Let's talk science fiction. I have read science fiction since I was a kid, and while I will admit, I am picky, and it takes a good author to draw me into a new "universe," I definitely have favorites. For about a decade I was all over the Orson Scott Card Ender's Game series, and I still admit to re-reading the original trilogy regularly. But then Uncle Orson got way too political in his novels (not in a Red or Blue way, but just boring stories focused on political drama, instead of good story-telling. Because seriously, no one really cared about Peter the Hegemon. Blah...
Then I discovered John Scalzi and his Old Man's War series. Scalzi is probably the most well-regarded author in the contemporary sci-fi world. His stories are engaging, he has a sense of humor (often dry, but very funny) and he pokes fun at our contemporary culture through a sci-fi lens. That said, his most recent book, The Collapsing Empire, fell short for me, suffering a bit too much of the Card syndrome. But I'll forgive him - anyone who writes a book called Red Shirts is a winner in my book.
In the last year I've gone back to the old Robert Heinlein "Juveniles" (juvenile my ass, this is good classic science fiction), and have enjoyed old favorites. It has been fun to re-discover Citizen of the Galaxy and a few others, like Time for the Stars, and Farmer in the Sky. Heck, I think Citizen of the Galaxy was my first science fiction novel, oh, 40 years ago. It never gets old.
Two week's ago Audible/Amazon sent me a marketing email. If you liked Andy Weir's "The Martian" (who didn't?) you will love Dennis Taylor's We are Legion (We are Bob). I took a look. And to be honest, the only similarity to Weir's book is the author's great sense of humor (and you could imagine Bob and Mark Watney getting along fine, filled with snark). I downloaded the audible version and found a great new author.
Taylor is Scalzi-esque in the best sense. The short version is that the protagonist is a science nerd who decides to invest in his "future" by paying for having his eventual corpse (well, actually his brain and head) to be cyrogenically-frozen upon his death, to be brought back when science was capable of such feats. Little did Bob know that he's get run down by a car that same day. And then we jump forward 150 years to a post-US theocracy, where Bob has been brought back as an artificial intelligence, to be re-purposed as a "Von Neumann probe," powering a space ship hat will travel to other worlds, with futuristic 3D printers capable of reproducing anything, including Bob's ship, and "replicating" more Bobs. Yeah, sounds strange. BUT read it, and within a couple chapters you will totally get it. Each Bob has all of the prior's memories, but is somewhat different. Each Bob takes a different name, and has slightly different personalities. There is Bob, there is Bill, there is Riker (yes, Bob is a serious trekkie, and so is the author, score one for him). There is Homer (Simpson,not the Ancient Greek), there is Bender (Breakfast Club anyone?). And on and on.
The novel is fast-paced; the writing is excellent, Scalzi now has some serious competition. I won't go any further, as I don't want to spoil the book, but I am now in the second book, We are Many, which literally continues where the first one takes off.
And if you are into audiobooks, this is a winner. Ray Porter is one of the best new voices in audible studios. Just excellent narration. Similar to Wil Wheaton's work, and just fun to listen to. Give the Bobiverse a read.
OR
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good set!
Best I have read in a while. Love the use of modern movie themes, etc. Easily re-readable!
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