Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it’s a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer … computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he’ll be switched off, and they’ll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.
The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad – very mad.
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This is an awesome book for those looking for GOOD science fiction. Not only does the writer convey a great narrative, but the characterization is terrific. I’ve been listening to it (which by the way, is just as amazing.) on my way back and forth to work and really find myself enjoying the BOB adventure. I’ve also listened to the next book as well “For We Are Many (Bobiverse #2)” and continue to be loyal to this story unfolding.
The idea that your mind could be stored into a computer to create a replicant is interesting. For Bob, very much so. It brings up questions about what makes you…well…you! Would you be the same? Would the real you be destroyed and this other copy is just an echo of you? A high price to be immortal. The fact that he’s a exploration probe/ship makes it even more interesting. Now he can wander the universe and see what space has to offer….both beautiful and horrifying.
It is so rare I find a book so well constructed and characterized that I almost feel there’s not enough writers in this genre that give it such a fluid feel. I definately will be reading the third book when it arrives.
Good work indeed.
You’ll feel the wonder of space, and you’ll love the many different storylines. In the end, if you don’t feel like you are apart of Bob, you read the book wrong.
Explore what it is to be human.
This book, We Are Legion by Dennis Taylor is mind-bending. It is funny, provocative, and educational. It explores what the human conscious really is, what makes us human.
It is a very fast read, the whole series can be done in a weekend. It’s available on Kindle Unlimited. Everyone should at least read the first book.
First of all, the author, Dennis Taylor, had me at the title. Then he kept me with a compelling character and an unique premise: After signing up to preserve his body after his death, software exec. Bob dies in a traffic accident. Many years later, he wakes up as a former “corpse-cycle” in a future where the U.S. is a theocracy. Bob discovers that he is a brain running a computer. Now, Bob’s competing with other former “corpse-cycles” (and Bob intends to win) to become the all important brain of a spaceship meant to search for new inhabitable worlds. The earth is done, ruined by war, climate change and pollutants. We’re on borrowed time. Oh, and the Brazilians are the bad guys and they have their own human-brain spaceship which means to destroy Bob’s ship.
I really liked this book. It’s funny and engaging. While the science might be a little shaky, the witty first person narrative and fresh, irreverent story make for a highly entertaining read, enough so that I bought the sequels.
Well, freeze my head and turn me into a von Neumann probe, this was a good book! The clever title sets the tone appropriately for a heartfelt jaunt through involuntary connectome virtualization, space exploration, and fun with aliens. It’s like Hitchhiker’s Guide meets hard sci-fi. Dennis Taylor does an excellent job of wrangling what might have otherwise been an unmanageable cast of characters created by Bob’s repeated replications. Every new Bob got a different name and took on a slightly different personality than Original Bob. Well done!
” Some things never change.”
I picked this up after a suggestion from an author. As a TOS Trekkie ( even my phone sounds like a tribble) I was fascinated by the “what if” factor. Clones, biology, AI, pop culture references, all wrapped up with Hitchhikers’ Guide ideas and reminding me of a few scifi books I read years ago. A definite High Recommendation. 5/5
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is written by Dennis E Taylor and is the first in the Bobiverse series.
“When Robert Johannson signed up to have his head frozen after he died, he didn’t really expect anything to come of it. So he was more than a little surprised to wake up over a century later as a computer program – a replicant – being trained as a deep space probe.
On his travels, he (and his replicant brothers) would encounter a maniacal Brazilian probe, intelligent stone age pig bats, infuriating bureaucrats and an evil race bent on the destruction of all species in this corner of the galaxy.
Bob’s afterlife just got a lot more interesting…”
From the first sentence, this book grabs the attention, and it keeps it right the way to the last page. Taylor’s style is fluid and easy, self-assured without being cocky, entertaining and sprinkled with some superb humour that hits its mark nearly every time.
It is written in multiple first person perspectives, which is not as confusing as it sounds as each first person is a different version of Bob. Every Bob chooses a new name for himself, generally from some area of nerddom (which is how we end up with the likes of Riker, Homer and Khan). Each has a distinct personality but is still unmistakably a Bob, which is not something that’s easy to achieve.
This is classed as hard science fiction, with no flights of fantasy fancy. Everything makes sense. At least it seems to. When we’re told about the reactionless ‘SURGE’ drive and ‘SUDDAR’ subspace communications, we think okay, and just accept it. As we accept that someone’s memories can be retrieved from a long frozen brain. This is one of Taylor’s greatest gifts: fooling us into thinking that it must make sense and telling us not to worry about it.
So, the various Bobs go off on their adventures, exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life. There are many, many threads to follow but Taylor trusts his readers to be of reasonable intelligence and expects them to keep up.
This book raises some intriguing questions as well, pondering the nature of life, and death, and whether a computer can be truly sentient – and human. Would you want to be replicated after you die? I recently ran a poll, and it turns out most of us would: 152 respondents opted for replication; 12 declined. Would a replicant have a duty to humanity? When dealing with a primitive alien race, what level of contact would be damaging to that race? And should a replicant teach them skills to avoid extinction? These are some deep and powerful themes to explore, but Taylor handles them all with a light touch, some humorous quip never far away.
This is a superb start to an epic series, and if there is any justice, will not only be regarded as one of the greatest science fiction stories of the past few years, but one of the greatest sci fi stories ever.
All hail the Bawbe.
I didn’t love it.
High off of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, I heard about Bobiverse being like Hail Mary and dove in.
Meh, is my response. I didn’t hate it, but I did not love it either.
Not sure what it was about Bobiverse that just didn’t connect with me
funny, and the idea. “If a man had all the power to explore the universe and if he’s immortal” boom. It was fantastic instantly gonna pick up next.
What a fun premise and story! Bob Johansson has just retired and has his retirement to look forward to. Unfortunately, he is killed crossing the street at a SF Convention in Las Vegas. Luckily, he had just signed a contract to have his head cryogenically frozen. When he (or, at least his mind) awakes a century later, he’s a bit confused to find an ultra-religious government has not only seized his assets but declared him less than human and prepares him to be the brains in a self-replicating Von Neumann interstellar probe. This book really feels like the author enjoy writing it and that shows through.
The story reminded me a great deal of John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War,” in both the plot and the copious amount of snark from the main character. It also prompted memories of “Ready Player One,” with its heavy and continuous references to ‘historical’ geek culture. I flew through the first third of the book, enjoying the concept, it’s implications, and watching Bob deal with his new reality. The final two-thirds was still enjoyable but didn’t have the magic of that first third. Once Bob gets out among the stars and begins replicating himself the story jumps from Bob to Bob with rapid pace and little depth. This does move the plot along quickly, but we give up some potential here, skimming and skipping along the events. There is some good action and interesting ideas, but I never felt ‘Bob’ was in any real danger, as there are so many of him, and we never get into enough detail to feel connected to any of the single iterations. The ending wraps up several of the storylines, but clearly paves the way for follow-on books. It was enough closure that I didn’t feel cheated as so many opening books in a series do these days. The science felt plausible to me, although I’m not a stickler for technical details.
My biggest complaint is that we only get one important character in this book. Well, many slightly different iterations of the same character. Hence no significant female characters and no diversity. I suppose you could give the book a pass on this, as the plot literally calls for this focus on the main character and his variations. And despite the flaws, I enjoyed the story all the way through. I didn’t find it predictable, and there were enough possibilities that I will likely track down the sequels at some point.
Four stars for this fun romp through the galaxy with a sarcastic group of Bob clones filled with exploration, action, and intriguing ideas. All hail the bawbe!
I couldn’t put this one down. It’s a great hard scifi story about a 21st century man whose consciousness is resurrected a hundred years later to act as the controlling AI in a Von Neumann probe. Soon there are lots of copies making first contacts (some good, one really really bad.) It’s also a philosophical argument about what it means to be human.
Favorite line: “Yes, they still make duct tape, and it still holds the universe together.”
i am quite impressed and am eagerly looking forward to book 2 & 3
If you’re a Star Trek fan, beware. You will love this book too much.
Imagine a Trekkie got programmed as the AI of a spaceship, made multiple spaceship clones of himself, and then got to explore “strange new worlds and new civilizations.” And geeked out the entire time about it.
Just go read this. You’ll thank me later.
New Favorite Author!
Couldn’t put it down. Smart novel with a fantastic sense of humor without going overboard. It was full of geekiness (only moments of getting lost in the tech-lingo).
The whole Bobiverse series was quite a surprise. The author gave such different voices and personalities to each “clone”. And I became very attached to many of the characters and was sad when it was done. I actually experience this series as a narrated book and listened to the entire series twice in the same year because I couldn’t bear to leave the universe that the author built.
The tone of this book is very similar to The Martian, equal parts erudite and snarky. However, despite the irreverent sense of humor, this is very much a hard sci-fi book involving stuff like Von Neumann probes and the physics of space travel. The author takes the time to explain the more technically challenging stuff for less-technical readers. It got challenging to keep track of all the characters and what they were doing as it kept going but overall it was a very fun read. The audiobook version was outstanding. Narrator Ray Porter captured the author’s sarcastic tone perfectly. I have no doubt the experience of listening to the audiobook was better than reading it on my own would have been.
Imagine that you are a geek who just sold his company to reach millionaire status. Then imagine you die and wake to find yourself the sentience of a massive ship able to replicate and explore the many cosmos for eternity.
One of my favorite Sci-fi books of all time!
This is currently my favorite sci-fi series in the world. I absolutely love everything about this series except that it only has 3 books so far. I wish it had 20. Highly recommend!
One of the best hard SF books I’ve ever read – zipped through all of them in a row! The basic idea is that the easiest way to travel to the stars is to send machines to do it for us, with an intelligence on board. Instead of an artificial intelligence, Bob’s sentience was transferred. Most human intellects didn’t survive digitization, but Bob thrived. And made more Bobs. And the Bobs saved humanity. Original and truly fun.