Review by Booklist Review
During its morning routines, robot valet Charles discovers that the master of the house has died. A medical bot and detective bot arrive on the scene and determine that the master had his throat cut while being shaved by Charles. But then both bots break down, so the house majordomo sends Charles to seek reconditioning from Central Services. When Charles arrives there, they find long lines full of robots of all types, many no longer functional. The Wonk is the only robot that will talk to Charles and tries to convince them that they have the Protagonist Virus, which means they have achieved sentience. Charles cannot logically agree but believes they are defective in some way. The Wonk renames them unCharles, and, together, they begin an adventure that takes them to a farm run by a madman who has thousands of people reenacting a past of slavery to tedious commutes and impossible work situations. Award-winning Tchaikovsky (House of Open Wounds, 2024) immerses the reader in the often-tortured logic of a robot of heroic proportions whose human-facing programming wants them to be nothing more than a robotic valet.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this clever postapocalyptic adventure, Tchaikovsky (the Children of Time series) puts a pair of out-of-place survivors on a satirical journey to replace what they lost when human civilization collapsed around them. The Wonk hopes to identify robots who have become self-aware and with them build a new, better society. The other survivor, a sophisticated robot house servant redesignated as "Uncharles," wants to find a job. Even a simple employment quest is horribly complicated in an environment where repair facilities are scrap heaps in disguise due to robot overpopulation, dutiful robots fatalistically attempt to follow pointless instructions, and combat bots busily scavenge parts to perpetuate endless battles with each other. Tchaikovsky hangs a banner of tragedy over his stage, with Uncharles continually worried by the glitch that killed his owner and the Wonk increasingly disappointed in the search for a robot that thinks for itself (even one called "God" turns out to be running a program). What begins as a quest for justice, though, resolves into an appreciation of mercy as Uncharles and the Wonk lose their pasts but win a brighter future. With humor, heart, and hope balancing out the decay, this glimpse of the future is sure to win fans. (June)This review has been updated for clarity.
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Review by Library Journal Review
The robot valet Charles, soon to be Uncharles, kills his human owner, gets tossed out of paradise, and learns that the world outside the manor's doors is nothing like the vids. That world is gone, along with the humans whom Uncharles is programmed to serve. There's no one left to require Uncharles's service, the humans having grown so dependent on robots that their world collapsed; their solutions for finding purpose and meaning have devolved into greater and lesser hells of their own making. Uncharles tours the apocalypse with his slightly dysfunctional robotic companion, the Wonk, only to discover that the meaning he has been searching for has been right beside him all along. VERDICT A surprisingly thoughtful and compelling story from Tchaikovsky (Lords of Uncreation) about one robot's journey through their own version of Dante's circles of hell, complete with all the other hells they'd rather never have imagined. Readers who love a good postapocalyptic hell ride, AI-centered adventures, and robot/human companion stories, such as A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers, will appreciate.--Marlene Harris
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