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

Product Information

But after his launch the responsibility on his head/s is immense. He has to find colony worlds for humanity, deal with armed crazy rivals, deal with potential alien life and maybe save humanity itself. This would be conflict and tension enough for many writers, but not for Taylor - on top of everything else a near-unstoppable existential threat makes itself known, to the terror of the Bobs and their human friends. While working at his day job as a computer programmer, Taylor self-published his first novel and began working with an agent to try to publish his second novel We Are Legion. However, Taylor still had difficulty getting any publishing house to take on his work, and eventually published it through his agent's in-house publishing arm. An audiobook rights deal with Audible was also reached. Once recorded, We Are Legion became one of the most popular audiobooks on the service and was awarded Best Science Fiction Audiobook of the year. [1] This is a fun adventure and I awarded top rating for the sheer enjoyment. It is not a perfect book, far from it, but it enthralled me and for that I am grateful. And now to wait for the sequel...

I discovered this book blessed (?) some of the Bobs, (most especially Howard), with defined human feeling. Even though the Bobs are all clones of the original Bob and they have his memory, once they set off on their own, they develop their own personalities, and they get to name themselves. In Howard's case, that seems to include the development of feelings towards a few humans, and this portion of the story touched my heart so much, I can't even. 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. in motion. Obviously, there’s a third book and with the protagonist’s nature, this might just be a longer series. Bob rarely stops to think about the impact of his meddling. When he encounters sentient life on a planet he doesn't think twice about blowing holes in the ecosystem or introducing more advanced technologies into their civilization without considering the fact that he's taking away opportunities for them to develop things on their own.

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

It's hard to tell what is meat and what are bones of this novel. Humor, pop culture references and hard sci-fi parts are intertwined into singular, cohesive whole. Story is also reason why this isn't getting full 5 stars or pacing to be more precise. In second half of the book story branches into multiple paths with several PoVs (all of which are Bobs) and pace slows down significantly. All of the storylines are interesting but at few points they are just too slow. It's also important to note that pretty much everything is left unresolved. It doesn't necessarily end with cliffhanger but every story arc is left wide open.

The terraforming story on Vulcan involves a bit of a love story for one of the Bob AIs, something I wasn’t expecting. It’s not overdone, and it is a natural issue to arise when immortal AI personalities interact with humans, though some dismissively label them “ephemerals.” I actually found this storyline quite moving, which was an added bonus from a book where I was mostly expecting light-hearted space adventure. It blew me away that almost two hundred years after Shatner first famously didn’t actually say, “Beam me up, Scotty,” people still knew Star Trek. Now that’s a franchise." This is a great sequel to We Are Legion (We Are Bob) that brought about significant development in both the characters and the plot.Also, just follow Howard's story with the Irish scientist! What a love story! I felt sooo much for him - time and time again! Although he still suffered when losing his friend despite that guy having married his love.

One of the things I loved about this book was all of the research and effort Taylor took to get the Science right. The lecture Bob attends in Vegas called "Exploring the Galaxy" is frequently quoted to remind us that this concept is grounded in Science. Eventually the entire universe will be explored by self replicating probes. Combining this idea with a relatable human personality was a brilliant premise and I can't wait to see where the series goes. Earth is riven by struggles between competing power blocs with their own interstellar probe programs, and Bob has to deal with bombs, sabotage and political pressure before he even makes it into space. When he eventually reaches space, and begins to send copies of himself through the galaxy, We are Legion branches off into multiple engaging narratives across tens of light years. The device of having multiple slightly different versions of the same person is surprisingly effective. We get to follow along with uptight Bobs, gregarious Bobs, antisocial Bobs and of course, the original Bob as they explore strange new worlds, seek out new life etc. etc.(intentional Star Trek reference- the Bobs make a few of them in Taylor's book).FOR WE ARE MANY (Bobiverse #2), in my opinion was even better than the first book and Ray Porter plays a large part in that. Do you feel like a holiday from the world? Do you feel like like you need to read something fun, something easy to race through, something that will immerse you in an interesting and entertaining universe? If so, Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse series should be your next reading destination.