Customer Reviews

Tik-tok

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book, with two reservations. First, you'll never find it, so this review can only torment you with false hope. Second, Sladek can give the impression of covering the same ground many times; this is at least his fourth book about robots, and the supporting cartoon cast of con men, college students, generals, etc., will be familiar to readers of _Roderick_ or _Mechasm_. Even _Roderick at Random_ was in some ways a remake of _Roderick_ rather than a sequel -- possibly because he knew the first book would go out of print and wanted to rescue some of the nicest bits.

Having said all that, I will still be reading all of these books years from now, because Sladek is every bit as clever as he thinks he is, and there's always a careful and insightful process going on within his barrage of farce. _Tik-Tok_ is also a necessary and frightening counterpoint to _Roderick_. Roderick is an innocent lost in a world that doesn't believe in robots; Tik-Tok is a brilliant sociopath and self-appointed Satan in a world where obedient robots are everywhere.

Sladek draws the obvious parallels to slavery, but more broadly the robots illustrate every possible way that people can use other people as objects; the real villain, who has set the scene for Tik-Tok's reign of terror, is the economy. (Sladek saw a few things coming in 1983: in his quest to do the greatest possible harm to humanity, Tik-Tok invents the HMO. If only the warnings of SF were taken seriously!)

You can also ignore these insights and just go with the flow as the author squeezes jokes and trivia from his sponge-like mind, although this time some of the jokes are even sicker than usual (e.g., the mean letters that Tik-Tok writes to the families of his victims). His style is hard to describe but instantly recognizable; I say this although I haven't even read this book in English -- it just can't be found, but as usual the French have preserved all of our lost culture, and I read a very good translation that even saves most of the puns.

The title character is a 'domesticated robot' living in a time when most humans own at least one and sometimes more, using them as slaves; as he awaits jugement for crimes he perpetrated, he writes his memoirs. Sladek uses a lively back-and-forth structure that weaves together two main timelines. Tik-Tok, in platonic terms, is a 'liberated prisoner' among robots: unlike the others, he is aware of what went behind his construction and 'education', but rather than alerting the other robots, he is more interested in making various experiments to see how far he can go with this discovery. His actions speak less of a downright vengeance on his one-time human masters than of curiosity - hence his relative contempt for both humans (because of their lies and contradictions) and robots (for their incapacity to wake up and refuse passive submission). The conscience of his freedom liberates him from what humans have called 'Azimov circuits' (based on the three inhibitory laws formulated by Isaac Asimov), but these, as he remarks, could very well be illusions used to solidify human authority. There's a relentless cynicism, even nihilism running through the entire work, but it is mainly upsetting because it forces the reader to re-evaluate preconceptions about the world. Whether 'Tik-Tok' ultimately convinces us of its conclusions or not, the book is too powerful to ignore.

John Thomas Sladek has mastered irony in rare form. This book is a 360 degree slap in the face. Perhaps even a warning. But not one that we will listen to. This story does not insult one's intellegence by depending upon technology, or smoke and mirrors. The plot is not self serving, or even patronizing. This is truely a tribute to our collective understanding of ourselves. Tik is easy to root for, hard to understand, and impossible to put down. 5 stars is easy to give Tik Tok. O.k. maybe 4.5, but only because I wish it was longer.

Tik Tok is two ideas in one slim fast read:

1 - Asimov's laws don't work (and never could).
2 - People are idiots.

Sladek launched his career in the SF New Wave of the sixties, and spent most of his time examining Robots and AI -- in fact in the mid-nineties he was a technical writer for a software firm. It could easily be argued that he wrote the same novel over and over -- and I should know, I've read all of them. So what. In a genre overflowing with techno-drivel and humourless prostulation, Sladek threw pies in the face of Science Fiction's sacred cows.

And he threw them HARD. His parodies of other SF writers ("I Click As I Move" and "Carl Truhacker") were uncomfortably accurate pastiches of form and content.

His masterpiece is "Roderick" (both books). But Tik Tok is still a great read, and he attacks fearlessly on all fronts: the nuclear family, conservatives, liberals, politics, scientists, intellectuals (in Sladek's universe they are not the same), and (most memorably) fast food.

Sladek died in 2000, so he never lived the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfelt regime -- but he saw it coming. Tik Tok is masterful satire because it is so close to the truth, and far more prohetic than anything Asimov ever did.

If you've never read Sladek, this is an excellent place to start.

Tik-Tok is the story of a robot who manages to overcome his 'asimovian' programming, and hence is able to do whatever he likes.

This book is also a satire, and the robot main character gets to experiment with whatever he likes. This includes murder, mayhem, manipulation, and even worse, politics.

There is a mystery for me concerning this book, which is: I have (evidently) owned it for several years. Recently, I found it (and that's the end of the "mystery"). I read it, and after doing so, the next book I read was this book (again). It really is that good, and it also has some things that, for me, stimulated thought.

Author John Sladek, now deceased, created an outrageously satirically hilarious book when he wrote "Tik-Tok." How did I miss the genius of Sladek? I really do not know, but I did.

At times, the humor is dark, and some might not appreciate that, but for anyone who wants to read a truly unique Sci-Fi book and likes to laugh, this book would be 1 of the first books I would recommend.

Besides the obvious humor, there is a deep current that is a tad bit harrowing, and that hopefully will stimulate you to think about many issues.

Regardless, if you only read it to laugh, it is well worth purchasing. I do not believe you will be disappointed if you do buy it.

Tik-Tok? Oh, Tik-Tok is a robot. He just is not a "normal" robot.

It's about a robot with non-functional "Asimov circuits". Robots are supposed to never harm a human being, or through inaction let them come to harm. Well, Tik Tok discovered that this rule doesn't apply to him. This makes him more human, and far less human. Even though this book is full of humor and wit, there is something about it that makes you THINK. I recommend it.

He is a painter. He does not know how he became aware. But somehow he butchered a blind girl whom he had said hello every day on his way to downtown. Now her kidneys are stored in fridge and her blood was used in strokes of the drawing in the host family's hallways. He can't wait to see how his family and their kids will love the artistry in him. He is a domestic robot.

The reader follows the memories of robot Tik-Tok who awaits his trial and certain execution for murder. His only mistake --- a moment of passion -- was to kill the chess player who cheated. His asimov circuits are etiher non-functional or the events and flashbacks from his early childhood have made him who he is. Perhaps the previous host, a bit lunatic, who had "some" private fun with ducks, had some effect. Not to mention torch-wielding rednecks or former judge who bought robots for his pleasure; to fulfill execution in flesh. Tik-Tok decides to take matters in his own hands. He kills sadistically over the course of the book, all while building himself a corporate empire and manipulating political opinions. He turns into high-profit hospitals, where sick people are only a burden to get rid of in a fire. He runs for president.

Two (2) stars. Written 1983 in this book won British Science Fiction Award for Best Novel in the following year. The target audience is people who like high dose of black, wry and witty humor. A robot who hires other robot's to make bombs, who rob jewelry stores and drop planes; the more people get killed the better. A robot who butchers a bystander with a knife because he opened his mount in a unfortunate moment. The killed was a supporter of Free Robot movement. The memories of this non-empathetic (psychopatic) machine are driven by ... nothing? I'm not sure if a slight remark in the book to "feel the sin" covers the search Sladek is trying to make. Fun to read the steps of this psycho? Perhaps maniacally so.

I had heard this book was an outrageously funny masterpiece of black humor, so finally, after many years I tracked it down at the library. While I discovered is a brief satire with a one joke premise that's diverting, but ages quickly. Told in 26 chapters-each of whose first word follows the sequence of the alphabet (Chapter 1, "As"; Chapter 2 "Broaching"; Chapter 3. "Culpritwise" and so on, at least until the final letters, where Sladek's gusto for this very little joke seems have run dry)-the story tells of a sociopathic robot in future America.

Tik-Tok has "asimov circuits" which are supposed to keep him from harming humans, but somehow these aren't working, or as he suggests at one point, never really existed in the first place, but are part of some massive groupthink. The result is that Tik-Tok kills sadistically over the course of the book, all while building himself a corporate empire and manipulating social and political opinion so that robots are allowed to own property and vote. This is all fairly predictable from the beginning, but what I did find unexpectedly interesting are the parallels with Bret Easton Ellis' highly controversial novel American Psycho, which was written eight years later. In both, an outwardly impeccable character engages in nasty sadism, even tells other people what's he's done, only to have them think it's a joke.

Mixed in with Tik-Tok's ascension are his reminisces of past owners, which are mostly played to comic effect, with a running commentary equating robots with slaves. Traditional caretakers of the moral status quo such as priests, judges, military, and aristocracy are repeatedly revealed to be charlatans, sadists, and just plain crazy. On the other end of the spectrum, the civil rights do-gooders of the "Wages For Robots" movement come under equal unsubtle satirical attack, as does the celebrity media industry. Capitalism itself, along with the military-industrial complex is further fodder for Sladek's acid pen. Ultimately, however, none of the satire is as subtle as I would have liked, and much of the book reads like an author riffing on familiar subjects. It's a nice addition to robot literature, but hardly the masterpiece it's made out to be.

Unfortunately i lent this to a friend years ago, he lost it, and now it can never be found! AAAARGH!

Suffice to say, it is excellent.