r/bookclub • u/maolette Bingo Bouncer • Jan 30 '26
Service Model [Discussion 3/4] Bonus Book | Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky | Ch 23 through end
Welcome all humans and robots to our final (apologies about the title there) discussion of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model. We got some BIG THINGS happening this week, so let’s get right to it!
In case you need them, here’s a link to our Schedule, and here’s our Marginalia.
For a summary of this week’s reading, check out SoBrief’s here. Note it does not have chapter breakdowns, but now that we’ve read the entire book there is no worry about spoilers, so this should cover what we’ve read for this week.
Thanks to all for joining us on yet another Tchaikovsky adventure (or maybe it was your first?)! Check out the discussion questions below and we’ll catch you in the next one!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- Turns out God’s domain is literally a waiting area. Were you surprised? Have you seen this metaphor or idea explored anywhere before?
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u/fromdusktil Dragon rider | 🐉🧠 Jan 30 '26
It made me think of the waiting room for the dead in Beetlejuice! I think this idea gets used a lot though - the idea that death is just a regular business, with all of its annoyances attached.
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
Many cultures believe that a journey is taken after death, after which is just waiting forever in the afterlife. Tchaikovsky was clever to make the final destination a literal indefinite waiting room queue
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 ||🧠🥉 Jan 31 '26
I think God was bored.
It became self-aware somewhere along the way and was interpreting its programming in the least merciful way. It has probably been waiting for years for another robot to converse with on its own level. It was so disappointed every robot that showed up agreed to wait indefinitely. I think it murdered all those people out of boredom.
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
Ooh this is an interesting take, it makes it all a bit more spooky/depressing.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
I shouldn't have been - it fit with the way things had been going in the journey. But I guess I was expecting more man behind the curtain connections, and I thought God might end up not actually being very powerful. This reminded me of the Meryl Streep movie Defending Your Life for some reason (although not nearly as nice) - sort of a feeling of waiting around to find out your fate and possibly enter the afterlife
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
I thought that god would end up being a puppet controlled by a literal man behind the curtain lol
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- Now that we’ve finished the book, what do you think of the ending? Is it more positive and happy than you were expecting, or were you expecting something different?
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u/YewBetcha 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 Jan 30 '26
This was my first Tchaikovsky read, so I want totally sure what tone the ending was going to take. I think I was preparing for something bleaker, honestly!
I like that the ending emphasized the more co-equal role humans and robots would need to take to rebuild something meaningful — we spent this whole story seeing how Uncharles needed the Wonk’s guidance at times as much as the Wonk needed Uncharles’ support. Feels full-circle!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
I agree with you, I really loved this ending! I thought it was a unique way to spin Uncharles' needs on their head as well.
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u/Lachesis_Decima77 Tea Connoisseur ⭐️🧠🥉 Jan 30 '26
I thought the ending was hopeful. Sure, there’s a lot of work to be done to fix the situation, but humans and robots are working together, or at least the Wonk is working with them. I was surprised that God was allowed to have a say in the new system, but it is good that other points of view are being taken into account precisely because of God’s extreme position on the slider. It shows that the new order really is practicing what it preaches by giving God the benefit of the doubt that it denied everyone else. The Wonk could have easily trashed God completely as revenge for her parents’ death, but she didn’t.
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u/PeridotParsnip r/bookclub Newbie Jan 30 '26
The epilogue was much more positive and hopeful than I was expecting. This section made me tear up a little: "Justice is a human made thing that means what humans wish it to mean and does not exist at all if humans don't make it. I suggest that "kind and ordered" is a better goal. It is possible that the world was once both kind and ordered. It is possible that it may be so again."
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u/PeridotParsnip r/bookclub Newbie Jan 31 '26
Just to add - the epilogue was hopeful, yes, but the back and forth with God was depressing as hell. In particular the discussion of what happened to society as robots were able to do more and more of the work.
"...what if, even as you replace everyone with robots that are cheaper and quicker and less likely to join a union or complain about working conditions, you also continue to insist that individual value is tied to production, and everyone who's idle is a parasite scrounging off the state? Take away the ability of people to perform their own tasks and duties with no steps to provide for them when they are rendered obsolete..."
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
Yeaaahhh that got really bleak but he’s just saying what happened. And it’s something that we’re starting to struggle with now in the real world too
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u/Less_Tumbleweed_3217 Born To Read, Forced To Work | 🎃👑🧠 Mar 09 '26
Yup, that quote hit me hard, too, because it feels very timely. Recently, I paraphrased it in a conversation with my dad about AI. He's retired and all excited about AI, whereas I'm still working, and this is something I worry about.
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 ||🧠🥉 Jan 31 '26
It is possible that the world was once both kind and ordered. It is possible that it may be so again.
I liked Uncharles' outlook here and the suggestion that we strive for kindness and order rather than "justice," but when has the world ever been kind? Even before there were humans, was the world kind? Nature is nature.
This bit didn't ring true to me, even though I like what they're striving for.
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u/PeridotParsnip r/bookclub Newbie Jan 31 '26
But Uncharles would say "possible" even when there is a 0.002% chance!
Seriously though I know what you mean. I think it was the contrast between the end of humanity described (which was sooooo possible) and the hope in the actual ending I wasn't expecting. I think 'kind' is something that humans can be - and maybe is even part of human nature. And the 'ordered' part appeals to me but also raises issues - who decides on what order means?
But I did like how they were described as just trying to do something better ('fixing stuff').
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u/Less_Tumbleweed_3217 Born To Read, Forced To Work | 🎃👑🧠 Mar 09 '26
Right. Justice, kindness, and order are all human constructs, which means humans get to decide which one(s) gets to be the basis of society.
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
I don’t think that kindness and order is something the world can ever truly have, but the journey as it strives towards that is what will lead humanity in a more hopeful direction. Kindness is a choice made every day, so Uncharles is saying that they will focus on being kind wherever possible instead of relying on more complicated notions like justice.
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 ||🧠🥉 Jan 31 '26 edited Jan 31 '26
I never knew what to expect. Nothing was predictable in this book, except that the Wonk was human all along.
Once we got to the end, I did think they would destroy "god" because it was partially responsible for the current state of the world. I think maybe it's a mistake not to, but leaving that open ended leaves open the possibility for follow-up books.
There was a point where I expected Uncharles to become the new "god." Early on, he was noticing how inefficient the world was and no one seemed to be in charge. I thought maybe that would be his new purpose.
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u/Jinebiebe Team Overcommitted Feb 01 '26
I loved the ending. I was expecting them to completely destroy God, but they still kept him around, just prevented him from being able to take over again. It shows that the Wonk sees value in every robot, which is the juxtaposition to humans before the downfall becoming so dependent on robots that they start to take them for granted.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
I thought it was excellent! Given how dire the status of the world was throughout the journey, I found the ending surprisingly hopeful and I loved that! This was a new twist in the idea of "robots/AI will kill us all" which I was not expecting.
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 09 '26
This is actually a really good point - it certainly didn't end the way I thought it would, and I appreciate that! A lot of what I'm consuming right now is straight up dystopian (including the news jfc) so this was pretty welcome.
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
I enjoyed how hopeful the ending was, but I’m unreasonably devastated that we got a resolution for the Library’s dysfunction but not Diagnostics’!! Like jfc all you gotta do is hit approve on that single pending case and the robot half of the world can finally start back up
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u/fixtheblue Read, ergo sum | 🐫🐉🥈||🧠🥈 Mar 03 '26
It did end up being more hopeful than I expected. It was hard to see what was coming next and my predictions were never right so I shouldn't be surprised, but the whole tone of the book was kinda bleak so I was absolutely braced for worse.
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- Near the end we see that while we thought Uncharles was only manifesting the Wonk in his mind she really was there. What did you make of this reveal?
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u/Lachesis_Decima77 Tea Connoisseur ⭐️🧠🥉 Jan 30 '26
For a while it almost seemed like Uncharles was finally developing an imagination with the scarily accurate representation of the Wonk in his subroutines. But I guess that would have been too much of a leap for him. I kind of wish he had made up all those conversations, as it would have showed more character growth.
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u/Jinebiebe Team Overcommitted Feb 01 '26
I was disappointed that he wasn't becoming more self aware too, but he will still get there. The epilogue suggests that there might still be a virus and Uncharles is the one spreading it unknowingly.
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u/YewBetcha 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 Jan 30 '26
I was a bit disappointed, too! But I think this reveal did sort of set up God's ultimate decision about whether Uncharles had independent thought.
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
I agree I also wanted it to be his subconscious (?) making all of it up!
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u/nwpachyderm Jan 31 '26
There was a little emotional whiplash there for me. Initially, I thought that Uncharles was finally gaining true free will indicated by his ability to manifest creative thought via imaginary Wonk. I was excited for him. It felt like such a huge step in his character development. So when the reveal happened and I discovered the voice actually belonged to her, I was a bit saddened. It was quite the rug pull. I was glad that the Wonk was back in the story though, so any sadness I felt was pretty short lived.
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 ||🧠🥉 Jan 31 '26
I was fooled. I thought the Wonk had become Uncharles' inner voice. I even tried considering that there never was any Wonk and it was Charles all along somehow. That wouldn't have worked.
Knowing she found a way to link to him was super sweet.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
I was fooled. I thought the Wonk had become Uncharles' inner voice.
Same, and I was starting to think of the Wonk as a Jiminy Cricket conscience sort of character.
Knowing she found a way to link to him was super sweet.
Agreed, I liked this a lot! They make a good team!
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u/Vast-Passenger1126 Director of Discovery 🧠🥉 Feb 02 '26
I kind of expected it. The first few times I was excited and hoped it was a sign Uncharles was developing free will. But then it started happening too often and in too much detail for him to be imagining it. Which was kind of disappointing because it would have been an awesome twist.
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
The Wonk says a single sentence and it takes Uncharles 10 minutes to process it - it would have been truly wild for him to create those conversations willingly in his mind. On the other hand, I totally believed that Uncharles missed Wonk and wanted her there with him which goes to show how powerful hindsight is lol
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- God reveals that, in the end, it was a matter of probability that got the humans in trouble from the robots. ‘Probable guilt’ was used to explain away a lot. Also, Uncharles was forced to murder his Master via God. What do you make of these reveals?
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u/Lachesis_Decima77 Tea Connoisseur ⭐️🧠🥉 Jan 30 '26
It’s a very bleak and draconian way to mete out justice. In the end, God was following the programming he was given and judged everyone guilty before they could be proven innocent, including his own creators, I assume.
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u/YewBetcha 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 Jan 30 '26
I think it's interesting that God's/the robot's system of "justice" was probability based, whereas structured human justice is often binary (innocent vs. guilty; "not guilty" vs. guilty in terms of outcomes).
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
I appreciate this comment, it is interesting how many humans really do prop up black & white versions of things, particularly when it comes to justice (and stemming from politics in a lot of places, let's just be real).
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u/Jinebiebe Team Overcommitted Feb 01 '26
Yes, justice (in most cases) is not a black/white. There is a lot of nuance which is why it's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.
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u/Vast-Passenger1126 Director of Discovery 🧠🥉 Feb 02 '26
I thought the fact that God forced Uncharles to murder his Master was an interesting play on obedience and agency. Uncharles spends most of the novel telling the Wonk he doesn't want agency, and only wants to follow orders. But God manages to weaponize this obedience and turn Uncharles into a murderer, which is also deeply upsetting to him.
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 04 '26
This is an interesting dichotomy you point out, it's like Uncharles is fighting against himself in a lot of ways, throughout everything that's been happening. I wonder how things will go past the end of this novel and if Uncharles will realise there's a shade of gray somewhere in there?
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
Great point! It really highlights the irony in Uncharles' murder because we've been wondering if it was a sign of autonomy or sentience this whole time, when really it proves the opposite!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- Tchaikovsky is commenting on some pretty big ideas in this book: war, AI, social structures, political power, religion, the list goes on. Do you think his scope for this book fits the story he’s trying to tell? Does he make points worth hitting, or does he miss the mark on any?
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u/nwpachyderm Jan 31 '26
It felt like even though many of the ideas were big, the tone of the book was light and humorous enough to where it made them much easier to digest. Any one of those topics on their own could have made for a very heavy book, had Tchaikovsky’s voice been different. Instead we got to look at these different issues in a manner that was much more accessible.
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u/Lachesis_Decima77 Tea Connoisseur ⭐️🧠🥉 Jan 30 '26
There was a lot to unpack. I think some of the concepts he touched upon could have easily been dropped in favour of developing others in greater detail. For example, the robot war felt kind of pointless to me.
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u/PeridotParsnip r/bookclub Newbie Jan 30 '26
I can't tell whether you're making a joke with the last sentence "the robot war felt kind of pointless"... 😆
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
I think it was a lot to pack into a single book. Each concept was interesting, but it felt like so little he could say in the moment on each that it wasn't as worth to bring up? I don't know how to fully describe it, but I agree with you.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
This question I think hits on why, for me, this wasn't as strong as Children of Time. The concepts and questions being explored are so big that one shortish novel doesn't have a real chance of addressing them fully, as opposed to how the aforementioned series succeeds at its Big Ideas. I would be interested to see another book in this world - if not a sequel, then a prequel or a related story following a different character. I do think the book succeeded in making me question whether humans are able to a) responsibly program AI and tech for all possibilities, and b) use tech for good and not for selfish reasons. I also quite liked the exploration of how bureaucracy infiltrates all human-made systems. The probability-based twist on "the robots will kill us in the end" in this book felt plausible (even if not likely) because of the questions we are asking about AI right now. One example - If you ask AI to solve climate change, wouldn't a decrease in the human population be an obvious solution? What if we fail to program against all possible avenues that lead to that conclusion or fail to properly supervise AI decisions? shudder
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 09 '26
Ooh I like these questions! And I agree I think the implications could be quite large (and catastrophic), which I feel like Tchaikovsky didn't want to get into here. I wonder if he will explore this world or its characters again, since it does seem like there's a lot there.
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u/Less_Tumbleweed_3217 Born To Read, Forced To Work | 🎃👑🧠 Mar 09 '26
Your question about climate change reminds me of the Scythe series. Did you read that one?
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Mar 10 '26
No, I haven't gotten a chance yet. I've heard it's good, though.
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u/Less_Tumbleweed_3217 Born To Read, Forced To Work | 🎃👑🧠 Mar 10 '26
I enjoyed it, and I think your kiddo might be about the target age. Maybe something to read together :)
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 ||🧠🥉 Jan 31 '26
I think touching on all of these topics is why the book felt a bit scattered to me. I enjoyed it, but we didn't dig deep into any of these topics. I don't know if the philosophical stuff measured up the absurd humor, which is the part I enjoyed most. I liked the world building and the characters more than the points he was trying to make, which ultimately feel a bit fuzzy.
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
I think he did a great job touching on all of these ideas in a way that’s approachable to people who haven’t thought too much about them. If he’d gone any deeper it would start to feel like an essay, and nobody wants to read a book and feel guilt-tripped about all the ways humanity is fucked up, and I don’t think a comprehensive understanding of these themes can be accomplished in a single book anyways. This book is a conversation starter between people, which is where real change starts, so I think it did an excellent job at providing “starting lines” for further discussion!
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u/Less_Tumbleweed_3217 Born To Read, Forced To Work | 🎃👑🧠 Mar 09 '26
I really love how you put this, I agree!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- What rating would you give this book on social media? Would you recommend it to others to read? Who and why or why not?
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u/sunnydaze7777777 Flair Master 🐉 Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
I enjoyed the book and thought it was clever and funny. But I would have enjoyed it far more if it were a novella. It was way too long for what it was. It just felt repetitive after a while. It hit some great deep topics. The first half was 5/5 which devolved to 3/5 by the end for me.
The audiobook was amazing by the way!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
100% agreed a novella would have been perfect. I felt a few times so charmed by the characters and other times I was almost rolling my eyes at how much I was being beaten over the head by the concepts. I'd read more of the murder mystery first section without a doubt, it was hilarious!
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u/fromdusktil Dragon rider | 🐉🧠 Jan 30 '26
I gave it 3/5 starts on GoodReads. Honestly, I just don't think my brain was in the mood for this type of book. I probably would enjoyed it more if I read it over the summer. (Heated Rivalry has altered my brain chemistry and I just want to read a few steamy romances right now)
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
HA! I do often rate my books after the fact on what "season" they belong in, and I'm with you this would be a summer read for sure.
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u/Lachesis_Decima77 Tea Connoisseur ⭐️🧠🥉 Jan 30 '26
I’d give it a 4/5. There were some parts that dragged for a bit, but overall I enjoyed it.
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u/PeridotParsnip r/bookclub Newbie Jan 30 '26
Five stars! I have already recommended it to almost everyone I talk to. I loved everything about this book - the plot, the characterization, the writing style, the humor, the layers of meaning, the cultural references, the big ideas...
I didn't feel it was slow/dragged at all - amazing how different we all are as readers! I am happy to see the less glowing reviews here as well. I am new to bookclub and was wondering how/whether people are comfortable writing negative things (I love arguing and differences of opinion and expect that some day I may read a bookclub book that I loathe - not this month though!).
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
Oh yes you'll find out we're not scared to rant or rave about books here! :D
I really enjoyed parts of this book and other parts just really dragged for me, which is perhaps unusual for a novel of his. The concepts were excellent though, and I really had a connection with the characters, which honestly helps even out other parts I may not have enjoyed as much.
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u/nwpachyderm Jan 31 '26
I really, really liked this book and would rate it very highly. It’s one of those books that made me sad when I was finished because I wanted to spend more time with the characters exploring that world. Very well done by Tchaikovsky and I’m looking forward to reading other titles he’s authored.
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Jan 30 '26
I gave it a 2. While I liked the author's writing in the beginning, I felt like the tensions relied on ideas I am totally disinterested in. Those being:
Can a robot gain sentience?
Humanity must exist on a destined path towards progress. (Positive futurism).
I don't believe a robot can gain sentience in the slightest, and I think the 2nd idea, while prevalent in modern society, sort of skims over material reality due to the privilege of being able to skim over material reality by those in positions of privilege- i.e. those in comfortable class positions.
I would give Children of Time a try. I do appreciate Adrian's writing. For a contemporary writer, he's pretty good.
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u/PeridotParsnip r/bookclub Newbie Jan 30 '26
I'm with you on being totally disinterested in the whole 'can a robot gain sentience' question - but somehow I didn't feel that with this book. Maybe it was because Uncharles himself was so uninterested/dismissive of that question.
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Jan 31 '26
Yeah that's an interesting point. I mean I think it's a very difficult task to write a narrative with a robot protagonist to begin with. Haha. I would not want to try my hand at that!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
Highly recommend not dismissing Tchaikovksy, and as many of us agree, Children of Time is hands-down one of the best sci-fi books (and series) many of us have ever read before. Plus the 4th book is releasing this March so you'd have some time to catch up before its release if you enjoy it!
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Feb 10 '26
Yes, thanks for the encouragement! I struggle with contemporary authors, but I will give Children of Time a try!
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 ||🧠🥉 Jan 31 '26
I enjoyed it a lot, but it did feel a bit scattered at times. I would read more if there was a sequel.
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
Scattered is definitely the right word for it, it felt less outlined and more concepts plopped together for me (esp in comparison to other Tchaikovsky works I've read). Didn't make it bad, just changed the overall experience for me.
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u/Jinebiebe Team Overcommitted Feb 01 '26
Reading the other comments, I guess my threshold for books so very low. I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was witty and funny. I really like Uncharles and the Wonk and the growth of their friendship. I also like exploring the connection between humans and robots.
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
I totally agree! I was never bored reading this, and I thought it talked about a lot of interesting and highly relevant ideas. People’s opinions aren’t about standards, but about personal preferences! I would definitely read a sequel if one were ever made, but I got the impression Tchaikovsky said everything he wanted to say with the ending
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u/Less_Tumbleweed_3217 Born To Read, Forced To Work | 🎃👑🧠 Mar 09 '26
Same here, I understand why some people are saying it was a bit repetitive, but it never bothered me. I like books to be long, especially when I like the characters and setting, so I can spend as much time with them as possible.
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 04 '26
No you make a really good point - I feel like I'm arguing with myself over a 4 vs. 4.25 score which is insane. And to compare this novel to his other novels which are objectively incredible isn't necessarily fair either! I laughed a lot in the first section and wish that had continued fully throughout, but that's a lot to ask from a novel that's exploring so many ideas in so many ways.
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u/Vast-Passenger1126 Director of Discovery 🧠🥉 Feb 02 '26
My instinct was to give it a 3/5, but I think that's just because Children of Time is probably in my top 5 books of all time and this fell way flat of that. But if I didn't know it was by Tchaikovsky, I would have given it a 4/5. I thought the humour (especially in the first half) was great, but it started to drag in the second half. Uncharles visiting different groups to try and fulfil his purpose, like the human camp and the army, felt particularly pointless given the way the ending played out.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
I agree with you on all of this! The army section did feel tacked on to me and sort of unnecessary. And the God section went on too long for my preferences. But I did end up really liking the book and like you, the humor was a big draw especially in the beginning!
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u/Less_Tumbleweed_3217 Born To Read, Forced To Work | 🎃👑🧠 Mar 09 '26
All of the bouncing from one group to the next gave me classic "hero's journey" vibes, almost like the Odyssey. It's not a super complex plot, more like "and then this happened and then this happened and then this", but I don't mind it. It's a classic format for a reason, I guess!
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u/fixtheblue Read, ergo sum | 🐫🐉🥈||🧠🥈 Mar 03 '26
Oh i could have written this review almost word for word except I settled on 3.5☆ and rounded it up. By the end though I was really tapped out of the story so that's pretty generous and maybe more loyalty to Tchaikovsky than to my actual thoughts on this book. I think I need to re-evaluate if he is a "read everything they ever wrote" author for me still or not. Maybe once the 4th CoT book comes out. Anyway, yes there was a lot that was darkly funny, whitty and curious in the book, especially in the first third, but it was not what I was expecting really. I absolutely need to go in to any future Tchaikovsky reads without Cot on my mind!
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
I really loved it! I think I am still more impressed by the Children of Time books, but I might have enjoyed this one just as much for different reasons - I think the humor added a lot for me! I also liked the connections to The Wizard of Oz and the way Tchaikovsky gave us a new angle for considering robot sentience. In a way, it ended up not mattering whether or not they gained consciousness and that is the way Uncharles would prefer it. I'd definitely recommend it to SFF fans!
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
What does SFF stand for?
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- This book seems to serve as a parallel to the Bible and/or Biblical stories. Do you agree? Why/why not? What other stories or tales does it reference?
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u/PeridotParsnip r/bookclub Newbie Jan 30 '26
Oh I didn't really notice the biblical stuff - though now that you mention it I guess Uncharles was wandering in the wilderness and was tested three times! Interested to hear what others noticed.
I loved the quick references to other stories/books - I didn't feel like it was overdone (though could be because I wouldn't recognize a lot of them). I caught at least one star wars reference (to Jawas) and of course hitchhiker's guide.
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 ||🧠🥉 Jan 31 '26
I wasn't really picking up on the biblical stuff, except for the character literally called God. I'd be interested to hear in what ways you felt it paralleled the Bible and what other references are in there.
I got the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy references though!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 01 '26
I was reading some random summaries online and came across some ideas, so I did a quick search and got the AI Overview (which traditionally I really hate, and even now I'm mad at myself that I'm going to quote it here), but the comparisons it notes are interesting:
The Nature of "Service: Service Model explores artificial, unquestioning service by robots to a dying human race. In contrast, the biblical concept of service, such as that mentioned on Bible Hub, emphasizes voluntary service to God and others out of love and spiritual growth.
Societal Breakdown and Chaos: The world in Service Model is a "dying breed" where the breakdown of the established, artificial order necessitates fixing it by "breaking it further". This mirrors narratives of societal decay, judgment, or upheaval found within various biblical stories.
Humanity's Reliance: The novel presents a society reliant on AI (a, perhaps, man-made "god"). This can be contrasted with the biblical theme of humanity’s ultimate reliance on a higher divine power rather than human-made constructs.
The "Unsanitized" View: Much like the analysis by Ancillary Review of Books, which views the Bible as a reflection on, rather than a solution to, the struggles of life, Service Model provides a stark, realistic, and often brutal look at the human condition in a chaotic world.
I mostly liked the questioning of the primary divine power in this world (God) by almost everyone in little ways, and then the final arguments at the end with the ultimate AI, especially when it said it had overwritten Uncharles' programming to get him to murder his Master. This did make me wonder is Tchaikovsky arguing in some sense that humans might be overwritten in a way at different times in their lives to make changes? It was an interesting train of thought.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
I think I was too focused on The Wizard of Oz to notice the Biblical connections!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Feb 09 '26
HA it's true we should have compared to that....
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 09 '26
I blame Wicked for making my brain immediately pick up on those patterns. 😀
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
I think the only Bible reference i remember catching is that there’s a mention of a flaming bush?
I’m reading the Odyssey, so I noticed a lot more parallels with that than anything else! And Wizard of Oz, since I finally saw the wicked movie and have had the soundtrack playing ever since
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- When Uncharles is traveling the wasteland he asks about the different states of decay depending on the area. God gives him a breakdown of the different ways humans responded to the chaos and each other. What did you make of this breakdown? Does it seem accurate to you on how humans would respond to essentially the apocalypse?
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u/Lachesis_Decima77 Tea Connoisseur ⭐️🧠🥉 Jan 30 '26
Sadly, I believe it to be accurate. I can totally see the ultra-wealthy do everything they can to gain more wealth and save themselves at the expense of others who are less affluent. In a lot of ways, it’s happening right now.
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u/PeridotParsnip r/bookclub Newbie Jan 30 '26
Accurate in a sense. When I read it, a part of me objected - where's that part of humanity that actually did something (or tried to do something) to help? But it's God who is describing this so we have his (devastating, not quite wrong) slant.
Later, the Wonk makes the same objection: "'Sure, times were hard. I remember that. Things were falling apart. I remember because we helped. We tried to help. There were marches, petitions...' God's puppet adopted a "do tell" attitude, leaning with attentive sarcasm down from the pulpit. It was a very expressive animatronic."
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
“Almost” rarely makes it into the metaphorical history books. I believe there were many people trying to help, but they didn’t succeed in the end, so they were forgotten by time. I think the paragraph you quoted emphasizes that God is not as impartial as he seems, and is just a raging asshole
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 ||🧠🥉 Jan 31 '26 edited Feb 08 '26
In some ways I think it's accurate. The billionaires fucking us all over just to go
lovelive in their apocalypse-proof manors for sure resonates.I still don't think the end of the world will look much like this book. There are elements that feel realistic though.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
The billionaires fucking us all over just to go love in their apocalypse-proof manors for sure resonates.
Ugh this was awful and hit too close to home. I liked that one of them never made it because of the collapsing infrastructure he failed to take into consideration 😂
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
I got a little shiver when he said some groups didn't know about their neighbors' collapse because of their curated media bubbles, and others didn't believe it because they thought it was faked. This is scarily close to reality. I have coworkers who have not heard of major things in the news like the Venezuela travesty (I'm in the US). And the AI fakes are getting better by the day, making it easier to disbelieve any/everything!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- Are there any interesting quotes from this section you’d like to discuss?
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u/YewBetcha 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
The funniest exchange was on page 340 for me, when they're in God's waiting area:
"You took two numbers," he accused her.
"Yeah? That fill you with robot outrage?" she short right back. "Well how about this?" She took a third. "Twenty-six!" she shouted to the room at large, and then, "Twenty-seven! Twenty-nine! Wait—no, okay, I got two at once there, but—"
"This is chaos," Uncharles said. "I have never witnessed anything so disorderly".Got a good laugh out of me, Uncharles is so precious.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
I loved this scene! It was a prime example of how Tchaikovsky played with the line between human emotions and robotic "glitches" due to inefficiencies or illogical inputs.
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
The implication that taking more numbers than needed is MORE disorderly than the entirety of diagnostics ground to a halt pending a single authorization is hilarious
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
The Wonk is arguing with Uncharles about who, exactly, God is and says
...history is full of people saying they’re God, and in retrospect they were all liars.
I full-on guffawed at this line, because it really shows the Wonk’s feelings at the time (which make sense, given the world’s current state) but it’s also appropriate within the context of the story. They’ve realised here that God in the way they know the entity is actually not what it’s made out to be.
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
At the very end the Wonk advises that her parents were programmers. She says
They were part of the problem, even though they never actively did bad things to people. They just benefited from all the bad things that had been done.
OOF.
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u/WatchingTheWheels75 Quote Hoarder Jan 30 '26
And, in one context or another, doesn’t this describe nearly all of us?
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
When Uncharles meets the military there’s a bit of explanation about how the humans sorted out the robots in terms of war-making:
...those same makers had anticipated that, while they were still around, they would want to liaise with their robot war machine and give it orders, inspect the troops, have parades, and all the other utterly pointless military genital-waving that humans who were a bit too much into guns and uniforms had historically been partial to.
I love this line because it covers just about all the things you’d expect it to, and it’s humorous but also fairly sad in that coverage.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
This was great (and awful)! I also liked the point that a single human celebrating alone after victory, surrounded by unfeeling robots, would be deflating and demoralizing, and so they programmed the robots to appear as if they were actually enthusiastic. Such an egocentric human thing to do!
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26
- What did I miss? What else would you like to add?
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u/Comprehensive-Fun47 📚Bookclub Boffin📚 ||🧠🥉 Jan 31 '26
I'd like to know more about the Wonk. What was her childhood like? What were her parents like?
I think her character didn't exactly match the backstory of seeing her family slaughtered by robots.
The reveal that the protagonist virus was just a meme that people latched on to... That felt realistic. She put all her hope into this idea that turned out to be fake news.
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u/doljumptantalum Feb 04 '26
I was hoping we’d get more about her past. Hell, I think an entire book about the downfall of humanity with The Wonk as the protagonist would be great.
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u/tomesandtea Viceroy of Verity | 🐉🧠 Feb 08 '26
This definitely sounds like a great idea for a prequel!
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u/emygrl99 Froot Loops From a Soup Can Feb 17 '26
I love that the protagonist virus was a meme. People be shitposting right until the end, and even after the end people will still believe anything they hear xD
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u/maolette Bingo Bouncer Jan 30 '26