Autonomous

Lots to think about in this cyberpunk novel, where the gaps between the "haves" and "have nots" are extreme and literally divided into those "enfranchised" and those "indentured". This disparity is jarring, where the system is rigged, particularly for the robots who are rarely given their autonomy keys. Those abuses are then more easily applied to the indentured humans. I loved that the setting is in a later period in climate change where Iqaluit and Saskatchewan become tech and agricultural centres. Jack, our protagonist, is a tough middle-aged woman still fighting the system, a great perspective in our age of never ending YA heroines. There is also a side transgender plot regarding how bio-robots are assigned gender. What matters is their original brain, not their parts or size.