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Service Model
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
14 posts | 11 read
Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time. To fix the world they must first break it, further. Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service. When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also 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.
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review
squirrelbrain
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Bailedbailed

#ToBlonglist

Not for me. Charles, a robot, inexplicably murders his owner and sets off to find out why. I thought it might be an interesting comparison with Annie Bot but, after 3 hours of the 12.5 hour audiobook absolutely nothing has happened. It‘s very repetitive too, feeling like a child‘s story.

I get the idea that most humans have disappeared so maybe there are some interesting insights later but I‘m not hanging around to find out.

Bookwormjillk The list is long and time is short! 3w
BarbaraBB What @Bookwormjillk says 😀. I‘ll take a pass unless it makes the shortlist of course! 3w
sarahbarnes Good to know! 3w
Hooked_on_books This one didn‘t really work for me, so you‘re not missing much. 3w
Megabooks Good to know! 2w
60 likes1 stack add5 comments
review
Robotswithpersonality
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Mehso-so

Sea of Rust meets Wall-E meets A.I. (the film).
By which I mean the dystopian cynicism comes through more strongly than the charm of a hapless robot trying to find its purpose amidst the remains of humanity. Perhaps it's just the proliferation of discussion on this topic or my desire to always find a good robot book, either I'm getting pickier or it's getting harder to find stories on this subject that don't feel like not-too-wild-variances 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? on the same theme. To go further into detail would be spoilers but these plot beats, even the discussions had, don't feel like new ground. I can appreciate the somewhat upbeat ending. I understand why Tchaikovsky did what he did, but the pacing did start to drag toward the latter half/last third of the book. 4mo
Robotswithpersonality 3/? Further observations:
Something about Wonk's speech in the central library archive feels like the disillusionment of corruptible Communist Russia when the glorious revolution didn't make things better. There's just a lot of 'of course everything is terrible because: humans'. Which is a valid theme, especially in dystopian fiction, but one I don't tend to read because it doesn't really offer anything constructive or entertaining,
4mo
Robotswithpersonality 4/4 and gets very repetitive and predictable very fast.
Not sure I can forgive the author the perversion of the library/archive concept, though it was among the more powerful illustrations of how programming could go wrong.
I'm fairly certain Tchaikovsky was doing something clever with author names and the number/letter coding titles of the parts of the book and the themes of the parts therein, but I'm not quite clever enough to be sure.
4mo
7 likes3 comments
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Robotswithpersonality
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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😑

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Robotswithpersonality
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Oh, HELL no!
Hoppity Jack: soon to be starring in my nightmares. 😶‍🌫️

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Robotswithpersonality
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Robot Knight Librarians! I cannot express how much I love this.

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Robotswithpersonality
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Monday vibes.

willaful Truly! 5mo
8 likes1 comment
review
Twainy
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Pickpick

1st scene reminded me of the Red Dwarf episode when we meet Kryton. Charles is a rich man‘s robot valet.

Best library & robot librarians.

Charles is on a mission to find a new job. We walk with him & his sidekick through a world in crumbles. Humanity is dwindling.

There‘s pop culture & literary Easter eggs. LOVE a fun nerdy robot story with a moral & this didn‘t disappoint! The narration was great! (little too much religion for me)

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2

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Robotswithpersonality
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Dedication. 🤖♥️🙋🏼‍♂️☺️

12 likes1 stack add
blurb
wanderinglynn
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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#weekendreads

I only brought 1 book with me (I know! 🤦🏼‍♀️ but there were reasons). So I stopped at a local bookstore Friday night to browse. The inside cover said it was Murderbot meets Redshirts. That was good enough for me! 🤖♦️

Ruthiella I hope it is good! 🤞 Murderbot + Redshirts would entice me as well! 5mo
TheSpineView Sounds good! Looking forward to your review. 5mo
44 likes2 comments
review
Read_By_Red
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Pickpick

On the surface Service Model is an extremely entertaining novel that I was hooked on after the first few minutes of listening to the audiobook version. That being said, I did not receive a digital copy until I was practically done with the novel, and I feel that I missed a lot by not reading the novel while I listened to it. Not seeing the names of the sections with my eyes means I did not make the connection that the sections represent authors.

review
sebrittainclark
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Pickpick

4.5/5

When a top of the line robot valet inexplicably murders his owner, he begins a journey across a post-apocalyptic landscape to fulfill his purpose.

I thought this was such an interesting post-apocalyptic scenario as it's slowly revealed through the eyes of a robot how humanity reached this point. I thought the ending of the novel was particularly satisfying.

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Hooked_on_books
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Mehso-so

This one was a mixed bag for me. The critique of bureaucracy was quite good and the exploration of human psychology works. But it wanted to be much funnier than it was and I got bored at times. Also, the cover makes it look like it takes place in space whereas it‘s all on earth.

review
Decalino
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Pickpick

Charles, a robot valet in a stately manor, must venture out on a quest to find a new position after his Master's untimely (and highly suspicious) death. His first stop on a journey through a broken world is a bureaucratic purgatory, where he meets someone who challenges his understanding of his own potential. Is there more to life than just clearing your task list? Can a robot designed to serve ever truly transcend his programming?

review
JoyBlue
Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky
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Pickpick

You can‘t always judge a book by its cover . . . but this dystopian robot science fiction held up to both cover and publisher‘s description. Read my full review here: https://debbybrauer.org/#service-model

Publication is expected June 4.

#NetGalley #MacmillanAudio #ServiceModel

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