Adrian Tchaikovsky

Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time. To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away. Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming.

Service Model

this is the funniest shit ive read in a book so far

Inside his decision-making software there were two subroutines in the shape of wolves, and one insisted that he stay, and the other insisted that he could not stay. Neither of which seemed to be natural behaviour for wolves, but Uncharles could only assume this was another aspect of his undiagnosed defect

this book is so conflicting to me because i found myself so engaged and loving the witty humour and analysis of society in the first half of this book, but then the 50% mark hit and suddenly it got super boring, super drawn out and it felt like a chore to read. should have been much shorter :/

2.75.
this book is so conflicting to me because i found myself so engaged and loving the witty humour and analysis of society in the first half of this book, but then the 50% mark hit and suddenly it got super boring, super drawn out and it felt like a chore to read. should have been much shorter :/

I was very skeptical, this book was not the most fun to read, but in the end it was really quite good. Glad I read it.

Katy Watkins

Like 'Remains of the Day', but with robots. With an equally endearing protagonist. What an original book.

Frederik De Bosschere

A thought-provoking creative writing exercise that might be more fun to discuss than to read

 is a post-apocalyptic novella about a robot butler, Charles, who kills his master without knowing why. Since his master was the only human left in the area, the robot (now referred to as UnCharles since he is unemployed) goes in search of a new human to serve. But the world beyond his former home is full of chaos as humans die out and the robots try to continue following their assigned roles in a world that is both literally and figuratively crumbling.

The story was split into five sections with each section inspired by/based on the work of a classic author. The section title give a hint as to the authors: KR15-T (Christie), K4FK-R (Kafka), 4W-L (Orwell), 80RH-5 (Borges), and D4NT-A (Dante). I also thought that the overall story had a 

 vibe with a main character searching for home and collecting side characters along the way who were each also searching for something.

While the different sections based on famous works was intriguing, it also made the story inconsistent. The writing style switched in each section to mimic the inspirational author. There also was very little overarching plot. So the end result was five loosely connected short stories with drastically different tones and styles lacking cohesion. Having a robot protagonist also made the narrative very stiff and dry since it was told in close third person from UnCharles’ point of view.

“The induction had waxed long on the topic of robots and other automated helpmates replacing human labour, but he hadn’t realised that, back in the past, humans had worked so hard to live like robots. The endless round of tasks, the queuing, the utter repetitiveness of these people’s lives. They must, Uncharles predicted, be so grateful to have such lives designed for them. How good it must be to have no choices or options.”

I felt like this would have been a fun one to discuss at a book club. There was a lot of commentary on society and technology. That, plus the riffs on classic authors, bring up many potential talking points.

“‘It is absolutely vital that appropriate levels of intrusive micromanagement, divisive paranoia, bullying, and the threat of arbitrary punishments are maintained, so that we can truly re-create the folkways of the past. Also a propensity for calling meetings at regular, and indeed irregular, intervals.’

‘Adam, and what is the end purpose of all this work we are seeing?’

‘Uncharles, there is none. This is also believed to be historically authentic.’”

But despite the creative aspects, moments of humor, and the insights into society, I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed 

. It had a few funny moments, some interesting points, and was thought-provoking. But as a whole, it wasn’t enough of a cohesive story for me to particularly enjoy. I look forward to reading other books by Tchaikovsky, because I know his work varies greatly in style and genre, but this particular one was underwhelming.

Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars

Colleen

A thought-provoking creative writing exercise that might be more fun to discuss than to read


Service Model is a post-apocalyptic novella about a robot butler, Charles, who kills his master without knowing why. Since his master was the only human left in the area, the robot (now referred to as UnCharles since he is unemployed) goes in search of a new human to serve. But the world beyond his former home is full of chaos as humans die out and the robots try to continue following their assigned roles in a world that is both literally and figuratively crumbling.

The story was split into five sections with each section inspired by/based on the work of a classic author. The section title give a hint as to the authors: KR15-T (Christie), K4FK-R (Kafka), 4W-L (Orwell), 80RH-5 (Borges), and D4NT-A (Dante). I also thought that the overall story had a The Wonderful Wizard of Oz vibe with a main character searching for home and collecting side characters along the way who were each also searching for something.

While the different sections based on famous works was intriguing, it also made the story inconsistent. The writing style switched in each section to mimic the inspirational author. There also was very little overarching plot. So the end result was five loosely connected short stories with drastically different tones and styles lacking cohesion. Having a robot protagonist also made the narrative very stiff and dry since it was told in close third person from UnCharles’ point of view.

“The induction had waxed long on the topic of robots and other automated helpmates replacing human labour, but he hadn’t realised that, back in the past, humans had worked so hard to live like robots. The endless round of tasks, the queuing, the utter repetitiveness of these people’s lives. They must, Uncharles predicted, be so grateful to have such lives designed for them. How good it must be to have no choices or options.”


I felt like this would have been a fun one to discuss at a book club. There was a lot of commentary on society and technology. That, plus the riffs on classic authors, bring up many potential talking points.

“‘It is absolutely vital that appropriate levels of intrusive micromanagement, divisive paranoia, bullying, and the threat of arbitrary punishments are maintained, so that we can truly re-create the folkways of the past. Also a propensity for calling meetings at regular, and indeed irregular, intervals.’

‘Adam, and what is the end purpose of all this work we are seeing?’

‘Uncharles, there is none. This is also believed to be historically authentic.’”


But despite the creative aspects, moments of humor, and the insights into society, I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed Service Model. It had a few funny moments, some interesting points, and was thought-provoking. But as a whole, it wasn’t enough of a cohesive story for me to particularly enjoy. I look forward to reading other books by Tchaikovsky, because I know his work varies greatly in style and genre, but this particular one was underwhelming.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 3 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 2 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Malte Schröder

Brian Alderman

Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time. To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away. Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Emma Daniels

To fix the world they must first break it, further.

Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service.

When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away.

Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose.

Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming.

Service Model

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