Automatic Eve by Rokuro Inui
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This came highly recommended by Molly Tanzer, and I can see why. It's clever, conceptually interesting, and very nicely plotted. Without spoiling anything, it's a series of tightly wound short stories set in a steampunk reimagining of feudal Japan. It's got court intrigue, shinobi, samurai, sumo wrestlers, etc., but mixed in with clockwork automata and just a whiff of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
And that hint of Blade Runner is what tips it over into being authentically good (rather than just being a competent genre exercise); embedded in the narrative is an extended meditation on what it means to be human in a world where machines can exhibit profoundly human characteristics. The book offers no conclusions, but it plays with contemporary concerns in a way that fits the internal logic of the story perfectly, and is elegant and ambiguous enough to leave a lingering impression.
I would give it three and half stars if I could, but I'll round up to four because it was a lot of fun. Recommended for fans of science fiction, steampunk, or books set in medieval Japan.