine. The concept as presented on the cover of giving two people with different mental health issues super powers was intriguing, but the way those issues played out on the page were more reinforcing of gender expectations than interesting explorations of what it means to have anxiety or PTSD and still save the world. The 'romance' simply sucks. ( )