We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse Book 1)

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I enjoyed the first part of this series, but part two was a bit of a letdown. The main character "Bob" and all his AI clones (which are all inexact variations of his core personality) have become a little too annoying for me. I mean, who is this book for? It's not a young adult book. But the man (lol, he's an artificial intelligence based on a human template with emotions) has to deal with apocalyptic destruction, species-wide genocide and personal heartbreak and yet he can't muster up a single obscenity? It's like his personality is G-rated. It got on my nerves after a while. Similarly, his humor was not humorous, it has become cheesier than in part one. I have seen this setting in many Sci-Fi novels, but never as the driving force for a series. It must be extremely difficult to write a novel out of such a confining perspective and still integrate so much suspension and wit into it. It certainly helps that the Bobs can multiply and that the worldbuilding and technobabble take some room in the opening novel. This way of immortality always leads me to the question of why people tend to believe that death has to be an integral part of society as if funerals were great fun and stinking corpses roses. There is a great video about this topic Thrown in is nerdiness galore, just enough easter eggs to make it perfect for someone like me, funny situations, a great sense of humour that doesn't make the story too comical, and a fair amount of action. In the opening of the book our titular Bob is in Vegas for a Science convention. Bob is a nerd who likes Science and Star Trek and owns a software company. While in Vegas, Bob is convinced by a "Sales critter" that he shouldn't pay to have his whole body cryogenically frozen. He argues that in the future the technology will exist to grow Bob a whole new body, so Bob agrees upon his death to have his head removed and frozen. What has he got to lose?

A total aside: my husband was watching the Science Channel the other night and the show was talking about 3D printers and I asked if Von Neumann probes were mentioned. He looked at me as if I were a nut. No, he said. Two minutes later the show went into what they were and how they would work and I puffed up with pride. (Picture Fredo Corleone: "I'm smart!") This was great. The situation that the Bobs find themselves in are SF staples and the multitudes of himself allow the book to investigate all of them. The Bobiverse is a rich universe filled with danger and wonder and quite a lot of Bob. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) really took me by surprise, it had a unique angle to the space theme and I liked the main protagonist(s). With this second installment you know exactly what you are going to get. Exactly! Dennis E. Taylor is creating some of the best science fiction in recent times – his Bobiverse is outstanding. I gave his premier book in the series – We Are Legion – a five star and the second in the series, first published in 2017, is almost as good.

Publication Order of Bobiverse Books

The plot was also very clever and dynamic. Admittedly, I didn’t really care for the first few chapters, finding Bob aloof, standoffish and unlikeable. Little did I know though, this was intentional set-up for the later parts of the novel. Bob eventually learns some interesting lessons about his identity and his life, which I suppose comes with the territory of interacting with multiple versions of yourself. In fact, despite the tensions involved during the earlier parts of the book involving the development phase of the space probe and Bob’s training, I didn’t feel that things took off until well into the story—right around the same time he started replicating himself, which shouldn’t be too surprising given how so much of this book’s awesomeness is directly related to the shenanigans of the many Bobs. I won’t ruin it by going into details, but I adored following Riker, Bill, Homer, and all of the others (each iteration of Bob gets to choose their own names, most based on their favorite childhood TV shows and interests growing up int the 90’s) along on their respective adventures. The only "problem" I had was that one of the other probes (why should only one nation have someone like Bob?) was a career military guy who nevertheless got blown to smithereens by Bob(s) and on more than one occasion; outmaneuvred by a civilian who had no military training and (at first) no experience whatsoever which was a bit too easy for my taste.

It was good and well-written but didn't have a singular story line to get invested in or excited about throughout the novel. I thought it was pretty standard fare with some cool ideas thrown in. Without the bobs it would have been a little dull and even with them it wasn't remarkable. That´s just a little, conventional aspect of the whole thing, but the fact that the war machinery is the main protagonist and can optimize its killing ability to a level even pure AIs might not be able to, is an interesting, fresh sci fi aspect. Because there are many collective hive minds or evil insect queens controlling all of its minions, optional with some officers and generals with more activated brainpower in between or bred less degenerate than the worthless cannon fodder warrior caste, but no democratic collective of many clones fighting in perfect coordination for altruistic reasons. Firstly a moment of self congratulation, I was literally the first person aboard the Bobwagon and spread the Gospel of Bob far and wide for its brilliant premise and unique blend of humour and hard SF. I was excited to see the book develop a cult following and eagerly anticipated the sequel. This is sci-fi done in a way I’ve never really seen before. While the tone of the narrative is familiar, with its snarky humor and heavy infusion of geek pop culture jokes, the story and the characters and the worlds feel different and fresh. Like a funnier, more action-oriented version of The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet, it is presented in a format that feels almost episodic and digressive, but I was surprised to find I didn’t mind the divergent plotlines too much. Mostly, this was because of how fun it was to follow all the “Bobs”. Dennis E. Taylor has turned what could have been a lonely tale about a solo space explorer into an uproariously entertaining experience filled with many vibrant and unique personalities. The characters in this book are all one person—but they are also not. The story actually makes it a point to emphasize that the Bobs are distinct individuals, each possessing different aspects of the original.The storyline at times felt like the reimagining of the computer game sim city….. inter-galactic style.

Taylor has been noted as one of many popular authors that debut their work in audio form rather than print to take advantage of the explosive growth of the audio medium. [2]The Stern magazine praised Taylor's distinctive humour style, often based on nerdy inside jokes and references. [7] Recognition [ edit ] Have you ever wished you could undertake true space exploration but realistically believed that your lifespan may not be long enough to survive the journey? Well, not if you are Bob. Part one of the story revolves around Bob's "resurrection" and training for the mission to space. The story had my curiosity at this part, but I wasn't actually into the story. Eventually Bob the A.I. reaches the skies, and the story-telling fragments around four plot-lines (vaguest of spoilers follow). One, whether or not anyone on Earth is still alive after the war that launched Bob. The second, Bob's quest to seek out new habitable planets for humanity. Three, engagement with the other Bob-like technologies; and four, the discovery of sentient races. Since Bob has cloned himself but allowed for small variations in personality factors, each of these viewpoints is slightly different. Not different enough, however, largely because inter-Bob dialogue consists of smart-ass remarks and saying things like, “Hey, Gherkin. Miss me?” “Not from this range. Want to place a bet?” Goku’s tone was light, but I knew he was irritated. Because, well, I would have been. “Bite me. Did you look over the pics I sent?” If you liked the genius inventive loner engineer of The Martian and you also liked the amazing universe-building and rambling episodic nature of The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet then you're probably going to love this book.

Taylor lives near Vancouver, Canada with his wife and daughter. He enjoys snowboarding and mountain biking when he isn't writing or traveling. [19] Bibliography [ edit ] Bobiverse (2016–2021) [ edit ] No. Bob Johansson wakes up many years later only to find out that the corpsicles have already been declared to be without any rights, and Bob is now the state property. He has already been uploaded to computer’s hardware and he’s slated to become the controlling AI in the interstellar probe that’s looking for the habitable planets. Stakes are high here: no lesser than the 1st claim to whole worlds. If Bob declines this honor, he shall be switched off, and in turn, they will try again with another person. If he decides to accept, he will become a prime target. As the story unfold, there are 3 other countries that are trying to get their probes launched first, and so they play dirty. A fun and funny but unspectacular space opera elevated by a clever narrating voice(s) and unique set-up.So a story where a contemporary human is turned into an AI and has AI like abilities, while familiar is already pretty interesting to me. The fact that Dennis E Taylor wants to tell the story of a modern human becoming a self replicating Von Neumann probe opens up the entire universe and allows the reader to experience it from a perspective we understand and can relate to - the "lovable geek". This is the second book in the Bobiverse series and it was wonderful again. Sure, some say that it's a bit slow because of the science and exploration and different locations, but that is exactly what I love (apart from the fantastic narrator, Ray Porter, in the audio version). I recognized Dr. Landers’ voice. The word was “missiles.” Um. Ways in which a sentence beginning with the word “missiles” could be a good thing… Nope. I got nuthin’." Bob is the safest in space, going away from planet Earth at top speed. That is what he thinks, anyway. The universe has many nasty things in them. Trespassers make them angry, very angry. We follow a number of Bobs all over different solar systems that watch the Deltans (that's Bob#1), finding new planets, even other sentient species, a number help humanity out of sol so we don't die out ... and some make less positive encounters.