Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky is $3 in the US (
Kobo,
Amazon)
One of Tchaikovsky's Hugo-nominated novels this year.
Note that it's comedic, and some readers did not get on with the humor.
Another story set in this world was published on Reactor. It's unrelated to this one and can be read beforehand:
Human Resources
Quote:
Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time.
To fix the world they must first break it, further.
Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service.
When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away.
Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose.
Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming.
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