We Are Legion by Dennis E Taylor Summary PDF

 

We Are Legion by Dennis E Taylor Summary 

We Are Legion, We Are Bob. It is the first book of the Bobverse. So yeah, I said Bobverse — B-I-B-I or B-O-B-I-B-E-R-S-E — the Bobbyverse.

When I had this come across my NetGalley, even though I already had it in my Audible account from who knows how long ago, I absolutely picked it up. Why? Because I want to review it for NetGalley. I want to give them the kudos and accolades that it deserves, and I hope to share this with more people who don’t know about it. So, that’s why I picked it up again. Out of over 117,000 reviews on Goodreads, it still has a 4.27 rating. I totally get why. And I hope that you will, if you like sci-fi, fantasy, space operas, humor — all of the above — then I hope you’ll give it a chance.

But let’s dive into the summary and go from there. 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. When Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, he is now the property of the state.

He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be 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, very mad.

It is about 383 pages in Kindle and was first published September 20th, 2016. Now, I’m not certain what the reason is for it being back on NetGalley, but it literally is there with a slated release date of what I think was October 7th. Maybe it’s a new release, maybe a re-release. I’m not sure. It’s not yet 10 years, but man, this book has been out for a while.

Let us dive into the summary. I can see right off the bat that it has been translated into multiple languages — Spanish, perhaps Russian, perhaps German, perhaps French. Oh yeah, that’s French. So anyway, let’s continue with what we’re thinking. It looks like there’s a hardcover by Saga Press coming out in 2025. Maybe this is the hardcover press — maybe it never made it to hardcover. I don’t really know.

I can only tell you that I jumped at the chance to reread this book and specifically re-audio this book because I already had it in my Audible account. So, we have Bob. Bob, who seems to be at this particular point when we first meet him, perhaps mid to late 30s, seems to have a pretty good group of friends, seems to be at some sort of convention, and has just signed up with this cryogenics company to cryogenically freeze his head for the future.

He doesn’t really believe in the afterlife or religion of any kind, so he’s not sure if there’s anything beyond, but he feels like maybe if they can do something with his head and reanimate it at some point, then it’s something. He won’t just be dead-dead. What else is he going to do with all this money he made from selling his software company, which apparently minted him a pretty penny?

While at this convention, meeting up with a couple of friends, he’s trying to cross the street when a car swerves around people crossing in the wrong spot and takes out Bob, who was crossing correctly. So, Bob doesn’t make it, sadly. He is now property of the cryogenics company. Flash forward to the future — and none of that is a spoiler, it’s just the first five minutes of the book.

When he wakes up, it’s disconcerting because he can’t feel his body. He doesn’t feel his face, legs, or any part of himself. He’s suddenly aware. The scientist working with him explains what happened and how many years it’s been — maybe 113 or 130 years. Bob takes it in stride. He was not married, had no kids, had a sister with children, but comes to terms with the fact that everyone he knew is dead.

Earth has vastly changed — governments have realigned — and Bob now belongs to a religious government called Faith. They decided that corpsicles don’t have rights, so they can buy and sell them like property. Bob starts working with the scientist, doing basic tasks. The scientist gives him some ability to perceive movement through a drone-like interface, though not full tactile sensation.

Other revived people start spiraling into feedback loops, but Bob’s mind remains stable. It’s humorous because we get Bob’s perspective throughout the story. Ultimately, Bob ends up going to space, controlling a craft as his body. He finds sabotage code in his system and deletes it, then discovers someone duct-taped C4 to his craft. He disposes of it quickly.

Bob creates a VR world for himself to rationalize his existence, giving himself a simulated body and environment. He debates whether he’s human or AI and concludes he’s still human — his consciousness defines him. In space, Bob begins cloning himself as part of his mission. Each Bob clone develops a different personality. You get Bobs who call themselves Riker, Bill, Homer, Bart, and more.

The clones don’t copy perfectly. Some are a little off, some hilarious. They each create their own VR world, forming the “Bobiverse.” Hence, We Are Legion, We Are Bob. There are multiple Bobs — not perfect clones, but all intelligent.

Some clones, like Riker, return to Earth to help humanity evacuate, while others, like Homer, deal with rival nations’ probes. Bob or Bill discovers a race of sentient beings he calls the Deltans and protects them from gorilla-like predators, becoming a sort of god to them.

The author, Dennis E. Taylor, has several books. The Bobverse series includes five: We Are Legion (We Are Bob), For We Are Many, All These Worlds, Heaven’s River, and Not Till We Are Lost. I’ve read the first three, but not the last two. I’m glad to be back with the series.

I like space operas that are funny. We talked about John Scalzi’s Collapsing Empire series recently. I may go ahead and do at least the first three books in this Bobverse series just to see if you guys like it as well.

If you like space opera, sci-fi, and humor, give this a chance. It’s been out for a while, and I don’t think I’ve spoiled anything. It does end on a cliffhanger since the Bobverse story continues. But all of that being said, I highly recommend it.

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