Fiction Reviews
Service Model
(2024) Adrian Tchaikovsky, Tor, £22, hrdbk, 373pp, ISBN 978-1-035-04586-2
'Charles' is a robot servant of a wealthy, old man who lives in a mansion that itself has an artificial intelligence (AI). One day, Charles discovers that he has accidentally killed his master. After much debate, including with the house, the robot police and medical coroner arrive. Logic circles, semantic gymnastics follow along with mechanical reasoning by the AIs at the end of which both the police and coroner argue themselves into a recursive loop.
With no master to serve and not clear instruction from the police, Charles leaves the house to return to the factory that made him. Outside, he finds the world strange…
And that is as much as I want to tell you as any more would be a bit of a spoiler. Underneath the Kafkaesque 'comedy' there is a dark, apocalyptic story which is slowly, oh so slowly, revealed. Clearly, the Kafkaesque humour is meant to be the heart of this novel and if that's your bag then great: for me it was the backstory I was interested in, but there was too little of that.
I am not sure that a Kafkaesque approach to robots works? Yes, robots are mechanical often with a 'simple' approach complexity is not really (at the time of writing) their thing and despite all the recent advances in AI we seem to be as far away from advanced (general) AI than ever. The Kafkaesque approach works with humans as the protagonists in such works should know better (than robots) but willingly don't, instead choosing to conspire against the individual with bonds of absurdity. That's what makes Kafkaesque situations so chilling. Conversely, robots are mechanical and unable to break their limited, logical thought and are easily confused by semantics. The perverse and unjust situations they may inadvertently create are not done through malice, unlike that done by human created Kafkaesque rules.
Alas, the backstory, was very much the backdrop to support, what I am guessing is, jokey humour. But it was the dark and interesting backstory with hints as to what might have happened which was for me compelling but which was too diluted. If you want robot apocalypses I would go with something of a bang (as opposed to a whimper) such as Sea of Rust and its prequel Day Zero.
In short, I did not buy in to this novel's central conceit and found the book way too long: it would be much better as a novella, or even novelette!
This was my first Adrian Tchaikovsky novel. Much of his earlier work was fantasy – I am more of a die-hard SF fan – so I gave his early stuff a wide berth. Then, when he started writing space operas, others in the SF2 Concatenation team have been reviewing him and I was happy for them to get on with it: you can't read everything. However, when we got a duplicate copy of Service Model I thought I would give him a go. Here, I have to say that, on the basis of this novel alone, I would not return to the man. Fortunately, his reputation precedes him and I am aware that much of his space opera is highly rated. For example, his 'The Final Architecture' series of novel has just been short-listed for a Hugo in the 'Best Series' category and, though it did not win, that is a considerable achievement. Our reviewers do seem to like his SF: for example, Mark rates Lords of Uncreation and Allen likes his Children of Time and Karen echoes this with Dogs of War. However, I see that Steven has also reviewed Service Model and, like me, fails to embrace it. So perhaps this is a rare duff one. Having said all that Mark likes it., though personally I think Kafka does logical obfuscation far better and would recommend those that enjoy the humour in Service Model to seek out The Trial.
So, the message here seems to be that if you have come across Service Model and like myself and Steven find it wearing, it might be best to remember that many consider that his other SF is much better and not to let this one put you off, doubly so if like me you don't like bloat.
Finally, I understand that the author has been rather prolific in recent years. Perhaps this novel is a sign that he should slow down and consider his output more carefully before submitting it. Just a thought.
Jonathan Cowie
See also Mark's take on Service Model and Steven's review of Service Model.
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