This post was originally published on Audible.com.
Welcome, humans and replicants! It’s a very exciting time, because a new audiobook in the New York Times bestselling Bobiverse series has dropped. To celebrate the release of the sixth book, The Infinite Extent, we’re providing an explainer about the Bobiverse series. It’s a thorough accounting, whether you’re a die-hard fan looking for a refresher or you’re new to the series. Get ready to learn all about Bob (and Bob and Bob and Bob) and what makes this series so special. And don’t worry, we’ve kept the spoilers to a minimum.
What is the Bobiverse?
This electrifying, entertaining series is a great mix of technology, space exploration, and humor. It starts off with We Are Legion (We Are Bob), where the wild world of Bobs begins with just one human: Bob Johansson. After the extremely lucrative sale of his software company, Bob goes to a science fiction convention in Las Vegas. It’s here that he also meets up with a representative for a cryogenic lab and signs a contract to have his head frozen in the event of his death.
If clairvoyance is real, then this Bob certainly has it. Death comes for him less than 24 hours after he signs the paperwork, after being struck by a car in Las Vegas. (Not great, Bob.) And off his head goes to the cryogenic lab.
Then, 117 years later, Bob wakes up in an unfamiliar room, and soon learns it’s 2133. The landscape of the world has changed due to wars that were fought throughout the past century. And because of the extremist politics of current America, it has been decided that instead of reanimating him, Bob’s head is best utilized by removing its consciousness and uploading it to an artificial intelligence.
Bob’s new AI is trained and sent into space to search for more habitable planets. In a race against other countries to be the first to find one, Bob uses his new capabilities to create Bob clones to help him be the first to succeed.
Engaging, intelligent, and remarkably funny, the Bobiverse series takes a hard look at the loss of humanity in the face of technology, through a former human who still believes in people. Inside his new AI self, Bob still retains some of what made him human, making him one of the great protagonists of modern science fiction.
What’s been going on in the Bobiverse universe so far?
There are currently six amazingly fun books in the Bobiverse series, with each book expanding further out into the future and the universe, and there are still more to come! Dennis E. Taylor is not done with the Bobiverse series yet, so watch this space.
Released Sept. 20, 2016. Software engineer Bob Johansson makes the decision to have his head frozen after he dies, and it changes the fate of humanity when, over a century later, his consciousness is woken up and used to power an AI for space exploration. Visiting the stars in search of a new habitable planet is a lonely and daunting journey, so Bob uses his new technology to create more Bobs to help him with the task. But America isn’t the only country trying to find a new home for humanity, and the Bobs will go up against some hostile AIs and aliens who hope to keep them from achieving their goals.
Released April 18, 2017. It’s been 40 years since Bob’s consciousness woke up in an AI, and humanity hasn’t managed to make any improvements to the world. The planet is still a near-wasteland, almost devoid of people. And now Bob and his clones are up against more threats as they spread out among the stars in search of new places for the few remaining humans to call home.
Released Aug. 8, 2017. It’s been a century since the Bobs have been shot into space, where they’ve traveled around, working to start new human settlements. But the humans themselves haven’t prospered like they should have, and the Bobs are feeling discouraged about having the same struggles all the time. Now, a new threat has appeared: a dangerous alien species that could mean the end of the Bobs.
Released Sept. 24, 2020. It’s all Bobs on deck when the clones head off on a mission to find one of their own! With so many Bobs in the known worlds, alliances and hostilities among the clones were an inevitability. As the Bobiverse threatens to unravel, Bob is determined to find Bender, the Bob who vanished a century ago. But his search leads him to places he never imagined, and could bring the whole Bobiverse crashing down.
Released Sept. 5, 2024. In the fifth installment of the Bobiverse series, the Bobs have spread themselves out across the galaxy, starting their own lives and following their own agendas. With the reappearance of two of the Bobs after a long mission comes news of one of the universe’s greatest mysteries. But solving the paradox could come at the cost of destroying everything in the Bobiverse.
Released Sept. 10, 2026. It seems like no matter how many Bobs are in the universe, there are still fires to put out and problems to solve. In the newest Bobiverse audiobook, the Bobs join together to help space refugees, investigate a mysterious spaceship, and face a threat to the universe being wrought by an old enemy.
Where is the Bobiverse set?
The Bobiverse is vast and takes place over centuries! It’s a remarkable example of complex and exciting world-building. To start, things kick off on Earth, but not the Earth as we know it now. It begins over a century in the future, where states, territories, and countries have changed, morphing or splitting off into new places. And as the Bobiverse series expands with more books, so do the deep-space journeys of the Bobs, who travel farther and farther into the galaxy in search of new habitable planets and resources.
Meet the major characters
Yes, the series is made up of a whole lot of Bobs (over 70 to date!), but there are a few other prominent players who we spend time with in multiple books. Let’s meet a few of the characters in the series.
Bob Johansson: Software engineer-turned-AI consciousness, this is the original Bob, whose one small decision to have his head frozen after he dies sets the whole future of the human race in motion.
Riker (Bob-2): If all the clones were just called Bob, it would get confusing real fast. So when Bob starts replicating himself, he gives them different names. Riker is his first clone, used in space exploration.
Bill (Bob-3): An exceptionally smart clone, Bill specializes in data processing and engineering projects.
Archimedes: A friendly alien from Deltan who becomes good buddies with the original Bob.
Bridget: One of the only prevalent human characters in the Bobiverse, Bridget is an Irish biologist who spends a lot of time with the Bob clone Howie.
Medeiros: A rogue AI who poses a threat to the Bobs and all they wish to accomplish.
The Others: These are hostile alien lifeforms who pose a continued threat to humanity and the Bobs.
Are there really that many Bobs?
Yes! As the series progresses, more Bobs are needed as exploration and terraforming expand throughout the universe. It’s too much for just one Bob to handle, so he starts replicating himself. And according to the author, every Bob considers himself to be the original Bob. “Because if you think about any particular clone 24 generations, somewhere down the way, call him Richard or something, he has a continuous memory all the way back to original Bob,” Taylor says. “So he doesn't think of himself as a 24th-generation clone necessarily. He thinks of himself as Bob, having gone through several clonings and 300 years of experience. But each cloning will have made him slightly different than original Bob.”
Who writes the Bobiverse series?
Like Bob himself, Canadian author and Bobiverse creator Dennis E. Taylor used to work with computers. Taylor was a computer programmer by day while writing sci-fi at night. His imagination and love of hard science fiction turned into the first book in the Bobiverse series, which was released in 2016 as an Audible Original. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) quickly became a success, paving the way for more exciting Bobiverse adventures. Shortly after the first book, Taylor was able to retire from his IT job and devote himself to writing full-time. Taylor has said his Bobiverse series was partly influenced by his job as a computer programmer, as well as the novel A World Out of Time by Larry Niven.
Who narrates the Bobiverse?
What can you say about Ray Porter, the talented actor who narrates the Bobiverse? Well, a lot (but he’d probably sound better saying it). Porter’s work on the Bobiverse series is hilarious, imaginative, and inspired. He has to voice many, many characters, including a lot of Bobs, and the results are a fantastic journey that listeners love. On top of the Bobiverse series, Porter has narrated over 500 other audiobooks, including Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. In 2026, Porter was inducted into Audible’s Narrator Hall of Fame in recognition of all his excellent work.
What’s the deal with all the acronyms?
One of the running jokes throughout the series is the fact that people in the future might be good at inventing things, but they come up with terrible, unnecessarily complicated acronyms for organizations, programs, inventions, etc. As Bob himself says in the first book, “These people might suck at acronyms, but their tech was pretty good.” Here are some of the major acronyms in the series:
F.A.I.T.H., or Free American Independent Theocratic Hegemony: A fundamentalist Christian organization that controls most of North America in the future, and that controls the Bobs. Or tries to, anyway.
G.U.P.P.I., or General Unit Primary Peripheral Interface: This piece of technology helps Bob’s mind connect and interact with machines.
V.E.H.E.M.E.N.T., or Voluntary Extinction of Human Existence Means Earth’s Natural Transformation: A terrorist organization whose ultimate goal is the extinction of all humans.
H.E.A.V.E.N., or Habitable Earths Abiogenic Exploration Network: The type of ship that Bob inhabits when he first leaves Earth for the reaches of space.
A.M.I., or Artificial Machine Intelligence: The non-sentient technology that performs all the menial tasks that are too unimportant for the Bob clones.
What should I listen to after the Bobiverse books?
If you want more funny and thrilling science fiction stories about space travel, consciousness, humanity, and artificial intelligence, here are five suggestions that perfectly complement the Bobiverse series and are really awesome as audiobooks.
There's a reason We Are Legion (We Are Bob) was named Audible's Best Science Fiction Book of 2016: Its irresistibly irreverent wit! Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: Spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself. Bob and his clones are on a mission to find new homes for humanity and boldly go where no Bob has gone before.
Dennis E. Taylor’s hilarious novel sets the stage for the magnificent performance of Ray Porter, who revels in the brave new world of corpsicles, artificial intelligence, interstellar space probes, and space colonization in tantalizing detail.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is the first installment in the blockbuster Audible Original Bobiverse series - which has sold more than one million copies.
The highly anticipated sequel to Audible's Best of 2016 - Science Fiction winner, We Are Legion (We Are Bob); a book listeners are calling "so much fun", "what science fiction was meant to be", and what would happen if "Andy Weir and Ernest Cline had a lovechild".
Bob Johansson didn't believe in an afterlife, so waking up after being killed in a car accident was a shock. To add to the surprise, he is now a sentient computer and the controlling intelligence for a Von Neumann probe.
Bob and his copies have been spreading out from Earth for 40 years now, looking for habitable planets. But that's the only part of the plan that's still in one piece. A system-wide war has killed off 99.9 percent of the human race; nuclear winter is slowly making the Earth uninhabitable; a radical group wants to finish the job on the remnants of humanity; the Brazilian space probes are still out there, still trying to blow up the competition; and the Bobs have discovered a spacefaring species that sees all other life as food.
Bob left Earth anticipating a life of exploration and blissful solitude. Instead he's become a sky god to a primitive native species, the only hope for getting humanity to a new home, and possibly the only thing that can prevent every living thing in the local sphere from ending up as dinner.
Listener favorite Ray Porter returns to narrate Bob - and his many incarnations - in all of their geeky glory.
For We Are Many is the second installment in the blockbuster Audible Original Bobiverse series - which has sold more than one million copies.
The epic and highly anticipated conclusion to the listener-favorite series that had countless Audible listeners (and employees) hooked from the very first Bob - featuring, as always, a flawless performance from the inimitable Ray Porter.
Being a sentient spaceship really should be more fun. But after spreading out through space for almost a century, Bob and his clones just can't stay out of trouble.
They've created enough colonies so humanity shouldn't go extinct. But political squabbles have a bad habit of dying hard, and the Brazilian probes are still trying to take out the competition. And the Bobs have picked a fight with an older, more powerful species with a large appetite and a short temper.
Still stinging from getting their collective butts kicked in their first encounter with the Others, the Bobs now face the prospect of a decisive final battle to defend Earth and its colonies. But the Bobs are less disciplined than a herd of cats, and some of the younger copies are more concerned with their own local problems than defeating the Others.
Yet salvation may come from an unlikely source. A couple of eighth-generation Bobs have found something out in deep space. All it will take to save the Earth and perhaps all of humanity is for them to get it to Sol - unless the Others arrive first.
All These Worlds is the third installment in the blockbuster Audible Original Bobiverse series - which has sold more than one million copies.
Civil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by Audible number one best seller Dennis E. Taylor.
More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate - whatever the cost.
But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore. Some of them oppose Bob’s plan; others have plans of their own. The out-of-control moots are the least of the Bobiverse’s problems.
Undaunted, Bob and his allies follow Bender’s trail. But what they discover out in deep space is so unexpected and so complex that it could either save the universe - or pose an existential threat the likes of which the Bobiverse has ever faced.
Heaven’s River is the fourth installment in the blockbuster Audible Original Bobiverse series - which has sold more than one million copies.
The number one best-selling series that Audible listeners call “wonderfully entertaining”, “packed with humor, geek references and thought-provoking storylines”, and performed by “a true master story teller and actor” returns as the Bobs face their deadliest challenge yet.
The Bobiverse is a different place in the aftermath of the Starfleet War, and the days of the Bobs gathering in one big happy moot are far behind. There’s anti-Bob sentiment on multiple planets, the Skippies playing with an AI time bomb, and multiple Bobs just wanting to get away from it all.
But it all pales compared to what Icarus and Daedalus discover on their 26,000-year journey to the center of the galaxy. Sure, it could settle the Fermi Paradox for good (and what Bob doesn’t want to solve a mystery of the universe?). But it also reveals a threat to the galaxy greater than anything the Bobs could have imagined.
Just another average day in the Bobiverse.
Audible listeners agree! The “Bobiverse” series is “smart, funny and addictive,” “a love story to science fiction” and “my favorite series ever.”
BOBIVERSE TO-DO LIST:
· Determine who built a vast wormhole network–and why
· Investigate mysterious, derelict alien spaceship
· Crack faster-than-light travel
· Help tens of thousands of refugees find a new planet
· Confront a new threat from an old enemy
· Figure out how to save the known universe from certain destruction
So many crises, so little time. It’s really not easy being a Bob.
Listen to The Infinite Extent and you’ll see why fans demand “MORE BOBs PLEASE!” and exclaim, “With Ray Porter narrating, this surge drive is firing on all cylinders.”
Be sure to check out more Audible Original audiobooks by Dennis E. Taylor, all narrated by Ray Porter: Outland: Quantum Earth, Book 1; Earthside: Quantum Earth, Book 2; The Singularity Trap; and Flybot.
