Service Model

The more I’ve thought about this book, the more I’ve come to really like it. I went in expecting a fairly typical “robots gone bad” story, but it’s much more interesting than that. It reads more like an allegory for the way complicated systems, bureaucracy, and an endless hunger for productivity can strip human life of meaning.

I loved how it executed the message that it’s not the robots that are destroying humans, it’s the humans that are destroying humans. It’s a serious message but still a lot of fun to read because Uncharles is so charming. I enjoyed his journey and chuckled throughout.

It’s pretty close to five stars, it just felt like it was a little longer than it needed to be. All the robot internal processing dialogue made it start to drag in some places, but that also kind of added to the message. It’s probably more introspective and slower paced than most sci-fi novels, but I thought it was really well done.

Book author: Adrian Tchaikovsky