Many Kind Words

A few months back, I embarked on the "Bobiverse" series by Dennis E. Taylor. The science fiction trilogy (more recently expanded beyond its original three volumes) focuses on a modern day human whose memories and personality are revived as a sentient AI in a distant future. As he self-replicates and explores the cosmos, versions of him become entangled in an increasingly diverse series of adventures.

One of the things I really enjoyed about that first book -- We Are Legion (We Are Bob) -- was that diversity. Once the premise was firmly established, the book became almost an interpolated collection of novellas, related but somewhat disconnected. Book two, For We Are Many, does continue to develop each separate thread in an interesting way. We get new copies of Bob embarking on still new adventures, while established Bob characters now face new problems.

But the book also finds ways to start connecting the stories more directly to one another. One of these is a simple technological conceit that takes on a greater role in this book, allowing freer communication between the Bobs. Another way is a new twist in the narrative, the introduction of an intergalactic alien threat to galvanize all the disparate Bobs into combined action.

It all blends wonderfully in a perfect balance between giving you "more of what you liked about the first book" and "developing the story in exciting ways." Given the central conceit that copied Bobs do not in fact behave like exact copies of one another, there's room for a lot in this book: two very different versions of "first contact" with aliens, a counter-terrorism thriller, plenty of sarcastic comedy... even (surprisingly) a sort of love story.

And, as I mentioned of book one, another highlight continues to be the audiobook performance by Ray Porter. He deftly navigates playing a dozens of characters (including many who are all to some extent the same character), nails all the humor and sci-fi references, and generally makes an already enjoyable book breeze by. When I finished For We Are Many, I thought seriously about just plowing ahead into book three.

But with reports that Dennis E. Taylor has hit a snag in his writing of the newest Bobiverse book (number five), I should probably make an effort to make the two books I have left last a while longer. As much as I'm enjoying them, they need to be savored. I give For We Are Many an A-.