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Tag Archives: dystopia

Service Model: A Review

I am a relative newcomer to the work of Adrian Tchaikovsky. I first picked up Walking to Aldebaran a few months ago after a recommendation on Bluesky and I loved it, so I leapt at the opportunity to get an early copy of his latest novel, Service Model.

Service Model introduces readers to Charles, a robot valet working in a manor up until the untimely death of his master. Charles is an incredibly skilled robot, programmed to handle all aspects of coordinating with House, the majordomo system of the manor. This facilitates any and all of the Master’s needs. Clothing selection? Check. Travel plans? Check. Shave? Check. One day, however, Charles goes a bit far. Master is unable to give new orders to Charles or House or any of the other servants, and Charles finds that an odd bit of staining is appearing on everything he’s touched in the time since he last shaved Master.

Soon, an investigation is underway, and Charles is ejected from the Manor into the wider world. Unfortunately for him, the outer world is a largely uninhabited wasteland. Fortunately, he has one more thing in his task queue. He sets off to have his malfunctions examined by a diagnostician. So begins his trek across the post-apocalyptic landscape in search of answers and a new Master to serve.

Service Model almost immediately made me think of Douglas Adams, and I can only attempt to describe the protagonist as a mashup of Marvin the Paranoid Android with Wadsworth, the butler from Clue. Our deteriorating valet needs to find out why he acted the way he did as well as what happened to all of the humans. Along the way, he gets into increasingly philosophical discussions about humanity or the lack thereof, with a growing self-awareness. The journey is more important than the destination, after all, and an unexpected companion quickly adds complications to both Charles’ sense of self and his quest.

I absolutely loved reading this book. It’s a phenomenal wandering hero narrative, with elements of allegory reminiscent of The Pilgrim’s Progress. I’m very grateful to Tor Publishing and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for a fair review. Service Model is out today.

Womb City: A Review

It is a grim time to be a woman in Botswana. Nelah is a brilliant architect running firm that is struggling with finances. Her husband Elifasi is the assistant commissioner of police in Gabarone, but he lacks desired traits to gain further upward mobility. Neither of their positions is truly secure. Nelah’s body once belonged to a young criminal, and so her husband monitors her every action through a microchip embedded in the back of her neck, lest her body return to the illegal behaviors of its former occupant. If she violates a law, a drone will swoop in and capture her so that her consciousness can be imprisoned and her body can be given to the next person in the queue for a body hop. In the distant future of Tlotlo Tsamaase’s Womb City, the patriarchy has expanded its clutches to predicting crimes, with women being disproportionately convicted of potential crimes. Nelah struggles constantly under the oppressive eye of her husband and questions what happened to the original occupant of her body that caused the loss of one of her arms before Nelah’s consciousness was placed in it.

Nelah and Eli have a deeply troubled marriage. Not only must they contend with the potential of Nelah’s current body to revert to the criminal ways of its former host, but they also struggle with infertility (Nelah claims that she is referred to as The Black Womb in the aftermath of four miscarriages). Eli wants to be a father so that he can gain clout at work, and so he and Nelah eventually put more money than they can afford into an artificial incubator. While the allows them to successfully conceive, they now have the financial obligation hanging over their heads as well. Every morning, Eli reviews recordings from Nelah’s microchip, and her every move is closely monitored, recorded through her own eyes. Eli fears that the slightest indiscretion on Nelah’s part will cause him to lose his job, or at least fail to secure a promotion. With all of these threats to her own wellbeing, Nelah begins to look for any possible out. She soon rekindles an affair with Janish Koshal, a powerful businessman who provides her with a way to prevent the microchip from recording their time together.

When a drug- and alcohol-fueled drive results in the death of a young social media star at Nelah and Jan’s hands, however, everything changes. Nelah must find a way to navigate the perils of a crushing patriarchy, save her and Eli’s child, and confront a power that she may never truly comprehend.

Womb City is a brilliant, but difficult read. It’s heavy cyberpunk with strong elements of racial and gender equality. The language is immersive, blending Setswana words and phrases throughout the narrative and painting a picture of a future that should be so much better than it is. Tlotlo Tsamaase (xe/xer and she/her pronouns) has put forth a strong adult fiction debut for those who are willing to put in the time and effort. Be warned that it isn’t for the faint of heart, and pay heed to the content warnings xe placed at the beginning of the book, because there will be no punches pulled. I’m grateful to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for an eARC in exchange for a fair review. Womb City was released today, 1/23/24. Go check it out.

Thunderhead: A Review

Hey y’all. It’s been a while since my last book review, so I’m going to talk to you for a minute about Neal Shusterman’s Thunderhead. Minor spoilers for Scythe will likely occur throughout, given that this is book #2 in trilogy.

Thunderhead is set in a future world of plenty, where death and poverty and illness and war have been eliminated by the Thunderhead, an artificial intelligence developed from what we currently call “the cloud.” Every human has nanites in their blood that reduce pain from any injury, and slowly repair any damage. And if by some unfortunate accident, you happen to die, a drone will recover your body and take you to the nearest facility where you can be revived (your first one’s free!).

However, in order to curb overpopulation, the Thunderhead allows for the Scythes. Scythes are an order of highly skilled assassins (of sorts) who exist to keep humanity’s numbers in check. They maintain a quota of gleanings, permanent deaths for a chosen few to remind people of the mortality that the entire race once faced. Anyone who is gleaned by a Scythe earns immunity for their family for a year.

Book one in the series, Scythe, follows Rowan and Citra, two young teens who are chosen as apprentices to Scythe Faraday, who intends for one of them to become his successor. Their training leads to the widening of schisms within the Scythedom, and soon they find themselves pitted against each other over the right and wrong ways to go about their duties of gleaning.

Thunderhead picks up several months after the events of Scythe, with Citra now serving as Scythe Anastasia, and Rowan operating in the shadows, gleaning other Scythes who he deems to be immoral and corrupt. Dubbed Scythe Lucifer, he lives a life on the run while Anastasia is honored for her rather benevolent take on gleaning (giving her victims a month’s warning, and allowing them to choose the means by which they will die).

This book introduces more perspectives from the Thunderhead itself, giving the reader powerful insight into the all-powerful AI’s thoughts and concerns. We also meet Greyson Tolliver, a young man who has devoted his entire life to serving the Thunderhead, and has his loyalty tested to the extreme. While this can feel like it’s drawing attention away from Rowan and Citra, it contributes to the worldbuilding. And while Scythe had a phenomenal dystopian feeling, there were many questions left unanswered that are picked up in these chapters and monologues.

Now Anastasia and her current mentor, Scythe Curie, have been targeted by a mysterious attacker who seems intent on ending them both permanently, while Rowan grapples with the consequences of his actions as Scythe Lucifer. The Thunderhead muses on the Separation of Scythe and State, lamenting its decision to refrain from interfering with the actions taken by members of the Scythedom, finding clever ways to work around the various safeguards that it has installed in society (and maybe finding out more than it was ever meant to know).

All in all, Thunderhead is a powerful followup to Scythe, a worthy companion and, to my simultaneous joy and rage, the second book in a trilogy. Book three is due in 2019, and I can’t wait to see how this all wraps up.