I heard about this book from the author during the 2020 WorldCon. She had previously written short fiction I was very impressed by so I was excited when she announced her first novel. I thank her publisher for letting me read it early. Unless I read five better books published in 2021 this will be one of my 2022 Hugo nominations for best novel of the year. I can not recall any year where I read five books better than this one. (For those who do not know already; members of the World Science Fiction Convention are able to nominate up to 5 novels published in the previous calendar year for the Hugo award.)

It is mostly set 75 years in the future and extends many of the trends we currently see in economics and technology. A lot of the impact this novel had for me were the unexpected changes in direction of characters' plans. Really quite amazing that when a character learns something new their plans change to take the new information into account.

The story is told in not quite alternating chapters from the pov of two sisters in law. The world they inhabit in 2095 is neither a utopia or a dystopia (or maybe it is both). It is a multi polar world with at least China, Europe, India, North Africa, and the U.S. as powers. There are city states in orbit some of which have declared independence. The combination of drone and cyber tech has pretty much reduced personal privacy expectations to zero; very much as David Brin did in his novel, Earth.

I dislike reviews with spoilers but I am going to risk what I think is a very minor one. In this future there are pills for many sorts of personal enhancements. Speed, strength, mental focus. body repair. These pills are not drugs. Or not only drugs. I think nanobot most closely describes them though the characters take them for granted and do not give detailed descriptions. This threw me at first as I read "pill" and thought "drug" and could not imagine a drug working as well as they do in the story. Suffice to say that when we do get a partial description of what a pill is the descriptions satisfies my imagination.

It has been three days since I finished Machinehood and I am still thinking of it and discovering things I missed. It is very satisfying.

Overall 5⭐

Character diversity: 5⭐

Worldbuilding: 5⭐

Pacing: 4⭐

Plot line wrap up: 5⭐

Ending: 5⭐

I loved this book, absolutely loved it. The merging of human with machine and possible sentient machines is one of my favorite things. This did it well in my opinion. It was hard to put down.

One of my favorite aspects of it was the way social media had changed by the time the story starts. Microdrones, small flying camera bots, infest the air. Everyone's actions are live streamed. If people like what they see, there's a tip jar.

The drones are for more than that but I really liked that.

The way health is managed, with pills every day to stave off this illness or that health condition, people with implants that handle certain aspects of their health, it's all there.

It's premise sounds simple: a group wants the same rights afforded humans to be afforded to machines--it's something that's popped up in time throughout humanity.

Bots handled protests, bots handle caring for the ill and so much more.

As someone with a piece if machinery implanted to handle part of my health, the idea of it becoming sentient and having control is a terrifying thing to think about.

Welga has loads more, and a job that requires to use pills--filled with small machines--so when things go south, it's a nightmare for her. Watching how her body betrayed her wishes was upsetting as a reader whose gone through something similar.

The writing made it impossible not to be affected and I imagine anyone else would be as well.

I'll definitely be recommending this book.

Spoiler Note:there is an abortion in the book. It's not described in any great detail but if that's not your thing, now you know. And it's something that gets brought up often.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher