Interplanetary courier Tova Lir rejected her parents' high-profile political lifestyle to serve as a low-level messenger between the many human settlements across the solar system. While she does that, she also helps raise young AI identities, which are housed in kid-sized robot bodies as they learn how to focus on the tasks at hand and develop personalities. When her latest baby bot, Agatha, takes on more computational tasks that she can handle to save Tova and her ship, Tova is in a race to track down one of her past charges to keep Agatha's chassis from resetting, trying to dodge a hitman and a recent surge of anti-bot sentiment in her quest.
Right now, AI is a scary wild-west style of technology, as we have no idea what impact it'll have on the future (though none of it looks good). This short novel gives a hopeful alternative to a grim future, with AI beings that have well-developed personalities and an element of humanity working with and for people in a relatively harmonious manner. The found family of Tova and her AI "kids" is fantastic, and Alexander has created some great characters that I'd love to read more about. Highly recommended for fans of Becky Chambers and Annalee Newitz.
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