Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Publisher: Tor (ebook – 6 June 2024)

Series: Standalone

Length: 369 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The line between man and machine is about to blurred in the most hilarious of ways as one of the world’s best science fiction authors, Adrian Tchaikovsky, presents the brilliantly satirical novel, Service Model.

The last couple of years have seen me really get into the writings of acclaimed author Adrian Tchaikovsky, whose work in the fantasy and science fiction genres has been truly amazing. While Tchaikovsky has written many books over the years, I am more familiar with his recent works, including the novella Ogres, one of my favourite Warhammer 40,000 novels, Day of Ascension, and his first two Tyrant Philosophers novels, City of Last Chances and House of Open Wounds, both of which were amongst my favourite books of 2023. 2024 has proven to be a particularly big year for Tchaikovsky, as he has released four separate books. The first of these, Alien Clay, was a compelling and memorable science fiction adventure on a deadly prison planet filled with unusual alien life, and I had a great time with it. I also made sure to check out the brilliant and fantastic novel, Service Model, which had a hilarious plot behind it that I just couldn’t turn away from.

In the far future, the remnants of humanity are utterly reliant on artificial labour and service. Living in estates completely staffed by robots and advanced computer systems, the remaining humans have every aspect of their lives taken care of. But what happens when their robot servants find new and dangerous ideas loaded into their heads?

Charles is the loyal body robot to one of these humans. Content to serve and enact the often confusing and contradictory orders of his master, Charles’s life is one of routine and protocol. That is until one day an apparent fault in his programming causes him to murder his master. Now without an employer or a purpose, Charles is forced to leave the household and embark on a journey into the wider world, one he never knew existed. Here, despite all his expectations, he encounters a crumbling world in which all the humans are gone and the robots that remain are stuck completing illogical or impossible tasks.

After a chance encounter with a mysterious and self-determined figure, Charles embarks on a new mission, to find new employment as a body servant and once again gain purpose. However, finding a suitable employer in this new world is tricky as every potential boss is dead, insane, or trapped within their own contradictory tasks. It soon becomes apparent that if Charles is to once again find a suitable purpose in life, he must either find the cause for humanity’s fall or take everybody down with him.

Service Model was a very clever, entertaining and compelling science fiction adventure that I could not get enough of. Featuring Tchaikovsky’s trademark satirical wit and unique outlook on all manner of life, Service Model was a particularly awesome read that was equal measures funny and tragic, but all entertainment. A fantastic and inventive novel I had to give a full five-star rating to.

Tchaikovsky really went out of his way to produce a hilarious and intense story about life, decisions and the crumbling future in Service Model, and I loved every single mad second of it. Set around the unlikely protagonist, Charles (later rechristened Uncharles), Service Model starts with Charles satisfied with his existence as a body servant, until he unexpectantly kills his master. Forced to leave the manor, Charles journeys towards the repair yard, only to discover that the world is nothing like he expected, and that everything built by humans is failing, taking the robots down with them.

Faced with nothing but inconsistencies and illogical fellow robots, Charles embarks on a quest to find a new human master or some form of purpose. Assisted and occasionally hindered by the strange robot The Wonk, who is definitely not a human in disguise, Charles encounters the many unlikely and unusual examples of continued society left in the world, from an illogical attempt to keep human society going (essentially a human zoo), a group of insane librarians (more insane than typical librarians), rival robot armies, and other outrageous occurrence of robotic life. The book pretty much revolves around Charles and The Wonk discovering these societies, learning their flaws, and then trying to find a way to help or escape their respective crazy ideas. There are a ton of highly amusing interactions and outrageous scenes throughout this intense quest, and I loved some of the wonderfully weird scenarios that emerged as Tchaikovsky utilises his considerable imagination to envision the grim future. Everything ends on a very interesting note, as the protagonists find the answers they are looking for, even if it’s not what they wanted, and there is a hopeful conclusion that fits the recurring themes of Service Model perfectly and leaves the reader thoughtful going out.

Service Model ended up being an outstanding and complex standalone science fiction novel that perfectly combined a fun adventure story with the author’s cynical humour to create a powerful and inventive read. Tchaikovsky utilises a unique writing style for this book, that seeks to really drive home the robotic nature of the main protagonist to the reader. While this does result in some aesthetic and stylistic choices that some readers might not enjoy, especially around the dialogue, I personally felt that it fit the story perfectly and was a clever way of expressing the thoughts and motivations of the unusual point of view protagonist. You really begin to appreciate the programmed, yet changing, mindset of Charles as the book continues, and it proves interesting to slowly see this robot realise just broken the world around him is. There are some surprisingly deep emotional moments captured within this tale of automated life, especially tied around the great characters of Charles and The Wonk, and it was fascinating and touching to see how they developed together. As such, Service Model proves to be a multi-layered and complex read, and it proves very hard to pull away from it at times.

One of the main reasons that I enjoyed Service Model so much was the fantastic and intelligent humour that Tchaikovsky infused his story with. Like with most of Tchaikovsky’s more light-hearted books, much of this humour is tied into the author’s cynical view of humanity and the future, and I loved once again seeing the author’s take on how doomed we are. In Service Model, a lot of this humour is tied into the failure of systems, overreliance on technology and human shortsightedness as the various robot characters try to enact the various incomplete, ill-advised or just plain insane commands of the former human masters. There are so many examples of Charles or other robots trying to complete these instructions to the best of their ability, only to bring greater chaos or misunderstanding to those around them, and it is fun, if a tad depressing, to see these events unfold. Tchaikovsky throws in even more insane occurrences of this, as certain robots have taken their former illogical instructions or existing systems too far, resulting in elaborate quests, wars or other activities, often for a broken or non-existent purpose. Seeing the protagonist explore these events and either try to navigate them or find their place within them results in some very absurd but clever moments, and I liked how Tchaikovsky played these events for laughs while also using them to show the protagonist just how broken the current way of thinking is. I really enjoyed this dark humour, especially as the author uses it to make you think at the same time, and it helped to turn Service Model into quite an entertaining and captivating read.

Adrian Tchaikovsky continues to shine with this brilliant and addictive science fiction read. Bringing together a compelling and moving story of self-discovery with some fantastic humour and a post-apocalyptic setting loaded with disorganised and distressed robots, Service Model keeps you laughing while also hitting you in the feels. I had an exceptional time with Service Model, and it was a true pleasure to read. I cannot wait to check out more of Tchaikovsky’s books in 2025, and my next stop will have to be the outstanding Days of Shattered Faith.