The Bobiverse is a space opera trilogy consisting of three books (We Are Legion, For We Are Many, All These Worlds) written by Dennis E. Taylor.
We Are Legion is a pretty fun read. It is definitely space opera and based around an interestingly original premise: Bob wakes up and discovered he has basically been reincarnated as a machine intelligence (based on his original personality and brain scan). Bob basically gets hit by a bus walking back after he signs the contract to digitally preserve his brain after death.
The story moves forward with Bob becoming the animating intelligence for a spaceship that is exploring the galaxy looking for habitable planets for humanity. While this is going on Bob figures out how to clone (or more accurately, copy) himself. But these new copies are not identical to the original, and eventually the story splits multiple times as we start to follow what happens with these new Bob copies, who each get their own names and chapters.
I must admit the story gets a little bogged down in the minute details of space exploration at that point but here the fact that the author deliberately deploys humor (oftentimes quite nerdy in nature) is a key plus that kept me engaged in the story. I am curious to see how the story continues and concludes so I will probably read the sequels, eventually.
Title: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1).
Author: Dennis E. Taylor.
Paperback: 383 pages.
Publisher: Worldbuilders Press.
Date Published: September 20, 2016.
Date Read: July 28, 2017.
GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★ (4.0/5.0).
OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).
PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A.
Interesting and fun space opera
For We Are Many is the second book in the Bobiverse series. The key idea is the premise that consciousness can be stored and replicated in an electronic format. Additionally, the plot involves the exploration of the Galaxy and the colonization of multiple planets by the remnants of humanity, steered by artificial intelligences who are copies of the original Bob.
Another key storyline in this book is based around the discovery of a primitive alien species called the Deltans that is basically in the Stone Age stage of development. Bob spends a lot of his time following the Deltans and begins to come to terms with the fact that he is basically immortal which means he will eventually outlive most of the people (and aliens) he has grown close to.
In addition to the benevolent aliens known as the Deltans, we are also exposed to another species, this time one which is incredibly malevolent. The Others, as they become known as, are sort of like interplanetary locusts. They enter a star system and strip of it all metallic elements, and they also kill any alien life but, ominously, remove the bodies. Eventually we discover that they are using the metals to build a Dyson Sphere around their home star, and it is presumed they use the alien bodies as a food source.
Overall, it's really hard to think of this book as a distinct story separate from the first book that precedes it and the one that succeeds it. In some sense, the trilogy as a whole makes up one complex story.
Title: For We Are Many (Bobiverse, #2).
Author: Dennis E. Taylor.
Paperback: 321 pages.
Publisher: Worldbuilders Press.
Date Published: April 18, 2017.
Date Read: August 2, 2017.
GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★ (4.0/5.0).
OVERALL GRADE: A-/B+ (3.5/4.0).
PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A-.
All These Worlds is the third (and presumably, last) book in the "Bobiverse" series. The action follows seamlessly from the end of the second book For We Are Many. The premise of the Bobiverse is that an electronically replicated version of a human brain (which happened to have originally been in some dude named "Bob") is able to exist in perpetuity in computers. Bob has made multiple copies of itself and solved numerous technological issues to oversee the colonization of multiple habitable planets in our galaxy. The Bobiverse is the volume of space which copies of Bob (each of which is slightly different from the original Bob, and become their own individual personalities and computer-based intelligences) travel through. By Book 3 we have hundreds of Bob-copies running around the Universe, controlling ships and weapons. (Another key feature of the Bobiverse is the existence of 3-D printers, which can produce copies of many physical objects given the plans and the metallic resources, including making copies of 3-D printers!)
Humanity still exists, but it is trapped on an Earth which is slowly turning uninhabitable due to environmental changes (but too quickly for the .1% of humanity that remains barely alive on it). Some fraction of the Bobs spend a fair amount of their time managing the discovery, exploration and colonization of habitable planets in other star systems by humans, with the question of how to physically remove and save the remaining 16 million human beings marooned on our home planet becoming a central issue (colony ships can only hold up to 10,000 people at once, which means one need 1600 colony ship trips in order to save humanity).
Most of the time the Bobs find aliens that are technologically inferior to humanity and cause no problem but eventually they run into aliens whom they call the Others who are building their own Dyson sphere (a gigantic habitable structure which surrounds a star) and are basically pillaging star systems for the resources necessary to create their own home. They are definitely Bad Aliens and thankfully since space is pretty big, the humans and Bobs can mostly avoid them, until time comes when they can't and The Others decide to travel to our solar system.
Overall, apart from the existential question of what will be done about the Others, and whether humanity be saved (come on what do YOU think will happen?) there is not much dramatic tension in this (or, frankly, any of the previous books) but as a trilogy the three books are a pleasant diversion, especially if you are a fan of stories about space opera, first-contact with aliens or interstellar exploration.
Title: All These Worlds (Bobiverse, #3).
Author: Dennis E. Taylor.
Paperback: 282 pages.
Publisher: Worldbuilders Press.
Date Published: August 8, 2017.
Date Read: August 16, 2017.
GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★ (4.0/5.0).
OVERALL GRADE: A/A- (3.83/4.0).
PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: A.
WRITING: A-.
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