We Are Legion

(We Are Bob) Bobiverse, #1

by Dennis E. Taylor

Kindle, 308 pages

English language

Published April 13, 2017 by Worldbuilders Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-68068-058-4
ASIN:: B01LWAESYQ

(149 reviews)

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it's a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.

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. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.

The safest place …

The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.

3 editions

marksutherland reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

A decent premise ruined by a thoroughly irritating POV character that we end up with multiple indistinguishable copies of. There is a moment near the start where it looks like an unsympathetic character might possibly have to confront his character flaws and suffer for his hubris, but nope, Bob turns out to be the perfect Mary Sue for this post apocalyptic space exploration Isekai. The most irritating feature is the author's tendency to declare various things as universal truths when there's scant evidence presented to justify it and besides this is a work of fiction, bringing attention to it just ruins the suspension of disbelief. By far the most disgusting section is his adventures intervening in primitive civilizations where every decision is wrong and horrific but is apparently justified.
Steer clear, for tales of distributed intelligence go read the Ancillary books, for hard sci-fi tales of early stage colonization there's …

Iam reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Loved it

Sean Gursky reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

We've knocked off 99.95% of the human race, and somehow the crazies still manage to survive. It just defies the odds.

Enjoyable book that was a light read that also had a fairly deep concept to work from. What does it mean to be sentient? What prevents someone from embodying that concept? How much of yourself remains you when you're no longer your original self?

Each POV/Bob had a unique voice that made following the story easy. I found myself invested in each story arc and the book flew by. The pop culture references were light (not as heavy handed as Ready Player One) and the story wasn't burdened with explaining the science.

Onto For We Are Many.

franksbooks reviewed We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor (Bobiverse, #1)

Review of 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

The one star is for the first chapter. I gave up a quarter of the way through because the rest was such repetitive garbage.

Michael P reviewed We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor (Bobiverse, #1)

Review of 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A very light, fun read. Very much in the vein of John Scalzi genre aware science fiction.

Sean "Sharky" McMains reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Very enjoyable read. Lots of thorough figurative (and some literal) world-building, done by an author with both an enjoyable, sardonic sense of humor and a Project Manager's thorough approach to such things. Definitely a solid entry in the "fun reads" pile; I'll be queuing up the next one.

Sean "Sharky" McMains reviewed We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor (Bobiverse, #1)

Review of 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Jack Baty reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I don't know how to feel about this one. The humor stopped helping somewhere around the half-way point, but there were some fun moments.

The biggest issue was that much of it felt like I was listening to a first-person narration of the early Warcraft games.

Minotaur reviewed We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor (Bobiverse, #1)

Review of 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Really enjoyed the world building although I will admit towards the end all the bobs and planets became confusing.
Curious to see where this goes, excellent narrator.

dankeller reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Fun, lighter sci-fi that has some interesting heavy elements. Does not get too hung up in the technicalities, but feels plausible.
The narrator on Audible was fantastic and did a great Admiral Ackbar impression!

Pentapod reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A fun, geeky sci fi adventure with some interesting theoretical science behind it. If you enjoyed books like Ready Player One, Year Zero, and Old Man's War, you'll probably love this one. Wealthy software magnate Bob signs up to have his brain cryofrozen on death in hopes of future resurrection -- but when he wakes up, he learns the US has dissolved and his brain is now property of a religeous state who has declared the deceased have no rights. Bob's intelligence has been uploaded to a self-replicating space probe with the mission to explore, multiply, and find colonizable worlds -- but he's not the only probe out there and the other countries are both trying to get theirs out first, and destroy Bob. The book follows Bob's mission and, without giving too much away, the plot takes several twists. My only complaint is that it got a little confusing …

SharonC reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Lighthearted, often funny. Not terribly new ground, and didn't really wrestle with the question of what makes a person a person for as long as I would've liked. Also intro'd the idea of variation amongst the clones but didn't really explore its source or ramifications.

anyonas reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Easy to read book with a very likable main character. I both read and listened to this book, and the Audible narration is top notch.

Geekess reviewed Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб by Dennis E. Taylor (Вселенная Боба, #1)

Review of 'Мы – Легион. Мы – Боб' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A thouroughly enjoyable book! Had some LoLs in the beginning of the book. Love the nerdiness of it. My attention started to flag near the end of the book. The author lost my attention there, and at the end, I had to rewind some minutes because the ending is abrupt.
All the Bob-versions were awesome, the premise is great. Now please, keep up the good writing, as in: the good writing from the start of the book, not the boring writing of the end. Writing endings is a particular skill in writers, and not all of them are good at it (for example, Neal Stephenson really sucks at it). But it is something you can practice.
So, I'm looking forward to more Bobbiverse!