Service Model - by Adrian Tchaikovsky

About the Book

"To fix the world they must first 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 its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away. Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming"--

Book Synopsis

Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time.

To fix the world they must first 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 its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away.

Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose.

Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming.

Review Quotes

A LibraryReads Pick!

"With humor, heart, and hope balancing out the decay, this glimpse of the future is sure to win fans." --Publishers Weekly

"A surprisingly thoughtful and compelling story...Readers who love a good postapocalyptic hell ride, AI-centered adventures, and robot/human companion stories, such as A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, will appreciate." --Library Journal, starred review

Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky

Elder Race was Shortlisted for the Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Prize!

"Picking up an Adrian Tchaikovsky book is proof you love your brain and want it to be happy." --John Scalzi

"There's an Ursula Le Guin-like grace to [Tchaikovsky's] storytelling... Ten out of 10." --The New York Times on Elder Race

"An epic tale of a land ruled by magic--or the sober record of a world colonized by science...The double vision built into the story works well." --The Wall Street Journal on Elder Race

"Rex, a two-metre-tall bioengineered dog, is one of the most achingly human characters I have ever encountered in an SF novel. A gripping dive into bioethics and artificial intelligence." --New Scientist on Dogs of War

"Children of Time is a joy from start to finish. Entertaining, smart, surprising and unexpectedly human." --Patrick Ness

Additional Praise for Adrian Tchaikovsky:

"A great coming-of-age story that careens through a world so vividly realized that you can feel each insect bite and taste every acrid berry. The Expert System's Brother gives you that visceral eek of satisfaction as its pieces come into view then fit together with exacting precision. It's a smart story, smartly told." --Hugo Award winner, John Chu

"I loved it. A bold, vivid story about humanity and the broader universe. Should we mold the universe to suit us? Or should we mold ourselves to suit the universe? Adrian Tchaikovsky keeps these choices in tension, and kept me riveted to the page." --Ramez Naam, author of Nexus on The Expert System's Brother

"Brilliant science fiction and far out world building" --James McAvoy on Children of Time

"A refreshingly new take on post-dystopia civilizations, with the smartest evolutionary world building you'll ever read" --Peter F. Hamilton on Children of Time

"[A] seamless blend of science fiction and fantasy... Recommended for lovers of portal fantasy, lost colony science fiction, and stories on the border between the two genres" --Library Journal on Elder Race

"Tchaikovsky takes beloved tropes to exciting new places, carried by memorable characters and clever prose. This proves yet again why Tchaikovsky is a master of the genre mash-up." --Publishers Weekly on Elder Race

About the Author

Adrian Tchaikovsky is a British science-fiction and fantasy writer known for a wide variety of work including the Children of Time, Final Architecture, Dogs of War, Tyrant Philosophers and Shadows of the Apt series, as well as standalone books such as Elder Race, Doors of Eden, Spiderlight and many others. Children of Time and its series has won the Arthur C Clarke and BSFA awards, and his other works have won the British Fantasy, British Science Fiction and Sidewise Awards. In 2024, he was inducted into the European Science Fiction Society Hall of Fame.