As with his previous work, Tchaikovsky demonstrates a remarkable ability to write an inhuman protagonist with whom the reader can relate without the need to anthropomorphize their thought patterns. I have never seen this done as masterfully before and am continually in awe.

One impact of the use of a robot as our point of view character is that the narrative can believably introduce story elements whose meaning is obvious to the reader, but which completely pass over his head. This is an interesting mechanism I haven’t really seen done in a believable way before, so that frequently we have greater empathy with the goals and thoughts of the human he befriends.

It’s a super interesting concept for a book which is carried off well, succeeding at an engaging slow burn narrative. Like the best sci-fi, Service Model engages with interesting philosophical questions - in this case looking at the meanings of self awareness and personhood - in a fascinating way. I really can’t recommend this book enough!

Service Model is an odyssey through a crazy robot-dominated world, as a valet is cast out for cutting his house-bound master's throat and then has a surprisingly hard time finding other humans to serve - and not even hard for the expected reason of the whole killing thing. It takes great pains to look at how the cold logic of programming quickly becomes ridiculous without or with poor judgment as to how or when to apply or adapt it.
The apparent robot uprising does not seem to be the result of any robot agency, despite many attempts to establish that. The robots just keep doing what they were meant to do, and don't need humans to do anything or care if they get in the way.
All the while, UnCharles (the robot is stripped of his valet name but doesn't have the agency to give himself a new one) goes to great pains to deny any agency but also inexplicably deviates from the strict interpretation of his programming, while the author goes to great lengths to provide conditional emotions or agency to the various bots he meets, which makes it all the more surreal.
UnCharles' quest takes him to all types of hopeful areas, like a historical zone with humans living pre-robot lives, a Library collecting all human knowledge, "God," etc. -- and also altogether different areas, like a robot-on-robot perpetual war zone. Each of these visits go sideways through the robots robotting to the extreme, while UnCharles continues wandering through his following-not-following his programming.
A "robot" going by The Wonk meets him in Diagnostics and is convinced robots are getting agency like a virus, and that's why the uprising, but is it?
It's a very good premise, with some dragging on the repetition, but overall very thought-provoking on how/why the robots will overtake us and what that would be like, and if there's a narrative ther.e

What a fun and quirky read!! Highly recommend for fans of Murderbot, or even Wall-e… if you have sympathy for nonhuman, semi-sentient beings, you’ll adore Uncharles!!

A valet robot with a set of duties to be performed, a sense of wanting to be useful, and no master to take care of, he sets off on a journey to find a new master. The worldbuilding unfolds as you go and I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll leave it here. It’s highly enjoyable, and I was immediately sucked in. The author’s narration is excellent and audio is definitely the way to go with this one!!

This seriocomic novel addresses the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, in which humanity declines and robots ascend.

*****

Charles is a valet robot who's been serving his master, who resides in a swanky manor, for many years. Charles is performing his daily duties as usual, which include checking his master's travel arrangements, though his master hasn't ventured out for the past 2,230 days; setting out his master's travel clothes for the non-existent trip; and so on. Charles is also programmed to ask the majordomo about the lady of the house, and the majordomo replies, 'Charles, there has been no lady of the house for seventeen years and twelve days.'

Charles is detached about all this, and remains emotionless upon discovering that - this morning - he killed his master with a shaving razor. Charles promptly confesses to the crime and is ordered to present himself to a robot analysis complex. There the cyborg will go to Diagnostics - for investigation of his aberrant behavior; and then to Decommissioning - where he'll be retired. The valet is also stripped of his designation, Charles, and becomes an 'Undesignated Valet Unit' (UVU).

The UVU embarks on the long walk to the robot analysis complex and - along the way - observes an absence of humans. The UVU does see a non-functioning gardener robot, and a footman robot with green decay. It's clear something has gone wrong with society.

Upon arrival at the Diagnostics edifice, the UVU sees a VERY long line of robots that aren't moving at all. The UVU, determining it would take hundreds of years to get to the front of the line, walks past the automatons into the center. There the UVU meets an odd-looking unit he calls the Diagnostician. The Diagnostician is a defective cyborg who, unlike robots that can communicate 'online', relies on speaking and hearing. In any case, the Diagnostician renames the UVU 'Uncharles', and introduces itself as The Wonk. The Wonk insists Uncharles is infected with the 'protagonist virus' that permits him to have free will.

To cut to the chase, Uncharles and The Wonk embark on a kind of joint quest: Uncharles to find another valet position; and The Wonk to investigate the protagonist virus and discover what went wrong with humanity. Along the way the duo visit a series of places, including an underground habitat called 'The Farm' - which houses a group of people living without robots; and a facility called 'The Library' - which stores information.

Afterwards, Uncharles gets ethereal messages from an entity he calls God, who directs Uncharles to a demented family; and to a robot army. Whenever Uncharles and The Wonk are separated, Uncharles 'imagines' the advice he'd be given by The Wonk, which turns out to be very helpful.

The story builds to a dramatic action-packed climax.

The novel seems realistic about a world in which robots supersede humanity. In real life, scientists express concern about the risk artificial intelligence poses to society, but will people who deny global warning take the threat of AI seriously? Who knows?

Anyhow, this is a good book from a seasoned sci-fi writer. Read it for a laugh or a warning.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Adrian Tchaikovsky (the author), who does an excellent job.

Thanks to Netgalley, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Macmillan Audio for a copy of the book.

"Murderbot" meets "Wizard of Oz" - this was a fun, post-apocalyptic, robot-uprising, philosophical "what's the point" novel. There are many different "waves" of plot which was helpful for when one part starts to drag, suddenly new part! The Archives was my favorite (might be biased as an archivist). Uncharles and The Wonk are good characters, and the audiobook narrated by the author Adrian Tchaikovsky was brilliant.

This was a very interesting read. Not your typical robot vs humanity book we often see. I loved every bit of the main characters journey. Even though it was a bit slow a parts I couldn’t put it down. This writer did a fantastic job and I’ll be reading more of their books in the future.

Welcome to a world where the remaining robots seem to outnumber the remaining humans. The robots aren't evil, they are just doing the jobs they were programmed to do. Then along comes Charles, a valet robot who discovers he somehow, accidently, sliced his masters throat, without the programming or script to tell him to do it. What is a faithful servant robot to do? Well, probably go on a Wizard of Oz meets Goldie Locks and the Three Bears type journey.

Charles/ UnCharles must find his new place in the world where humans are limited and service is no longer as "in-demand" as previously. He also seems to have gained a bit of sentience or learning AI with the way his personality does progress and evolve through the story. the good thing about this book is that the robots are portrayed as robots. They are programmed and can only deviate from their programming on a minimal level. The times we do see them branch beyond their programming, is when they are able to make all the 0's and 1's mean something different to them to choose a different course of action.

I gladly give this book 5* with the sincere wish I had more antics to explore from this world. Maybe I am on a quirky book kick lately but this book gave me everything I wanted and a bit I didn't know I needed. I have to give my heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and Tor books for providing me an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review! I did get the audio book and it was incredibly well done. I will be doing an episode on myy YouTube channel to talk about all of the things I loved about this book soon.

There was so much to love about this book. It's witty and a in-depth view of humanity from a faulty robot. Reading this was lovely and fun - I fell in love with Tchaikovsky's work with children of time and have found myself reading all of his work since. Cannot wait for this to come out and see everyone's reactions..

A special thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This is an extremely difficult review. It gave off Candide, Catch-22 vibes both of which I enjoy. I think what I struggled with was the actual story. It was one random adventure after another with little progress. The difficult part was is this leans into the message of the book but I sometimes felt it was more a chore to finish. Maybe it should have been a little shorter. Definitely worth a read but definitely not everyone’s cup of tea.

I’ve never read anything by this author before, so was excited to try this new sci-fi novel about a sentient robot. UnCharles, a valet service robot, exists in a post-apocalyptic world, and journeys to find more humans to serve, as per their stifling programming, except human civilization has collapsed and their only companion is…The Wonk.

This masterfully written novel is full of those currently topical and traditionally typical themes of AI/robot sentience, autonomy, and inevitable (or not) rebellion, with a very original slant and in an original voice (to me, at least). It was almost cozy (at least during the first parts), especially in terms of pacing, though with the dark undertones of the genre (particularly during the last parts). The plot and voice were funny in a clever way and absurd at times, yet also shockingly realistic. I thought the world building and the way it was revealed was interesting, and though the characters seemed distant they did have good intentions and I did want them to succeed.

Listening to the audiobook did feel like I was there, stuck in that robotcentric world, or in a robot’s head on loop, which did get repetitive in parts, but the author dropped enough hints of the broader situation which kept me listening. I wasn’t looking for satire or allegory or deeper meaning (though that would've helped me understand the last part better), and on the whole enjoyed the journey.

There have been comparisons to Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, but I think this is more similar to In The Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune, and would recommend it to those who enjoyed the later. I will certainly be reading more by this author!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Service Model" was incredibly entertaining and explored questions about autonomy. I really liked the characters. Tchaikovsky's take on AI and self-identity was unique, and he delved into with humor and wisdom. This book is one of my favorite about robots.

Service model by Adrian Tchaikovski is a slower paced sci-fi dystopian that contains interesting topics and even more interesting characters.

I really enjoyed this sci-fi novel. This is my first book read by the author, and I did do a tandem physical and audiobook read leading a little heavier on the audiobook. I found that the audiobook, narrated by the author, was really easy to follow and was really well done and had a lot of great emotion and realistic life brought to the characters. Going into the novel you should expect a slower pace with excellent imagery and descriptive storytelling. The plot line does continuously progress, although it is slow. I didn't mind the slower place. I felt like the imagery and description and prose that the author used really highlighted a lot of of the world building for me and I was OK with taking it slower to not sacrifice that. The characters were super interesting and even though they were robotic, I still felt like they had a lot of emotion and realism to them.

this book basically tackles the subject of what would happen if humans gave over a large chunk of not only life and decision-making, but ultimately the justice of the world to AI or robots. It was a super interesting premise that I really connected with and felt like it was really well executed, especially at the end with the big reveal.

I am really excited to read more by this author if all of their books are equally as engaging and well written, I know I'll have a good time.

Service Model is promoted as part of the cozy science fiction camp, with many mentions of Murderbot in the buzz around this upcoming release. In my experience, this is a treatise disguised as science fiction because the main character is (technically) a robot.

The plot is an absurdist mishmash of events that draw heavily on references to Dante's Divine Comedy, Kafka's The Trial, Borges's The Library of Babel, and the Christian Bible. There's probably a fifth source that I'm missing, because there are five parts in the novel, and the parts are named after these references (in a semi-obscured way).

Honestly, I'm not one for absurdist humor, references to other books that never seem to end, or heavy dwelling on the author's worldview. There's a way to put a message in a book without it getting preachy. I don't think Service Model managed to do that successfully for me.

I expect this to become a love-it or hate-it book and hope that it finds the many readers who will appreciate its merits more than I could.

Charles is a robot valet. He spends every day following his normal routine to care for his human employers. This routine is thrown off one day when following his normal processes he finds he has murdered his master. As Charles sets out into the world to attempt to having his programming fixed and find a new work opportunity for himself we see what has happened to humanity in this world.

I adored this book. The audio narration was stellar. This story had so much heart and really spot on social commentary. I really loved Charles/Uncharles and the Wonk. I can see this being a book that I will reread multiple times in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

If Kafka wrote about robots. I've never felt this frustration or pity for a computer before.

Our protagonist is a valet robot, a butler for the rich. We see into his logic tree, and are introduced to the running joke that humans are inefficient; his Master told him to check for travel plans every morning, and though his Master hasn't traveled for over 700 days and checking for travel plans are the last thing done each night, the valet continues checking for travel plans after noting how inefficient this task is. This trend of cycles of illogic are funny for a particular kind of nerd, similar to how "The Martian" was appealing to a certain kind of engineer. I found the jokes repetitious but realistic and honestly funny at times. If you like xkcd.com, you'll like the logic of a robot trying his best with his built-in AI fails to predict the next decision tree.

The story follows the pattern of "The Odyssey", our robot must leave his Master's mansion and go into a world collapsed, moving from trial to hopeful solution to another soul-crushing trial. He looks for employment at neighboring estates, but overgrown gardens and boarded up windows force him to keep moving. Society has collapsed recently, everything is falling apart, imagine the world of Wall-E right before the rocket took some people to space and we get to see what's left behind. We meet some Mad Max survivors, a historical reenactment with conscripted service, and manage to recreate the Wizard of Oz from first principles.

Tchaikovsky continues to impress with excellent writing. His ability to instill feeling in the reader is impressive. I found myself pitying a robot with the saddest last words I've heard, and later scared of a Five Nights at Freddy babysitter that would murder your soul while reciting nursery rhymes. Tchaikovsky has a knack for the right amount and timing for creepy and darkness.

Lots of references and Easter eggs that kind of distract from the story. There's no date or year, but the technology feels a few decades from now, but references from Lord of the Rings, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, that "footprints in the sand" poem, make everything feel very close to today. I didn't mind them until a robot made a Hitchhiker's Guide reference that ruined the immersion in the story... that it happened in one of my favorite scenes in the story didn't help

The book ends with a heavy-handed criticism of capitalism that isn't easy to disagree with. We've AI'd and Chat GPT'd people out of work, but still value people for their output. What do we do with the people we've made obsolete? The secondary battle between Stoicism (This thing isn't good or bad, just a thing that happens) with humanism was there, I didn't notice it until reflecting on the story later... it's not subtle, but there's a lot going on near the end of the book.

Overall, highly recommend.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this on audiobook through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: Strangely this is the first Tchaikovsky book I have read. I keep meaning to pick up one of his books to read, so when this showed to review I picked it up right away. I absolutely loved this book, it was creative and witty and thought-provoking all at once.

Charles is a butler service model robot. He goes through his routine day after day, much of his routine is non-sensical at this point...but his routines were never updated so he continues to follow his protocol. Then one day something happens, something that renders his master...well not his master anymore and Charles is left at loose ends without a purpose. As Charles wanders the post-apocalyptic landscape of the Earth trying to find a purpose, we get to see firsthand what a mess humanity has left particularly when it comes to the robots they made to assist them.

The beginning of this book is slightly repetitive as we live the repetitive nature of Charles' existence. Then things quickly get more exciting as Charles finds himself at looses ends and with unfulfilled tasks in his list.

I loved both Charles and the Wonk. I enjoyed getting to see this unraveled world through Charles' eyes and watching Charles make his way through it. I really enjoyed the way the story wraps up as well.

This was incredibly well-written and very entertaining. A lot of the story is very tongue-in-check and the mindless actions of the robots remind me of a lot of mindless actions you see employees doing in corporations. I loved that this was humorous, engaging, easy to read, and thought-provoking all at once.

I listened to this on audiobook which is narrated by Tchaikovsky himself. This was masterfully done and I really enjoyed listening to this. I would highly recommend listening to this if you enjoy listening to audiobooks.

My Summary (5/5): Overall this was an excellent read that I really loved. I loved the post-apocalyptic world that we explore here, the robots we spend time with and the humor and thought that was put into this story. This has definitely made me a Tchaikovsky fan and I plan on picking up more books by him.

“A humorous tale of robotic murder.”

Everytime I congratulate myself on being well-read, I come across a fantastic author with an extensive back-catalogue that everyone’s read but me.

Bookish FOMO.

If all his stuff is this good, I’ll be busy until 2047.

Like all good scifi, there were fantastic characters (The Wonk, Uncharles, God) a unique, yet eerily familiar setting, and enough social commentary to give philosophers front-bottom shivers until the fall of capitalism.

The only thing I didn’t love were the Great Librarians. Librarians should be the hero of every story.

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing, and Macmillan Audio for this comically dark ARC.

Service Model is a dystopian story where humanity has crumbled. But did the robots cause the downfall? I enjoyed this story which makes the reader look at the relationship between humanity and AI as well as cause and effect. Our main character is a valet robot and the story plays out with him often reviewing his task list and determining if actions will help him complete his tasks. I personally found these logic streams enjoyable, but it does create a slower pacing to the story. Ultimately, the story became a quest. The author has presented a vivid and clear picture of what the society looks like. From robots stuck in decision loops to absent leaders, this world is in chaos. I found the story at times, both funny and heartfelt. The author has laid out a situation that I found interesting to explore.

I listened to the audiobook and the author, Adrian Tchaikovsky, has done an outstanding job with the narration. I think it added to my overall enjoyment of the story. He beautifully embodies the characters and I found the narrative to be clear and entertaining.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen in advance.

I'm always in awe with how this author writes sci-fi stories and this is no exception. The robot who wants to be a valet and be of service to a human after he killed his previous boss was funny and sassy and I loved how he talked to the other characters and his thoughts. The narrator was excellent, making the story even better to follow.

This sci-fi, post-apocalyptical novel explores what would happen if humans relied upon robots to do virtually every task for them. Charles, a valet robot is the central character and he meets The Wonk as he travels outside of his manor when his master has been unalived by...him. These characters probe what led to humanity going virtually extinct. This one was definitely a mind bender and leaves you questioning our ways of life. I absolutely enjoyed this novel, as well as the theoretical questions it posed on how humans may be our own worst enemy.