Ich bin viele

Soooo, ok. It's a story about Bob, a tech bro whose biggest problem in the world is that his girlfriend cheated on him, who dies suddenly, gets frozen (he made the contract just in time) and awakens as a computer program property of the laughable theocracy the US developed into.

None of the politics are very deep – FAITH is characterised by mean priests, lots of bomb-y infighting and silly acronyms, there is no word about marginalised groups. Which works out just fine, since it is mostly the scenic backdrop for Bob.

Sent into space as the AI pilot for a self replicating space probe, Bob gets to live all his nerd dreams. Of course, as a former engineer and scifi convention goer, he is uniquely qualified for all the tasks in the universe. He is the programmer, designer and strategic mastermind needed in any situation he enters. He gets to do tons of fun and sometimes questionable things – improve on the design of his space craft, invent subspace communication, discover a species in their stone age and play god to them.

Except, and this is what makes it fun to read, it's not all him, not Bob. Bob self-replicates as planned, and it is immediately clear that the others aren't just copies of him, they all have their own quirks and interests and go for different roles in their big explory space adventure. So yes, it is a very plural story, I'm glad to report. Not just in this way, also, like, they create some more characters in their VR environments, and one certainly acquires a personality.

So like. This is not deep. This is a light-hearted exploration of scifi cliches and a bunch of quick answers to big questions, all via a generic yet likable cast of Bobs. It's a lot of "eh, let's see what happens" and hand waving on a cosmic scale with varying degrees of accountability. I really enjoyed it, I don't remember another so deeply the-opposite-of-diverse story that I enjoyed so much. I think I'll go for part two!

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 the Expanse, for Pop culture laden self insert ego trips there's always Homestuck.

Ok, let's start with the good. I love me a hard scifi book and I thoroughly appreciated the effort the author took to factor in relativistic travel and communication. The humor is fantastic and definitely had me chuckling. The concept is also incredibly good and very unique, I really like the subtle differences in every Bob and enjoyed jumping around to the different story threads.

Now the bad. Why the fuck aren't there any important women? Aside from Bob's relatives the only other woman that plays any significant role is the scientist who stands in for Dr. Landis and all she's there for is for Bob to appreciate that he can still feel attraction. I mean come on! Literally none of the other replicant probes are women either! Oh, and the most annoying part for me was when Bob met a sentient stone age race and found a female of that species wielding a modified tool. I was so excited, finally a smart pioneering woman who'll help advance her species...nope! It was her son that modified it and she's only ever mentioned in passing again. In fact all of the women of the Deltans are only mentioned when they're cowering with the children when the tribe is being attacked. What the fuck is going on with this author? Maybe there'll be some interesting, strong, or smart women in one of the other books in the series but with the way this one went I fucking doubt it.

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 switching back and forth between all the different copies of Bob, but overall it's well handled and all the Bobs are very entertaining. Not a book that left me with great life lessons or anything, but a fun read and I'll probably pick up the sequels at some point when I need some entertaining light reading.