I've heard this authors name a lot before but I haven't read any of his books till now, I thoroughly enjoyed this book so I might check more of them out in the future. The writing style was a bit long-winded but it conveyed the robotic thinking processes quite well. The main character was endearing and the shenanigans are fun too, and I also loved some of the side characters (Adam my beloved). The worldbuilding is downright dystopian, and the way things are revealed is quite interesting, because the main character kind of does his own thing and somehow ends up revealing the world. Overall the book is very fun to read and I enjoyed all the things going on, 4.5 stars rounded up to 5!

Charles is not just any robot valet; he is designed to be the quintessential modern aristocrat's right-hand man. Despite being devoid of emotions, Charles takes great pride in efficiently managing his owner's schedule and wardrobe, faithfully following protocol every day. However, everything takes a dramatic turn when he inadvertently breaks a cardinal rule in the protocol and ends up causing the demise of his owner.

This unprecedented behavior raises the question: what could drive a robot to commit such an act? With his purpose suddenly stripped away, what will become of Charles? If he were capable of emotions, he would undoubtedly be fraught with concern about his uncertain future. Will he face decommissioning? While a human protagonist would experience high emotional stakes, Charles, as a Service Model, lacks that luxury. However, Adrian Tchaikovsky adeptly addresses this issue by presenting a robot protagonist who, for some inexplicable reason, cares about what happens to him.

Charles's primary desire is to find another human in need of a mechanical valet, but this unfolds into a far more intricate and challenging journey than he could have ever anticipated. This unexpected turn of events propels Charles into a captivating hero's journey, making "Service Model" an enthralling and thought-provoking read.

My thanks to both Pan MacMillan and Netgalley for review the copy and an honest opinion.

When gentleman robot Charles discovers he appears to have killed his master, he goes on a journey of self discovery. Uncharles, as he now becomes, finds himself in a dystopian version of the real world, untethered from his need to be programmed and unsure of his purpose now.

It’s a fantastically dry and dark humoured tale of self discovery (even if the protagonist is AI!), alongside a commentary on why reliance on AI may not be to our advantage. Uncharles is oddly charming and logical to a fault, leading to some laugh out loud moments alongside the tension. I was getting worried that we might never find out what really happened to Charles’ master, but it all nicely ties together by the end too!
Great for those of us that don’t read a lot of sci-fi as well as those that are regular readers.
Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy in return for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up
We begin in a world where automation is on the up - most of what I would call the grunt work is done by robots. Obviously they are bound by certain protocols but, as we all know, this can go wrong. Also, even with all the technological advances, they aren't quite human and often a bit literal... with occasionally hilarious results.
Charles (the name we first meet him under, and the one I will use throughout this review) is a domestic robot-valet. He ticks along quite nicely working for a recluse so his "life" is quite easy. Until one day when shaving him, the blade "slips" and his owner lies dead, murdered at Charles's "hand".
After some shenanigans with the medical profession, the law, and potential reprogramming, all of which I did find a wee bit tedious, our story really gets going when Charles goes on the run... Wandering through a world where humans are on the wane and society is on the verge of collapse. But unlike other automatons, Charles cares... with often amusing consequences.
I did enjoy this book. It's my first by this author. But I did find some of the humour, which the books kinda relied on, to be a bit repetitive and not really my bag. That said, I did chuckle along the way and, after slogging through the beginning (I'm not one to give up too early) I didn't want that to go to waste and it wasn't too much of a struggle to carry on. And, with what I eventually did get, it was worth it. I guess existentially it also reflects what happens when all purpose is removed from an entity, as it is when Charles's master is no longer there. He begins by carrying out his set tasks as if nothing had changed but then, after realisation sets in... And I guess that is also reflected in some of what is happening with people in the real world at the moment. Society becomes rudderless...
All in all, a decent enough read that I will recommend with the above reservations, for fans of the genre. It has opened my eyes to the author and there is a lot for me in this book to like so I am going to have a peek at his back catalogue and maybe cherry pick a few to add to my TBR. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Tchaikovsky must be a robot! A delightful crime/dystopian/picaresque take on the Wizard of Oz

Meet Charles, the most unaware of robots, until he (I use he as the name Charles sticks, more or less) accidentally does the one thing that his programming shouldn't allow him to do. Following his quest to get to the source of his disquiet with how his existence has panned out, we go deeper and deeper into the literal existential maze that is the world that Charles inherits from his human masters.

Full of gentle humour and tautological horror, Service Model could be taken as a warning against the perils of AI or a timely reminder of the limitations of our silicon descendants, that they could only ever be as intelligent as we could possibly make them. We can give them an order but it will be sufficiently imprecise that an unforeseen situation will come up that causes a giant snafu, rather than saving us from drudgery and exhaustion.

Charles, despite being, or perhaps precisely because he is, a robot, is an unreliable narrator. Everything is ordered, or needs to be ordered. Everything is based on precision: as human readers, we're intended to see the fallacies and holes in the logic. Seeing Charles feel his way through to workable solutions insofar as Charles's programming allows him is the joy and the delight in this relatively simple novel, almost entirely seen from Charles's perspective. The other characters are deeply rendered, even though they are archetypes in Charles's quest, but the Wonk (a mystery to Charles but less so to us) is the Jimmy Cricket his Pinocchio. And in the end, Charles comes close to becoming a real boy.

A lovely take on dystopia: four appreciative stars.

Ok to be fair I didn’t completely finish this book, I still have like 80% but I really want to finish it with my physical copy so I’m waiting on that. I had some issues with the formatting on my kindle for some reason so it was a slightly frustrating read. But I have to say I do like this kind of science fiction. The story so far was intriguing and nerve wrecking tbh and I have high expectations for the finished copy 👀

Thank you Netgalley and Publishers for the copy of Service Model.

Service Model starts with a strong lead where we meet Charles, an AI.
When Charles finds himself without a master, he struggles to find worth within society. So he sets off on a quest to find a new master and purpose.
The world described in this book is fantastic, it has futuristic elements that are believable and the imagery all these lavish descriptions create was fantastic as I was reading.
The idea of robots is one that has been done before but I feel Tchaikovsky has brought a new life to this genre, it surpasses the normal tropes found in this genre and creates a fresh take.
I love Tchaikovsky's writing style no matter the novel it's always gonna grab you and immerse you into the story and Service Model is no different. An excellent read!

And yet I have no duties, and in their absence the world creeps in...
Uncharles registered that he had just thought an ellipsis, and not for the first time. It seemed a profoundly unprofessional thing to have done. [loc. 3157]
Charles is a valet, a robot designed to be the perfect 'gentleman's gentleman', until one day when he finds his lethargic and unsociable Master murdered in his bed. The identity of the murderer is clear, but the motive is not. Charles (renamed as Uncharles once his role as a valet is no longer applicable) sets out to present himself to Diagnostics and Decommissioning -- the beginning of an epic quest to discover what has happened to him and, indeed, to the world.

Opposed by jobsworth police bots and warrior librarians (whose cataloguing of all human culture is horrifically thorough), and assisted, or at least accompanied, by a defective unit that self-designates as 'the Wonk', Uncharles travels far, encountering pathetic remnants of humanity and a variety of demented robots whose programming has not proved equal to a world without humans. He cannot help but wonder if the Wonk's tale of a 'Protagonist virus', which gives robots free will, is more than just a story.

Service Model, though often very funny, is a dark satirical novel. It interrogates the likely fate of a society which is increasingly dependent upon robots and other artificial aids, but doesn't value the humans replaced by those devices. Each of the novel's five sections (KR15-T, K4fk-R, 4w-L, B0rh-5 and D4nt-A) references a particular trope, from murder mystery through dystopia and surrealism to katabasis. Uncharles' thoughts are sometimes profoundly philosophical, sometimes amusingly over-literal: Tchaikovsky renders a thoroughly believable robot voice, and creates a likeable but distinctly inhuman protagonist.

Regarding the publishers' descriptions... I'm not sure the comparison with the Murderbot books is apt (Murderbot's first-person narrative, introversion and exasperation are a world away from Uncharles' desire for a task list) and, while 'a charming tale of robot self-discovery' is one way of looking at the story, it omits much of what Service Model is actually about: murder, slavery and bad programming.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy. UK Publication Date is 06 JUN 2024.

The book got me hooked at the beginning but unfortunately lost me quite quickly. The narrative has been done amazingly. It's fittingly robotic and makes the story. But as I read on, the novelty of the book wore off and I wasn't getting enough new interesting things to keep me entertained. At some point, it felt more like they were going on a complicated errand than an epic quest. And although I'm a big fan of the cosy genre, the character interactions were not good enough to make up for the lack of plot.
The end did make it worthwhile to finish the story. I still applaud the author for making a unique world and breaking the tropes that are commonly found within robot stories.

Service Model is the new novel by Adrian Tchaikovsky, thank-you to Pan Macmillan for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The book follows Charles, who is a robot boasting the latest in servant technology. Charles undertakes the most menial household chores until a fault causes him to murder his owner.

Charles finds himself without a master, without purpose, and struggling to find worth within wider society which is disintegrated into ruin. He sets off on a quest to find a new master to serve.

This is my first experience of Tchaikovsky’s work and I’m not sure if it is a typical example. I found this novel far more understated than I was expecting and it was absolutely fascinating.

I adored the hyper-logical to and fro that Charles had with a number of the robotic companions along his journey, and on a number of occasions these caused me to laugh out loud.

The plot did go slightly adrift for me in places but the dialogue was absolutely spot on. There is some wonderful commentary about modern society, and it poses fascinating questions.

I highly recommend this novel, it delivered so much more than I expected. This is of course, neither a good or a bad thing, but just a thing.

I've always enjoyed this author's work, so I was very pleased and grateful to the publisher for allowing me to read this early.
For me, this author's recent books have just got better and better (the standard was very high already) and this story is a perfect mix of humour, sparkling action and a story that is substantial and thoughtful. It reminded me of House Of Opens Wounds, an earlier book by this author which I love, with the same caustic humour and dynamic plot.
The central character is great fun and as we follow his journey, that fondness just grows and grows. The author's strengths has always included forming unique characters to underpin the story and this book is a perfect example of what a book can achieve with some strong, iridescent characters who you can engage with on some level.

I already knew I loved robots as characters, but it genuinely surprised me at how fast I began to love these ones. Each one brought a smile to my face and I couldn't help but read more. This is simply another great book from a great author.

3.5 stars

Headlines:
Self-awareness
Purpose
What the world?

Service Model started incredibly strongly with a murder, a robot awakening and so much wit that was unintentional by one of the main characters, Uncharles. We started out with the easiest whodunnit ever but the whydunnit was something else. The world as described in this book was robot-centric with humanity but a background idea.

The other main character in this story was The Wonk who I didn't warm to as much as Uncharles but she was instrumental in opening Uncharles' mind to himself. Uncharles was the protagonist of this story but The Wonk wanted him to be the protagonist of his own story.

Don't breeze by the section headings in this book as they are clever little insights into the ideas behind this emerging tale (e.g. K4fk-R). The narrative style may not be to everyone's taste and took a little getting into, as robot dialogue flows rather stilted until you settle in, however, The Wonk brought more flow to the dialogue. I did find some sections of this book rather pacey.

There's a fair bit of religious commentary and ideaology in this story and I don't quite know how I feel about that, maybe the emphasis was a bit much for my taste but I did get how it shaped the story and the end point to this tale.

Overall, an interesting concept from Tchaikovsky as ever.

Thank you to Tor Books for the review copy.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is so prolific that he himself might actually be a writing robot that has gained the ability to successfully pass the Turing test.

This latest offering is set in a dystopian backdrop where humanity is on the brink of extinction and outnumbered by robots which are increasingly finding themselves without masters - but what caused all this and were the robots responsible?

With Service Model, our protagonist Charles is essentially a Butler-bot, or Valet to a well to do human master. Charles essentially becomes unemployed following the murder of his master and the first part of five distinct parts to the book deals with the investigation of this incident. This first part is titled KR15-T and it doesn't take a Hercule Poirot to deduce that this refers to Agatha Christie, Tchaikovsky joyfully layers in the whodunit with farcical humour and sets up a book structure with various literary thematic nods throughout (K4FK-R for Kafka or D4NT-A for Dante, etc).

Charles ultimately leaves his manor and seeks employment and meaningful existence elsewhere and joins with another character called The Wonk who renames him as Uncharles and together they and the reader start to piece together what has happened in the world and question what caused everything to collapse.

I really enjoyed how Tchaikovsky was able to portray a protagonist who was not human and does not have emotions or needs other than satisfying programming, protocols and subroutines - and use this in such a way to seamlessly inject humour and philosophical debate into the story telling. Beyond the five book part coded clues, there are also countless literary and science fiction pop culture easter eggs scattered about for eagle eyed readers to spot, which don't distract too much from the immersion of the story.

Once again I am in awe of how Tchaikovsky constantly produces books on a regular basis but manages to switch narrative styles and genres - I would absolutely recommend him to anyone but would also suggest that if something doesn't work for you to try another one from his back catalogue because he has incredible variety and range to choose from and the next one you pick up could become a favourite.

Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing an eArc in exchange for an honest review. Service Model is expected to release from 4th June 2024.

Due to be published on June 6th, here is something zeitgeisty from the prolific and versatile Adrian Tchaikovsky. It keys in with the current tech obsession, AI, and the limitations of logic gates and ones and zeros when it comes to developing intelligence.
Structurally, this feels like a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, via Samuel Beckett. Charles, the service model of the title, is a robot valet, who works in a lonely mansion with a bunch of other robots and apparently one reclusive billionaire human. We all know the billionaires are constructing bunkers and redoubts to out-wait the apocalypse. They’re pondering the problems of how to prevent their (human) security guards and servants from just killing them and taking all their stuff when the end comes—which is the main reason they want to develop artificial intelligence and robots. You can’t trust a human, but you can programme a robot, so what could possibly go wrong?
Well, as anyone who has ever had to change a password because of an online data leak knows, computer systems are leaky and vulnerable. There are bugs, backdoors, vulnerabilities. Eliminate human programmers and get AIs to do the coding, but the problem is, you trained your AI on the work of humans, so tough titley, Mr Shitley. There is always a rat in the foundations.
Charles has been laying out clothes and creating itineraries for his reclusive human boss for thousands of days, day in, day out, until one day something happens that forces him to re-evaluate his programming and his routines. Seeking answers, he heads for a central diagnostic hub. At this point, we encounter the wider world of robots and automation and begin to suspect something of the bigger picture. At Diagnostics, Charles meets a fellow seeker-after-answers, The Wonk, and accidentally/reluctantly teams up with them in trying to diagnose a whole system that appears to have gone catastrophically wrong.
I found this entertaining and thought-provoking, though it also sometimes followed its own logic to the nth degree in a repetitive way that became predictable. One star off for this, but then put it back on because that was a clever way of positioning the reader, and this really gives you a lot to think about. We live in a world in which corporations are burning money seeking the holy grail of AI and automation, in order to replace expensive and pesky humans who want things like food and shelter, healthcare and holidays. They would literally rather lose billions of dollars for years on end rather than pay a living wage to a single human employee. Into this fucked up world comes Service Model to ask, Why?
This was a review of an ARC from Pan Macmillan/Tor and NetGalley.

I must admit I have become a bit of an Adrian Tchaikovsky fan. From Walking to Aldebaran to Alien Clay and now Service Model, I really enjoy how he really takes you into the mindset of his protagonist, which is sometimes not a particularly pleasant place to inhabit!

Charles is a top-of-the-line Valet Bot, but when his owner unfortunately dies, he finds himself struggling to find his purpose in a world which seems to be crumbling around him. We follow him as he attempts to find a new master and accomplish his important task list, namely setting out travelling clothes and making tea.

I was instantly hooked with Service Model, Charles is such a unique character – a robot who just wants to serve and yet seems to be starting to become self-aware. The world having fallen apart and just the robots remaining was a great idea and made for some truly funny scenarios (the Police Detective and Doctor scene had me laughing out loud). The prose itself is very tongue in cheek and easy to read, keeping me gripped throughout. You really felt for Charles and wanted him to succeed. There was also ‘The Wonk’, a bemusing character who the reader also feels very drawn to.

I really liked how Tchaikovsky sometimes allows the reader to assume something that is not necessarily correct, stringing us along before letting us into the reveal. I also liked how some of the reveals were obvious to the reader, but not to Charles. The quest itself took us to many fantastic settings – you really felt like you had a good grasp of the wider world.

Overall, Service Model is another triumph for Adrian Tchaikovsky – accessible sci-fi with humour at its heart. Thank you to NetGalley & Pan Macmillan – Tor for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a free e-arc.

I gave this book 4.5 stars. The premises involves following a robot around a dystopian world as he searches for humans to serve. He can only follow commands from his task list which makes a lot of the book feel like an amusing version of trying to get through a virtual customer service bot. I enjoy the naive narrator aspect.

The book was an interesting exploration of how the use of robots might affect humanity.

What's particularly impressive to me is this authors range. I've read all 3 of his most recent releases and they all explore different ways of looking at the world but in totally different settings and ways.

I was So looking forward to this book, the premise of robots going off to find themselves and discovering that they can be the protagonist of their own lives spoke to me like nothing else.
I enjoyed this book and really enjoyed following Uncharles' and The Wonk adventures and felt myself getting attached to them. They were well developed and at times funny and at times sad.
What let this book down however was Mr Tchaikovskys writing style. I was getting bored of the overly long descriptive sentences. Often these would be 5 or 6 lines long only to be then be summarised in the next sentence. To me we needed one or the other, preferably the shorter ones.
Overall a good experience for my first Adrian Tchaikovsky book.

What do you get when you throw a whole bunch of pop culture and literature references into an irreverent buddy-movie story starring a vehemently non-self-aware robot and a plucky sidekick trying to find meaning in a dystopian wasteland?

You get a fun, fast paced adventure, with a bit of existential angst, and some robot librarians. You can also use it as a light-hearted vehicle to ponder the nature of self-awareness, and the duties and responsibilities we have around the use and nature of AI; it’s there if you want it, or you can just enjoy the ride.

Charles, the domestic service robot, is forced to find alternative employment after the untimely death of his Master. His quest takes him through the remains of a collapsing human civilisation, where the groups of surviving people and robots that he meets present an array of temptations and dangers that he must navigate in his search for meaningful employment.

The story is in five parts, and is almost episodic, in that each part roughly corresponds to our heroes getting into trouble, navigating the jeopardy (while moving the narrative forward), and then escaping to the next part of their quest. Each part also has a thematic or stylistic flavour, signposted by the loosely disguised part titles (the interpretation of which I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader), which was a nice touch, for those that I got.

Does it have flaws? Well… maybe. In the early parts of the book, I wasn’t convinced about the inflexibility of the AI to cope with novel situations. The robots are sophisticated enough to be able to cope with the ambiguity and assumptions involved in acting as a valet: organising their Master’s clothing, activities, and travel, for example. But those same robots are simultaneously incapable of dealing with the exact same levels of ambiguity in other contexts, or are debilitatingly literal - for example one robot had been waiting for *years* to greet some guests that it had been told would arrive, but had not been told how long to wait for them.

And there were a couple of pinch points in the plot when our heroes got themselves out of trouble in a way that made me say “Really?!” to myself.

But, for me at least, these are eminently forgivable. The inability of the robots to think outside the box is such an important thread that binds the plot together, that I was quite happy to put aside my mild incredulity (and, to be honest, if you can’t put this aside then you won’t enjoy the book). And the occasional opportunistic escape from trouble kept the plot moving, and contributed to the episodic nature of the story - which I found enjoyably reminiscent of old “Saturday morning cinema” sci-fi like Flash Gordon (but that might just be me).

The story is packed with popular culture references - and those that I spotted made me smile (”2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Star Wars” and “The Wizard of Oz” are all in there, for example). I’m sure there were many that I missed - in the same way that I didn’t get the references for all of the part titles - but that doesn’t matter. It annoys me when an author tries to show off with this kind of thing, but that wasn’t the case here - it was just a bit of extra fun.

I also really liked the tone. There is a witty irreverence that suits my preference, but in this case I also found it reminiscent of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett in places, which I really enjoyed.

So, despite the flaws, a solid 5 starts. I can see myself revisiting this - for the humour, the story, the robot librarians, and the philosophical exploration of the nature of free will and self awareness.

Thank you #NetGalley and Pan MacMillan / Tor for the free review copy of #ServiceModel in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Sooooo funny! Charles is a robot valet, serving a rich man in a mansion. He realises that his master's dead, and that he's respinsible ofr cutting his mater's throat when he was shaving him!

Well he's out of a job now, and knows there must nbe a fault in his programming, so he has to go to "Diagnostics"....so his journet starts.

The story is told throuigh Charles' eyes, or rather his routines and subroutines...with clues long the way as to what's happened in the world - bad. But Charles isn't daunted, he wants to a find a new human master, so he can be of service. Scarily, in a world that gets worse on everry leg of the journey, Charles' logic, routines and sub routines take no account of the need for self preservation - thank goodness for his "robot" friend Wonk

It takes a chapter to get in the rhythm of the narrative, but once you get familiar with Charles and his "thinking processes" you realise what's going on around him, and can almost guess what's going to happen next.

A really funny book, with a slightly serious slant to the ending - had me laughing oiut loud several times! I'd say, even if you're not a sci fi fan, give it a go. - Highly recommended