Murder, Manners, and Machine Learning in ‘Service Model’

Imagine a post-apocalyptic England, a well-mannered wasteland, where the apocalypse has occurred with tea service. Welcome to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Service Model, a robot comedy of manners that reads like Wodehouse reprogrammed by Asimov after bingeing Black Mirror.

“Never Lie” by Frieda McFadden

The pages of “Never Lie” practically hum with the urgency of a writer who couldn’t type fast enough to keep up with her own ideas. This is not a book that pauses for breath—or for polish. And yet, somehow, that’s part of the appeal.