Avatar — Pat Cadigan

Ruby runs waldos. Freelance. Construction, securityâ€"no job too large or small. And her favorite tool is Golem, six hundred pounds of vaguely human-shaped, remote-operated power. Not an easy living, but it's better than most in half-sunken, greenhouse-heated, 21st Century New York. Best of all the waldoes go Outside, not Ruby. Ruby hates the Outside.

But when a Ruby/Golem tries to rescue a rich Egyptian from a collapsing skyscraper, and accepts the papers he presses into her hands as he dies, Ruby's in trouble. She may have to go Outside for real.

All of which might be a lot easier if she hadn't stolen the diamonds off his body…

The 1992 feminist cyberpunk classic, finally back in print with an introduction by 2-time Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Pat Cadigan and an afterword by Lydia LeBlanc on genre and gender in cyberpunk fiction.