The Crossed Keys Chronicle

Valet

Cover

I’ve been on a pretty big sci-fi kick lately when it comes to reading, which has been a nice change of pace from books exclusively about murders which had been my go-tos for the start of the year. One negative to that though, is that a lot of sci-fi these days if it’s not post-apocalyptic, it’s at least pretty dystopian. Given the state of the world these days, it’s nice to find something that is just an enjoyable read. Valet by J.P. Lacrampe is a great example of this, despite its main character being a robot.

In Valet we follow a trusty robot butler named Cy whose current job is helping Master Grayson get his life back on track. Grayson is the eldest son in the family that runs the Ai+ company, the company that created Cy and is the dominant robotic company in the world. Cy is an older model and was personally created by the company’s founder Dr. Richard St. Claire, Grayson’s dad. Since Richard’s untimely death nearly a year ago, Cy has been directed by Grayson’s mother to try and get the 35-year-old slacker to become a more productive member of society.

Cy’s skills are put to the test when Grayson is informed his sister Charolette is planning to sell the entire company to GloCo in exchange for her becoming the head of their android division. Grayson soon discovers that the real reason for the intended merger is secret AI/Robotics data stored away by his father for safe keeping. What follows is a madcap adventure across a near future SF, as Grayson tries to maintain his family’s company’s independence and Cy has to deal with his ever decreasing Utility Score.

As I said in the opening, this book is really a lot of fun. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons to the book being a Jeeves and Wooster adventure, and while I’ve never watched or read any of those stories, from what I know about them I can agree that it has those kind of vibes. It’s very far from a hard sci-fi novel, but the little bits of world building are really great. From the robots who have their own version of public transportation, to a fancy SF restaurant being named Eat.exe, there are tons of little details for the reader.

If you are interested in a light summer read that still has a nice sci-fi bent, I highly recommend Valet. Its ultimately optimistic portrayal of self aware robots, might even give you a little hope for the future.