This slow moving novel is a brilliant exploration of culture, race, identity, and the issues that revolve around an aging population and the development of strong AI. The main characters are two women. Sayoko, whom everyone believes is a 100-year-old Japanese woman (spoiler: Not exactly) and her Filipina nurse, Angelica.
I could wish this book had actually been written by a Japanese person, as I don't know quite enough about Japan myself to know if Romano-Lax got the culture absolutely right, but there's a ring of authenticity from what I hear. (Also, trashing Alaska is original. Nobody ever trashes Alaska in their environmental disasters).
Plum Rains is ultimately about what it means to be human and how some of us base our identity around being needed. Even Hiro, the robot, is distinctly human in his motivations...as any AI created by humans is bound to be.
This is Romano-Lax's first work of speculative fiction, so it doesn't read like a traditional science fiction novel, but rather like what it is: Historical fiction set in the future. Stylistically, she is still very much a historical fiction writer. Some readers of science fiction may not like it as a result, but it may prove to be the perfect entry drug for those more used to historicals.
Recommended.
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