Task List Item No. 1 – Become self-aware...
Meet CharlesTM, 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?
Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781035045662
Imprint: Tor
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