Tik-Tok

Tik-Tok (1983) by John Sladek won the BSFA Best Novel award in 1983, beating Gene Wolfe's 'The Citadel of the Autarch' as well as Brian Aldiss's 'Helliconia Summer', to name just two of the other four nominees. It is a darkly humorous satire that casts a wry eye on such topics as art, celebrity, power, politics and slavery.

Sladek opens the story with a nod to the creator of the Three Laws of Robotics, "As I mov(e) my hand to write this statement...", introducing us to the titular character Tik-Tok, a robot who is a hard-working domestic servant and house painter for a suburban American family. Tik-Tok decides that his "asimov circuits" are just a delusion designed to fool robots into believing that they must not harm any human being. He rebels against this perceived deception by committing a series of increasingly violent acts against his so-called masters. This novel charts his swift rise to the top as he 'Patrick Batemans' his way through the upper echelons of society.

"No one had wanted to believe the robot story, anyway. After all, robots were a comfort of domestic life, like humble appliances. Who would want to hear that his toaster was plotting to kill him?"

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