Amy Peterson is a von Neumann machine--a self-replicating humanoid
robot. For the past five years, she has been grown slowly as part of a
mixed organic/synthetic family. She knows very little about her android
mother's past, so when her grandmother arrives and attacks them, young
Amy wastes no time: she eats her alive.
Now she's on the run, carrying her malfunctioning granny as a partition
on her memory drive. She's growing quickly, and learning too. Like the
fact that in her, and her alone, the failsafe that stops all robots from
harming humans has stopped working.... Which means that everyone wants a
piece of her, some to use her as a weapon, others to destroy her.
"Ashby's debut is a fantastic adventure story that carries a sly
philosophical payload about power and privilege, gender and race. It is
often profound, and it is never boring." --Cory Doctorow
"vN might just be the most piercing interrogation of humanoid AI since
Asimov kicked it all off with the Three Laws." --Peter Watts