Service Model is a great read for anyone who is curious about technology and its long lasting implications. What would our world look like when the machines we create outlive us? Our protagonist helps us to explore this idea more fully. Creative, refreshingly original, lighthearted fun paired with dangerous automation, all delightfully delivered in chapters that are easily digestible. It kept me hooked the entire time and I can’t wait to read it again.

This was a highly enjoyable new release standalone by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and just as with Alien Clay it felt like something new and fresh from the mad scientist who releases at least four books a year and is just a continual wellspring of creativity. It's robot fiction in a classic Asimovian mold (there are even mentions of Asimov's rules of robotics as a nod) but with an engaging and clever voice that Asimov's robot stories always lacked for me.

In many of the robot stories I've experienced (through films like AI, Bicentennial Man, Wall-E, or in books like Murderbot), the robots think and feel in a way so similar to humans that there's not a very meaningful difference between them. In Service Model, Tchaikovsky makes no mistake about it -- robots think and act in utterly non-human ways, and refreshingly, this is not a tale of a robot protagonist trying to transcend their robot-ness and become human.

Our POV Charles is a robot valet and just wants to be able to serve and go about his tasks. The way that the world intervenes and prevents Charles from doing so is what drives the plot of the book, but it's Tchaikovsky's utter commitment to having all the robots actually think and act robotically that really makes this book the unique little gem that it is. Whether through Charles' inner monologue, dialogue with various humans he meets along the way, or (my favorite) his robot-to-robot communication, Tchaikovsky mines the way robots think and talk for endless bits of wry humor. While it had its dark and tense moments, the dominant emotional tenor of this read was one of dry comedy where I often found myself smiling or occasionally chuckling out loud.

That clever humor is deployed to brilliant effect to lighten the mood against what is a pretty grim situation the world finds itself in (the cover itself gives away that the setting is rather post-apocalyptic). There is plenty of acerbic social commentary going on here, so while you might be entertained by the witticisms and robot-filled plot, there's also thematic depth to chew on as well that adds to its impact with a bit of satirical weightiness. Overall a fun and worthwhile read!

Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Service Model" is an inventive book about a world run by robots that defies the reader's expectations of an AI-themed novel.

The main character is Charles, a robot valet. When their human "master" dies, Charles loses their job. They're sent to Central Services for fixing, but it's chaotic there. Charles meets The Wonk, who appears to be a rather unusual
and rebellious robot, who convinces them to travel and find work. Charles, now UnCharles, goes on journey with The Wonk that shows the reader how much has chanted in this future world, and how much has not.

Tchaikovsky imagines a future where robots do most work humans used to do. This is no utopia, for the robots were made by humans, flawed as ever. Tchaikovsky finds much humor in directing the robots to follow human orders exactly and literally, leading to numerous mix-ups. Yet the novel blends humor with serious ideas, letting the reader chuckle as they think about what might happen if AI continues to advance without carefully designed safeguards.

Tchaikovsky's humor is dry and British, which isn't usually my, ahem, cup of tea. But even if the jokes don't land, the story remains interesting.

If you like droll science fiction or wonder about the paths AI might lead us down in the future, read "Service Model," a fresh take on human-robot relations that is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

Charles is a robot valet serving his master until he unthinkable happens, sending Charles on a quest to understand his actions and to find a new valet position. Along the way, he encounters numerous robots in varying states of decay and a human society in ruins. This is ultimately a very philosophical novel about the work of humans and the tools we create. It also has a timely element in its AI subject matter.
I really enjoyed this novel. In the beginning, it felt numerous but became darker and more contemplative as the story progressed. There are several references to other literary works that the reader will enjoy. Some of the dialogue felt weird, but this came exclusively from human characters and may have been intentional. Readers who enjoy distopian fantasy will enjoy this book.

Thanks so very much to Netgalley and the publisher for kindly providing me this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. I do reviews on my main social media platforms and will be providing my full review there as I get through my TBR blacklist. Adding star rating as placeholder. Thanks again!

The plot didn't capture my interest as much as I had hoped, and I felt disconnected from the writing style. Still, it might be a better match for others.

Service Model had many similarities to the Murder Bot series, and is written just as well as that series is. Tchaikovsky's satire and whimsy is intertwined with the brilliantly executed post apocalyptic world to deliver one of the most entertaining stories of 2024.

My first Adrian Tchaikovsky work, Service Model is an excellent book. I find it to be a combination of Franz Kafka with Monty Python and a brilliant satire of much of our world. You should read this!

Review: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Quotes:
"Knowledge is a lamp against the Darkness."

"I did not intend to be changed," Uncharles said.
"Well, yeah," she repeated. "But that's not the point of change. It happens, is all. And once it's happened, you can't go back."

Review: The tale of a robot "Charles" is programed to be a valet to a human. In a society where humanity is mostly gone. Until one day, it inexplicably murders its master. Following protical, It's sent to be decommissioned but meets another robot, "The Wonk," there, who talks it out of following through with that . To search out a new human to help or to find a new purpose.

A robot turning on a human isn't a new idea for a story. But I'm not sure I've read one quite like this. This was my first Tchaikovsky book. Probably not the best one to try first. At times, the dialogue is repetitive. And tedious. It smoothes out. The journey is definitely odd. But he asks a lot of philosophical questions. One of which is what happened to the humans in this world where machines are seemingly dominant beings. Even in the ruins of what's left. It's hard for me to give it a more thorough review. I'm sure elements of the story went over my head. But it was an interesting read.
I'd rate this 3.75 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I received an advanced copy of this from Netgalley and Tor for an unbiased review and I thank them for the opportunity

I requested this for consideration for Book Riot's All the Books podcast for its release date. After sampling several books out this week, I decided to go with a different book for my review.

A big thanks to NetGalley and MacMillian for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Where was this book when I was in my Murderbot hangover?

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky is a science fiction novel about a murderous robot. 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.

This book is everything you need after reading Martha Wells' Murderbot series. Just read it and thank me later.

Charles is a robot valet, a human facing model meant to be the right-hand-man for any proper gentleman. Every day there is a queue of tasks that he must complete in order to serve his master to the best of his ability, but one morning Charles makes a discovery that upsets the vital order of things upon which he depends; his master is dead, this throat slit. While Charles has no memory of having done the horrendous deed, he concludes that it must have been him. Seeing a trip to Diagnostics as his only choice, Charles heads out, taking the first step in a journey that will take him across a dystopian wasteland. Along the way he earns the new designation of UnCharles and meets the rebellious The Wonk, all while desperately attempting to bring order to the chaos that he finds himself amid.

On the surface Service Model is an extremely entertaining novel that I was hooked on after the first few minutes of listening to the audiobook version. Even though Charles/UnCharles is a robot, I still found myself having compassion for him and the situations that he finds himself in; I wanted him to be happy, well, as happy as a robot can be. It was an audiobook that I listened to every chance I got, not being able to get enough. That being said, I did not receive a digital copy until I was practically done with the novel, and I feel that I missed a lot by not reading the novel while I listened to it. For example, the five parts of the novel are KR15-T (Cristie), K4FK-R (Kafka), 4W-L (Orwell), 80RH-5 (Borges) and D4NT-A (Dante), but not having seen the names of the sections with my eyes and only hearing the numbers and letters stated I did not make the connection that the sections represent authors, and I feel that there was a lot that I missed and parts I did not fully understand; I had noticed that the various sections were very different from each other and I was confused as to why. Regardless of this fact, however, I was blown away by Tchaikovsky’s narration. The voices used for the various characters, along with his accent, made this such a pleasurable novel to listen to.

I highly recommend Service Model, but if you are going to listen to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s amazing narration I would recommend reading a physical/digital copy as well in order to fully enjoy the story. Thank you to Tor Publishing Group, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing me with digital and audio copies of Service Model, given in exchange for an honest review; all opinions are my own. Service Model is out now!

Service Model was a journey-- for myself, and for our protagonist, Uncharles (or Charles the Valet, as it was previously known), a service model robot of the finest caliber. It was forced from its position at its manor, due to the unfortunate incident of it accidentally murdering its master, and thus must venture out into a dystopian wasteland in search of new employment.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Service Model. It was both cleverly written and thoughtful in its contemplation of the End of the World. It's very funny, especially at the beginning. The sense of humor with which the initially naive Uncharles is written is fantastic. I did find that towards the latter half of the book, Tchaikovsky chose to take on bigger ideas and larger conflicts, that I don't think were resolved in ways that I found particularly satisfying. I'm keeping this deliberately vague so as not to spoil future readers, but it was like Tchaikovsky wanted to take on stakes that were as high as his space operas and hard science-fiction when the core of Service Model is really quite silly by comparison. I'm not entirely sure the tonal shift worked.

I still liked the book a lot and would recommend it, but as a bookseller, I am having a difficult time pinpointing the best audience for a novel that shifted so much tonally. So far, the best that I've surmised is that Murderbot fans in the mood for a book about the bleak inevitability of humanity destroying itself will like this.

If Ishiguro's Remains of the Day and Wells' Murderbot had some drinks, this wacky dystopian world would likely result. Valet robot Charles is shocked to learn that his precisely coded paradise with Master has gone terribly awry - he has mysteriously killed Master for no apparent reason. Through the tortured logic of police robots and his estate's majordomo system, Charles (now unCharles) is slated for decommission when he happens on a unit called The Wonk, who convinces unCharles that he's caught the "Protagonist Virus." Charles struggles with the difficulties of choosing one's own actions rather than accept the logically coded ones, and longs to find a human master to serve again in fulfillment of his destiny. In his journey, he discovers that the human world has been pretty much wiped out over the last two years and computing is merely keeping things humming in ever-shrinking loops. The humorous dialogue is sharp, using robotic logic to give unCharles a personality far beyond his initial programming. A surprisingly emotional little robot tale with heart.

Service Model is a like Murderbot meets Fallout in a lot of ways. The tone overlaps well with both, and the premise does as well. It fallows a high end robot named Charles designed to be a butler to some wealthy guy. Charles is going about his day, setting Master's itinerary and planning for trips that never seem to happen. That is, until Charles manages to break free of that routine enough to notice something isn't quite right. Then Charles follows a series of steps, each in line with his preset conditions, to resolve an issue that simply can't be resolved.

I really enjoyed this book. It approaches AI bots differently than Murderbot where they are presumably fully conscious and free to act as they wish. Perhaps Charles et al. are sentient, but they are very much restricted to their preprogramming. So what follows is a methodical and clever plotting of one thing after another happening in a way that seems logical given the way these robots are designed. I really like this because it touches on two major ideas that are very relevant today: 1) the threat of AI and 2) the actual usefulness of AI.

The fact that Charles managed to even register that something was out of the ordinary was itself a large feat. Charles is but one of many advanced tools designed to make the world better, but what we see is how useless they are without a human to guide them. I am reminded of my attempts to use ChatGPT for writing and research, where I have to put so much into the use and checking of the service that I have to wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to just forget it all together. That isn't a conversation necessarily had here, but it's hard not to think about that as we see every part of civilization fail, and fundamentally, the utter uselessness of the AI tools in place to manage it.

Building on that, I think it speaks to a more realistic threat than a robot uprising: a singular mistake that is quickly resolved as the AI return to the usual routines. That mistake may be catastrophic, but it is a far cry from utterly dismantling every piece of their design. That is what seems to be happening here. It raises the question yet again whether they are worth the trouble they can/do cause. I am not saying the answer is no (I'm honestly rather sympathetic to the AI book probably more than I should be).

Overall, it is a fascinating set up, and Charles makes for an amusing and endearing protagonist. The only thing keeping this from being a 5 star is its design. The premise is fascinating, but it didn't need to be a full novel. It likely would have made for a more coherent narrative if it was a novella with a more concise story. Instead, I felt like I was reading the screenplay to a television series, with Charles going on episodic like journeys in his larger story arc. In fact, I'd love to see it adapted. I'm reminded again of Fallout, which matches in the set up and tone as much as the fact that it made a great tv show.

Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.

Really strong book. Enjoyed the writing in this book quite a bit and the plot and themes were fascinating.

I’ve only just started reading through Adrian Tchaokovsky’s books and so happy I realized this one was coming out.

This was such a fun read, I always love reading books that go back to robotics and how robots would ultimately impact our world if given enough autonomy.

I definitely enjoyed this journey though and I think if you’re a fan of this sort of story, following a robot through their own journey, it’s a great book! The one thing I think could’ve helped make this book shorter would be all of the dead ends in function, at times I’d just skim through those bits.

Service Model is a social satire that follows a luxury valet robot as he wanders through a post-apocalyptic wasteland looking for humans to serve.

Our main character is a throwback to classic scifi robots, which I love, and the story is a funny and thought provoking hero’s quest for purpose.

However, I think this would have worked better as a novella. Cutting the amount of time highlighting the dead ends in Charles’s algorithm would have tightened the plot and made the social satire a bit more prominent. But regardless, I enjoyed this and expect other readers will, too.

I’ve been a fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky for a few years now, though his tendency to release books faster than I can read them has kept me from dipping too heavily into the backlist. That continues this summer, with two new releases that really caught my eye, starting with the June release of Service Model.

Service Model follows a robot valet who spends his time doing everything he can to make his Master’s life comfortable, as well as fulfilling every one of his Master’s commands to the letter—no matter how nonsensical they may be. But when his Master dies, the search for a new place to serve shows him a wider world resembling nothing so much as a post-apocalyptic wasteland, along with a robotic servant class whose compulsion to fulfill their programmed directives prevents them from taking any meaningful steps to make anything better.

Service Model is pitched as “Murderbot meets Redshirts,” but the comparisons to recent works of print sci-fi belie a story whose robotic main character is much more a throwback to classic sci-fi robots than the humanlike Murderbot. Though I have not read P.G. Wodehouse, several other reviews have assured me that the satire of upper class British culture is heavily Wodehouse-inspired, and the bureaucratic dark comedy reminds me more than anything of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, with a robotic lead that’s more Asimov than Wells. As none of these are especially recent, I’m not surprised that they haven’t found their way into the blurbs, but perhaps they do a better job of setting expectations.

Service Model is a humorous but deeply political book that gets by on social satire more than plot. The lead is compelled by his programming to seek out new humans to serve, sending him on an episodic series of quests that the reader can easily see are doomed from the start. That the lead’s naïveté is more endearing than frustrating helps keep these scenes from feeling too repetitive, but there remain a lot of plotlines that go predictably nowhere.

But even when the plot isn’t progressing, there’s always a healthy dose of humor—albeit quite a bit darker than in the manor setting of the early stages—and the social satire is impossible to miss. The apocalypse was not an unstoppable natural force, it was people looking out for their own interests and letting everyone else hang. It’s a theme that will be familiar to those who have read Tchaikovsky before, but it still has some power, and the commentary on short-sighted technological development is incisive and pairs with it wonderfully.

It’s not a book with an enormous amount of character progression—though there is a little—but that’s mostly by design, for the very same reasons that the plot can get a little repetitive. Still, while a book with a naive lead who keeps making the same mistakes over and over may be realistic, it’s not usually what novel readers are looking for in a book. That Service Model reads quickly and sprinkles in plenty of social satire and dark humor keeps it from wearing out its welcome, but the repetitive plot does require the satire and dark comedy to carry the bulk of the story. And while those elements are enough to carry a pretty engaging read, they aren’t quite at “stick in your head for years” level. That’s obviously a very high bar, but it’s one that Tchaikovsky has hit several times in the past. While he doesn’t quite get there with this one, it’s still an excellent book that’s easy to recommend.

Recommended if you like: social satire, dark comedy, the Kafkaesque.

Overall rating: 16 of Tar Vol’s 20. Four stars on Goodreads.