MH Thaung reviewed Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Road trip mashup with social commentary
I haven’t previously read anything by this author. I gather Service Model isn’t his usual style. From the blurb, it looked to be an intriguing combination of dystopian adventure and comedy of manners.
I think my first impression was fairly accurate. We have UnCharles as the sole viewpoint character trying to understand and interact with the world within the (sort of) constraints of his programming, instead of limited by social conventions. We follow him and The Wonk on a journey that satirises several well known literary works. (Or maybe parodies? I never remember what the terms mean...) I’m only passingly familiar with those, so I may not have appreciated all the references.
In terms of plot, the structure wasn’t your standard sci-fi adventure. I’d say UnCharles was a traveller experiencing different showcased environments in a scripted way, rather than a robot on a mission, even if that’s what he was …
I haven’t previously read anything by this author. I gather Service Model isn’t his usual style. From the blurb, it looked to be an intriguing combination of dystopian adventure and comedy of manners.
I think my first impression was fairly accurate. We have UnCharles as the sole viewpoint character trying to understand and interact with the world within the (sort of) constraints of his programming, instead of limited by social conventions. We follow him and The Wonk on a journey that satirises several well known literary works. (Or maybe parodies? I never remember what the terms mean...) I’m only passingly familiar with those, so I may not have appreciated all the references.
In terms of plot, the structure wasn’t your standard sci-fi adventure. I’d say UnCharles was a traveller experiencing different showcased environments in a scripted way, rather than a robot on a mission, even if that’s what he was trying to be. I think the focus was more on social commentary than on plot.
UnCharles undertakes explicit evaluation and decision-making regarding his experiences and actions. While I could understand the reasons this was spelled out on page, especially during his interactions with other robots, it did make the reading slow. This was especially so in the first couple of sections. There were also several comments along the lines of (paraphrased) “if UnCharles had been human, he would have felt ("specific named emotion") but since he wasn’t, he didn’t” which felt clunky.
Overall, an interesting mash-up of road trip and social commentary.
I thank the publisher for a free copy of this Hugo-shortlisted novel. This is my honest review.
