Bargain @ 99 cents (DRM-free, VIP-eligible @ Kobo CA) from the author's own self-pub reprint imprint (probably matched in most other stores):
The Bohr Maker by Locus & Nebula Award-winning author Linda Nagata (
ISFDB,
Wikipedia), 1st in her Nanotech Succession series of transhumanist science fiction novels about individuals altered by nanotech and their ensuing societies. This was originally published in 1995 by Bantam Spectra, and happens to be the one which won her the Locus Best First Novel Award for that year.
NB: There's a
4-book omnibus containing all the novels at a discount, but this is cheap enough to try out to see if you like the 1st before making a further investment when the good couponage shows up, if you're not already familiar with the series. I don't think I've read this one, but I'm pretty sure I read another similar-premised novel of hers many years ago and enjoyed it (although I can't remember which one and none of the synopses for her reprints seems to quite fit, so maybe it was another author with a similar name).
An award-winning novel of nanotechnology, adventure, and high-tech revolution.
Nikko is the first "post human" genetically engineered to survive in the airless void of space. But the research permit that allows his existence is about to expire. His body has begun an insidious, pre-programmed failure that will end in his death—unless he can cancel his own expiration date. His hopes ride on an illegal and extremely powerful nanotech device known as the Bohr Maker—but his attempt to steal it soon goes awry. The device escapes to infect a young woman named Phousita who lives on Earth, in an impoverished slum, where nanotechnology runs amok, regulated only by the black market. Nikko and Phousita are from different worlds, but their convergence sets off a domino effect of unforeseeable events that threaten to change the definition of "human" for all time.
A brilliantly original, fast-paced biotech thriller, The Bohr Maker won the Locus Award for Best First Novel.
The Nanotech Succession is a collection of stand-alone novels exploring the rise of nanotechnology and the strange and fascinating future that follows.