So ... I wanted to read this book because it was described as Murderbot meets Red Shirts. The blurb made it seem as if Siri, Alexa, and the filter bubble had all combined forces to create a book designed to appeal to me. But that is not the way I would describe the story. To me it is more of The Remains of the Day meets I, Robot told by Kafka in a world that could be a scene from "The Matrix" or McG's "Terminator: Salvation."
Charles is a robotic valet who serves a human master. One morning as he tries to prepare his master for the day's activities, Charles discovers that the master is dead. Subsequent investigation seems to show that the culprit is Charles, who must be sent to Diagnostics and then to Decommissioning. The fact that these decisions are actually made by other robots and AI systems that need their own diagnostics run seems to be irrelevant.
Readers learn that very few humans remain. Most of those are isolated and never see each other, dependent on their robotic servants and systems to care for them. Charles passes one overgrown and abandoned estate after another as he makes his way to the Diagnostics center. Trucks trundle by loaded with produce to deliver to homes that no longer have anyone alive to eat the food. Even Diagnostics itself is an endless queue of robots quietly rusting away as they wait patiently for their turn.
Charles meets a very odd robot named Wonk, who is indeed quite wonky. Despite Charles's desire to conform to routine, Wonk manages to get the two of them out of Diagnostics and out of the city. But things aren't any better beyond the city limits. Picture the vibe of "Logan's Run" with Logan and Jessica finding tumbled ruins and psychotic robots rather than the Sanctuary they expect. The duo run into one group of oddballs after another - scavengers, robotic knights sent out to preserve knowledge in an archive that no one ever visits, military robots carrying out an endless campaign with no human overseers, and a courtroom scene that clinches the Kafkaesque nature of their journey.
If you enjoy stories in settings where civilization has broken down and survivors (human or mechanical), are struggling to come up with ideas for how to make things work, then you will find this story a refreshing foray into territory that seems both familiar and dizzyingly bizarre. The allusions and resemblances to other stories feed into this déjà vu, giving readers the same sort of sensation that Charles experiences when his subroutines try to make sense of situations he has not encountered, but still have some details in common with his previous experiences.
I read an advance copy provided by the publisher for review purposes.
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