A subtle and peaceful perspective on the future, where humans and robots live apart. In Becky Chambers's fashion: mostly character and worldbuilding, little plot.
Becky paints a low-tech, solarpunky world where people respect each other very gently. This almost felt like a self-sabotage, because there is little story to everything being perfect. It's this weird conondrum where we want to imagine hopeful futures, but in doing so actually forfeiting opportunities for engaging storytelling.
But in this novella, Becky manages to tell a story nonetheless. In a world where you have everything you could ever desire, how do you actually feel happy and fulfilled? The struggle is purely internal, and Becky handles it so delicately that there is almost no room for any friction, thus also less opportunity to develop sympathy. It leads to a somewhat weaker story, in my experience.
But all in all I find these newer directions of storytelling very fascinating. It will be an ongoing exploration to figure out how we will tell hopeful future perspectives.