a b "Weltraum-Dramen und Zukunftsvisionen: die sieben spannendsten Science-Fiction-Klassiker". stern.de. 21 May 2023. We follow a number of Bobs all over different solar systems that watch the Deltans (that's Bob#1), finding new planets, even other sentient species, a number help humanity out of sol so we don't die out ... and some make less positive encounters. But HEY PRESTO! remember the cryogenic lab? Right! He wakes up more than a century later in a very changed environment (remember Woody Allen in Sleeper?) Robert Johansson, more affectionately known as Bob, was an engineer in the 21st century who signed up for having his head cryogenically preserved upon his death for future resuscitation into a new body. In a strange ironic twist of fate, Bob died within 24 hours of doing so and woke up a bit more than a century later. What he didn't expect was that his new body will be in the form of a computer program; Bob has become a replicant. His mission was to be the artificial intelligence manning interstellar probes to search for habitable planets and it turns out that America was not the only country who wanted to lay claim to being the first to seek out new worlds. In the opening of the book our titular Bob is in Vegas for a Science convention. Bob is a nerd who likes Science and Star Trek and owns a software company. While in Vegas, Bob is convinced by a "Sales critter" that he shouldn't pay to have his whole body cryogenically frozen. He argues that in the future the technology will exist to grow Bob a whole new body, so Bob agrees upon his death to have his head removed and frozen. What has he got to lose?

Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. Fans of the novel like the character development that each of the Bobs is able to go through in this book. Each one of the Bobs has its own personality and differ depending on the model. The story is compelling to readers, despite not being a simple space opera with a lot of battles going on. This is a great sequel that builds on what was started in book one of the series. This second book can be seen as more of the same as the first book, but with one huge caveat. It's a character novel or (multi-character AND single-character) series. Confused? Don't be. It's all just Bob. For those who don't know, in the first book the first Bob had his head frozen and he was woken up many, many years later having had his consciousness installed in an AI. Since then, many things have happened, and Bob has created many clones of himself, as he was designed to do. His, (their), goal is to save humanity, (we are killing our planet and there are only about 15 million of us humans left), by finding or making proper environments to which we can be relocated. Which also involves providing food, finding a way for us to get to this new environment, and a way to protect us while on the way there. He, (they), also has to play referee to the factions of humanity that are left, because we never stop arguing amongst ourselves, do we?The few survivors on the Earth are by now being evacuated. However, there are a few people who are trying very hard to sabotage that process. The very first alien species which the Bobs have encountered, the Deltans, are at higher risk from a nastier danger as compared to the gorilloids. The Romulan and Vulcan colonies also have their own set of issues. The mad Brazilians are still out there. To make matters even worse, the terrifying discovery which one member of the Bob family made towards the end of the 1st novel looms large and it’s becoming incredibly dangerous.

I love reading great SF, but sometimes we just stumble across a novel or two that just make us beam with wonder and shared nerdiness and delight... and that basically describes these two Bob novels. Mind flashes the alarm! Cacophony of buzzing sounds fills the boy's head and every single warning light goes off!

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

The Stern magazine praised Taylor's distinctive humour style, often based on nerdy inside jokes and references. [7] Recognition [ edit ] While I give Taylor points for creative concept, there are two significant problems with the narrative. One, the aforementioned story-telling challenge. The second is that since Bob is virtually eternal and omnipotent, the book feels like a slightly-amusing history teacher recounting The History of Things. On the upside, at least one of the four plot-lines is bound to satisfy a sci-fi itch, whether it's colonization, alien races, space fights, or the mechanics of exploration. The omnipotence took away a large measure of suspense; the only issue was whether or not a Bob would be able to 3-D print to meet a time deadline. I'll also note that there are quite a few ansibles developed in this book (the solution Ursula LeGuin created in her worlds for interstellar communications). But since there were so many convenient but implausible 'discoveries' meant that I never really doubted a solution would appear. Away from the only, poor single, Bob technobabble focus towards more characterizations, interactions with real humans, implications, and open questions about consciousness, love, and immortality with a little portion of apocalypse and space warfare. But after his launch the responsibility on his head/s is immense. He has to find colony worlds for humanity, deal with armed crazy rivals, deal with potential alien life and maybe save humanity itself.

Berg, Guido (December 12, 2019). " "ChaosKatrin" aus Kolkwitz für Youlius-Award 2020 nominiert". www.otz.de. The story is certainly great and it wraps up lots of the plotlines that were left dangling in the first novel and setting several others A fun and funny but unspectacular space opera elevated by a clever narrating voice(s) and unique set-up.Nothing makes space exploration more exciting than encountering intelligent and technologically superior alien beings and facing imminent danger from its discovery. How will the Bobs successfully counter this overwhelmingly menacing enemy? I guess I will need to wait for Book 3 to find out, which fortunately will be released pretty soon. It's hard to tell what is meat and what are bones of this novel. Humor, pop culture references and hard sci-fi parts are intertwined into singular, cohesive whole. Story is also reason why this isn't getting full 5 stars or pacing to be more precise. In second half of the book story branches into multiple paths with several PoVs (all of which are Bobs) and pace slows down significantly. All of the storylines are interesting but at few points they are just too slow. It's also important to note that pretty much everything is left unresolved. It doesn't necessarily end with cliffhanger but every story arc is left wide open. stars. A fun romp of a SF space adventure. In 2016, Bob Johannsen sells his company for a fortune and promptly signs up for cryogenic preservation, and then manages to get himself killed just a day or two later. When he wakes up over 100 years later, he's without any physical body, essentially just a computer program ... but a very smart, self-aware one. And now he has the chance to be one of the first human intelligences to explore the galaxy. As for me, I'm on to book three and might even have bumped this one up a rating point had it not been for the clear affection and acceptance herein shamelessly flaunted for a lifeform utterly unworthy of it:

I was also not surprised by the presence of “The Others” but as I said this book is fun fluff, so a slightly predictable storyline was not a deal breaker for me. Bob Johansson wakes up many years later only to find out that the corpsicles have already been declared to be without any rights, and Bob is now the state property. He has already been uploaded to computer’s hardware and he’s slated to become the controlling AI in the interstellar probe that’s looking for the habitable planets. Stakes are high here: no lesser than the 1st claim to whole worlds. If Bob declines this honor, he shall be switched off, and in turn, they will try again with another person. If he decides to accept, he will become a prime target. As the story unfold, there are 3 other countries that are trying to get their probes launched first, and so they play dirty. I think I would have never found this book on my own - and my life would have been the poorer for it! Seriously, this author is so delightfully geeky/nerdy (yes, both) that it's already enough to carry the reader from start to finish. But easter eggs or satirical references are not the only thing Dennis Taylor is good at.

All These Worlds” is the third novel in the “Bobiverse” series and was released in the year 2017. Life as a sentient spaceship should be a lot more fun for Bob. After almost a hundred years of going out through space, Bob and his clones cannot find a way to keep away from trouble.