High Tower Gods by CL Corona

In the novella High Tower Gods CL Corona creates a wonderfully nuanced and encapsulated story that expertly captures the turning point in a society heavily reliant on a created slave-race of AIs. I'm a huge fan of secondary worlds that are recognisably modernised, and in High Tower Gods, we have a world filled with motor vehicles, intelligent biomechanoids, rampant alchemy and magic. Part whodunnit, part laying to rest of old demons, the story follows the immortal Elian as she works to prove the innocence of a chimera accused of murder – an act she believes the creature incapable of committing. And she would know, because she was responsible for encoding the inability to kill. 

Elian has lived in isolation in her tower for so many years that she's cut herself off from an indolent society that is over-reliant on a slave-race of chimeras to do all the work. And her actions are about to have unforeseen, unexpected repercussions. 

But I won't spoil. This is a beautiful, lush and layered story, especially suited for those of us who're looking for short, standalone fantasy reads. As alway, Corona's writing is vivid, focusing on the uncomfortable exchanges between people who have a lot of water under the bridge.