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Bobiverse #3
All These Worlds
Being a sentient spaceship really should be more fun. But after spreading out through space for almost a century, Bob and his clones just can't stay out of trouble.
They've created enough colonies so humanity shouldn't go extinct. But political squabbles have a bad habit of dying hard, and the Brazilian probes are still trying to take out the competition. And the Bobs have picked a fight with an older, more powerful species with a large appetite and a short temper.
Still stinging from getting their collective butts kicked in their first encounter with the Others, the Bobs now face the prospect of a decisive final battle to defend Earth and its colonies. But the Bobs are less disciplined than a herd of cats, and some of the younger copies are more concerned with their own local problems than defeating the Others.
Yet salvation may come from an unlikely source. A couple of eighth-generation Bobs have found something out in deep space. All it will take to save the Earth and perhaps all of humanity is for them to get it to Sol - unless the Others arrive first.
They've created enough colonies so humanity shouldn't go extinct. But political squabbles have a bad habit of dying hard, and the Brazilian probes are still trying to take out the competition. And the Bobs have picked a fight with an older, more powerful species with a large appetite and a short temper.
Still stinging from getting their collective butts kicked in their first encounter with the Others, the Bobs now face the prospect of a decisive final battle to defend Earth and its colonies. But the Bobs are less disciplined than a herd of cats, and some of the younger copies are more concerned with their own local problems than defeating the Others.
Yet salvation may come from an unlikely source. A couple of eighth-generation Bobs have found something out in deep space. All it will take to save the Earth and perhaps all of humanity is for them to get it to Sol - unless the Others arrive first.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 8, 2017
About the author
Dennis E. Taylor
16 books6,673 followersI am a retired computer programmer, an enthusiastic snowboarder, and an inveterate science fiction reader.
And, apparently, an author now. Did not see that coming.
And, apparently, an author now. Did not see that coming.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,229 reviews
April 12, 2022
The Bobs lift off towards instant cult, fusing a grain of military sci-fi with social sci-fi themes, uplifting, space exploration, and especially the context of biologically inspired built AI, immortality, and the relationship and friendship with real humans
Perfect balance
During most of the journey, the story jumps between 2 alien species who need some uplift, the fight against 2 enemies, the relationship between one bob and a woman, and the ruins of Earth. By combining these short bits, Taylor fuses a wonderful picture of different settings that make every reader happy, no matter if worldbuilding, emotions, or battles are the preferred sci fi alien drug.
Indoctrination ruining endless heaven
Who else, if not faith and ideology, should ruin the idea of immortality? It´s even kind of understandable, because this would destroy the business model of heaven and hell, thereby making all the holy men, especially JC, sad and that would be bad. Kind of out of the grave, short before disappearing, good old fanatic extremism tries to do as much damage as possible. Especially when playing parship therapist for
An AI and a human
That could be forever in love if there weren´t brainwashed kids that are against the relationship. Because, completely logical, a relationship between a human and a human (of the correct gender, sexual orientation (not so much race anymore although that´s secretly still quite important for many people)) is cool. But an AI construct of a human and a human, that´s so sinful that they first need to find a word for this extreme perversion. Behind this, one could see the sad and avoidable consequences of technophobia fueled by intolerance, hate, conservatism, and sheer stupidity.
Flexing the sci-fi potentiality muscles
How this series combines all the often used, but never so ingeniously combined, mixed, and reinvented tropes of the best genre to rule them all, shows what is and will be possible. And as if this wasn´t already great enough, it´s filled with loads of nerd humor, innuendos, and also just some of the easiest to consume and follow sci-fi ve read in a long time. May the Bobs be with you when entering this outstanding, new milestone.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
Perfect balance
During most of the journey, the story jumps between 2 alien species who need some uplift, the fight against 2 enemies, the relationship between one bob and a woman, and the ruins of Earth. By combining these short bits, Taylor fuses a wonderful picture of different settings that make every reader happy, no matter if worldbuilding, emotions, or battles are the preferred sci fi alien drug.
Indoctrination ruining endless heaven
Who else, if not faith and ideology, should ruin the idea of immortality? It´s even kind of understandable, because this would destroy the business model of heaven and hell, thereby making all the holy men, especially JC, sad and that would be bad. Kind of out of the grave, short before disappearing, good old fanatic extremism tries to do as much damage as possible. Especially when playing parship therapist for
An AI and a human
That could be forever in love if there weren´t brainwashed kids that are against the relationship. Because, completely logical, a relationship between a human and a human (of the correct gender, sexual orientation (not so much race anymore although that´s secretly still quite important for many people)) is cool. But an AI construct of a human and a human, that´s so sinful that they first need to find a word for this extreme perversion. Behind this, one could see the sad and avoidable consequences of technophobia fueled by intolerance, hate, conservatism, and sheer stupidity.
Flexing the sci-fi potentiality muscles
How this series combines all the often used, but never so ingeniously combined, mixed, and reinvented tropes of the best genre to rule them all, shows what is and will be possible. And as if this wasn´t already great enough, it´s filled with loads of nerd humor, innuendos, and also just some of the easiest to consume and follow sci-fi ve read in a long time. May the Bobs be with you when entering this outstanding, new milestone.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
August 23, 2017
Homo Sideria
I love it. Actually, I love this entire series.
So much happens, but it's mostly snippets and sub-plots for multiple personalities spread across vast distances across space. Of course, that's kinda necessary since it's one man in an AI matrix duplicating himself massively and communicating real-time over fantastic spaces, doing good as he mines and fabricates and fights battles with aliens, insane AIs from old Earth, talks with friends or adopted relatives or just goes the terraforming route or just about anything else he wants to do.
He's pretty much a machine god in our future, but he's also just Bob. Geek from our century. Doesn't really want anything for himself but is perfectly willing to do so much good for so many people, it's really rather sad how much people take advantage of him.
In this third book, however, we come to a head with the alien ships that chew up and spit out whole worlds, and it's everything I'd hoped it would be. :) All the sub-plots include romance, exploration, guilt, and just plain getting pissed off, but what else can we expect? I feel for him. :)
Great trilogy. Possibly some of the most refreshing stuff I've read in ages. :)
I love it. Actually, I love this entire series.
So much happens, but it's mostly snippets and sub-plots for multiple personalities spread across vast distances across space. Of course, that's kinda necessary since it's one man in an AI matrix duplicating himself massively and communicating real-time over fantastic spaces, doing good as he mines and fabricates and fights battles with aliens, insane AIs from old Earth, talks with friends or adopted relatives or just goes the terraforming route or just about anything else he wants to do.
He's pretty much a machine god in our future, but he's also just Bob. Geek from our century. Doesn't really want anything for himself but is perfectly willing to do so much good for so many people, it's really rather sad how much people take advantage of him.
In this third book, however, we come to a head with the alien ships that chew up and spit out whole worlds, and it's everything I'd hoped it would be. :) All the sub-plots include romance, exploration, guilt, and just plain getting pissed off, but what else can we expect? I feel for him. :)
Great trilogy. Possibly some of the most refreshing stuff I've read in ages. :)
March 17, 2018
Can the unabashed geekiness of the first two Bobiverse books continue and deliver on their protagonists' mission to find new habitable worlds for humanity in the final book of the trilogy? Yes! I enjoyed Dennis Taylor's All These Worlds and felt it reached a satisfying conclusion (although if there was a Bobiverse #4, I wouldn't complain). For me, it took a little while to get going, but it hit its stride when it returned to issues of what it means to be human and whether that could change the way we interact with each other in the future. From there, it sped on to the Bobs completing their mission and their withdrawal (into the sunsets).
January 1, 2018
4.5 stars.
All These Worlds was a great and satisfying conclusion to the Bobiverse trilogy, one which I will deem as pretty darn original. It's really not your typical space opera nor near-future cyberpunk science fiction story. Well-written and combining various elements of science, space exploration and humanity, it was a compelling and oft-times humourous package.
Given that this is the final chapter in the many adventures of Bob, I will refrain from mentioning anything about the plot to avoid even the tiniest potential spoiler. I will, however, relate why I wholeheartedly enjoyed this entire trilogy.
Firstly, it satisfied the geek in me. The one who yearned to have the opportunity of space exploration and at the same time realised that the time and distances being contemplated are just simply too vast and incomprehensible for a mortal's lifetime. The technological advances that the Bobs eventually brought to fruition was realistic as well as it didn't feel way too expedient nor convenient. The Bobs also had to contend with resource bottleneck and management when it comes to producing enough vessels, stasis pods for the migrating human colonies, and ordnance for defence.
After a full century since the original Bob woke up to discover that he became a computer programme, what I'd prefer to call nonbiological human intelligence as artificial intelligence just doesn't cut it, the engineer in him had made significant leaps in advancement for the human race to start colonising other planets. However, dealing with an even more advanced power-hungry alien race was another matter altogether.
The writing style was accessible while maintaining some elements of hard science and astrophysics, such as time dilation of space travel and all the other abstract concepts that come with this field. It was the audiobook narration that truly made a difference to my enjoyment. Ray Porter injected personalities into the Bobs, with distinct yet subtle nuances between the many generations of clones from the original Replicant.
The episodic feel of the story gradually begun to fade as the narrative moved towards an event which was suitably climactic. The switching of first-person POVs between the key Bob characters (that's the first time I ever wrote a phrase like that) was executed seamlessly in my opinion.
What I love most about this story was how it dealt with the aspect of what it means to be human. Bob was not an AI learning to have emotions. He was essentially human; simply a nonbiological one with all the capabilities to feel love, happiness, grief, sorrow, regrets.. the whole shebang. Through the various Bobs' engagement and inevitable relationships with "ephemerals", there was quite a lot of emotionally-charged moments as the reality of outliving their loved ones hit hard, as in really really hard.
With that, I have to say that I highly recommend this series to fans of science-fiction and space geeks, and especially for audiobook fans of this genre.
This review can also be found at Booknest
All These Worlds was a great and satisfying conclusion to the Bobiverse trilogy, one which I will deem as pretty darn original. It's really not your typical space opera nor near-future cyberpunk science fiction story. Well-written and combining various elements of science, space exploration and humanity, it was a compelling and oft-times humourous package.
Given that this is the final chapter in the many adventures of Bob, I will refrain from mentioning anything about the plot to avoid even the tiniest potential spoiler. I will, however, relate why I wholeheartedly enjoyed this entire trilogy.
Firstly, it satisfied the geek in me. The one who yearned to have the opportunity of space exploration and at the same time realised that the time and distances being contemplated are just simply too vast and incomprehensible for a mortal's lifetime. The technological advances that the Bobs eventually brought to fruition was realistic as well as it didn't feel way too expedient nor convenient. The Bobs also had to contend with resource bottleneck and management when it comes to producing enough vessels, stasis pods for the migrating human colonies, and ordnance for defence.
After a full century since the original Bob woke up to discover that he became a computer programme, what I'd prefer to call nonbiological human intelligence as artificial intelligence just doesn't cut it, the engineer in him had made significant leaps in advancement for the human race to start colonising other planets. However, dealing with an even more advanced power-hungry alien race was another matter altogether.
The writing style was accessible while maintaining some elements of hard science and astrophysics, such as time dilation of space travel and all the other abstract concepts that come with this field. It was the audiobook narration that truly made a difference to my enjoyment. Ray Porter injected personalities into the Bobs, with distinct yet subtle nuances between the many generations of clones from the original Replicant.
The episodic feel of the story gradually begun to fade as the narrative moved towards an event which was suitably climactic. The switching of first-person POVs between the key Bob characters (that's the first time I ever wrote a phrase like that) was executed seamlessly in my opinion.
What I love most about this story was how it dealt with the aspect of what it means to be human. Bob was not an AI learning to have emotions. He was essentially human; simply a nonbiological one with all the capabilities to feel love, happiness, grief, sorrow, regrets.. the whole shebang. Through the various Bobs' engagement and inevitable relationships with "ephemerals", there was quite a lot of emotionally-charged moments as the reality of outliving their loved ones hit hard, as in really really hard.
Their lives were now less than a footnote in history. As gone, as utterly forgotten as any random individual from the Middle Ages. No longer even a ripple in time, except to the extent that I could keep their memories alive.
With that, I have to say that I highly recommend this series to fans of science-fiction and space geeks, and especially for audiobook fans of this genre.
This review can also be found at Booknest
August 23, 2017
So ... I guess this is it. Time to say goodbye. *sniffles* Though the author has promised he isn't done with the Bobiverse, the We-Are-Bob-cycle has come to an end with this third volume.
Again, we have different replicants of the original Bob in different corners of the universe (but by now, they all have or can have bodies thanks to ever improving designs for android bodies). Again, they are either on a discovery trip, trying to save what's left of humanity, or watching aliens species on their respective planets. This is a nice continuation of the story arcs opened up in the previous two volumes with a few more or less unexpected twists (some thrilling, some sad, some funny).
What I like is that this trilogy is an exploration of what would happen if time/distance wasn't an issue and you'd have a whole universe to play in/with. Nevertheless, as broad as the scope can be, there are also story elemens that focus on the smaller (read: not less important) settings/themes. Some might say there is little to no action, but I disagree because it depends on how you define "action". To me, it was very thrilling to go with the original Bob and watch an alien civilisation live their lives; or to explore another planet's marine wildlife (I'm so on board getting into all kinds of android bodies like that of a dolphin-equivalent in order to be able to study those oceans on Poseidon or whatever other environment on any planet); or to save humanity. Not to mention that we did get two pretty cool space battles!
I was surprised that almost nobody was tempted by the offer to become a replicant. That was seriously weird considering how humans love the idea of living forever (I count myself amongst those people). Not to mention the freedom and sheer endless possibilities in the universe.
Some characters infuriated me ( spring to mind immediately, but also ). Lucky for everyone involved (and reading), all Bobs do feel at least a certain amount of responsibility so it's all hands on deck.
The book was, as the previous two of this trilogy, full of geeky goodness and I loved it. Sure, some Bobs have become darker after certain events in the previous two volumes, but they will always be awesome as a person. And they all stay true to themselves which also explains the truly perfect ending (we come full circle and yet there is no actual limit/ending).
And for anyone wondering: the narrator was brilliant (again) when voicing each replicant in a unique way (he also does a pretty good Aussie accent) so I recommend the audio.
Again, we have different replicants of the original Bob in different corners of the universe (but by now, they all have or can have bodies thanks to ever improving designs for android bodies). Again, they are either on a discovery trip, trying to save what's left of humanity, or watching aliens species on their respective planets. This is a nice continuation of the story arcs opened up in the previous two volumes with a few more or less unexpected twists (some thrilling, some sad, some funny).
What I like is that this trilogy is an exploration of what would happen if time/distance wasn't an issue and you'd have a whole universe to play in/with. Nevertheless, as broad as the scope can be, there are also story elemens that focus on the smaller (read: not less important) settings/themes. Some might say there is little to no action, but I disagree because it depends on how you define "action". To me, it was very thrilling to go with the original Bob and watch an alien civilisation live their lives; or to explore another planet's marine wildlife (I'm so on board getting into all kinds of android bodies like that of a dolphin-equivalent in order to be able to study those oceans on Poseidon or whatever other environment on any planet); or to save humanity. Not to mention that we did get two pretty cool space battles!
I was surprised that almost nobody was tempted by the offer to become a replicant. That was seriously weird considering how humans love the idea of living forever (I count myself amongst those people). Not to mention the freedom and sheer endless possibilities in the universe.
Some characters infuriated me ( spring to mind immediately, but also ). Lucky for everyone involved (and reading), all Bobs do feel at least a certain amount of responsibility so it's all hands on deck.
The book was, as the previous two of this trilogy, full of geeky goodness and I loved it. Sure, some Bobs have become darker after certain events in the previous two volumes, but they will always be awesome as a person. And they all stay true to themselves which also explains the truly perfect ending (we come full circle and yet there is no actual limit/ending).
And for anyone wondering: the narrator was brilliant (again) when voicing each replicant in a unique way (he also does a pretty good Aussie accent) so I recommend the audio.
October 9, 2017
I love the Bobiverse.
Dennis Taylor has created a fun, entertaining and sometimes thoughtful series, and I’m genuinely sad to see it end.
In saying that, I don’t feel that All These Worlds is a worthy finale for the Bobiverse trilogy. While this is still an enjoyable book it just isn’t the big finisher that the Bobiverse needs or deserves.
The format of the two previous books continues here- a series of first person almost diary-like vignettes from the various Bob’s that are spread throughout the galaxy, exploring, inventing, helping sentient species and shepherding the remainder of humanity after war has devastated Earth.
The threat of the others is still hanging over humanity and as the Bob’s severely pissed their enemies off in the last book, the danger this time around is directed straight at our (many) heroes and their human charges.
Conflict and danger abounds, but... It all feels a bit cursory. Perhaps due to the first two books being so full of ideas, so jam packed full of plots that need resolution- The Others, original Bob’s sentient humanoids, a potential Bob-human romance, Bill’s exploration of new tech, Riker’s need to evacuate Earth’s remaining millions before the hostile climate kills everyone, the crazy Brazilian probes that pop up to derail Bobkind's plans – one (short) book just doesn’t feel like it offers enough room to tie all the loose ends off.
As a result the big threat – The Others - is knocked off too easily, in a manner that you would expect a menacing alien super-civilisation to have thought of and perhaps planned for. It just felt too convenient, and a big space battle that the Bob’s have with the Others lacks the excitement of their earlier engagement around the Pav homeworld in For We are Many.
Original Bob’s relationship with Archimedes is carried through to a conclusion that is more satisfying, and a romance angle works out pretty well, but my overall impression is one of a series being wrapped up too quickly for my tastes.
That’s not to say this is a bad book – it isn’t – but it also isn't what it could have been and it leaves what is a great series a little undercooked.
Dennis Taylor has created a fun, entertaining and sometimes thoughtful series, and I’m genuinely sad to see it end.
In saying that, I don’t feel that All These Worlds is a worthy finale for the Bobiverse trilogy. While this is still an enjoyable book it just isn’t the big finisher that the Bobiverse needs or deserves.
The format of the two previous books continues here- a series of first person almost diary-like vignettes from the various Bob’s that are spread throughout the galaxy, exploring, inventing, helping sentient species and shepherding the remainder of humanity after war has devastated Earth.
The threat of the others is still hanging over humanity and as the Bob’s severely pissed their enemies off in the last book, the danger this time around is directed straight at our (many) heroes and their human charges.
Conflict and danger abounds, but... It all feels a bit cursory. Perhaps due to the first two books being so full of ideas, so jam packed full of plots that need resolution- The Others, original Bob’s sentient humanoids, a potential Bob-human romance, Bill’s exploration of new tech, Riker’s need to evacuate Earth’s remaining millions before the hostile climate kills everyone, the crazy Brazilian probes that pop up to derail Bobkind's plans – one (short) book just doesn’t feel like it offers enough room to tie all the loose ends off.
As a result the big threat – The Others - is knocked off too easily, in a manner that you would expect a menacing alien super-civilisation to have thought of and perhaps planned for. It just felt too convenient, and a big space battle that the Bob’s have with the Others lacks the excitement of their earlier engagement around the Pav homeworld in For We are Many.
Original Bob’s relationship with Archimedes is carried through to a conclusion that is more satisfying, and a romance angle works out pretty well, but my overall impression is one of a series being wrapped up too quickly for my tastes.
That’s not to say this is a bad book – it isn’t – but it also isn't what it could have been and it leaves what is a great series a little undercooked.
August 24, 2019
“The fact is, man has never stayed by a single ideal. The mass enthusiasm when you were young gave way to cool, rationalistic classicism. Today that’s being drowned in turn by a kind of neoromanticism. God knows where that will lead. I probably won’t approve. Regardless, new generations grow up. We’ve no right to freeze them into our own mold. The Bobiverse is too wide.”
― Poul Anderson, Tau Zero
OK, so I changed that quote a little. Dennis E. Taylor’s FABULOUS! Bobiverse series reminded me of GrandMaster Poul Anderson’s work from the first book, what with Bob Johanson’s consciousness being uploaded to a computer, and he flying into space and making copies of himself, who in turn make more copies, and now we have lots of Bobs flying around saving humanity.
Taylor wraps up a trilogy here but not sure if he’s done with this concept, there are still many ways to make this keep going and he might.
In this installment we find our Bobs mastering the art of android production to where others cannot readily tell the synthetic is not for real. We get to see a no holds barred grudge cage match with the nefarious Others. We participate in a whole species getting moved to a new planet and MUCH MUCH MORE!!!
One idea that Taylor explored here is the immortality of the Bobs and how they interact with ephemorals (us short lived humans). This still has all the geeky fun we’ve come to love in this series but with some somber introspection about who we are in this great big Bobiverse.
Good times and I’ll most definitely read more from Mr. Taylor.
― Poul Anderson, Tau Zero
OK, so I changed that quote a little. Dennis E. Taylor’s FABULOUS! Bobiverse series reminded me of GrandMaster Poul Anderson’s work from the first book, what with Bob Johanson’s consciousness being uploaded to a computer, and he flying into space and making copies of himself, who in turn make more copies, and now we have lots of Bobs flying around saving humanity.
Taylor wraps up a trilogy here but not sure if he’s done with this concept, there are still many ways to make this keep going and he might.
In this installment we find our Bobs mastering the art of android production to where others cannot readily tell the synthetic is not for real. We get to see a no holds barred grudge cage match with the nefarious Others. We participate in a whole species getting moved to a new planet and MUCH MUCH MORE!!!
One idea that Taylor explored here is the immortality of the Bobs and how they interact with ephemorals (us short lived humans). This still has all the geeky fun we’ve come to love in this series but with some somber introspection about who we are in this great big Bobiverse.
Good times and I’ll most definitely read more from Mr. Taylor.
August 17, 2017
When it comes to final books in a trilogy, I need more than just more continuations from the previous books. The last book should give some closure and bring some conclusions to the various themes it brought up. This didn't do those things. While I could forgive the run-of-the-mill nature of the second book, having the final book be more of the same was disappointing. Yes, there are conclusions to a handful of the side-plots, but nothing satisfying in terms of making a statement on the various themes.
The writing is still nice and light, with the narrator of the audiobooks doing a great job throughout the series. However, over the course of the series, you start to notice a lack of depth in terms of characterization and plotting. While there were a few original ideas initially in the series, by the time we get to this instalment, there's nothing noteworthy to talk about.
I liked some of the ideas which wereexplored touched on, but I often found myself disagreeing with the author on how humans would behave in the various scenarios. Like how many people would want to make use of the consciousness replication technology and how many would bother picking a fight with an AI like Bob. There were a few cases like that where the humans made decisions based on plot, rather than common sense or believable human behaviour.
This was a very short book and a relatively short series, so while it's nothing spectacular, I would recommend it to people looking for a light sci-fi story. Might have worked better as a single book with a big chunk of the fluff taken out, but even so, I'd rate the series a 3/5.
The writing is still nice and light, with the narrator of the audiobooks doing a great job throughout the series. However, over the course of the series, you start to notice a lack of depth in terms of characterization and plotting. While there were a few original ideas initially in the series, by the time we get to this instalment, there's nothing noteworthy to talk about.
I liked some of the ideas which were
This was a very short book and a relatively short series, so while it's nothing spectacular, I would recommend it to people looking for a light sci-fi story. Might have worked better as a single book with a big chunk of the fluff taken out, but even so, I'd rate the series a 3/5.
October 25, 2018
I don't even know what to say about this, the final entry in the Bobiverse series.
I guess I'll say it's funny, suspenseful, interesting and sad all at once. Some of the Bobs, (the original and all of the clones in their various incarnations), are getting tired, (I know, clones? Tired? But it's true), and who could blame them? Their entire reason for existing is saving and protecting humanity, even those that don't think they need protection or saving. Every human that the Bobs know is dying. When they do die, the Bobs will continue on. Forever. Imagine how that must feel. Even as clones, the Bobs all have distinct personalities and they still have feelings. (I know, feelings in clones? But in the Bobiverse it makes sense, trust me.)
Regarding their main goals-will they save humanity from the "Others" (a species similar to that of Species 8472 from Star Trek: Voyager), will they save it from the mad Brazilian's clones? Will they be able to finally evacuate all of earth before it can no longer support human life? You'll have to read or listen to find out!
I say goodbye to the Bobs and to Ray Porter's voicing of him with tears in my eyes. Thank you Dennis E. Taylor and Ray Porter for bringing Bob to life. I really enjoyed getting to know him.
My highest recommendation for this entire series, available on Audible only.
*I bought all of these audio books with my hard earned cash and this opinion is honest.*
I guess I'll say it's funny, suspenseful, interesting and sad all at once. Some of the Bobs, (the original and all of the clones in their various incarnations), are getting tired, (I know, clones? Tired? But it's true), and who could blame them? Their entire reason for existing is saving and protecting humanity, even those that don't think they need protection or saving. Every human that the Bobs know is dying. When they do die, the Bobs will continue on. Forever. Imagine how that must feel. Even as clones, the Bobs all have distinct personalities and they still have feelings. (I know, feelings in clones? But in the Bobiverse it makes sense, trust me.)
Regarding their main goals-will they save humanity from the "Others" (a species similar to that of Species 8472 from Star Trek: Voyager), will they save it from the mad Brazilian's clones? Will they be able to finally evacuate all of earth before it can no longer support human life? You'll have to read or listen to find out!
I say goodbye to the Bobs and to Ray Porter's voicing of him with tears in my eyes. Thank you Dennis E. Taylor and Ray Porter for bringing Bob to life. I really enjoyed getting to know him.
My highest recommendation for this entire series, available on Audible only.
*I bought all of these audio books with my hard earned cash and this opinion is honest.*
August 9, 2017
4.5 (review edited)
To say that I am a fan of this series is no secret. Therefore, the fact that I downloaded the audiobook as soon as it was available (yesterday) and consumed it as fast as I could, around real life that is, will shock no one :O)
Taylor offers us the continuing adventures of the Bobs. If you loved the second book, you'll be very happy with this one too, especially since we get some resolutions. Once more, the narration is shared between several iterations of our favourite geek extraordinaire, keeping us in the loop with their 'missions', whether dealing with the ever present threat from The Others, witnessing Archimedes and his people, managing the relocation of the surviving humans, and coping with the shenanigans of the ones already relocated (you know, the power hungry idiots).
Yes, it is more of the same, but it is such a brilliant and compelling 'same'. I just love listening to all the different 'Bobs', their ideas, their pains, their hopes, their loves, and yes their sense of humour. It is also different. The Bobs, especially the 'older' ones, have changed under the influence of their experiences. Additionally, Taylor does bring the curtain down in a satisfying fashion, while leaving enough scope for another series in the future. Call me happy. Now to resist the temptation to start book 1 again...
To say that I am a fan of this series is no secret. Therefore, the fact that I downloaded the audiobook as soon as it was available (yesterday) and consumed it as fast as I could, around real life that is, will shock no one :O)
Taylor offers us the continuing adventures of the Bobs. If you loved the second book, you'll be very happy with this one too, especially since we get some resolutions. Once more, the narration is shared between several iterations of our favourite geek extraordinaire, keeping us in the loop with their 'missions', whether dealing with the ever present threat from The Others, witnessing Archimedes and his people, managing the relocation of the surviving humans, and coping with the shenanigans of the ones already relocated (you know, the power hungry idiots).
Yes, it is more of the same, but it is such a brilliant and compelling 'same'. I just love listening to all the different 'Bobs', their ideas, their pains, their hopes, their loves, and yes their sense of humour. It is also different. The Bobs, especially the 'older' ones, have changed under the influence of their experiences. Additionally, Taylor does bring the curtain down in a satisfying fashion, while leaving enough scope for another series in the future. Call me happy. Now to resist the temptation to start book 1 again...
September 2, 2018
Thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy. I loved the first book the most, it was intriguing as heck! I love this author's writing style so much. I do think I have dozed off and missed some bits in my audiobook of the 2nd one so I was a bit lost in this one, but that's entirely my fault, and yet somehow I still enjoyed it. Definitely something I might re-read in a physical format to make sure I follow everything, I don't mind going through it again. But the TBR size is dire so who knows if that will happen.
A superb sci-fi!
A superb sci-fi!
March 29, 2017
The best book I haven't read this year!
February 29, 2020
The Bobiverse trilogy wraps up here in All These Worlds, as we continue to follow the "replicants" of the original Bob who lived two or three hundred years ago. Replicants are digital copies of a human's brain who live in virtual worlds, but can also control space ships and communicate with humans. By now there are, I think, a few hundred iterations of Bob. When a new replicant or clone is made, they have to choose their new name, and interestingly, the personalities can be quite different from the original.
Like the prior two books, this one skips around between about six different main plotlines, each featuring a different Bob clone. One (only one, really?) Bob clone falls in love with a human woman, and drama with her family ensues. By now the Bobs have figured out how to insert their consciousness into androids - which aren't always in human form. We've also got Bob clones trying to figure out how to save Earth and its colonies from Evil Aliens, how to save a planet's colony from Evil Government, hanging out with another group of aliens (disguised as an alien himself) and trying to help their society survive and improve, and more.
The concept got a little worn for me with this third book, and I was never able to buy into the idea that almost no humans had interest in surviving as a replicant after their deaths. I would think there would be thousands of people highly interested in having their consciousness survive, especially after the Bobs have worked out most of the disadvantages of being a digital clone. But it's still a fun read, and I got attached to a few of the Bobs.
I recommend the trilogy if you enjoy straight-up hard SF, a little old-fashioned in its sensibilities.
Like the prior two books, this one skips around between about six different main plotlines, each featuring a different Bob clone. One (only one, really?) Bob clone falls in love with a human woman, and drama with her family ensues. By now the Bobs have figured out how to insert their consciousness into androids - which aren't always in human form. We've also got Bob clones trying to figure out how to save Earth and its colonies from Evil Aliens, how to save a planet's colony from Evil Government, hanging out with another group of aliens (disguised as an alien himself) and trying to help their society survive and improve, and more.
The concept got a little worn for me with this third book, and I was never able to buy into the idea that almost no humans had interest in surviving as a replicant after their deaths. I would think there would be thousands of people highly interested in having their consciousness survive, especially after the Bobs have worked out most of the disadvantages of being a digital clone. But it's still a fun read, and I got attached to a few of the Bobs.
I recommend the trilogy if you enjoy straight-up hard SF, a little old-fashioned in its sensibilities.
August 7, 2018
I started reading this series and first found it entertaining: We Are Legion We Are Bob (Bobiverse, #1) (my review). I read the second book and then put the series aside. I finally found some beach time to pick-up this final book to finish-off the series. This book is readable, YA, has some good ideas and tech. In places it’s amusing. However, it's part of a series that is too derivative to be interesting to a serious reader of science fiction. In addition, this series ought to only be published as an Omnibus edition.
The author's prose is workmanlike. Dialog is better than action sequences. The dialog can be flip in places. However, I did not find it laugh-out-loud funny. The humor tends to be geek humor. Action scenes tend to be abbreviated. The Bob’s talking amongst themselves consumes a lot of pages. The shifting POV of the Bob-clones was better handled in the earlier books when there were fewer Bobs. I frankly was only able to tell the difference in them based solely on location.
The story is strictly YA. There is violence, but no bloodshed. In addition, the Bobs oddly have no serious interest in sex. Maybe they edited it out of their programs?
The main character is The Bobs. Bobs are a Nerd Action Hero . The Bob-clones are OK. Despite a large attempt at showing the Bobs to be be differentiating themselves-- they're not really very different from each other. The 'other' characters are very thin. Where are the female characters?
Plot is a mashup of almost every SF trope you can imagine: Brain Uploading , Absolute Xenophobe , Clones Are People, Too , Prime Directive et al . I note the author didn't visit The Singulary trope. That one was a tailor made ending for the Bobs. I have also thought, the author took the long way around in plotting out his story to create more Bobs chapters and introduce more tropes. With every new, well-worn trope introduced, there was another Bob or pair of Bobs spawned. I frankly got tired of new tropes and new Bobs. This story also ends the series. All the plot lines are neatly tied-up. Original Bob rides off into the sunset after setting things right with humanity. ( I still think the Mederios plot line was left hanging.)
World building is good enough, but a bit superficial. The author couldn’t go too much into detail with all his Bobs in the air. The Tech is credible, including the astronautics. There are no overt violations of The Laws of Physics. (That is until the Bobs invented the Ansible .)
This series is YA science fiction made for TV. It’s not even TV-14. The author has too many good ideas and plenty of Bobs to run with them. However, the multitude of Bobs wore thin on me. The series reminded me a of a SF Party Pack where there is one or two small packets of every flavor SF trope, but not enough of the best ones. In addition, the splitting up of the books in the series did the reader a disservice. I should never have started until all the books were complete. The first two books just ended, sometimes in awkward spots. (This is no longer a problem at this writing.) I can’t figure out why this series is so highly rated. I’m glad its over.
Readers interested in books like this should look into The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
The author's prose is workmanlike. Dialog is better than action sequences. The dialog can be flip in places. However, I did not find it laugh-out-loud funny. The humor tends to be geek humor. Action scenes tend to be abbreviated. The Bob’s talking amongst themselves consumes a lot of pages. The shifting POV of the Bob-clones was better handled in the earlier books when there were fewer Bobs. I frankly was only able to tell the difference in them based solely on location.
The story is strictly YA. There is violence, but no bloodshed. In addition, the Bobs oddly have no serious interest in sex. Maybe they edited it out of their programs?
The main character is The Bobs. Bobs are a Nerd Action Hero . The Bob-clones are OK. Despite a large attempt at showing the Bobs to be be differentiating themselves-- they're not really very different from each other. The 'other' characters are very thin. Where are the female characters?
Plot is a mashup of almost every SF trope you can imagine: Brain Uploading , Absolute Xenophobe , Clones Are People, Too , Prime Directive et al . I note the author didn't visit The Singulary trope. That one was a tailor made ending for the Bobs. I have also thought, the author took the long way around in plotting out his story to create more Bobs chapters and introduce more tropes. With every new, well-worn trope introduced, there was another Bob or pair of Bobs spawned. I frankly got tired of new tropes and new Bobs. This story also ends the series. All the plot lines are neatly tied-up. Original Bob rides off into the sunset after setting things right with humanity. ( I still think the Mederios plot line was left hanging.)
World building is good enough, but a bit superficial. The author couldn’t go too much into detail with all his Bobs in the air. The Tech is credible, including the astronautics. There are no overt violations of The Laws of Physics. (That is until the Bobs invented the Ansible .)
This series is YA science fiction made for TV. It’s not even TV-14. The author has too many good ideas and plenty of Bobs to run with them. However, the multitude of Bobs wore thin on me. The series reminded me a of a SF Party Pack where there is one or two small packets of every flavor SF trope, but not enough of the best ones. In addition, the splitting up of the books in the series did the reader a disservice. I should never have started until all the books were complete. The first two books just ended, sometimes in awkward spots. (This is no longer a problem at this writing.) I can’t figure out why this series is so highly rated. I’m glad its over.
Readers interested in books like this should look into The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.
March 10, 2018
When the limitations of a single human lifespan are removed from a sentient being's development, what will happen? Will the being go mad, become frozen emotionally, decide to destroy the Universe and see what happens next?
Bob Johansson finds out.
I am jealous of Bob, I am happy Author Taylor decided to write Bob down, and I am all done with the series of novels explaining the Bobiverse. Kinda sorta wish I wasn't but I am, and I think a lot of y'all should pack a Kindle with these three novels and light out for the Bobiverse right quick. The reason is that, in reading the books in order, you'll come to realize that Author Taylor doesn't have a high opinion of the species and still makes a concerted effort to save us. He doesn't consign us to the scrapheap of history with a shrug and a ~meh~.
In this moment of US national history, it's probably more than I'd be able or even willing to do, so it made my days a bit brighter. I'm happy to be jollied along by the greater generosity of a Man with a Plan. And so, I suspect, might other guys be. And I stress the "guys" part—this is a Guy Book in every particular. There are very few female characters and only one is at all developed. Even she is a guy in a woman suit.
She does provide something unique to the Bobiverse...she has a family, kids who grow into beings both like and unlike her. Her relationship with those kids as all the parties age...Bob, in his own way, ages as well...makes for some excellent drama and some astonishing emotional resonances with readers over 50.
I'm also at the point in life where another factor of the Bobiverse, the meditation on personal immortality and the options it provides, is particularly interesting to me. I don't think I'm quite as eager for it at my age as I would have been at Bob's age (31) when he dies. I'm not saying it doesn't have a huge upside. I'm saying that I now feel as well as see the downside, the inevitable losses and griefs piling up under the carpet until the Karastan is basically a blip on the Everest of stuff not dealt with. Author Taylor goes there, as well, and I suspect it's a subject of newfound interest to the intended audience for the book.
The idea of family comes in for some particularly inventive workouts in the Bobiverse. One of the intriguing things about immortality, particularly in Bob's form of multiple "clones" of his conscious mind branching from the moments of separation, is the expanded family sense it offers. Each new generation of Bob-clones is one more removed from Original Biological Bob, then Replicant Bob, then the cloned Bob-minds that cloned Bob-minds that now clone Bob-minds...yet all have perfect digital recall of the "ancestral" Bobs to the moment of their awareness as individuals begins.
Mind-blowing, isn't it? Think on it: generations of sibling-selves with your character! Every facet would be fully explored, of course, like all siblings each unique individual would seek to become different, to distinguish itself from all the others around it. In effect, though the clones would start with certain memories as a base of contact with all the other sibling consciousnesses, as the generations of cloning take place the point of commonality would be deeper and deeper under the sense of personal uniqueness.
It would be fascinating to see this play out! I wanna be in the Bobiverse, dammit!
Except, of course, for the Bobiversal solution to the Fermi Paradox ("where is everybody?"), the Others. A better monster-movie villain I ain't never read. Scary. Don't deny yourself the simultaneous pleasure and fear of experiencing the Bobiverse! Like, now!
Bob Johansson finds out.
I am jealous of Bob, I am happy Author Taylor decided to write Bob down, and I am all done with the series of novels explaining the Bobiverse. Kinda sorta wish I wasn't but I am, and I think a lot of y'all should pack a Kindle with these three novels and light out for the Bobiverse right quick. The reason is that, in reading the books in order, you'll come to realize that Author Taylor doesn't have a high opinion of the species and still makes a concerted effort to save us. He doesn't consign us to the scrapheap of history with a shrug and a ~meh~.
In this moment of US national history, it's probably more than I'd be able or even willing to do, so it made my days a bit brighter. I'm happy to be jollied along by the greater generosity of a Man with a Plan. And so, I suspect, might other guys be. And I stress the "guys" part—this is a Guy Book in every particular. There are very few female characters and only one is at all developed. Even she is a guy in a woman suit.
She does provide something unique to the Bobiverse...she has a family, kids who grow into beings both like and unlike her. Her relationship with those kids as all the parties age...Bob, in his own way, ages as well...makes for some excellent drama and some astonishing emotional resonances with readers over 50.
I'm also at the point in life where another factor of the Bobiverse, the meditation on personal immortality and the options it provides, is particularly interesting to me. I don't think I'm quite as eager for it at my age as I would have been at Bob's age (31) when he dies. I'm not saying it doesn't have a huge upside. I'm saying that I now feel as well as see the downside, the inevitable losses and griefs piling up under the carpet until the Karastan is basically a blip on the Everest of stuff not dealt with. Author Taylor goes there, as well, and I suspect it's a subject of newfound interest to the intended audience for the book.
The idea of family comes in for some particularly inventive workouts in the Bobiverse. One of the intriguing things about immortality, particularly in Bob's form of multiple "clones" of his conscious mind branching from the moments of separation, is the expanded family sense it offers. Each new generation of Bob-clones is one more removed from Original Biological Bob, then Replicant Bob, then the cloned Bob-minds that cloned Bob-minds that now clone Bob-minds...yet all have perfect digital recall of the "ancestral" Bobs to the moment of their awareness as individuals begins.
Mind-blowing, isn't it? Think on it: generations of sibling-selves with your character! Every facet would be fully explored, of course, like all siblings each unique individual would seek to become different, to distinguish itself from all the others around it. In effect, though the clones would start with certain memories as a base of contact with all the other sibling consciousnesses, as the generations of cloning take place the point of commonality would be deeper and deeper under the sense of personal uniqueness.
It would be fascinating to see this play out! I wanna be in the Bobiverse, dammit!
Except, of course, for the Bobiversal solution to the Fermi Paradox ("where is everybody?"), the Others. A better monster-movie villain I ain't never read. Scary. Don't deny yourself the simultaneous pleasure and fear of experiencing the Bobiverse! Like, now!
December 24, 2018
This book 3.4 stars
Series as whole 4.3 stars.
All this worlds is weakest installment in this series although it's still good book. The reasons why I enjoyed this book I found this book not on par with the rest of the series are 3 storylines:
Howard's was just bad.
"Brazilian probe" overstayed it's welcome and should have wrapped up in previous book. Here it really didn't add anything.
"The others" storyline was good but despite being main thread in this book it ended quickly and too neatly.
On the other hand rest of PoV where good and I loved the fact that stories didn't merge into one. And despite flaws in third book I had great time with this series and the I'm going to really miss Bobs.
Series as whole 4.3 stars.
All this worlds is weakest installment in this series although it's still good book. The reasons why I enjoyed this book I found this book not on par with the rest of the series are 3 storylines:
Howard's was just bad.
"Brazilian probe" overstayed it's welcome and should have wrapped up in previous book. Here it really didn't add anything.
"The others" storyline was good but despite being main thread in this book it ended quickly and too neatly.
On the other hand rest of PoV where good and I loved the fact that stories didn't merge into one. And despite flaws in third book I had great time with this series and the I'm going to really miss Bobs.
June 23, 2022
Enter Bob (Ryan Reynolds, thick, black glasses, pocket protector, button-up, short-sleeve shirt). Bob trots across the late-afternoon beach, sits crisply on a cushioned lounge chair. A well-appointed butler appears offering Bob a frosty glass of pale beer on a silver tray.
Bob lifts the brew and in one quick motion takes an appreciative sip. "Thanks, Jeeves."
Zoom out to external shot of the 8th generation Heaven ship pulling 12g's as it yaws and noses up quickly, ejecting 2 small autonomous probes to the side. The busters accelerate with enormous thrust towards an unknown ship with its own cloud of defensive probes.
You are welcome, Netlix. Make it happen
Bob lifts the brew and in one quick motion takes an appreciative sip. "Thanks, Jeeves."
Zoom out to external shot of the 8th generation Heaven ship pulling 12g's as it yaws and noses up quickly, ejecting 2 small autonomous probes to the side. The busters accelerate with enormous thrust towards an unknown ship with its own cloud of defensive probes.
You are welcome, Netlix. Make it happen
November 20, 2017
Excitement, closure, new adventures. A great ending to a great series.
April 7, 2022
Previously on Bobiverse - our hero Bob had been unfrozen and copied into a star ship. He was sent out to discover new worlds and break the Prime Directive. In Bobiverse2 the Bobs multiply and explored everything. They were looking after young civilizations when they met the Others - the enemy!
Now read on.
With so many cloned Bobs throughout space I realized that a review of all the sub-plots would be a collection of spoilers. Therefore my outline is;
Earth in ruins
Rescuing humans
Hunting dinosaurs
Terra-forming alien worlds
Flying cities
Android bodies
Space wars
Protecting good aliens
Teaching stone age aliens
Instant communication across space
Stasis pods
Virtual Reality
Deadly foes
Battles for the fate of the galaxy.
Altogether - Space Opera!
Here is a rainy day game for all readers stuck at home. Spot the science fiction in-jokes, especially the Star Trek ones.
Adults - have one drink each time you see a joke.
Children - eat a sugar sweet.
Before the book is finished you may have either passed out or be so hyper that you missed the end.
With all the SF jokes/quotes this story is truly for science fiction fans.
Enjoy!
Now read on.
With so many cloned Bobs throughout space I realized that a review of all the sub-plots would be a collection of spoilers. Therefore my outline is;
Earth in ruins
Rescuing humans
Hunting dinosaurs
Terra-forming alien worlds
Flying cities
Android bodies
Space wars
Protecting good aliens
Teaching stone age aliens
Instant communication across space
Stasis pods
Virtual Reality
Deadly foes
Battles for the fate of the galaxy.
Altogether - Space Opera!
Here is a rainy day game for all readers stuck at home. Spot the science fiction in-jokes, especially the Star Trek ones.
Adults - have one drink each time you see a joke.
Children - eat a sugar sweet.
Before the book is finished you may have either passed out or be so hyper that you missed the end.
With all the SF jokes/quotes this story is truly for science fiction fans.
Enjoy!
August 17, 2017
The Bobs are in trouble. Humanity is in trouble. Even the Pav and the Deltans are in the firing line.
The Others are coming.
“Is there no way we can co-exist? The universe is a large place.”
That also makes no sense. You are food. It is not the purpose of food to co-exist. We will, in time, make our way to your Sol and your Epsilon Eridani. We have seen your radio beacons. Food always thus announces itself.
The Bobs fought a battle at Delta Pavonis and while they bloodied the collective nose of the creatures they're calling the Others, the planet of the Pav species was still destroyed. The Others have already announced their next targets. While the whole Bobiverse has this existential threat hanging over it, the Bobs are facing the ongoing problem of their immortal existence among ephemeral people that they love. Howard, Will and the original Bob all have to face what this means. Meanwhile other Bobs have to decide just how much they want to remain as part of human society.
There are hundreds of Bobs at this point of the story and rather than take the scatter-gun approach of the last two books, the story in this one focuses mainly on the Bobs I mentioned above and the way they have to deal with loss. The rest of the story finishes up what was begun in book two with the evacuation of the Earth and dealing with the Others.
If you've read this far, the conclusion won't disappoint.
The Others are coming.
“Is there no way we can co-exist? The universe is a large place.”
That also makes no sense. You are food. It is not the purpose of food to co-exist. We will, in time, make our way to your Sol and your Epsilon Eridani. We have seen your radio beacons. Food always thus announces itself.
The Bobs fought a battle at Delta Pavonis and while they bloodied the collective nose of the creatures they're calling the Others, the planet of the Pav species was still destroyed. The Others have already announced their next targets. While the whole Bobiverse has this existential threat hanging over it, the Bobs are facing the ongoing problem of their immortal existence among ephemeral people that they love. Howard, Will and the original Bob all have to face what this means. Meanwhile other Bobs have to decide just how much they want to remain as part of human society.
There are hundreds of Bobs at this point of the story and rather than take the scatter-gun approach of the last two books, the story in this one focuses mainly on the Bobs I mentioned above and the way they have to deal with loss. The rest of the story finishes up what was begun in book two with the evacuation of the Earth and dealing with the Others.
If you've read this far, the conclusion won't disappoint.
December 25, 2017
All These Worlds: The action-packed Bobiverse finale
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Dennis E. Taylor’s BOBIVERSE series has turned out to be a real winner, starting with We Are Legion (We Are Bob) in September 2016 and continuing with For We Are Many in May 2017. Usually I tend to read fairly serious, literary, and ambitious SFF books, but after going through not one, but two long episodes dealing with a debilitating herniated disc this year and being confined to lying on my back for weeks, I badly needed a comic break, and the BOBIVERSE series is a perfect place to get an action-packed, science-literate, hilarious, and even moving story in under 8 hours of audiobook bliss. It would not be an exaggeration to say that narrator Ray Porter is brilliant and absolutely perfect for this series. His delivery is so in tune with the snarky tone of the book that Dennis E. Taylor really should buy him a round or two if he hasn’t already.
If you’re looking for an ultra-fast-paced SF adventure featuring multiple AIs originating from the same individual, Von Neumann probes exploring the galaxy, the moral dilemmas of whether to assist a primitive race as a mechanical god, trying to combat the misguided policies of a human government on a new ocean colony, and battling to save the entire human race AND Bobiverse from an implacable alien race that consumes planetary systems and sentient species as a light snack, these are the books for you.
In All These Worlds, the third and final installment in the Bobiverse, Bob and his other fellow AIs remain engaged in dozens of different situations, mainly exploration and terraforming of planets to create new homes for the surviving remnants of humanity. This is not an easy business, and Taylor devotes a lot of time explaining the science and technology of it, but in a very understandable and reader-friendly way. This time he focuses on the various technologies involved in terraforming, starship engine drive back-engineering, and finding the optimum balance of producing enough technology and equipment to support terraforming while at the same time building enough weaponry to defend humanity from the rapacious Others, who simply have zero interest in sitting down for a cup of tea and discussing their differences like a civilized species.
The terraforming story on Poseidon involves a lot of political machinations between Marcus, one of the Bobs, and the local governing body of this water planet that seems to disagree on EVERY SINGLE POINT of managing the colonies’ development, and this rapidly develops from tense discussions, to embargoes, and finally open warfare. It’s all very frustrating for Marcus, as he is only trying to help them out, but they just won’t see common sense (at least from an immortal AI perspective).
There is also again a bittersweet love story for one of the Bob AIs, Howard, as he is in love with a mortal woman biologist, who is a perfect personality match for him but refuses to consider the idea of being digitally stored and made immortal. Howard, who has seen so many “ephemerals” come and go, cannot idly watch as she ages while he does not, and finds himself in a nasty fight with her children over her last wishes. Once again, this adds an element of thoughtful speculation on what it might mean to live forever, and whether most people really would take this option.
Finally, we have the Others, the implacable advanced alien race that likes to turn star systems into raw materials, and treats sentient beings as food. This time the Others plan to annihilate humanity wherever it has settled in the galaxy, and are racing to Earth to destroy it completely, so it is up to a group of “younger” Bobs to find a way to stop the Others to save both humanity and all the other sentient races that will be callously wiped out if they can’t find a last-ditch solution. Once again, it reminded me of a more light-hearted version of the unstoppable aliens of Alastair Reynolds’ REVELATION SPACE series.
All These Worlds’ story just flies along at near light speed — there are 76 chapters in only 281 pages, which translates to 3.6 pages per chapter. If anything, I think Taylor could slow things down a little and flesh out some of the side story elements, but then again part of the charm of the BOBIVERSE is that it never rests, unlike so many of the bloated series that jam the shelves of bookstores. All the Bobs are relentless workaholics, so the story never stops for very long, despite the wealth of ideas that could get more in-depth treatment in a longer book.
Finally, I must again say that the Kindle versions of all the books are only $4.99 each on Amazon.com and adding Audible narration is only an extra $1.99 if you are an Audible member. That is a ridiculously good deal, and one of the reasons I gave it a try in the first place, so take a trip to the Bobiverse!
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature
Dennis E. Taylor’s BOBIVERSE series has turned out to be a real winner, starting with We Are Legion (We Are Bob) in September 2016 and continuing with For We Are Many in May 2017. Usually I tend to read fairly serious, literary, and ambitious SFF books, but after going through not one, but two long episodes dealing with a debilitating herniated disc this year and being confined to lying on my back for weeks, I badly needed a comic break, and the BOBIVERSE series is a perfect place to get an action-packed, science-literate, hilarious, and even moving story in under 8 hours of audiobook bliss. It would not be an exaggeration to say that narrator Ray Porter is brilliant and absolutely perfect for this series. His delivery is so in tune with the snarky tone of the book that Dennis E. Taylor really should buy him a round or two if he hasn’t already.
If you’re looking for an ultra-fast-paced SF adventure featuring multiple AIs originating from the same individual, Von Neumann probes exploring the galaxy, the moral dilemmas of whether to assist a primitive race as a mechanical god, trying to combat the misguided policies of a human government on a new ocean colony, and battling to save the entire human race AND Bobiverse from an implacable alien race that consumes planetary systems and sentient species as a light snack, these are the books for you.
In All These Worlds, the third and final installment in the Bobiverse, Bob and his other fellow AIs remain engaged in dozens of different situations, mainly exploration and terraforming of planets to create new homes for the surviving remnants of humanity. This is not an easy business, and Taylor devotes a lot of time explaining the science and technology of it, but in a very understandable and reader-friendly way. This time he focuses on the various technologies involved in terraforming, starship engine drive back-engineering, and finding the optimum balance of producing enough technology and equipment to support terraforming while at the same time building enough weaponry to defend humanity from the rapacious Others, who simply have zero interest in sitting down for a cup of tea and discussing their differences like a civilized species.
The terraforming story on Poseidon involves a lot of political machinations between Marcus, one of the Bobs, and the local governing body of this water planet that seems to disagree on EVERY SINGLE POINT of managing the colonies’ development, and this rapidly develops from tense discussions, to embargoes, and finally open warfare. It’s all very frustrating for Marcus, as he is only trying to help them out, but they just won’t see common sense (at least from an immortal AI perspective).
There is also again a bittersweet love story for one of the Bob AIs, Howard, as he is in love with a mortal woman biologist, who is a perfect personality match for him but refuses to consider the idea of being digitally stored and made immortal. Howard, who has seen so many “ephemerals” come and go, cannot idly watch as she ages while he does not, and finds himself in a nasty fight with her children over her last wishes. Once again, this adds an element of thoughtful speculation on what it might mean to live forever, and whether most people really would take this option.
Finally, we have the Others, the implacable advanced alien race that likes to turn star systems into raw materials, and treats sentient beings as food. This time the Others plan to annihilate humanity wherever it has settled in the galaxy, and are racing to Earth to destroy it completely, so it is up to a group of “younger” Bobs to find a way to stop the Others to save both humanity and all the other sentient races that will be callously wiped out if they can’t find a last-ditch solution. Once again, it reminded me of a more light-hearted version of the unstoppable aliens of Alastair Reynolds’ REVELATION SPACE series.
All These Worlds’ story just flies along at near light speed — there are 76 chapters in only 281 pages, which translates to 3.6 pages per chapter. If anything, I think Taylor could slow things down a little and flesh out some of the side story elements, but then again part of the charm of the BOBIVERSE is that it never rests, unlike so many of the bloated series that jam the shelves of bookstores. All the Bobs are relentless workaholics, so the story never stops for very long, despite the wealth of ideas that could get more in-depth treatment in a longer book.
Finally, I must again say that the Kindle versions of all the books are only $4.99 each on Amazon.com and adding Audible narration is only an extra $1.99 if you are an Audible member. That is a ridiculously good deal, and one of the reasons I gave it a try in the first place, so take a trip to the Bobiverse!
January 21, 2020
I can really appreciate the fact that the parts of this trilogy are being released so close to each other. Not even a year went by between the release of We Are Legion (We Are Bob) and All these Worlds. As a reader, I applaud this. I know it's not something every author can pull of, but respect to Dennis Taylor for this.
Also, the audiobook rendition is truly worth its money. Ray Porter really gives each Bob their own character and eventually I was able to recognize which specific POV I was listening too, based on the voice he used. Really good stuff.
World-building
The world / universe building takes a bit of a back-seat in this one. The "known" universe doesn't really expand anymore, in stead we focus more on the planets that have been previously discovered / terraformed and how they develop. There's still some very interesting stuff there, regarding the evolution of fauna and the Deltans, but it doesn't take up so much page-time anymore. The focus is definitely on the development of the plot.
Characters
What's there to say? There's still a bunch of Bobs, they keep diversifying in interesting ways and there's even a little romance in there. All of it felt real and I felt completely immersed in theirworlds VR's.
Writing
Dennis Taylors writing is still very fun to read. It's fluid, witty and full of pop / geek / nerd - culture references, which my inner geek LOVES. There's a dry kind of humor that perpetuates through all 3 of the books and that resonates with me on a personal level.
Plot / Story
The story switches POV's constantly, but doesn't feel all that complicated. The transitions are seamless, even when jumping through time. All story threads get wrapped up nicely and we get a big finish at the end, befitting the epicness of the universe. Great story, with all the ingredients required to propel this series into the science fiction hall of fame.
Conclusion
Throughtout this series, I've constantly been able to effortlessly put myself in the shoes of whichever Bob was doing the talking. The thought process and the decision making feel so close to me, that it feels like this story was written, just for me. I've loved every minute of this epic saga and I'm sure I'll be re-reading this again. In the meantime, I can say that this was an absolutely bloody brilliant ending, to an epic saga and I'm going to recommend the shit out of it, to everyone that dares admit they like science fiction.
A million stars.
Also, the audiobook rendition is truly worth its money. Ray Porter really gives each Bob their own character and eventually I was able to recognize which specific POV I was listening too, based on the voice he used. Really good stuff.
World-building
The world / universe building takes a bit of a back-seat in this one. The "known" universe doesn't really expand anymore, in stead we focus more on the planets that have been previously discovered / terraformed and how they develop. There's still some very interesting stuff there, regarding the evolution of fauna and the Deltans, but it doesn't take up so much page-time anymore. The focus is definitely on the development of the plot.
Characters
What's there to say? There's still a bunch of Bobs, they keep diversifying in interesting ways and there's even a little romance in there. All of it felt real and I felt completely immersed in their
Writing
Dennis Taylors writing is still very fun to read. It's fluid, witty and full of pop / geek / nerd - culture references, which my inner geek LOVES. There's a dry kind of humor that perpetuates through all 3 of the books and that resonates with me on a personal level.
Plot / Story
The story switches POV's constantly, but doesn't feel all that complicated. The transitions are seamless, even when jumping through time. All story threads get wrapped up nicely and we get a big finish at the end, befitting the epicness of the universe. Great story, with all the ingredients required to propel this series into the science fiction hall of fame.
Conclusion
Throughtout this series, I've constantly been able to effortlessly put myself in the shoes of whichever Bob was doing the talking. The thought process and the decision making feel so close to me, that it feels like this story was written, just for me. I've loved every minute of this epic saga and I'm sure I'll be re-reading this again. In the meantime, I can say that this was an absolutely bloody brilliant ending, to an epic saga and I'm going to recommend the shit out of it, to everyone that dares admit they like science fiction.
A million stars.
October 9, 2019
It’s time to have a talk with those arrogant, ugly Big Bad Yuckies, and oh boy, did I have fun. (I did, in case you still wonder). Bobs are still doing their projects, have their asses handed on a plate by the Big Bad Yuckies for a few times, but when it matters – when it really matters – It’s The Yuckies who get their asses served.
What I liked the most about this final battle – is how quite casual it seemed. There were no Deus Ex’es, no unsung heroes, no last-minute sacrifices. I won’t spoil the exact nature of the battle, but it went very logical way.
Not much differences with the first two books. Actually, since the story picks up where it left on both occasions, it’s more like reading three parts of one book, than three different books. And in this case – it’s definitely a plus.
I really enjoyed this trilogy and I am very excited to hear that a sort of sequel/spin-off is upcoming and it’s not a long wait already. Yet again, 5* and lots of fun.
What I liked the most about this final battle – is how quite casual it seemed. There were no Deus Ex’es, no unsung heroes, no last-minute sacrifices. I won’t spoil the exact nature of the battle, but it went very logical way.
Not much differences with the first two books. Actually, since the story picks up where it left on both occasions, it’s more like reading three parts of one book, than three different books. And in this case – it’s definitely a plus.
I really enjoyed this trilogy and I am very excited to hear that a sort of sequel/spin-off is upcoming and it’s not a long wait already. Yet again, 5* and lots of fun.
March 2, 2022
All These Worlds was a very satisfying ending to the Bobiverse trilogy. It's going to be lonely without all the Bobs. I'll miss them!
I listened to this on audible and once again, Ray Porter was brilliant as he performed the many incarnations of "Bob". He managed to make them all unique.
This series of the Bobiverse was truly an original and very unique premise. I didn't think there could be any more surprises, but there were a couple more that had me shaking my head muttering WOWWW to myself.
Well done!!
I listened to this on audible and once again, Ray Porter was brilliant as he performed the many incarnations of "Bob". He managed to make them all unique.
This series of the Bobiverse was truly an original and very unique premise. I didn't think there could be any more surprises, but there were a couple more that had me shaking my head muttering WOWWW to myself.
Well done!!
March 14, 2022
'All These Worlds' by Dennis E. Taylor is the conclusion to the exciting Bobiverse trilogy series! Readers must begin with book 1 We Are Legion (We Are Bob), though. None of the books are standalone.
In 'All These Worlds', this last book in the thriller trilogy, the snarky Bobs try to save what they can of the remnants of humanity with spectacular courage. It is an overwhelming job! Not only do the humans constantly argue with the Bobs, they still are trying to kill each other, too. Personal grievances and suspicions often cause the characters to lose sight of the fact they are soon going to face another species, called "The Others", who are on their way to Earth. "The Others" are militant and have superior weapons. They have no interest in other forms of life except as food. They also completely strip planets of all their metals after harvesting all life forms for their stomachs.
The Bobs have been trying to prepare humanity for the upcoming confrontation, but it has been an uphill job. The Bobs themselves cannot agree on military tactics, plus, the fact that the digitalized Bobs are AI spaceships who can also transfer themselves into robots and store copies of themselves on servers means they are evolving away from caring about the human they were and his attachment to human values they all originally had. In the end, though, Bob and some of his clones find themselves falling in love with some of the "ephemerals" - people - in spite of themselves. And for some reason, none of the Bobs can abandon the human race to the predations of "The Others"!
I think 'All These Worlds' WAS meant to be the last novel about the Bobs, but I just bought the recently published book 4, 'Heaven's River'. No doubt popular demand has encouraged Taylor to start a second space opera trilogy (maybe?) featuring his fabulous AI character Bob. However, 'All These Worlds' does wrap up most of the cliffhangers that began in book 2, 'For We Are Many'.
Readers can definitely stop with 'All These Worlds', but I am not. The amazing speculative science, and Bob's continuing and hilarious infatuation with science-fiction classics, has given me much pleasure in reading this heartwarming series.
In 'All These Worlds', this last book in the thriller trilogy, the snarky Bobs try to save what they can of the remnants of humanity with spectacular courage. It is an overwhelming job! Not only do the humans constantly argue with the Bobs, they still are trying to kill each other, too. Personal grievances and suspicions often cause the characters to lose sight of the fact they are soon going to face another species, called "The Others", who are on their way to Earth. "The Others" are militant and have superior weapons. They have no interest in other forms of life except as food. They also completely strip planets of all their metals after harvesting all life forms for their stomachs.
The Bobs have been trying to prepare humanity for the upcoming confrontation, but it has been an uphill job. The Bobs themselves cannot agree on military tactics, plus, the fact that the digitalized Bobs are AI spaceships who can also transfer themselves into robots and store copies of themselves on servers means they are evolving away from caring about the human they were and his attachment to human values they all originally had. In the end, though, Bob and some of his clones find themselves falling in love with some of the "ephemerals" - people - in spite of themselves. And for some reason, none of the Bobs can abandon the human race to the predations of "The Others"!
I think 'All These Worlds' WAS meant to be the last novel about the Bobs, but I just bought the recently published book 4, 'Heaven's River'. No doubt popular demand has encouraged Taylor to start a second space opera trilogy (maybe?) featuring his fabulous AI character Bob. However, 'All These Worlds' does wrap up most of the cliffhangers that began in book 2, 'For We Are Many'.
Readers can definitely stop with 'All These Worlds', but I am not. The amazing speculative science, and Bob's continuing and hilarious infatuation with science-fiction classics, has given me much pleasure in reading this heartwarming series.
August 27, 2017
Executive Summary:A satisfying conclusion to the series, albeit with a somewhat rushed ending.
Audiobook: Another good job by Ray Porter. He has good inflection and volume. He speaks clearly and does a few voices. He's definitely made this an enjoyable listen.
Full Review
I only discovered this series earlier this year thanks to a lot of buzz here on goodreads. It's just the most recent reason that makes me glad this site exists and I finally found it a few years ago.
If you want to win me to your side, the easiest thing to do is have a protagonist who's a 30 something computer programmer into a lot of SFF and video games. This series isn't as heavy on the fan service as say Ready Player One, but there are some nice references dropped throughout as appropriate to make me geek out a bit as I was listening.
I really love all the different Bob's we meet, and I was happy to see he didn't expand the number of POVs too much in this book. Especially given it's rather short length. At just 8 hours in audio, I seemed to be finished with this book in no time at all.
In fact that's my only real complaint here. The ending felt a bit rushed. While many of the subplots were wrapped up pretty nicely, the main plot seemed to go from mostly background noise to overdrive in the last several chapters. I was expecting a bit more of a climax than we actually got.
That isn't to say I was disappointed. This was a fun series, and it's been pretty faced paced all the way though. While I'm fine with how things leave off at the end, I wouldn't mind if Mr. Taylor decided to revisit the Bobs later on with some kind of sequel, ideally set hundreds (or maybe thousands?) of years after this one wraps up.
Either way I'll have to keep an eye out for Mr. Taylor's next book and hope that it's as much fun as this series has been.
Audiobook: Another good job by Ray Porter. He has good inflection and volume. He speaks clearly and does a few voices. He's definitely made this an enjoyable listen.
Full Review
I only discovered this series earlier this year thanks to a lot of buzz here on goodreads. It's just the most recent reason that makes me glad this site exists and I finally found it a few years ago.
If you want to win me to your side, the easiest thing to do is have a protagonist who's a 30 something computer programmer into a lot of SFF and video games. This series isn't as heavy on the fan service as say Ready Player One, but there are some nice references dropped throughout as appropriate to make me geek out a bit as I was listening.
I really love all the different Bob's we meet, and I was happy to see he didn't expand the number of POVs too much in this book. Especially given it's rather short length. At just 8 hours in audio, I seemed to be finished with this book in no time at all.
In fact that's my only real complaint here. The ending felt a bit rushed. While many of the subplots were wrapped up pretty nicely, the main plot seemed to go from mostly background noise to overdrive in the last several chapters. I was expecting a bit more of a climax than we actually got.
That isn't to say I was disappointed. This was a fun series, and it's been pretty faced paced all the way though. While I'm fine with how things leave off at the end, I wouldn't mind if Mr. Taylor decided to revisit the Bobs later on with some kind of sequel, ideally set hundreds (or maybe thousands?) of years after this one wraps up.
Either way I'll have to keep an eye out for Mr. Taylor's next book and hope that it's as much fun as this series has been.
April 3, 2020
Dennis E. Taylor is not a great writer*; his writing style lies somewhere on the spectrum between Star Trek fan fiction and John Scalzi's family Christmas letters. But he does have a whole bag full of interesting ideas, along with some scientific knowledge to back them up, and for some readers that will be enough. The final installment of what will be known as the "original Bobiverse trilogy" (of course there are more planned installments on the way) picks up the action again after the galactically terrible second book and reduces some of the geeky post-human virtual-reality interactions, cheeky dialogue, and nerd-chic references back to within standard human tolerance ranges.
* Try the Bobiverse drinking game: Take a shot every time a character rolls their eyes, rubs their eyes, raises their eyebrows, looks at the ceiling, sighs, shrugs their shoulders, or does anything with a mug of coffee. You'll be face-down plastered within 5 pages.
* Try the Bobiverse drinking game: Take a shot every time a character rolls their eyes, rubs their eyes, raises their eyebrows, looks at the ceiling, sighs, shrugs their shoulders, or does anything with a mug of coffee. You'll be face-down plastered within 5 pages.
October 19, 2017
Yeah, I'm kind of unabashedly fangirling over this trilogy. I love the IDEAS behind this work. I love that it manages to be tech-positive without betraying intrinsic humaness. I like the questions it asks and I would encourage you to ask yourself all the questions the Bobs ask about what makes or doesnt make them human.
I got so attached to the different Bobs that I'm pretty sad to see the end of the trilogy, but I think it ended where it needed to. Escalation becomes an especial problem in scifi and fantasy. All These Worlds tie up all the storylines that were running nicely and is a bit more action packed than Book 2.
Also- absolutely excellent narration on the audiobook.
I got so attached to the different Bobs that I'm pretty sad to see the end of the trilogy, but I think it ended where it needed to. Escalation becomes an especial problem in scifi and fantasy. All These Worlds tie up all the storylines that were running nicely and is a bit more action packed than Book 2.
Also- absolutely excellent narration on the audiobook.
January 3, 2022
Good start to the new year 😀 (even though I read most of it in 2021). 'All These Worlds' wraps up the original Bobiverse trilogy - which I started about 2 years ago. To put in perspective - the first of the series 'We are Legion- We are Bob' was one of the last books I read pre-pandemic... it wasn't much after I read this that we were all sent packing from our cubicles and started our work from home routines.
I mentioned in my review of Bobiverse #2 - 'For We are Many' - that this particular story felt a bit episodic... in that it picked up from where #1 left off - continuing along with the many parallel storylines from that book. In many respects I felt the same about book #3. I didn't find as many new things as I did in book number 1 and several of the storylines converged. In some ways I thought that there was less stories to keep track of than in book 2. This is actually a good thing for me. As the Bob's replicated there was no way I (or anyone) could keep up with all the permutations. They mentioned about 500 Bob's... but as far as story threads went there were only about 6 parallel ones that were covered.
Among the ones to keep track of were original Bob with the Deltans, Riker (he goes by Will now) on Earth, Bob's keeping track of the Pav, relationship Bob (not to be confused with Seinfeld's relationship George), the Bobs on Poseidon, and a few new ones checking up on wreckage from 'The Others' fleet. I don't think there were any new storylines introduced in book 3 that weren't direct connections from book 2.
One thing I felt about this installment was that it was very story and character focused. There wasn't a lot of new tech introduced or new ideas to keep track of. That's one thing I enjoyed the most about book #1... it constantly revealed new ideas that were fresh and innovative (and fun!). Here - to contrast - the parallel storylines played out without introducing any radical ideas. The threads of each switched pretty quickly - without too much page time before switching to a new thread.
Another notable difference was that this story seemed a lot less fun to me than the first two. There were a lot less jokes, snarky humor, and pop culture references. Perhaps the overall dark storyline got in the way of this... or maybe D. E. Taylor ran out of ideas?? I suspect the former as there were a lot of serious endgames going on - that didn't mix as well with humor. For me anyway, I had a lot less LOL moments than I did with the other two installments. A lot of these came about as they discovered new things... which as I mentioned they did less of this in book 3 and focused more on existing plot points.
I mentioned the story had 'character focused' aspects as well... a bit of explanation. There was a lot of time spent on the struggles of the Bob's which are essentially immortal vs. the 'ephemerals' - which is pretty much everyone else. Some of our characters are getting older and dying off. This puts a great deal of stress on the 'Bobs' which can't just turn off their feelings and do not age. Although this idea has been used many times in books/films it is a heart wrenching one (or they wouldn't keep using it). Just a few I can think of are The Highlander series, Doctor Who, Greek Myths where gods marry humans, there's many such examples.
While I focused on many items above that I enjoyed more from books 1-2 you might think I didn't like this story. I actually quite did. I found the resolutions to the storylines very satisfying and it was a good read. If you haven't checked this series out and you like scifi - you should give it a try. It's a lot of fun.
There is a fourth book - that is not part of the original trilogy that I will have to check out at some point - called Heaven's River. Just reading the GR intro this deals with Bender... so I have a few more 'Bob' adventures for my reading pleasure to look forward to.
I mentioned in my review of Bobiverse #2 - 'For We are Many' - that this particular story felt a bit episodic... in that it picked up from where #1 left off - continuing along with the many parallel storylines from that book. In many respects I felt the same about book #3. I didn't find as many new things as I did in book number 1 and several of the storylines converged. In some ways I thought that there was less stories to keep track of than in book 2. This is actually a good thing for me. As the Bob's replicated there was no way I (or anyone) could keep up with all the permutations. They mentioned about 500 Bob's... but as far as story threads went there were only about 6 parallel ones that were covered.
Among the ones to keep track of were original Bob with the Deltans, Riker (he goes by Will now) on Earth, Bob's keeping track of the Pav, relationship Bob (not to be confused with Seinfeld's relationship George), the Bobs on Poseidon, and a few new ones checking up on wreckage from 'The Others' fleet. I don't think there were any new storylines introduced in book 3 that weren't direct connections from book 2.
One thing I felt about this installment was that it was very story and character focused. There wasn't a lot of new tech introduced or new ideas to keep track of. That's one thing I enjoyed the most about book #1... it constantly revealed new ideas that were fresh and innovative (and fun!). Here - to contrast - the parallel storylines played out without introducing any radical ideas. The threads of each switched pretty quickly - without too much page time before switching to a new thread.
Another notable difference was that this story seemed a lot less fun to me than the first two. There were a lot less jokes, snarky humor, and pop culture references. Perhaps the overall dark storyline got in the way of this... or maybe D. E. Taylor ran out of ideas?? I suspect the former as there were a lot of serious endgames going on - that didn't mix as well with humor. For me anyway, I had a lot less LOL moments than I did with the other two installments. A lot of these came about as they discovered new things... which as I mentioned they did less of this in book 3 and focused more on existing plot points.
I mentioned the story had 'character focused' aspects as well... a bit of explanation. There was a lot of time spent on the struggles of the Bob's which are essentially immortal vs. the 'ephemerals' - which is pretty much everyone else. Some of our characters are getting older and dying off. This puts a great deal of stress on the 'Bobs' which can't just turn off their feelings and do not age. Although this idea has been used many times in books/films it is a heart wrenching one (or they wouldn't keep using it). Just a few I can think of are The Highlander series, Doctor Who, Greek Myths where gods marry humans, there's many such examples.
While I focused on many items above that I enjoyed more from books 1-2 you might think I didn't like this story. I actually quite did. I found the resolutions to the storylines very satisfying and it was a good read. If you haven't checked this series out and you like scifi - you should give it a try. It's a lot of fun.
There is a fourth book - that is not part of the original trilogy that I will have to check out at some point - called Heaven's River. Just reading the GR intro this deals with Bender... so I have a few more 'Bob' adventures for my reading pleasure to look forward to.
May 18, 2021
nie sugerujcie się moją opinią, bo jest bardzo subiektywna. po prostu mi się nie podobało, chciałam spróbować z tym gatunkiem i mi nie wyszło
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