Service Model

Charles, a robot valet, unexpectedly murders his employer. He then sets out on a journey to Diagnostics to find out why he did it, and starts a heroes journey of sorts. Through seven episodes, mostly accompanied by the Wonk, who he meets at Diagnostics, he journeys through a societal landscape where humans are mostly dead or scrabbling to survive.

So what happened? The Wonk wants it to be that robots have obtained self-awareness. Charles just wants to be a valet for a human, but is complex enough to act unhappily at some of his opportunities. Even though he claims to be incapable of unhappiness.

I found myself really liking Charles, but that may be my internal tendency toward the satisfaction of ticking off tasks on a task list, which is what a lot of Charles' internal monologue is about. The overall story is good, but it is overly long (7 episodes in Charles' quest) and I just wanted to get on with it in a few places.

Un robot mayordomo cientos años después del fin del mundo anda vagando tratando de que alguien le diagnostique unas fallas.

También busca qué hacer, alguien a quién servir. En algún libro de los Krishnas está escrito que el objetivo de la vida es el servicio, y que su mejor forma es el amor a Dios. ¡Cuánto se nota con este tarado! Bueno, no es su culpa. Está programado para servir ricachones. No es asunto de querer, no puede querer, nomás seguir su programa.

Es ridículo, absurdo, patético: humanos van sufriendo, todavía en ese futuro lejano oprimidos bajo el yugo. Cuánta ayuda podría ser un robot, a esas causas. Pero el wey va y se emplea con el opresor, así nomás por que tiene más estátus. Aquí condensado no da tanta risa.

Así va todo el libro: a cada rato parece que se agotará el chiste. Como en otras comedias esta historia por momentos se torna trágica, a veces de golpe, de un enunciado al otro. A veces en el mismo enunciado.

La prosa es elegante cuando el tono es solemne, divertida cuando juega, interesante al complicar la trama, descriptiva de las aventuras. Este cué escribe bien chido.

Nota curiosa: Adrian Tchaikovsky se estremece con la idea de que cuerpos estén hechos de otros cuerpos, más si se nota mucho.

This book starts with a bunch of absurd humor, and as the story goes on, that humor gets mixed in with the darkness of the dystopian setting and overall plot. It kind of resembles Tchaikovsky's Cage of Souls, but whereas that book was more adventure, this one is more dark comedy.

Tchaikovsky does manage to pull off the combination well. The main character, being a robot, brings a bunch of robotic aloofness to the narration, which actually works pretty well with the overall mixture of simultaneously aloof and dark tone of the book. While the main character keeps encountering perhaps too-poignant and neatly tied up episodes of his adventure, like the hero in some sort of a fable (which is where the comparison to Cage of Souls comes to mind), the character is sufficiently compelling to carry the book forward.

The conclusion to the overall plot could perhaps be more satisfying; it, too, tries to be rather poignant. The setting could perhaps be more fleshed out and less fable-like, but it works with the structure of the story.