My reading list includes series like “The Expanse” , “Foundation”, “Old man’s war”, “Fear saga”, “Three body problem” and “Collapsing empire”. And single books like “Seveneves”,”Ready player one”,”Redshirts”,”Not alone” and “Lock in”. To say I prefer sci-fi is an understatement. Being able to consume books by having them read to me while I perform other tasks is great.
Now that’s out of the way and you know where I’m coming from, we can get started. When I first saw this title on Audible I dismissed it as something silly. But every time I got a new credit the robots at Audible kept pushing it like I was a Bob and they my GUPPY.
So what is this series about?
A man (Bob) at the end of his twenties just sold of his company and made a deal to have his head frozen in event of his death. Not realising his death was just up the street. He wakes up in the future to find himself an AI. Original Bob is long gone, and so is the USA. Replaced with a theocracy. A world on the brink of war, Bob is going to be a Von Neumann probe. Eventually Bob gets sent out and has to compete with other space probes sent out from other countries. Along the way there are a lot of sci fi tropes that get checked and it is glorious.
Why is this series special?
What sets the book series apart from other sci fi series is the manner it treats death, AI, not being a unique person and the humor. Bob has a good and nerdy sense of humor. Not to mention the descriptions of his AI companion Guppy and the subsequent clones of Bob.
After finally reading book 1 (We are legion, We are bob) I was very pleased to find out the next book would be dropping in a few days!
Book 2 dropped this week and I devoured these books. I read through them, got them down fast. And thats probably my only major complaint. Being used to audiobooks that last 15-30 hours these went by way too fast. There is so much stuff to go into. So many Bobs. So many viewpoints. These could fill a thick “Seveneves” style book.
Another issue though: The pronunciation of planets and systems change between the books. Now this is not a major thing. But it did kind of got me out of the story the first few times it happened. But after a while you forget it.
Book two ends on a rather sad and hopeful note. I am very curious as to what the Bobs (And Guppy!) come up with to defeat the big bad.
I can’t wait for book 3 in the Bobiverse.
Now all I want to do is play a game where I get to play a Bob, have a Guppy, in VR.
The author’s site has some nice extras if you want more info and timelines on the Bobs 🙂
Author: John Bakker
Developer by trade , artist by night.
