We Are Legion

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Sometimes, I need to break from fantasy, and this book was the perfect tonic.

The story is about Robert (Bob) Johansson, a software developer who has just sold his company, making him a pretty rich guy. So, what does he do? He goes to a company to get his head frozen in the event of his death (obviously harking to the urban legend that Walt Disney got his head frozen too!).

Now the thing about Bob, is that he is also a sci fi nerd as well. He loves Star Trek, Star Wars etc, and after signing his contract to have his head surgically removed from his body if he dies. He then promptly goes off to Vegas to attend a Sci - con. Listens to a fascinating lecture on Vann Neumann probes (self replicating probes) and then leaves. However, it is in Vegas that he comes off worst in an argument with a car.

Good way to start a story, with the hero of the piece getting splattered in the first twenty pages. However, with the death of our titular hero, this is when the story starts proper, as Bob finds himself suddenly transported to 2133 and finds that he is a new and improved version of himself, well, minus a body and a head and he is in fact a computer simulation of himself. He is Bob version 2.0.

He soon learns that not only has he changed, but the whole world has too. Gone are the political systems that once ruled the world and they have now changed, with the USA has become THE FAITH ENCLAVE, which is basically a theocracy. In addition to this, Brazil has become a superpower, as has the UAE (I think it's that, you will have to excuse my memory when it comes acronyms, I always forget them), which stands for United Affiliation of Eurasia, and China.

As we move on in the story, it soon becomes evident that Bob is the property of the Faith Enclave, and he is in competition with some other A. I. s to undertake a mission of extreme importance. To be one the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets.

So, how did I get along with a book whose main character happens to be a sentient spaceship. Well, quite well actually, and this is mainly down to Denis E Taylor's writing. Yes, the main character is a sentient ship, but he is bursting with a snarky character and Taylor interjects some serious nerdom, making refernce to various bits of popular culture,which works surprisingly well.

Taylor gives Bob a surprisingly human character, and as the story progresses, Bob does become more human, especially when he replicates himself, with each ‘copy' being slightly different. Now I thought that this was a good plot device on how to introduce more characters. However, at times, I did find this more and more confusing as more copies are introduced and I kept getting lost occasionally as each chapter flits between a number of the different versions of the original Bob.

In between all this, Taylor manages to ask some big questions, like what makes us human, our concept of self and is AI actually sentient (a la the Turing Test). Which he manages to sneak in without the topics being too overbearing.

The other thing that I found a little bit cumbersome, was the description of space travel and the manoeuvrability of the ships. At times, I found that the inclusion of the differing speeds dragged the action a little, because this was done on each encounter that Bob has whilst in space. It seemed a little bit video gamey, and I was always put in mind of the video game Elite Dangerous.

I also found that the pacing stumbled a little in the second act of the book, as the main focus is on exploration, mining for minerals, obtaining enough materials etc, which became a bit repetitive.

However, the pacing does drag itself up towards the end of the second act and into the final acts, and the book starts to add in other aspects of plot, which helps it lead to it's conclusion.

All in all, I found this to be an enjoyable sci fi book that was full of snarkiness, nods to nerdom and general fun, and yep, I really enjoyed it! Oh and one other thing. I listened to this on audio and I really enjoyed Ray Porter's narration.

I really enjoyed this! I think I'm almost* exactly the intended audience, as a sci-fi fan of a certain age, because there are a lot of references to TV & movie space operas. But it doesn't have the same feel as anything else I'm familiar with. I guess the closest would be Stargate SG-1/Atlantis; like those shows, the book does touch on serious subjects, but is often irreverent. It doesn't have the emotional resonance of Stargate, but it isn't totally without heart. But just about anyone could enjoy this book; most of the references aren't obscure at all.

To me, though, there's a major flaw: almost no female characters. It's almost all about Bob and Bob's clones, of course, and I'm not suggesting any of them should've been a different gender. But any of the important side characters could've been female: the main scientist in part one, Archimedes, the British colonel, or Medeiros. Also, as a queer woman (*) I was surprised at some of the things that were not explored, such as whether FAITH was especially harsh in its treatment of women and lgbt+ people. I know it isn't that kind of book, but it felt like a weird omission to me.

I liked all the various points of view and plotlines in the second half of the book, but I especially enjoyed the time Bob spent with the Deltans. It's an interesting moral dilemma, whether to help another civilization or not, and I probably would've made very similar choices to Bob without caring about potential negative consequences. That plot is left on a cliffhanger at the end of this story, so I'm eager to start book two.

I don't recommend this book to anyone who is very religious, especially Christians. Christian theocrats have taken over the US in the near future, bringing about a 1984-ish dystopia. I see that not knowing this premise annoyed some Amazon reviewers, so I thought I would mention it.

Overall, this is a fun and interesting book. The concepts are familiar to any sci-fi fan, yet the plot surprised me many times. I'm excited to continue with the series.

People are giving more then one star for this book. No, just no. There is no redeeming quality to be found here. The premise is interesting, and maybe if I could ignore every other aspect that makes a book worth reading, I could see it come to fruition.

This is at most a casual light reading, not something I'm after.

What? 43 hours of book??? Does this get miraculously better after a while? Are people crazy? I tried to lower my standards, this still didn't make the cut.

Read 1:38 / 43:25 4%

So yeah, this was a good book! It's a quick and easy read, and I really enjoyed the science fiction and philosophical concepts that it touches on. My only real complaint is that it only takes a shallow dive into the character of Bob and his struggle to define himself. That's really a problem with my expectations and not with the book though.

Short and Sweet read, definitely pick it up if you like spaceships with a bit of nerd culture sprinkled on top. I'll probably finish the next two books in short order.

If you liked The Martian, do yourself a favor and check this out. It has the same artful blend of hard sci-fi with a really fun human story.

I recommend you just jump in without knowing too much. Following Bob's journey was really entertaining. (If you know the general storyline, it's not going to ruin it or anything. I just think the earlier chapters are more fun if you learn along with Bob what's going on.)

The only demerit I can give is that this isn't so much a self-contained novel as the first piece of a giant opus that they had to split up for publishing expediency. There is one arc that kind of comes home as the book closes, but for the most part a bunch of story is just left hanging.

Luckily there are two more books, and I have a big appetite for seeing this story sprawl out across the galaxy. So many intriguing ideas, so many threads that could come together later. Bring on more Bobiverse!

Oh my heavens. Bob. Bob might be my spirit animal. You will have to pardon me if I am late for the Bobverse party. This story has been on my TBR forever, but a good friend recommended this as a palette cleanser from all the heavy reading I have been doing lately, I bumped it up. It was the perfect bit of science fiction fun I needed to reset myself. Even better, I downloaded the audible version of this story and listened to it in tandem with reading the book. I am so glad I did. The voice acting rivals Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for how much it laughed. I am a connoisseur of the snark.

The story follows Bob Johansson as he is reveling in selling his tech company and be set up for life. What does he do with his newfound wealth? He signs a contract to have his head cryogenically frozen. It sounds like a stretch, but the author Dennis E. Taylor made it work. He sells the idea. Bob is at once a like-able character. He and his employees, whom he treats as a family, are sitting around laughing and showing support for Bob who just got out of a bad breakup. He mentions the cryogenics thing, and everyone laughs. As they should, it seems like such an absurd thing to do. Later, Bob is crossing the street and bam! Bob gets hit by a car and instantly killed. He wakes up disoriented, looking for his body. Bob's conscience has been turned into software and downloaded into a computer!

What follows is light science fiction fun. It involves enemies from other countries, duplication, 3D printing, colonization, and the human race. I laughed out loud many times reading this. Especially with the voice acting from the audiobook. This story lends itself to different voices. There are many, many Bob's by the end of it. You need to be able to differentiate easily, and even though the writing does help with the differentiation, voice changes from the audiobook speaker help a lot.

My only quibble with this story is it is a bit fragmented. There are so many Bob's and all their adventures that it can be hard to keep up with who is who and who is doing what. But this small quibble and did not keep me from enjoying the book, far from it. Check this story of the many Bob's for they are Legion and are coming to save the universe.

This book is exceptionally good. It took me years to read it because no library near me carried it but I eventually found the form on the library site for them to procure it and books 2 and 3 in the series. Well worth the wait. The concept is very interesting and I like the idea of a Star Trek v'ger style ship but instead of gaining sentience, it was a human in a computer. I can't wait to see where the series goes and how this ramps up to a true ‘Bobiverse'.

Fun read, but pretty surface level and overloaded with nerd pop culture references. Ray Porter is a great narrator, but other than that I'm honestly not sure why this book is as highly rated/frequently recommended as it is. Not bad, not phenomenal. If you like sci-fi, space operas, or nerd culture and fandom, you'll probably enjoy your time reading or listening to this. I'd say go into it expecting similar vibes to Ready Player One.

Great audiobook, can't get enough and looking forward to the next book.

If your a fan of Star Trek, Star Wars or stargaze or just of space you will love the story

The narrator makes every character sound different and it pays off in a big way. If your looking a great book to use your free credit on then this is it.

I will be looking for more books from this author and narrator.

Review originally posted at Squirtoon's Bookish Blog

Absolutely loved this. My favourite book of the year, so far. Which isn't saying a lot, but it's also my first sci-fi of the year, which could be telling me something about the urban fantasies I've been reading.

It's hard to properly review this story without spoilers, so there will be minor ones below. However, I've avoided spoiling any of the massive plot points, because where would be the fun in that. I want you to go out and experience the book for yourself, not give everything away here!

The narrator of this story, Bob, has the perfect level of sarcasm and snark. Despite his situation, which is totally out of this world, I found him, and his reactions, relatable. As a character, he's thrown into an incredible, stress-inducing situation, and how he handles it, and the sense of humour he uses to keep himself sane, is fantastic. Maybe it's because I'm a little bit geeky, but his pop culture references, that no one else understood, did make me chuckle quite a lot. If you know a certain famous science fiction TV series, you'll recognise one of the names I discuss below.

Bob, to do what he really wants to do, has to make duplicates of himself. There's one named Riker, which I took a particular liking to. I enjoyed the way the author chose to switch POV throughout this piece. Although the first time it happened threw me, as I wasn't paying attention to chapter titles. So, if you pick this book up, pay attention to them! They'll give POV info, as well as the date.

Another good thing for me, is that this novel wasn't constantly rushing forward at break neck speeds. There was the odd chapters that were more relaxing, where you had a little bit of science explained to you, instead of an intense fight. The author balanced this out well for me, so I wasn't bored of the slow-down or exhausted by the action.

From the beginning to the end, I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The intriguing start, the journey and stories that were encountered throughout the various star systems, and even back on Earth, and the stories that are still waiting to be told come the end. I will definitely be picking up the next book in this series. It's just a matter of deciding if I want to read it right now, or if I'm going to give something else a chance. Hmm, decisions, decisions.

Well that was fun! Blasted through it in a day and a half. This book's biggest asset is a main character who is just really likeable and who has a good (often understated) sense of humour. Because of that strong connection the reader just wants to know what he will do next and that he will be OK. The author takes us on a wild ride of big ideas and open ethical and philosophical questions, but it never feels like an intellectual book, because you are just wanting to know that Bob will be OK. Also it has major geek references. How many? I'd rate it 1.5 metric [b:The Martian 18007564 The Martian Andy Weir https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg 21825181]s or 0.6 [b:Ready Player One 9969571 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) Ernest Cline https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500930947s/9969571.jpg 14863741]s.Did I mention it was really fun? It was fun :-)

It's like this was written for me. I prefer SF that is centered around science and technology.
This is similar to the super science books from the 1920s, 1930s but with the tech being much closer to reality and much better writing.
I enjoyed all the Star [Wars,Trek] references and they were used appropriately.
As soon as I finished this one, I ordered the next two.
Highly recommended.

If you like Scalzi you will like the Bobiverse. Not quite Scalzi's talent for dialog but same relaxed SciFi with interesting paradoxes, thought points and nerd shout-outs. Word of warning. This is only book 1 of 3 and book 1 sort of ends with no great resolutions, so if you don't like it half way through don't bother. I will certainly line up the other 2.

As soon as I started reading this book the tone reminded me of “The Martian” and “Ready Player One”, which for me at least was a real positive. I found it just as easy and compelling to read. On the face of it it's quite a straightforward story but there's lots to think about if you scratch the surface and the pace the story doesn't give you time to get bored. I know there were some criticisms of The Martian that the protagonist was too emotionless and didn't break down enough given his situation and I can see the same accusation being levelled at the Bob character, but this is one of the main reasons I loved these characters as they have an impossible task to do and just get on with it! I really enjoyed this book and am going to go straight to number 2.

It was ok. I was expecting more based on the reviews & recommendations for this book. Not sure I'll invest the time in the next 2 in the series. It was a quick read, the narrator of the audiobook was really good. Most of the ‘jokes' revolve around sci-fi pop culture references (akin to Ready Player One which I started at some point & immediately hated & stopped reading). The middle was a slog & I contemplated just stopping, the ending picked up a bit though. There are some interesting story lines contained within here that I would have preferred to hear more about vs some of the actual plot lines the book is about. Saving grace is how short this was.