We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Read Time: 2 Minutes

I’ll admit to being slightly hesitant before purchasing We Are Legion (We Are Bob), written by Dennis E Taylor, because I’d read a few mixed reviews, which had put me off wanting to start. When I had the chance to pick it up in a two-for-one sale, I figured it could be the freebie, so what did I have to lose? It turns out this was just the kind of book that I love. Easy-going science fiction, light humour, and interesting ideas playing out.

So our hero (one of them anyway), Bob Johansson, gets killed and his head cryogenically frozen for reawaking in the future, when the medical knowledge of the world has advanced to wake him up and give him a new body.

Things don’t go quite according to plan, and Bob awakens to find he is now a computer program. His mind is recreated and running on advanced hardware in a world that is slowly going to hell. Fundamentalists have taken over the USA, and the superpowers are pushing to get off Earth and set up shop in another solar system.

What follows is a fantastic story that I couldn’t stop listening to. Bob has the ability to replicate himself through 3D printing, so after arriving at his first destination in another system, he begins spinning up clones of himself for further exploration of the universe.

This book has heaps to like. Plenty of bad guys to hate, plenty of science fiction exploration of strange new worlds, alien life forms, tongue-in-cheek humour, the works.

Ray Porter narrating did a great job. Given that a lot of this book is Bob talking to a clone of himself, somehow, this was all kept straight. The quality is a little average, lacking some bass depth, but otherwise, the production was okay. A few background noises I heard, but nothing too offputting.

I’ve already added the remaining three books in the Bobiverse to my wishlist for picking up in the future. If I didn’t already have three or four books already waiting for me, I’d be jumping in straight away.