We Are Legion
Ratings636
Average rating4.2
I didnt enjoy the books so much when everything got fragmented with the different Bob's - that really put me off. I guess I am more of a single hero type of reader
A fun easy read with a pretty refreshing basic premise. While I wish there was a little more nuance especially when it came to the anthropological aspects and it really could do with some more characters who are women. Not that there really are characters other then the Bob's. However, it was still a pleasant light read.
More a 3.5*. Liked bits. Didn't like other bits. Trying a bit too hard to be funny, maybe.
I think my favourite part is the observation of the Deltan humanoids.
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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.
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%
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.
Damn, this was so funny. Especially the first half. I listened to it as an audiobook and it made me laugh out loud (a few times) while commuting. While I was alone! No regrets tho, enjoyed every bit. Dennis E. Taylor's writing is so insightful and his characters are so fun to follow (most of them, anyway. Gets crowded at some point) it was impossible to stop. I have to mention Ray Porter's narration as well. Hats off to you, sir, it must be a daunting task to bring all those characters to life and turn them into unique characters.
Such a fun and engaging book. Perfect for those who love nerd culture. See my review here. https://youtu.be/dpwfKAHYmS0
One of my best scifi reads till date. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
It's a fantastic collection of all things nerdy.
The book's littered with references to various scifi books, movies, tv-shows, and innumerable nerdy/geeky jokes.
The scientific concepts are equally exhilarating! Most of the tech seemed plausible, and it feels like a matured version of Doctor Who. Many of the solutions that the protagonist(s) come up with are ingenious and extremely fascinating.
There is quite literally a whole universe out there to explore, and this book really does it!
I'd strongly recommend this book to all scifi fans
Really good. Had some interesting ideas
I was very pleased with this book. It was an interesting concept that was fun to read. I'll be interested to see where it goes from here. I was caught off guard when it ended as I fully expected another chapter. But I wasn't disappointed either since I know I already have another book waiting for me in my app.
I really enjoy this series. You can tell it is written by an engineer, but as an engineer myself, I don't mind. The ideas are fantastic and it has quite a clever premise. Because most of the main characters are the same person, the author needs to just maintain one consistent voice throughout the book with a few differences. It's brilliant actually. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for something to tickle their imagination.
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.
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.
This is a superb story of mankind's first exploration beyond the solar system... told from the perspective of the AI running the unmanned ships doing the exploring. The first part of the book explains how Bob is recreated as an AI emulation of his original self, and eventually leaves Earth. The main twist (which is implied in the title) is that the ship is equipped with Von Neumann machines, capable of building copies of themselves - and of Bob. So, soon enough, there are multiple Bobs, with the first-person narrative switching between them.
After the first part of the book, there isn't really a single plot as such, more a number of different plot threads. It's also true that this isn't in any sense, a self-contained story; it's very clearly the first part of a trilogy, leaving everything open at the end, to be carried forward (presumably without much interruption) in the next volume. But this allows it to cover a wide scope of events, from Earth's climate catastrophe, to encountering another sentient species, to battling other AIs. And all from the perspective of copies of the original protagonist - each of subtly varies from the original, while still being mostly the same person.
The basic concept is, perhaps, not an entirely new one in scientific speculation, but I don't think it's ever been done quite like this before, and the whole thing is very well written. There are moments of drama, plenty of geeky humour (Bob's original self is from our time), and some great scientific speculation. It's going to be good seeing where this goes over the next two volumes.
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.
I fucking love this book.
Witty and lighthearted romp through some of my favorite concepts and thought experiments.
Unremarkable prose, but kept aloft by wonderful character(s?) and tight dialogue.
Very evocative of Douglas Adams and David Wong.
Will be recommending this book to everyone I know.
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.
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.
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.
I'm not a huge sci-fi fan, but this quickly became one of my favorite titles that I would recommend to anyone looking for a nice, modern, fun and easy to read and digest story. One can easily imagine to happen sometime in the future. The second part of the book struggles to deliver the same amount of drama and action, but it does leave you want to grab second part, and hopefully third part.
A least in the first part so many things happen in the story in just a few pages that it really contrasts to majority of modern busineess and self-help books that would fit into a blog post but are for obvious reasons streatch to ~250 pages and boooring.