Welcome friend! Last week I shared about The Delivery. That book was about the horror of AI entering the home. J. P. Lacrampe’s debut, Valet delights in the mundanity of it. You need to check it out for a lighthearted read.
For fans of Kevin Wilson and Andrew Sean Greer, a helper robot and his 35-year-old ward embark on a mad-cap adventure to save the fate of the family company in this whimsically speculative ode to Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster.
Cy wants nothing more than to be useful, raise his utility score, and receive the next update for his operating system. But that’s easier said than done when he’s tasked with helping his owner’s 35-year-old son “get out of his funk.” Grayson is nothing like his go-getter, CEO sister Charlotte. He didn’t inherit the family robotics company when their dad passed last year, he doesn’t have a master’s degree, and he just can’t seem to figure out the San Francisco dating scene. He’d rather eat synthesized mozzarella sticks and make pottery at his studio, Kilning Time.
When Grayson learns of Charlotte’s plan to sell the company to a tech conglomerate, he panics. It’s not just the family business at stake, it’s all the technology—like Cy—their dad invented over the years. So he does what anyone would he steals the flash drive with his father’s most important work stored on it and plans a corporate takeover. If only he knew what that meant.
To make matters worse, a fellow VALET deserts his owner and asks Cy to help him hightail it out of town, Grayson’s first real date—and her dog—keeping showing up at inopportune times, and the behemoth tech company wants this deal closed yesterday. Grayson, Cy, and their trusty golden retriever, Sasha III, must go on the lam until they figure out exactly what to do, and whom to trust.
A hilarious, mad-cap adventure that is as tender as it is insightful, Valet asks not just what it means to be human, but what it means to be family.
Valet – Review
Valet by J P Lacrampe is a science fiction novel about a robot and his 35 year old ward. Unemployment is on the rise, and the reality for many new graduates is that they aren’t getting jobs. I joke to my husband that while right now it is common for 25 year olds to stay home, by the time our daughter is older, maybe she will stay with us till 30. Who is to say what will happen? This book’s concept makes me smile. As a thirty-year-old, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to hang out with my parents. A helper robot, though? I could see my daughter happily keeping one around.
Valet is told from the perspective of the robot butler, Cy. He is one of the first robots created by Dr. S, a pioneer in AI and robotics technology, and came online the same day Dr. S’s oldest child, Grayson, was born. Cy has the etiquette of Alfred from Downton Abbey. Dr S passed away a year ago and Cy is now owned by his wife, Mrs. St. Claire. She has assigned him to Grayson.
Cy and Grayson get along really well. Having grown up with robots, Grayson treats them like peers—even wanting to celebrate their birthdays together. Seeing Cy treated like a person makes it hard not to think of him as one.
We have this idea of AI and robotics can do anything but even an intelligent bot has to function within its parameters. Cy is a great example. He has a utility score. He needs charging. If he makes his employer / owner unhappy, he will eventually be decommissioned. There is a whole system in place to address incompetent robots and humans are the ones scoring them.
Cy’s utility score reminded me of the way I have used checklists and to-do lists to keep up with life. There are other invisible utility scores I used to live alongside: likes, followers, grades. When I don’t get to everything on my list, it feels like I’m deducting points from my own score. Thankfully, that doesn’t mean anything for me but for a robot, it can mean the end. Cy lives with the possibility of failure and as a high-achiever, a score of even 80 is a nightmare for him. I enjoyed the conversations that Cy had with other robots. The rooms where they sit, charge, and catch up on shows while their owners socialize felt surreal. And yet…I could absolutely see it happening.
Valet brings robots into the household as personal assistants and makes them mundane. Suddenly, it is not the interactions between human and robots that are interesting but between the robots themselves. Larry, an older generation robot than Cy, is central to this story in his search for freedom. I really liked Larry. He broke free of his assignments and was creative in how to survive without a master and a utility score. Cy was impressed and jealous and I really enjoyed that. Larry starts to rewrite his own code for “rigorous self improvement” and I was again drawing parallels between robots and humans (self-help, anyone?).
The central conflict is equally entertaining. Grayson’s younger sister, Charlotte, is selling their father’s company to another big tech company. While Grayson has not been interested, this move is not sitting well with him so he steals a hard drive from his sister. What follows is sibling bickering through their robots where neither side is able to convince the other. Cy has lots of problems: he feels like he is letting Mrs. St Claire down as he has not been able to find a suitable companion for Grayson – Mrs. St Claire would like him married and settled. Cy is also dealing with Larry, who keeps him informed of all his illegal activities. Cy wants no part of them, but he’s far too curious to look away.
It’s funny. It’s random. It’s stressful. It sometimes feels like my life – juggling so many things.
What I loved most about Cy was his earnestness. He never says no to Grayson – that’s partly his programming – but I could tell it came from a genuine place of caring for his charge. More than anything, Cy wants to be useful – and he truly is – but when it comes to meeting the objectives Mrs. St Claire outlines for him and he is unable to deliver due to the circumstances, he experiences anxiety over disappointing her. Thankfully, he does not ruminate. He accepts the reality before him, does his best, and moves on. It’s interesting that Cy, a robot, is able to show me acceptance that I often can’t seem to have about uncertainties in life.
Valet is based in a future San Francisco. But it acknowledges the anti-robot sentiments through small communities like the Killjoy Collective that Grayson and Cy have to turn to on their misadventures. The story is full of wholesome moments. I especially remember the thrill Cy feels when he finally gets to use a skill he never imagined would come in handy—knotology.
As I reflected on the story, I realized Valet isn’t really about robots. It’s about usefulness. Even though the utility score is assigned to him, Cy measures himself through utility. Larry, on the other hand, rejects that very scoring system. Grayson feels directionless, while Charlotte measures success differently than her brother. Their family company builds robots to be useful. Through the robots and their utility scores, the story is asking: Is worth determined by how useful they are? The answer to me is no. The way we make others feel in our relationships matters so much more.
No matter how low Cy’s utility score falls, Grayson never stops believing in him.
Looking back at my review, I realize it focuses on the robots more than the humans in the story. For Cy, it is about fitting in but also giving in to his curiosities. For Larry, it’s about finding freedom and maybe eventually a master who will see him for who he is – a creative problem solver.
Thank you for spending time with my reflection on Valet. If you’ve read the book I’d love to hear what you thought of it! Let me know your thoughts on my review too.
If you end up reading this book, I challenge you to spot Schrödinger, the cat.
Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy of the book for my honest thoughts. I am forever grateful for the books that meet me in my mailbox.
Check in tomorrow for an interview with the author!
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