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* {{Homage}}: Though not an overt comedy, the novel is clearly a tongue-in-cheek homage/parody of Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, as well as the works of Creator/RobertAHeinlein and Creator/IsaacAsimov (to whom the book is dedicated).
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* {{Homage}}: Though not an overt comedy, the novel ''Saturn's Children'' is clearly a tongue-in-cheek homage/parody of Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, as well as the works of Creator/RobertAHeinlein and Creator/IsaacAsimov (to whom the book is dedicated).
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* {{Homage}: Though not an overt comedy, the novel is clearly a tongue-in-cheek homage/parody of Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, as well as the works of Creator/RobertAHeinlein and Creator/IsaacAsimov (to whom the book is dedicated).
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* {{Homage}: {{Homage}}: Though not an overt comedy, the novel is clearly a tongue-in-cheek homage/parody of Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, as well as the works of Creator/RobertAHeinlein and Creator/IsaacAsimov (to whom the book is dedicated).
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* ContemptibleCover: The first edition's US cover was quite controversial, to the point where Stross himself apologized on his blog, basically saying "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". While technically a relatively accurate depiction of the protagonist (she ''is'' a SexBot after all), it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book.
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* ContemptibleCover: The first edition's US cover of ''Saturn's Children'' was quite controversial, to the point where Stross himself apologized on his blog, basically saying "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". While technically a relatively accurate depiction of the protagonist (she ''is'' a SexBot after all), it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book.
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rewrote intro a bit
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[[caption-width-right:250:Some Stross fans were ''not'' pleased about the possibility of being seen with this in public.]]
''Saturn's Children: A Space Opera'' is a science fiction novel by Creator/CharlesStross about the adventures of a SexBot in a world where humans (and thus her reason for being) are extinct.
Though not an overt comedy, the novel very clearly has its tongue firmly wedged in its cheek. It lies somewhere on the border between an homage to, and a parody of, Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, and especially, the works of Creator/RobertAHeinlein and Creator/IsaacAsimov, to whom the book is dedicated.
By the 23rd century, Mankind has gone extinct, leaving the intelligent, autonomous robots they created to carry on as best they can. Independent and self-sustaining, the robots struggle to find a purpose in their "lives". Freya Nakamichi was created to be a SexBot, and she's now a free woman, but in the hierarchy of robots, her tribe's rank is low, and her primary skill set is not much in demand, so she's forced to take whatever jobs she can find.
While visiting a pleasure palace on Venus, Freya gets into a scuffle with some high-ranking robots, and manages to seriously offend one (having your head ripped off can be annoying). With Venus getting too hot for her, Freya is thankful to find a courier job that will take her off planet. Unfortunately, the package she's been hired to carry turns out to contain an explosive secret that many robots would kill to possess, or die to destroy; Freya's in bigger trouble than ever.
The first edition's [[ContemptibleCover US cover was quite controversial]]--to the point that Stross himself posted on his blog, saying, essentially, "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". ''Technically'', it's probably a fairly realistic depiction of the protagonist. If anything, it may downplay her overt sexiness. However, it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book...and possibly, the reader. (It also looks like exaggerated parody of the cover to ''Literature/{{Friday}}'', which is appropriate.)
Has a sequel, ''Neptune's Brood'', set 5,000 years later.
''Saturn's Children: A Space Opera'' is a science fiction novel by Creator/CharlesStross about the adventures of a SexBot in a world where humans (and thus her reason for being) are extinct.
Though not an overt comedy, the novel very clearly has its tongue firmly wedged in its cheek. It lies somewhere on the border between an homage to, and a parody of, Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, and especially, the works of Creator/RobertAHeinlein and Creator/IsaacAsimov, to whom the book is dedicated.
By the 23rd century, Mankind has gone extinct, leaving the intelligent, autonomous robots they created to carry on as best they can. Independent and self-sustaining, the robots struggle to find a purpose in their "lives". Freya Nakamichi was created to be a SexBot, and she's now a free woman, but in the hierarchy of robots, her tribe's rank is low, and her primary skill set is not much in demand, so she's forced to take whatever jobs she can find.
While visiting a pleasure palace on Venus, Freya gets into a scuffle with some high-ranking robots, and manages to seriously offend one (having your head ripped off can be annoying). With Venus getting too hot for her, Freya is thankful to find a courier job that will take her off planet. Unfortunately, the package she's been hired to carry turns out to contain an explosive secret that many robots would kill to possess, or die to destroy; Freya's in bigger trouble than ever.
The first edition's [[ContemptibleCover US cover was quite controversial]]--to the point that Stross himself posted on his blog, saying, essentially, "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". ''Technically'', it's probably a fairly realistic depiction of the protagonist. If anything, it may downplay her overt sexiness. However, it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book...and possibly, the reader. (It also looks like exaggerated parody of the cover to ''Literature/{{Friday}}'', which is appropriate.)
Has a sequel, ''Neptune's Brood'', set 5,000 years later.
to:
''Saturn's
Though not an overt comedy,
By the 23rd
The
Has a
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* ContemptibleCover: The first edition's US cover was quite controversial, to the point where Stross himself apologized on his blog, basically saying "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". While technically a relatively accurate depiction of the protagonist (she ''is'' a SexBot after all), it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book.
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* {{Homage}: Though not an overt comedy, the novel is clearly a tongue-in-cheek homage/parody of Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, as well as the works of Creator/RobertAHeinlein and Creator/IsaacAsimov (to whom the book is dedicated).
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\"he\" to \"they\". \"he\" only makes sense if you say \"Man\", not \"Mankind\".
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By the 23rd century, Mankind has become extinct, leaving the intelligent, autonomous robots he created to carry on as best they can. Independent and self-sustaining, the robots struggle to find a purpose in their "lives". Freya Nakamichi was created to be a SexBot, and she's now a free woman, but in the hierarchy of robots, her tribe's rank is low, and her primary skill set is not much in demand, so she's forced to take whatever jobs she can find.
to:
By the 23rd century, Mankind has become gone extinct, leaving the intelligent, autonomous robots he they created to carry on as best they can. Independent and self-sustaining, the robots struggle to find a purpose in their "lives". Freya Nakamichi was created to be a SexBot, and she's now a free woman, but in the hierarchy of robots, her tribe's rank is low, and her primary skill set is not much in demand, so she's forced to take whatever jobs she can find.
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** In ''Neptune's Brood'', there is a pirate crew who call themselves [[Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife The Permanent Crimson]], and who [[spoiler:turn out to be unusually aggressive insurance underwriters]].
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The first edition's US cover was quite controversial--to the point that Stross himself posted on his blog, saying, essentially, "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". ''Technically'', it's probably a fairly realistic depiction of the protagonist. If anything, it may downplay her overt sexiness. However, it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book...and possibly, the reader. (It also looks like exaggerated parody of the cover to ''Literature/{{Friday}}'', which is appropriate.)
to:
The first edition's [[ContemptibleCover US cover was quite controversial--to controversial]]--to the point that Stross himself posted on his blog, saying, essentially, "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". ''Technically'', it's probably a fairly realistic depiction of the protagonist. If anything, it may downplay her overt sexiness. However, it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book...and possibly, the reader. (It also looks like exaggerated parody of the cover to ''Literature/{{Friday}}'', which is appropriate.)
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*WhatWouldXDo: When Freya is posing as an the Honorable Katherine Sorico, she has to keep asking herself "[=WWtHKSd=]?"
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* ShoutOut: In addition to numerous {{Shout Out}}s to Creator/RobertHeinlein, has a McGuffin disguised as [[TheMalteseFalcon a statue of a black bird]] and an organisation of robot butlers who are all called [[JeevesAndWooster Jeeves]] [[spoiler: one of whom has taken the name "Reginald"; Jeeves's first name in the books.]]
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* ShoutOut: In addition to numerous {{Shout Out}}s to Creator/RobertHeinlein, the book has a McGuffin disguised as [[TheMalteseFalcon a statue of a black bird]] and an organisation of robot butlers who are all called [[JeevesAndWooster Jeeves]] [[spoiler: one of whom has taken the name "Reginald"; Jeeves's first name in the books.]]
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The first edition's US cover was quite controversial--to the point that Stross himself posted on his blog, saying, essentially, "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". ''Technically'', it's probably a fairly realistic depiction of the protagonist. If anything, it may downplay her overt sexiness. However, it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book...and possibly, the reader.
to:
The first edition's US cover was quite controversial--to the point that Stross himself posted on his blog, saying, essentially, "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". ''Technically'', it's probably a fairly realistic depiction of the protagonist. If anything, it may downplay her overt sexiness. However, it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book...and possibly, the reader. \n (It also looks like exaggerated parody of the cover to ''Literature/{{Friday}}'', which is appropriate.)
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* ShoutOut: In addition to numerous {{Shout Out}}s to Creator/RobertHeinlein, has a McGuffin disguised as [[TheMalteseFalcon a statue of a black bird]] and an organisation of robot butlers who are all called [[JeevesAndWooster Jeeves]] [[spoiler: one of whom has taken the name "Reginald"; Jeeves's first name in the books.]]
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* TakeThat: While it's mostly AffectionateParody, there's a few swipes at Heinlein as well; WordOfGod is that the first impetus for the creation of Freya was to ask why anyone's [[Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast nipples would go "Spung!"]], and there's two seperate swipes at the "specialisation is for insects" line - at one point Freya notes she ''can't'' do most of the things Heinlein's RenaissanceMan can do; as a generalist, her main ability is to find a specialist who can do them for her, and the colony ship requires lots and lots of specialists, and a few generalists to cover everything else.
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** It's a bit of a DeconstructedTrope: because the robots were created by mapping human neural nets, the first two laws have to be imposed afterwards. The methods used to do this are [[RapeAsDrama not pleasant]].
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* NonIndicativeTitle: While the plot takes place on several different planets and moons in the solar system, Saturn isn't one of them, and there are no children, as such, in the story.
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The first edition's cover was quite controversial--to the point that Stross himself posted on his blog, saying, essentially, "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". ''Technically'', it's probably a fairly realistic depiction of the protagonist. If anything, it may downplay her overt sexiness. However, it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book...and possibly, the reader.
to:
The first edition's US cover was quite controversial--to the point that Stross himself posted on his blog, saying, essentially, "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". ''Technically'', it's probably a fairly realistic depiction of the protagonist. If anything, it may downplay her overt sexiness. However, it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book...and possibly, the reader.
reader.
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Though not an overt comedy, the novel very clearly has its tongue firmly wedged in its cheek. It lies somewhere on the border between an homage to, and a parody of, Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, and especially, the work of Creator/RobertAHeinlein.
to:
Though not an overt comedy, the novel very clearly has its tongue firmly wedged in its cheek. It lies somewhere on the border between an homage to, and a parody of, Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, and especially, the work works of Creator/RobertAHeinlein.
Creator/RobertAHeinlein and Creator/IsaacAsimov, to whom the book is dedicated.
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* ThreeLawsCompliant: The robots were all basically created this way--in fact, the book quotes the three laws right at the beginning. However, with mankind extinct, the first law doesn't apply so much any more.
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* ThreeLawsCompliant: The robots were all basically created this way--in fact, the book quotes the three laws right at the beginning. However, with mankind extinct, the first law doesn't apply so much any more. In fact, the possibility of the first law complicating their lives is why ''some'' robots are so thoroughly opposed to the thought of trying to bring man back using genetic records and the like.
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By the 23rd century, Mankind has gone extinct, leaving the intelligent, autonomous robots he created to carry on as best they can. Independent and self-sustaining, the robots struggle to find a purpose in their "lives". Freya Nakamichi was created to be a SexBot, and she's now a free woman, but in the hierarchy of robots, her tribe's rank is low, and her primary skill set is not much in demand, so she's forced to take whatever jobs she can find.
to:
By the 23rd century, Mankind has gone become extinct, leaving the intelligent, autonomous robots he created to carry on as best they can. Independent and self-sustaining, the robots struggle to find a purpose in their "lives". Freya Nakamichi was created to be a SexBot, and she's now a free woman, but in the hierarchy of robots, her tribe's rank is low, and her primary skill set is not much in demand, so she's forced to take whatever jobs she can find.
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''Saturn's Children'' is a science fiction novel by Creator/CharlesStross about the adventures of a SexBot in a world where humans (and thus her reason for being) are extinct.
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''Saturn's Children'' Children: A Space Opera'' is a science fiction novel by Creator/CharlesStross about the adventures of a SexBot in a world where humans (and thus her reason for being) are extinct.
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While visiting a pleasure palace on Venus, Freya gets into a scuffle with some high-ranking robots, and manages to seriously offend one (ripping off someone's head can do that). With Venus getting too hot for her, Freya is thankful to find a courier job that will take her off planet. Unfortunately, the package she's been hired to carry turns out to contain an explosive secret that many robots would kill to possess, and Freya's in bigger trouble than ever.
to:
While visiting a pleasure palace on Venus, Freya gets into a scuffle with some high-ranking robots, and manages to seriously offend one (ripping off someone's (having your head ripped off can do that).be annoying). With Venus getting too hot for her, Freya is thankful to find a courier job that will take her off planet. Unfortunately, the package she's been hired to carry turns out to contain an explosive secret that many robots would kill to possess, and or die to destroy; Freya's in bigger trouble than ever.
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* PersonalityChip: Robots have "soul chips", which contain not their personalities, per se, but a recording of their experiences and thoughts, so if one were to wear someone else's soul chip, one to some extent wears that other robot's personality as well.
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* FlatEarthAtheist: Most robots, based on design schematics and such, believe that they were created by human beings. A few, however, believe in [[StrawmanPolitical the holy doctrine of Evolution]], and its prophets [[CharlesDarwin Darwin]], [[RichardDawkins Dawkins]], and Gould.
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* NotUsingTheZWord: The novel justifies this in regard to its robots--the actual term "robot" is considered a FantasticSlur.
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* SpaceElevator: Mars has one giant space elevator called Bifrost.
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* StarfishRobots: After the demise of humanity those robots least attached to their creators have formed the new aristocracy, and the SexBot protagonist is despised for her DeceptivelyHumanRobot appearance. Most other robots have a more practical appearance for living and working in outer space or other planets.
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* GreyGoo: Neatly inverted--robots think of organic life as "pink goo," reproducing without limit.
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* CloningBlues: In a robotic version, the protagonist is a sexbot who describes how she, and other AIs similar to herself are created. AI's with human level intelligence take as long as a human would to develop, so no [[InstantAIJustAddWater instant AI]], with one loophole: an AI can be duplicated easily. The standard procedure for artificial beings like her was to raise one prototype as desired than clone the AI into identical bodies.
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* PlotCoupon: {{Lampshaded}} via pun:
-->"Don't get cute." He grinds the gun barrel against the back of my neck. "The encapsulated bird your conspirators sent you to fetch. The sterilized male chicken with the Creator DNA sequences. The plot capon. Where is it?"
-->"Don't get cute." He grinds the gun barrel against the back of my neck. "The encapsulated bird your conspirators sent you to fetch. The sterilized male chicken with the Creator DNA sequences. The plot capon. Where is it?"
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* HumansAreCthulhu: Humanity died out long ago and left behind a race of intelligent robots that took its place. The book deals with a plot by a consortium of wealthy robots who are trying to recreate a living human, which could have cataclysmic effects on robot society because obedience to humans is still hard-coded into their programming. A military organization called the "Pink Police" is dedicated to ensuring that something like this never happens.
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* GhostMemory: The robotic beings can obtain the memories of their sibs (other individuals of the same model) by putting in the sib's "soul chip".
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[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SaturnsChildren_9722.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Some Stross fans were ''not'' pleased about the possibility of being seen with this in public.]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Some Stross fans were ''not'' pleased about the possibility of being seen with this in public.]]
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Has a sequel, ''Neptune's Brood''.
to:
The first edition's cover was quite controversial--to the point that Stross himself posted on his blog, saying, essentially, "I'm sorry, it's not my fault". ''Technically'', it's probably a fairly realistic depiction of the protagonist. If anything, it may downplay her overt sexiness. However, it does tend to give people the wrong idea about the book...and possibly, the reader.
Has a sequel, ''Neptune'sBrood''.Brood'', set 5,000 years later.
Has a sequel, ''Neptune's
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''Saturn's Children'' is a science fiction novel by Creator/CharlesStross about the adventures of a SexBot in a world where humans (and thus her reason for being) are extinct.
Though not an overt comedy, the novel very clearly has its tongue firmly wedged in its cheek. It lies somewhere on the border between an homage to, and a parody of, Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, and especially, the work of Creator/RobertAHeinlein.
By the 23rd century, Mankind has gone extinct, leaving the intelligent, autonomous robots he created to carry on as best they can. Independent and self-sustaining, the robots struggle to find a purpose in their "lives". Freya Nakamichi was created to be a SexBot, and she's now a free woman, but in the hierarchy of robots, her tribe's rank is low, and her primary skill set is not much in demand, so she's forced to take whatever jobs she can find.
While visiting a pleasure palace on Venus, Freya gets into a scuffle with some high-ranking robots, and manages to seriously offend one (ripping off someone's head can do that). With Venus getting too hot for her, Freya is thankful to find a courier job that will take her off planet. Unfortunately, the package she's been hired to carry turns out to contain an explosive secret that many robots would kill to possess, and Freya's in bigger trouble than ever.
Has a sequel, ''Neptune's Brood''.
----
!! Provides examples of:
* AfterTheEnd: The novel explores a Solar System inhabited only by robots centuries after the mysterious extinction of humanity.
* AscendedFridgeHorror: Freya was programmed to be overwhelmed by lust at the mere sight of ''Homo sapiens''--how, [[DontAsk you may ask]], do you condition a robot to behave in such away? Later on in the novel, we find out that [[HumansAreBastards Freya's long-dead designers]] did so by [[spoiler:[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil inflicting traumatic sexual abuse on her during her "adolescence"]].]]
* HeartDrive: Most robots have a personality chip to backup their memories/personalities. This can be used to keep them alive by transferring their mind to another body or to learn from dead "siblings." "Wearing" the chip of another robot for too long however can lead to their personality usurping the original owner's and as a back up can take months or years to be fully complete destroying another robot's personality chip is a good way of ensuring they behave themselves.
* HumanitysWake: The story is about humanoid robots living in the wake of humanity's demise.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: At the end, we learn that the book we have just read is a message Freya is about to send back to her sisters on Earth, to warn them that [[spoiler:their supposedly long-dead mother Rhea is still alive and dangerously insane]].
* MercurialBase: There is a city on Mercury that's mounted on tracks that stretch around the planet, and which follows the terminator to avoid getting too hot or too cold. The protagonist's enemies [[spoiler:[[ChainedToARailway tie her to the tracks]] and leave her for dead]].
* MyEyesAreLeaking: The {{sexbot}} protagonist is alarmed for a moment when her vision becomes blurred and she registers saline leakage; a surprisingly non-functional response to emotions programmed into her by her long-extinct creators.
* PlanetOfSteves: The main character is 'instantiated' from a line of robots, whom all have the same body and wake up believing they are the original bot, Rhea. They avert this by taking individual names. However, she then encounters The Jeeves Corporation, run by a line whom all refer to themselves as Jeeves. Later on, a specific Jeeves is referred to as "Reginald"; fans of Wodehouse won't find this helps the confusion much.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Justified. The (extinct) "[[ThankTheMaker Creators]]" never figured out how to program self-aware AIs from scratch. Instead they just copied the way human brains work. [[spoiler:And then you find out ''how'' [[PoweredByAForsakenChild they did it]]...]]
* RobotGirl: The protagonist. A RobotGirl SexSlave no less, in a universe where humans no longer exist.
* RobotReligion: PlayedForLaughs. Some robots have examined all the relevant scientific evidence and concluded that robots were intelligently designed by a creator. Others fervently believe that robots evolved from simpler forms by means of natural selection, as described in their holy text: Darwin's ''Origin of Species''...
* RobotsEnslavingRobots: The book is all about this trope. One of the protagonist's main worries (everyone in the book is an AI of one sort or another) is ensuring that she always has enough credit in the bank to ensure that she never becomes another AI's property.
* SexBot: The protagonist is a sexbot in a world where humanity is extinct, making her existence almost pointless.
* ThreeLawsCompliant: The robots were all basically created this way--in fact, the book quotes the three laws right at the beginning. However, with mankind extinct, the first law doesn't apply so much any more.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Mankind is extinct, but the robots he created are still around, and still debating what rules apply to them.
----
Though not an overt comedy, the novel very clearly has its tongue firmly wedged in its cheek. It lies somewhere on the border between an homage to, and a parody of, Golden Age SF planetary adventure stories, and especially, the work of Creator/RobertAHeinlein.
By the 23rd century, Mankind has gone extinct, leaving the intelligent, autonomous robots he created to carry on as best they can. Independent and self-sustaining, the robots struggle to find a purpose in their "lives". Freya Nakamichi was created to be a SexBot, and she's now a free woman, but in the hierarchy of robots, her tribe's rank is low, and her primary skill set is not much in demand, so she's forced to take whatever jobs she can find.
While visiting a pleasure palace on Venus, Freya gets into a scuffle with some high-ranking robots, and manages to seriously offend one (ripping off someone's head can do that). With Venus getting too hot for her, Freya is thankful to find a courier job that will take her off planet. Unfortunately, the package she's been hired to carry turns out to contain an explosive secret that many robots would kill to possess, and Freya's in bigger trouble than ever.
Has a sequel, ''Neptune's Brood''.
----
!! Provides examples of:
* AfterTheEnd: The novel explores a Solar System inhabited only by robots centuries after the mysterious extinction of humanity.
* AscendedFridgeHorror: Freya was programmed to be overwhelmed by lust at the mere sight of ''Homo sapiens''--how, [[DontAsk you may ask]], do you condition a robot to behave in such away? Later on in the novel, we find out that [[HumansAreBastards Freya's long-dead designers]] did so by [[spoiler:[[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil inflicting traumatic sexual abuse on her during her "adolescence"]].]]
* HeartDrive: Most robots have a personality chip to backup their memories/personalities. This can be used to keep them alive by transferring their mind to another body or to learn from dead "siblings." "Wearing" the chip of another robot for too long however can lead to their personality usurping the original owner's and as a back up can take months or years to be fully complete destroying another robot's personality chip is a good way of ensuring they behave themselves.
* HumanitysWake: The story is about humanoid robots living in the wake of humanity's demise.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: At the end, we learn that the book we have just read is a message Freya is about to send back to her sisters on Earth, to warn them that [[spoiler:their supposedly long-dead mother Rhea is still alive and dangerously insane]].
* MercurialBase: There is a city on Mercury that's mounted on tracks that stretch around the planet, and which follows the terminator to avoid getting too hot or too cold. The protagonist's enemies [[spoiler:[[ChainedToARailway tie her to the tracks]] and leave her for dead]].
* MyEyesAreLeaking: The {{sexbot}} protagonist is alarmed for a moment when her vision becomes blurred and she registers saline leakage; a surprisingly non-functional response to emotions programmed into her by her long-extinct creators.
* PlanetOfSteves: The main character is 'instantiated' from a line of robots, whom all have the same body and wake up believing they are the original bot, Rhea. They avert this by taking individual names. However, she then encounters The Jeeves Corporation, run by a line whom all refer to themselves as Jeeves. Later on, a specific Jeeves is referred to as "Reginald"; fans of Wodehouse won't find this helps the confusion much.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: Justified. The (extinct) "[[ThankTheMaker Creators]]" never figured out how to program self-aware AIs from scratch. Instead they just copied the way human brains work. [[spoiler:And then you find out ''how'' [[PoweredByAForsakenChild they did it]]...]]
* RobotGirl: The protagonist. A RobotGirl SexSlave no less, in a universe where humans no longer exist.
* RobotReligion: PlayedForLaughs. Some robots have examined all the relevant scientific evidence and concluded that robots were intelligently designed by a creator. Others fervently believe that robots evolved from simpler forms by means of natural selection, as described in their holy text: Darwin's ''Origin of Species''...
* RobotsEnslavingRobots: The book is all about this trope. One of the protagonist's main worries (everyone in the book is an AI of one sort or another) is ensuring that she always has enough credit in the bank to ensure that she never becomes another AI's property.
* SexBot: The protagonist is a sexbot in a world where humanity is extinct, making her existence almost pointless.
* ThreeLawsCompliant: The robots were all basically created this way--in fact, the book quotes the three laws right at the beginning. However, with mankind extinct, the first law doesn't apply so much any more.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Mankind is extinct, but the robots he created are still around, and still debating what rules apply to them.
----
