Review:
Charles (soon to be renamed Uncharles) is a robot valet in a decaying manor, in a decaying world. For reasons unknown, he slits his master's throat one day while shaving him and is forced to go out into the world to find Diagnostics, get fixed, and hopefully find new employment. Along the way, he meets another defective "robot," The Wonk, who tells him he's been infected with the Protagonist Virus, something that supposedly lets robots behave outside of the ways they were programmed.
I went into this expecting to love it. I like robots, I like sci-fi. I had never previously read one of the Tchaikovsky's books, but I'd seen reviews that left me thinking I should try some of his stuff one day. There was a good amount of absurdist humor at the beginning of this, and I was prepared to enjoy it.
Unfortunately, the story of Uncharles and The Wonk turned out to be a tedious and excruciating journey that led to a reasonable enough ending, but not one good enough to justify the amount of work required to get there. I got the impression that parts of this book were supposed to be funny in a "ha, ha, these robots are so ridiculous" Wodehousian way. Instead, it was mostly frustrating and increasingly horrific.
I generally like dark humor. Initially, I enjoyed the absurdity of the "murder mystery" this started off with. Charles knew he'd killed his master, called the police, and admitted it to them. However, the police who arrived were robots that, just like Charles, had a very specific way they were programmed to do things. When a murder happened, you were supposed to look for clues and solve the crime - it doesn't matter if the murderer is repeatedly confessing.
I just got so tired of this, and nothing about it (the characters, the world, etc.) truly made me want to keep reading despite the frustrating moments. I powered my way through this as best I could, and then didn't even feel like the effort was worthwhile. Even the Librarians were more of a disappointment than anything. There were kernels of good ideas here, but the execution was utterly exhausting.
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