"Mal Goes to War" by Edward Ashton

An audio book. Mal (short for Malware?) is a Silico-american, a Free AI. There's a battle between the Humanists (anti-augmentation. Not keen on InfoSpace) and the Federals. Mal starts looking after Kayleigh, a woman who looks like a child - genetically modified to age slowly. They meet Asher - male, a humanist deserter? Mal describes himself as a hermit crab - he moves from body to body, though he could live in InfoSpace. The body could be human ("monkeys") or mechanical - for instance a drone. Mal needs a new body - the old one's starting to smell. He's attacked. He uses the castle siege metaphor, creates the appropriate interface using princesses, etc. They're captured and put in a van. Why weren't they killed? A woman, Roan kisses Asher transferring a "gift" to him. She'd been cured of brain cancer by an injection of self-replicating nano-bots which she can pass onto others, though 6k cals/day are needed to sustain them. They catch rabbits, learn how to make fire. They - "a deserter and 2 abominations" - are being hunted down. Mal likes Kayleigh but she tells him to go away so he inhabits a humanist officer, but has trouble getting the tone/register right with his colleagues - he's learnt from historical dramas etc. His colleagues become suspicious. He takes them to look for Kayleigh and Roan. He finds them. A being like him claims that they're the only 2 left, so they should start a new generation.

Quite rich in ideas, and gives an insight into how AIs might struggle with nuance.

Other reviews

• Bonny McDaniel (Mal's voice, snarky and sarcastic and entirely dismissive of "monkeys" until he learns better, carries this book. ... its themes could easily have been expanded to doorstopper length. Other authors might have gone a little deeper, perhaps, but this story is perfectly satisfying as is.)
• Jayne B
• AJ Deane (it’s the differences in emotion, intuition, and logic between man and machine, whether in the theatre of war or on a personal level, which are the true driving force of the narrative. The world-building is kept pretty simple, mainly taking place in rural areas and small settlements, and this allows the technical aspects to shine all the brighter)