Adrian Tchaikovsky's Service Model follows the misadventures of Um Charles, an advanced robot butler seeking a new masters after an 'incident' led to the death of his employer and the resultant difficulties with the police and medical practitioners sent him for evaluation, he certainly did not run away...

Prior to the discover of the 'incident' it had been something over 2000 days since Charles had had to prepare any travel arrangements for his master, and about the same length of time since any guests had last visited. The house is big and empty with all the robot servants following their daily programed task lists. We view the world from Charles perspective, with him listing his logic, reasoning, and his set tasks.

But where are the humans? They seem to be very absent from the world. As Charles seeks them he finds decaying abandoned buildings, other robots stuck in performance loops or just stuck waiting for completion of their last orders and many an important task or decision awaiting the input of a human.

Um Charles journeys a great distance in search of a new master to serve, but along the way has many side quests and discoveries of how the world reached its present crisis.

Tchaikovsky is a talented writer, having published several other works of science fiction and fantasy, including the Arthur C Clarke Award winning Children of Time series. Here there is a focal criticism on the dangers or over reliance on technology, but it is presented with a lot more humor especially as Um Charles struggles with what has been diagnosed as the "protagonist virus" which certainly goes against his programming.

Recommended for fans of humorous science fiction like the works of John Scalzi or a less human leaning Murderbot.

Thank you to NetGalley and to MacMillan Audio for the ARC of Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

I listened to this over about 5 days and I feel as though every time it turned on in my car I was engaged in a new space/plot with Uncharles, a highly rated advanced valet robot who has just seemingly murdered his employer during his morning shave. When Charles is thusly removed from service to the house due to a lack of master, he sets himself on an adventure to figure out what has occurred with his programming to cause such a disastrous incident. Uncharles is on a journey - but I think about every 15% I would think "But what now?" In that way, the plot itself is nicely unpredictable as it continues to circle layers of depravity in this version of the world, all told through Uncharles stoic confirmations as he searches for purpose.

I would not align this with Murderbot or with Redshirts, which I think both rely more heavily on the value of emotions and humor. Uncharles is in a much darker and broken world, and is constantly reminding us of his lack of emotions outside of his programmed functionality (i.e. he would apologize if he thought he broke any social rules of decorum, as is polite). As the book got on, I started questioning more about the metaphor of robots in society and their treatment compared to human actions in 2024. I don't know if I was meant to slip down that far into reflection of technology/AI/loss of humanity - but I would say that with the darker setting that Tchaikovsky hasn't left space for us to laugh at a destruction that could have/should have been avoided if it weren't for greed and blame. I think, just from the rabbit hole I was in, that reading/listening to this does require a bit of a mental shift from the expectation of a light read. Though there is some humor and the contradictions of being a robot in a malfunctioning society are funny in their contradictory nature, this is still a book that asks us to think deeper and ask more questions.

The audio version is well done by Tchaikovsky himself. He really, really succeeds here. The robotic intimations are spot on, and The Wonk's brogue is the most colorful and fun accent in the book. It has great pacing and is really engaging - which one might not expect when the majority of conversation is filled with "Uncharles, confirmed" and other monotone robotic responses and repetitions as related to their programming.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I love a good book and even more, I love a good audiobook narration. When an author is a good narrator and can narrate his own book, I know I'm getting the story just as he imagined it. That happens here with Service Model. I knew the author narrated the story, then once I started listening to the fantastic narration I forgot the narrator was the author. Then I remembered this audiobook is by the author/narrator and read about him. I see the author is a keen live role-player and that shows here in both the story and the narration. No wonder these characters seem so alive, even those who aren't "alive".

I had gotten myself in a tiny circular loop there, thinking about the author and narrator. Which reminds me of the main character of this story, Charles/Uncharles. Each and every day of Charles's day is like the other even if they weren't exactly alike. All he has to do is to perform as programmed, which involves doing and clicking as done his many daily tasks, including those that he has not been able to perform for years. Still, the task(s) are on his robot "to do" list so they must be clicked off in some manner, even if doing so has to do with reminding other robots or being reminded by other robots that the lady of the house is no longer the lady of the house. Even if a chore is no longer needed, if it's on Charles' list he must try to do it until he's processed far enough to click that chore off his list and move on. Until Charles's master deletes or changes his "to do" list, Charles happily (if a robot could be happy) goes through the same actions every day. That Charles's master never thinks to delete things from Charles' "to do" list is of no importance to Charles.

But now master is "not well". It's very hard to dress a "not well" master. If only he'd eat something maybe he's feel better. But nothing doing there. So now there is a murder investigation. From here Charles has to get creative (if a robot can be creative) with how he interprets what to do next. And that's how he meets The Wonk on the road to the Diagnostics department. Charles changes after meeting Wonk although he was going to change in one way or another (with one change being very, very permanent if it happened), because everything had changed outside the master's place, without Charles having a reason to know or care why. Knowing and caring why was never a part of Charles, can it be a part of Charles now? He can certainly KNOW things but can he CARE?

There is a huge amount of circular thinking in this story as Charles and the many AI robots do or don't change enough to meet the challenges of the changing world where they exist. Despite the bleak dystopian world that is now before Charles, this story is very funny. Adrian Tchaikovsky's narration makes it even funnier, his narration is fantastic. I know I'll check out his other books that he has narrated.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this ARC.

Who knew that a robot who gruesomely murders his master could be so lovable?

Don’t judge me. I suspect that if you get to know Uncharles, you will find him endearing, as well.

Service Model begins as a delightfully dark tale, but I cannot say it was always delightful or dark. As Uncharles comes to recognize that he is responsible for the murder, he makes hilarious choices, and the brief investigation that followed, which felt like an old school detective novel parody, was absolutely fantastic. Remaining mentally present beyond this was a challenge, though, as my enjoyment waned.

The narrative often relies upon exaggerated misunderstandings. Uncharles, being a robot who is programmed to function based on very specific directives, does not comprehend a lot of what is being communicated to him. This was funny at first, but it was a plot device that the author stretched too thin. It felt as if Tchaikovsky believed comedic perfection could only be achieved through verbosity. Uncharles’s misadventures stopped being amusing, and I eventually felt like I was trudging through the novel.

I also expected more agency on Uncharles’s part, based on what the synopsis suggested, and often found myself frustrated that he was a mostly obedient (barring that pesky little murder issue) robot. I am not capable of going blindly into a book, but doing so here would have eliminated my erroneous assumptions. I will say I was pleased to discover that the author did, indeed, have worthy intentions, and it’s not his fault that the promotional blurb misled me. So, despite finding a good portion of this tedious, I do think the climax helped cancel out the growing negative feelings I felt toward it.

I am certain that Tchaikovsky embracing a “less is more” philosophy could have made Service Model significantly more enjoyable. Its objective was brilliant, with a culmination that delivered the type of social commentary I love. I’m glad I stuck with the story so I could witness its ability to finally shine.

I am immensely grateful to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

Genre: science fiction

Charles is a robot valet. He’s an advanced model, adept at interfacing with humans and completing a wide range of valet functions from scheduling to grooming. But one day, Charles encounters a problem: he can’t complete certain tasks because his human master is dead (and therefore needs neither tea nor a shave nor his travel schedule updated). And upon memory recall, determines that, uh, he’s the one who killed him. As he is programmed to do, he reports this incident, turns himself in, and is sent to be evaluated. No longer Charles – because Charles is the designation for the valet of the house he is no longer in service to – but Uncharles, he learns he may have been infected with a “protagonist virus” making him the center of his own story.

Oh do I love a good robot story! Uncharles, as is his designation for most of the book, is a quintessential Asmiovian robot bound by well-defined hard set logic rules. He has the capacity to adapt within certain parameters, but cannot exceed the limits of his programming. Through his journey to discover why he killed his master, he encounters other robots with their own hyper-specific functionality and logic rules. It seems, for example, that he’s stuck at Diagnostics because the queue is clogged by a case that requires Grade Seven or above human, and no such human exists anymore, since they apparently all retired. None of these robots have the capability of thinking, only functioning within their programmed scope.

Because of the nature of Uncharles’s limitations, the book does have some intentional repetition to it, and if you listen to the audiobook, you’ll feel as caught in the logic loop as all of the other robots. I really liked that nod - when the tone of the narrative reflects the concepts it relays, a book feels well-rounded to me as a reader. That said, I think this may have been slightly better served as two novellas because there are two main conflicts that felt like distinct arcs to me (despite the nice neat way Tchaikovsky ties them together at the end!)

There is an urge to compare this Murderbot by Martha Wells, and in some ways that’s not entirely wrong, since we have a character sketch of a nonhuman robot entity bound by certain rules. Except where Murderbot is grappling with parts of its humanity, since it has organic parts and capability of free thought, Uncharles is truly a robot confined by programming. Uncharles cannot have “feelings,” but instead has the capacity to realize when his programming cycles are complete or incomplete. There are narrative asides about his inability to experience a feeling, but Tchaikovsky cleverly conveys this in a way to be comfortable to a human reader.

I was reminded also of a classic SF short story I read perhaps 25 years ago, that my brain attributes to Larry Niven, but could easily have been someone else, about two travelers visiting a restaurant where the kitchen robots get stuck in a logic loop and continue to bring out shrimp cocktails. I thoroughly enjoy any story where a robot runs into flaws its own logic makeup, and this novel addresses that not only through Uncharles, but also another character he meets along the way.

I listened to the audiobook, which Tchaikovsky reads, which gives a full immersion feeling of dystopia in the periphery while Uncharles can see only logic and order.

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for access to an early copy in exchange for my honest opinions.

If this book were a recipe, it would include 2 parts Murderbot, 1 part Psalm for the Wild Built, and a dash of Waiting for Godot.
In this book we follow Charles/Uncharles, our pleasant, naive robot who just wants to find a new way to fulfill his purpose after his prior employer meets an untimely end. He embarks on a journey to find a new employer to give him purpose. Because what is a valet robot to do if he has no human for whom to provide valet services? On his mission, we are constantly presented with the absurdity of just following protocol/programming as well as the innate longing to fulfill one's purpose. A humorous, meandering journey (and a bit of a warning as well) --I enjoyed tagging along for the ride. I thought the author made for an excellent audiobook narrator as well! 3.75 rounded up

A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets In the Lives of Puppets. Paradoxical. Silly. Mildly entertaining. I guess it's really cool to write about robots and artificial intelligence these days. This one definitely meets those standards. I wasn't a huge fan, but I can see this one going places and doing things. It's definitely worth taking a look into if you're in between books.