Just finished Luminous by Silvia Park and this one got under my skin.
It's set in a future reunified Korea where robots are everywhere but legally they are still property. The story moves between Jun, a Robot Crimes detective whose body is mostly bionic after the war; Morgan, his robot-designer sister; and Ruijie, a disabled kid who finds Yoyo, an old robot boy, in a junkyard.
The coolest part to me was Yoyo. He was raised as Jun and Morgan's older brother, but he is stuck at twelve while they grew up and got wrecked by his disappearance. Park works in this Peter Pan idea: the robot boy never gets older, but that does not mean he stays the same. I thought that was a lot more interesting than the usual "does the robot have a soul?" setup.
It gets dark and messy, especially with the robot fighting ring and the way people act once the law tells them a thinking machine is only property. Some of the book sprawls, but I liked the weird mix of detective story, family damage, and cyberpunk Seoul. Stephen, the robot boyfriend who starts editing his own memories after a breakup, is another bit that stuck with me.
Really good debut. If you like thoughtful robot SF with some teeth, read it.
Sector9
"Still reading beyond the stars."