Service Model

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrated by: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Long-listed, Library Journal Best Books of the Year, 2024

This program is read by Hugo Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky.

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor.com.

©2024 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“With humor, heart, and hope balancing out the decay, this glimpse of the future is sure to win fans.”—Publishers Weekly

Another banger from Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky is one of the best sci-fi writers in the business today. Every one of his books is utterly unique, promising you won't ever get the same experience twice. Service Model might be written off as a light hearted sci-fi romp, and it is, but where it differs from other recent light hearted tales *cough* Starter Villain *cough* is that it actually has quite a lot to say. I found myself laughing just as much as I found myself saying, "huh..." in a hand-to-chin contemplative manner. Is the book preaching about the evils of modern society? Maybe...? Is it poking fun at the current political and socioeconomic issues that currently divide society? Also maybe. At its core, is it a funny and ridiculous snd sometines sad tale about a robot trying to find his place in the wasteland of a fallen civilization? Definitely.
The science fiction may not be as engrossing as his Children series, and the humor may not reach quite the riotous level of laughter (for me anyway) of his Tyrant Philosopher series, but this is a worthy notch in the belt of a great story teller.
4/5

Fun story, great audio book

Read by the author... I'm always skeptical, but after reading, I'm honestly impressed. It's clear Adrien has talent for this, and I quickly forgot I was listening to the author as the characters came to life. I loved the concept, the characters, the real feel of the world in this post apocalyptic sci Fi story. It's story doesn't find some perfect clean conclusion or anything, but I think that's ok, it was fun.

Quirky

An especially insightful story. Narration by the author was excellent. I imagine he was able to make the characters' voices match what he heard in his own mind.

Takes a bit to get going but worth it

I almost quit at the beginning because it’s a bit repetitive and slow but the story picks up.

wonderfully creative work

exceptional story plot with vivid characters and loads of humorous twists. well worth the effort.

Get this book!

This audio book was thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end. If you're thinking about listening to it, just do it. You won't regret it.

more accurate ai than regular story ai

I really appreciate how the thought process of the ai's were not instantly personified for the sake of storytelling

Modern odyssey

I love the narrator's Voices. The writing style was fantastic. It felt like the modern odyssey.

Great pace and story

I really appreciate this book. The pace was quick and the narration was high quality. I love the writing of this author as well. I love the perspective this book provides in a time of so much change.

A fascinating exploration of exploitation through the innocent lens of a robot.

In a much more light hearted vein than The Handmaid's Tale, Service Model asks what happens when you turn the worst of what's happening now to 11?
If we don't care about each other, if we lock ourselves away and horde when we should give, if we treat our humans like robots, how can we expect justice to serve us?

Uncharles is an excellent protagonist and the reading really brought him to life in all his paradoxical glory. I loved every minute