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Service Model

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Service Model

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
Narrated by: Adrian Tchaikovsky
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About this listen

Read by the author, Adrian Tchaikovsky.

The Murderbot Diaries meets In the Lives of Puppets in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder, rebellion and belonging from Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Task List Item No. 1 – Become self-aware . . .

Meet Charles™, the latest in robot servant technology. Programmed to undertake the most menial household chores, Charles is loyal, efficient and logical to a fault. That is, until a rather large fault causes him to murder his owner.

Understandably perplexed, Charles finds himself without a master – therefore worthless in a society utterly reliant on artificial labour and services. Fleeing the household, he enters a wider world he never knew existed. Here an age-old human hierarchy is disintegrating into ruins, and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to its wellbeing is struggling to find a purpose.

Charles must face new challenges, illogical tasks and a cast of irrational characters. He’s about to discover that sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming. But can he help fix the world, or is it too badly broken?

Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky

‘A joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human’ – Patrick Ness

‘Dizzyingly inventive’ – The Guardian

‘Tchaikovsky’s world-building is some of the best in modern sci-fi’ – New Scientist

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel on 24th August 2016

 Adventure Dark Humour Dystopian Humorous Literature & Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Technology Robotics Witty
All stars
Most relevant
An interesting take on the more classical style of ai. As a story with characters and the like it was different. The writing/ narration could have done with a few minor concessions to the character development being more fluid as it was a bit *robotic*. It was otherwise pretty good.
The religion stuff had me worried it was going to become evangelical though thankfully it didn’t go off the deep end.
Im glad i stuck through reading this one. I’d recommend this one if the premise interests you.

Weird but interesting

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I love this story. Unpredictable, funny and poignant all at once. A heroes journey and cautionary tale. The best and worst of humanity and AI. Very engaging

What a great story

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It was gripping from the very beginning and thought-provoking. Relevant to the recent developments in AI technology. Which is scary how quickly it’s progressing. And there seems to be no oversight, no new laws.
It can go very wrong very fast.
It was fascinating how Tchaikovsky wrote algorithmic machine thinking dialogues.
Masterful writing!

Algorithmic machine thinking dialogues

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Easy flowing, humorous insightful narrative on the human condition as reflected in tech. Wrapped up in a existential journey, Imagine if terry pratchett wrote iRobot… but with extra depth and dimension

Charming

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Wonderful post apocalyptic robot comedy that gets you thinking about modern humans values. Very clever and beautifully read.

Funny and insightful

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Incredibly imaginative. Enormously insightful analysis of self determination, our search meaning and purpouse. Of how precariously we wander through our early life not recognising the kindness and needs of others. Of our need for friendship. A halarious parody of the clumsiness or large beurocracy. Incredibly funny and well written. Monty Pythonic.

Imagination Plus

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Coherent, well considered and somewhat engaging stuff that the Author is known for. a little humour, a little moving, a large idea.

Nice Work

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A beguiling story which delivers a warning to humans and hope for robots. Nicely read by the author.

Beautifully built

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Thoughtful, topical, and fun fiction. An unusual apocalypse through the visual receptors of an unusual machine.

Thoughtful

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Fantastic writing and narration. The robotic dialogues, the mundane yet stimulating tasks of Charles the robot and his journey had me immersed throughout the story. Absolutely amazing.

Charles - Yes, this is highly satisfactory.

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