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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?

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

©2024 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2024 Macmillan Audio Adventure Dark Humour Dystopian Humorous Literature & Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Technology Robotics Witty

Critic Reviews

‘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
All stars
Most relevant  
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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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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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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I couldn't identify with the characters. The science was poor... lacks understanding of AI. The God bit at the end was too weird. The author should stick to fantasy. DNF.

Not credible. not sympathetic. DNF

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I had to put this on high speed, and even then skipped many hours, without losing anything important.
The structure and endless robotics dialogue makes this tedious to listen to after the first 30 minutes.
The story and plotting and ending are banal.

Tedious, unimaginative

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Any similarities to murderbot are greatly exaggerated. This robot follows its programs and logic throughout. It is not funny, nor does it have any human qualities. The author is long winded and repetitive with some elements to the point of tedium. A lot of time is spent thinking about mundane things of no consequence. It does a good job on the social commentary and making you think about human/robot relationships and where it may lead.

long winded

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