Tor UK acquires Service Model by master of science fiction Adrian Tchaikovsky
Tor, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, is delighted to announce the acquisition of Service Model and a further untitled novel from Adrian Tchaikovsky. Publisher Bella Pagan acquired UK and British Commonwealth rights with audio, excluding Canada, from Chris Scheina at Tor US.
Service Model is a satirical, tongue-in-cheek take on an alternative future – where robots go rogue in a post-humanity world. In the novel, it seems humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labour and services – provided by robot valets such as Charles. However, this domesticated robot’s core programming goes askew and he accidentally murders his owner. Charles also discovers he can also do something else he’d never done before: he can run away. Fleeing the household, he enters a wider world he never knew existed. Here, the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose. But in order to fix the world, might they have to break it first?
Service Model is a satirical, tongue-in-cheek take on an alternative future – where robots go rogue in a post-humanity world. In the novel, it seems humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labour and services – provided by robot valets such as Charles. However, this domesticated robot’s core programming goes askew and he accidentally murders his owner. Charles also discovers he can also do something else he’d never done before: he can run away. Fleeing the household, he enters a wider world he never knew existed. Here, the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose. But in order to fix the world, might they have to break it first?
Bella Pagan comments: ‘Adrian delighted me and the whole team with this fabulous, quirky take on robots and their service to humanity. Charles is the most characterful robot you could ever hope to meet – and I was utterly hooked on his journey into the murky depths of a dystopian society.’
Adrian Tchaikovsky says: ‘I had so much fun writing this novel. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to channeling writers like Douglas Adams. Sometimes the world ends in fire and sometimes in ice, but just occasionally it ends in a lot of robots trying earnestly to obey their programming.’
Tor UK will publish Service Model in hardback in summer 2024, matching dates with Tor in the US.
About the author
Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, has practiced law and now writes full time. He’s also studied stage-fighting, perpetrated amateur dramatics and has a keen interest in entomology and table-top games. Adrian is the author of the critically acclaimed Shadows of the Apt series, the Echoes of the Fall series and other novels, novellas and short stories. Children of Time won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Children of Ruin and Shards of Earth both won the British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel, and The Tiger and the Wolf won the British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel. In addition, Adrian’s Children series has won a prestigious Hugo Award. You can find Adrian on Twitter @aptshadow
About Tor UK
Tor UK specializes in speculative fiction and is a destination for the best in imaginative storytelling. A sister company to Tor Books in the US, Tor UK publishes an impressive array of award-winners, bestsellers, household names and talented debut authors. Tor’s mission is to publish out-of-this-world genre fiction and bring readers books that spark joy. It strives every year to increase the diversity of its list, publishing authors from minority backgrounds and increasing positive representation of gender issues through fiction. Reflecting this, Tor UK was shortlisted for Imprint of the Year at the British Book Trade Awards in 2023 as well as in 2022. Bella Pagan, Tor’s Publisher, was also shortlisted for Editor of the Year in 2023.
Pan Macmillan publishes fantastic speculative fiction authors including Jennifer L. Armentrout, Douglas Adams, Olivie Blake, Zen Cho, Genevieve Cogman, Cassandra Clare, Peter F. Hamilton, Lucy Holland, TJ Klune, Freya Marske, Arkady Martine, Naomi Novik, Shelley Parker-Chan, Christopher Paolini, John Scalzi and Adrian Tchaikovsky. (www.panmacmillan.com/tor)
About Pan Macmillan
Pan Macmillan is an international consumer book publisher based in the UK, publishing a very broad range of books in all formats, including print, ebook and audio, for today’s readers. Its adult book imprints include Bluebird, Macmillan, Macmillan Business, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Collector’s Library, Mantle, One Boat, Pan, Picador and Tor. Children’s Book imprints include Macmillan Children’s Books, Campbell, Kingfisher and Two Hoots. (www.panmacmillan.com)
Pan Macmillan is part of Macmillan Publishers International Ltd (MPIL), a division of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (www.holtzbrinck.com), a large family-owned media company based in Stuttgart.