Machine (2020)

Dr Jens treats unfamiliar alien bodies as part of a rescue service, while the support that makes her own working life possible also deserves scrutiny. A shipmind trapped in inadequate hardware makes the gap between person and available body urgent. Bear combines a medical mystery with questions about care, dependence and the institutions supplying it. Choose it for detailed practical ethics inside a large space opera. Second in White Space; Ancestral Night supplies the earlier context.