"The Silver Metal Lover" by Tanith Lee

I'm reluctant to do spoilers, so I realise that my reviews are going to be a bit skimpy! Sorry.

I REALLY enjoyed this. I loved the world-building here. We find ourselves in a world where an asteroid has come close to Earth and settled into an orbit, causing huge disruption and death.

Technology has advanced to the point that intelligent-seeming robots are a possibility (although not something that everyone is ready for).

Jane is 16 years old and lives with her (very rich) mother in a luxurious home up in the clouds near to a city. The relationship with the mother is fascinating. When Jane wants to talk and Demeta is busy, she tells her daughter to make a tape so that she can respond to it at her convenience.

Demeta also has her daughter assessed, medicated and treated so that she has the hair-colour and body-type that (supposedly) suits her best. She's quite controlling!

One of Jane's closest friends is Clovis, a gay man. In the novel, he is referred to as being "MB" (for "Mirror Bias"). I'm not sure how gay readers would feel about this - I couldn't quite judge the tone with which it was used.

Anyway, Jane meets Silver and falls in love. The "romantic" elements of the book are dealt with using a light touch (it's not a robot-erotica novel!).

One thing I enjoyed about the book was the narrative structure. Jane talks about how and why she is writing the story and at certain points she suggests the book is over, only to return to her writing when something else happens that she needs to record or communicate.

One rather cool touch (I thought - if I am allowed to say this as a male reader) was that, at a point when Silver and Jane are holed up in a flat living on crackers and apples, she has to go out to buy feminine hygiene items. Patriarchy doesn't go easy on women fugitives.

Highly recommended.