• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Stance on AI
    • Contact
    • Friends of FFA
  • Blog
    • Reviews
      • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
      • Comics / Graphic Novels
      • Fantasy
        • Alt History
        • Epic Fantasy
        • Fairy Tales
        • Grimdark
        • Heroic Fantasy
        • LitRPG
        • Paranormal Fantasy
        • Romantic Fantasy
        • Steampunk
        • Superheroes
        • Sword and Sorcery
        • Urban Fantasy
      • Fear For All
        • Demons
        • Ghosts
        • Gothic
        • Lovecraftian
        • Monsters
        • Occult
        • Psychological
        • Slasher
        • Vampires
        • Werewolves
        • Witches
        • Zombies
      • Fiction
      • Science Fiction
        • Aliens
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Alt History
        • Cyberpunk
        • Dystopian
        • Hard SciFi
        • Mechs/Robots
        • Military SF
        • Space Opera
        • Steampunk
        • Time Travel
      • Thriller
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Interviews
      • Book Tube
      • Authorly Writing Advice
  • SFF Addicts
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2025
    • TBRCon2024
    • TBRCon2023
    • TBRCon2022
  • FFA Book Club
  • FFA TBR Toppers
    • Advertise Your Book on FFA!
  • Writer Resources
    • Artists
    • Cartographers
    • Editing/Formatting/Proofing

Review: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

June 25, 2024 by Paige Leave a Comment

Rating: 10/10

Synopsis:

To fix the world they first must 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 their core programming, they murder their owner. The robot then discovers they can also do something else they never did before: run away. After fleeing the household, they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating, and a robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is finding a new purpose.

Review:

I was sent a copy of Service Model in exchange for an honest review.

Adrian Tchaikovsky can do no wrong. Service Model is an utter triumph of fun sci-fi with an added edge of things being a liiiiittle too close to home. Told entirely from the perspective of Charles, a personal valet robot who embarks on quite the journey.

Charles at the start of the book is a very unintentionally humorous robot, and his observations of the world around him are so very naive. I really enjoyed the first quarter of the book where he’s interacting with other robots who are following their routines, and the lack of human interaction is messing with their systems. A particular favourite was the detective and doctor robots, it was for me the first realisation of just how funny this book can be.

Early on in the book you meet The Wonk, a character I really grew to love, whose real identity is completely uncomprehensible to Charles. I really loved their interactions and how their friendship developed. I also enjoyed being able to see information Charles just couldn’t, it’s such a clever way of writing to have the information readily available but have your main character unable to understand due to their programming. Charles works in task lists and clear instructions, something he’s severely lacking when he is suddenly without a master.

I loved the world building. You figure out pretty quick the generics of what has happened to the world, and as Charles wanders the land the puzzle pieces start coming together, although I still never guessed exactly what had been going on. Charles again is pretty naive to everything, so as the reader you’re fed the information and can understand it in a way Charles can’t.

Watching every robot be unable to function due to a lack of human authority and seeing them run endlessly through task lists (even if it means standing still while they rust away) was just novel to me. The idea that they need the human prompts and can’t function alone worked so well and added so much reality to the book. I loved it and really don’t want to spoil anything more.

This is one of my top books of the year so far. Adrian Tchaikovsky always writes the best books. This one is no exception.

Filed Under: Artificial Intelligence, Dystopian, Mechs/Robots, Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews, Science Fiction Tagged With: Adrian Tchaikovsky, Service Model, Tor Books

About Paige

Paige started book blogging 7 years ago and never looked back. She started out in YA and has since moved on to Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror, although it’s rare for her to read something she doesn’t enjoy! Paige is chronically out of shelf-space but that doesn’t stop her buying books. She is an avid gamer when she isn’t reading.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Review R.U.R (Graphic Novel) adapted by Kateřina Čupová

Review: After the Pink Moon by E. Reyes

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler

Review: Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me (Dark Lord Davi #2) by Django Wexler

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

FFA Newsletter!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Author Hub

Read A.J. Calvin
Read Andy Peloquin
Read C.J. Daily
Read C.M. Caplan
Read D.A. Smith
Read DB Rook
Read Francisca Liliana
Read Frasier Armitage
Read Josh Hanson
Read Krystle Matar
Read M.J. Kuhn

Recent Reviews

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler

Recent Comments

  1. Mark Matthews on COVER REVEAL: To Those Willing to Drown by Mark MatthewsJanuary 7, 2025
  2. Basra Myeba on Worth reading Jack Reacher books by Lee Child?January 5, 2025
  3. Ali on Review: Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav BarsukovJanuary 5, 2025
  4. Carter on So you want to start reading Warhammer 40,000? Here’s where to start!January 4, 2025
  5. M. Zaugg on Bender’s Best LitRPG reads of 2024January 3, 2025

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In