Meet Charles™, the latest in robot butler technology. Programmed to undertake the most menial household chores, Charles is loyal, efficient and logical to a fault. That is, until a rather large fault causes him to murder his owner.
Understandably perplexed, Charles finds himself without a master – therefore worthless in a society reliant on artificial labour and services. Fleeing the household, he enters a world he never knew existed. Human hierarchy is disintegrating, and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to its wellbeing is struggling to find a purpose.
Charles must face new challenges, illogical tasks and a cast of irrational characters. He’s about to discover that sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming. But can he help fix the world, or is it too badly broken?
I’ve been picking up random Tchaikovsky novels, and this one particularly charmed me. It’s a comedic, almost satirical take on a potential future with AI and robots.
The book explores various themes related to the value of work, what truly matters, and the perspectives of humanity from an outsider’s point of view. It’s also enjoyable to have an AI as a point-of-view character, as we grapple with the flaws in their directives and assumptions made by their programmers.
This book is quite a quick read, but it does delve into darker themes at times. I highly recommend it.
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 …
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 …
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.
