308 pages
English language
Published April 13, 2017
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 …
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 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.
I really liked how the von Neumann probes didn't just have handwavy nanotechnology available as it mostly is the case in this genre
Not giving 5 stars though because the author doesn't understand that FTL communication = time travel according to special relativity.
Content warning general details on the main plot device
A novel idea for a plot device that I don't think I've encountered before (digitized human consciousness in the form of a von Neumann probe). It was quick and entertaining, however I feel like it was a missed opportunity to have a bit more depth.
It's entertaining at best, but it all feels like a missed chance to explore lots of themes that the author just waves, instead they focus on non stop babbling, blanket statements, non-humor and cringy pop references. I liked the premise and wanted to see where it go, but it really doesn't go anywhere interesting. Also, it has a non-ending, so you are supposed to start the second book straight away. I tried to do that, but couldn't last more than 100 pages. Really, it's not bad, but it's not good either.
I enjoyed a lot of the planet exploration and Von Neumann aspects of the story. But even as a white guy it was kind of painful how little mention women got in this book. And Bob’s past is just… vague and generic and he responds heroically but predictably to the challenges thrown at him.
Like I don’t feel you will waste your time reading this, but I feel people should go in with their eyes open to just how generic the characters and characterizations are, even while the exploration of some of the scientific ideas is quite cool. Also, I feel zero urge to read any of the sequels.
The one star is for the first chapter. I gave up a quarter of the way through because the rest was such repetitive garbage.
A very light, fun read. Very much in the vein of John Scalzi genre aware science fiction.
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.
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.
Note: the audiobook version is FANTASTIC :)
