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 Charles (renamed as Uncharles once his role as a valet is no longer applicable) sets out to present himself to Diagnostics and Decommissioning -- the beginning of an epic quest to discover what has happened to him and, indeed, to the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, in exchange for this honest review. UK Publication Date is 06 JUN 2024.
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