I really enjoyed this book. It’s the first book by Adrian Tchaikovsky that I’ve read and it is a stand alone novel about an AI robot valet, Charles who works in a full on stately home with a whole staff of servants who are all AI robots specifically made for their individual jobs. One day Charles inexplicably slits his master’s throat with a straight edge razor and doesn’t know what to do next, trying to convince his master to eat something to make him feel better, or take him for a nice drive in the car. It’s a deep and insightful but humorous dystopian sci-fi, with hints of Marvin the paranoid android. Charles (or ‘Un-Charles’ as he loses the right to the name when he is sent to diagnostics) goes on a quest to find out why he did this thing and on the way begins to realise that he can think and make his own choices beyond what has been programmed into him. I loved it!
Sarah Wray Writer 