A good solid book that starts with "synthetic people" -- sentient robots that look and think like people, and can reproduce by hacking their self-repair functions -- and doesn't go down the rathole of "if only I were a real human."

Instead, vN is about what it means to be a real robot. Are you created for purpose? Is it right to seek revenge on people who created you and your children to be slaves? When you feel programmed love for humans who don't deserve it, how can you trust your own feelings and drives?

vN talks about all this and more. There are places where it's not realistic (in a world with working nanobots and some terrifyingly advanced technology, it's a little odd to think that human bounty hunters and police are still the primary means of law enforcement) but it's always emotionally true, down to the fraught relationship that Amy has with her grandmother, Portia.