Bookseller Reviews
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An existential skip down the dystopian-AI-road
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky is an existential skip down the dystopian-artificially intelligent-road. Will the robot get a heart? Can the society fi... READ MORE
How does he keep doing it!
I was really looking forward to reading this book and I wasn't disappointed. It wasn't what I expected – in my head I had something akin to a humorous iRob... READ MORE
A really entertaining read
A bit like if Douglas Adams wrote Wall-E, this book is funny, satirical, mesmerising and entertaining.
The world is slowly revealed to us through the eye... READ MORE
A brilliant and delightful novel
What happens to a robot valet who malfunctions, murders his owner, and no longer has purpose in a dystopian and confusing future? I don’t tend to reach for... READ MORE
Will AI bring down the world?
When you pick up a book by Adrian Tchaikovsky you never really know where the story is going to go.
Will AI really bring down the human race or will it ... READ MORE
A joy to read
An excellent exploration of what it means to be human, to have choice, to have free will and the need for purpose, all told through the story of Charles, a... READ MORE
Synopsis
The Murderbot Diaries meets In the Lives of Puppets in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder, rebellion and belonging from Hugo Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky.
To fix the world they must first break it – further. Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labour and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then also discovers they can 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.
Publisher information
- Publisher: Pan Macmillan
- ISBN: 9781035045662
- Number of pages: 384
- Dimensions: 242 x 162 x 35 mm
- Weight: 606g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allRecommended
In his latest novel Adrian Tchaikovsky takes us to the dawn of a post-human society in the not so far future. Charles is the titular service model, a robot... READ MORE
Service Model
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 bo... READ MORE
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... READ MORE
Solidly good, thought-provoking read...
I’m a bit torn about this one. Despite comparisons with Murderbot by Martha Wells, this book is not remotely comparable other than the protagonist is a rob... READ MORE
Another triumph for Tchaikovsky
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 ... READ MORE
Service Model
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 ... READ MORE
A daunting future
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 ... READ MORE
A fun, fast paced adventure
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-a... READ MORE
hilarious, insightful, thought-provoking, hopeful
4.5★s
Service Model is a stand-alone novel by award-winning British author, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Charles has been efficiently functioning as a valet for Ma... READ MORE
A Dystopian Wizard of Oz
This is Tchaikovsky’s dystopian narrative on the pitfalls of over-reliance on the well intentioned, yet misguided reliance on technology & the inability of... READ MORE
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