Now here's a fun one. Nanny's Day is social speculative fiction--purely social. You don't see that a lot. There's "hard" science fiction that is based on a technological advance or alternative, and fantasy based on magic. I am sure I have read other stories based on a different legal road, but just can't think of one offhand. So this story is worth reading just for that reason.
Also, it's a good story, told in a straight-out way from a believable feminist perspective. The protagonist probably thinks of herself as post-feminist, but that's OK. What if, at some point, society decides that the best person to raise a child is whoever the child is most attached to, not necessarily a biological parent? Caregivers could win children away. And testing the laws could be lucrative for lawyers.
This story is a Nebula award nominee for 2012. Will it win? Most likely not--but it's a pretty good try, and a good story to say that an alternate legal history is a valid jumping off point for speculative fiction. 4 stars for originality.
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