Liberty's Daughter, by Naomi Kritzer

 Hope you all had a marvellous summer! When I wasn't backpacking or hiking or at music camp, I was rereading the Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold, following along with this delightful blog. Lois herself is going to appear on the last episode, airing sometime this month!

Naomi Kritzer is becoming an auto-buy author for me. I first encountered her with the short story "Little Free Library," on Tor.com—a delightful, sweet, but also deep and moving story. Then I happened to read Catfishing on CatNet (my review at the link) and its sequel Chaos on CatNet, without realizing it was the same author. Kritzer has this way of seeing our current society with ruthless clarity that she translates into fun, entertaining spec fic with a hidden punch.

Liberty's Daughter is another plausible near-future scenario: what if a bunch of libertarians decided to hook some sea-platforms and old cruise ships together to create a sea-stead in international waters? (It's plausible because people have already tried to do it. Great story!) I love that Kritzer is able to envision all the nitty-gritty logistics of how such a living arrangement would work. Limited availability of just about everything, for example, leading to our MC's part-time job: finding very specific items for people and negotiating trades. Really great world-building here.

Kritzer is also cognizant of all the unpleasant maintenance jobs that someone is going to have to do, and her story hinges on the debt-slavery that is a sadly plausible solution. Beck Garrison is a privileged teenager because of her father's position, and until she's asked to help find someone's missing sister, she is naive about her narrow little world. But when she discovers nefarious dealings, she plows ahead determinedly to investigate the literal and figurative underbelly of the sea-stead. 

Everything about this book is just so interesting. The fast-paced plot pinballs through all sections of the unique setting and society, exploring a raft (get it?) of physical, political and social implications. Kritzer's critique is funny, nuanced and ultimately hopeful. Yes, people can be greedy and selfish and cruel, but they can also pull together and care for each other and stand up for each other. And human ingenuity can solve as many problems as it creates!

Beck might be a bit too confident and capable to be believable, but it sure is fun watching her bulldoze her way through greed, corruption and incompetence. She has some genuine dilemmas; her character growth isn't huge but it's satisfying. The bad guys aren't flatly evil, either. 

Thoroughly enjoyable, and I look forward to seeing what aspect of society Krizter will choose to poke at next! 

You might enjoy her discussion of the genesis of the book on John Scalzi's blog, but be warned, it's fairly spoilery.

Catfishing on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer

I don't have to write a review to get you to read this; you just have to go read the short story that it's based on, "Cat Pictures Please," which is delightful, and if you like that you'll want to read the novel.  

It's a little bit Murderbot Lite. (I might have a thing for benevolent AIs!) CheshireCat doesn't have a robot body with weapons in its arms, but it can hack dangerous things so it could still murder people if it wanted to. But, like Murderbot, it would really rather just be entertained (by cat pictures, in this case), and it would also really like it if humans would stop inflicting harm on themselves and others.

I probably shouldn't compare it to Murderbot, though, because Catfishing on CatNet is a lot lighter. It's very YA—which is perfect, because CheshireCat is trying to negotiate its personhood and its relationship with the world in the same way that teens are, so its interactions with Steph and the other members of the CatNet chat group feel very real. The sentient AI trope is fun to play with because of all the opportunity to comment on what makes someone a person, what constrains our actions, where does our sense of morality, responsibility, goodness come from, and Kritzer does this really well for an audience which is also exploring these choices for the first time.

I loved Steph: her resigned adaptability to her difficult circumstances hurt my heart, so I was primed to root for her. I loved the "clowder," her chat group on CatNet: it's a found family that gets awesome opportunities to step up and be there for Steph and CheshireCat. And Steph's hesitantly developed relationship with Rachel was lovely and felt entirely real.

Steph and her mother are on the run from an abusive father, so there's a lot of nerve-wracking suspense to keep the pages turning. The story doesn't shy away from the darkness, but it focuses on friends helping each other out, and it helps that Steph has a benevolent AI on her side! There's also a lot of humour, so it's a fast, fun, upbeat read. It concludes satisfactorily, but there's a sequel which I'll be reading soon.

I haven't been doing food analogies lately, but this one is spicy hot chicken wings. You'll devour it and lick your fingers after!