We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

An unexpected gem

I love this book but nearly didn't pick it up. I've tried a few titles lately that wouldn't necessarily be my cup of tea. Things like "off to be the wizard", "the passage" and "the final winter" - all probably good books but they didn't gel with me, and because of that, I nearly held off on We Are Legion to go for something else. I couldn't be more glad I didn't as I've only had it 37 days and I think I've listened to it start to end at least 9 times.

Part of what I love is that the book somehow manages to have a single driving character that is at the same time feels like several characters, all of which I'm jealous of. Getting out into the stars has been something I've dreamed of since I was first able to understand that there was an out there to get into. I'd probably take Bob's deal in a heartbeat given the choice. To top it off, it paces well, it does things that I didn't always expect and sets up for the next book 2 (out in March according to the author).

It also rekindled my love of that kind of science. The idea of von neumann probe probes was something I vaguely knew when I was younger but which kind of fell out of my head as I got older. The book brought them back to me and I ended up doing a lot of reading about the practicalities of them.

I rarely write reviews (in ~4 years with Audible, this will only be my 4th) but I can't recommend this enough - there's a reason that papers have been listing it as one of the best Audiobooks of 2016, and it won the audible best sci-fi of the year too.

125 of 131 people found this review helpful

I rarely give five stars

What did you like most about We Are Legion (We Are Bob)?

I will only leave a minor critique and insure that beyond this I can not fault this audiobook in its genre, style, story, writing or the great wit of Dennis Taylor as he tells the story. With that said I rarely give five stars but for this introduction to the Bobiverse, even though the story slightly faltered by the lack of identity in characters for obvious reasons I think that this is simply an audiobook problem, if it were a text one would be more easily able to orient with each new place and each new "identical character".
In audio form and with so much introduction with new characters in the mid section of the story it proves difficult to differentiate at the rate the story requires but even more difficult to understand how the author was able to overcome this beyond this initial introduction and continue to make them all distinct and memorable from that point to the conclusion.,
Above all I want to give praise to the audiobook since it has the exceptional and most believable voice actor I have ever had the pleasure of listening to, Ray Porter is by far the best I have heard after maybe two dozen audiobooks over the last few years. He is beyond comparison and I hope I am not mistaken by the next entry of the Bobiverse in March 2017.
All in all, every thing is amazing with just slight confusion towards the middle but that is overcome after some reflection or restarting some chapters.

Very near a 10/10.

What did you like best about this story?

The comedic and fresh approach the to sub genre. Very believable even after leaving established Physical and universal laws. The Author can be quite insightful.

Have you listened to any of Ray Porter’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No, But this is excellence beyond any I have heard before.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No it did not but I did feel very altruistic in an emotional sense.

Any additional comments?

Just listen to it!

28 of 34 people found this review helpful

Expanding Headspace

Well this is an interesting little gem! "Bobiverse" gives you a reasonable expectation of just how serious and in-depth the author is aiming at and there is definitely an almost young adult feel to some of the writing and narration. However, there is cleverness here too, once the author gets into the implications of a software generated mind controlling advanced technology the whole thing expands and becomes rather inventive. The Bobiverse term suddenly makes sense.

I can't say I was quite as sold on it as the majority seem to have been but it is a little different and it may well be interesting to see how much further Taylor can take this concept. I was already finding I needed to concentrate on the main character, err I mean characters, err well maybe it was both!

22 of 27 people found this review helpful

Loved it

Any additional comments?

Loved the story very funny. The only problem was that it ended please hurry up with the next one.

24 of 30 people found this review helpful

Loved this book

It was a pleasure to listen to this book. The scientific grounding made the story very interesting. The fact is that it was 'clean' made it enjoyable. I highly recommend this book.

23 of 29 people found this review helpful

Out of this world

This is got to be one of the best well thought out and thought provoking books out there. He has good pace and teaching in gauged thoroughly. Can't wait for the next one

16 of 20 people found this review helpful

Surprising

I found this title just perusing through Amazon and the other reviewers persuaded me to give it a go. I was not disappointed.

Great story and great concept. An real Sci fi fan will love this. it's obvious the author knows his stuff about software, science and other Sci fi titles as the knowledge and facts are littered through but never used incorrectly.

Definitely worth a read!

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

A good book for Sci-Fi newbies.

An interesting concept of the future in the hands of artificial intelligence written in a simple and humorous way.

This is an easy science fiction listen and a perfect choice to those who begin their journey into science fiction reading escapism or those who simply want to relax with a good book.

Although the story is not hugely innovative, it will easily broaden your imagination.

The author deserves big thumbs up for the main characters, who are well-crafted, full of personality and humour.

Ray Porter's narration is good and brings the story to life. I hope to come across more books read by him.

Overall, the book is worth spending a credit and stealing few hours of your free time.

15 of 19 people found this review helpful

Bob blew my socks off!

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

IN CAPS BECAUSE I LOVE IT THAT MUCH.

This is the sort of book I dream of - wonderful story - genuinely imaginative, creative, and absolutely took me to places I would have never got under my own steam.
We follow Bob as he dies, wakes up as an AI, launches himself off into the universe and replicates and explores.
This book is fun, funny, somewhat uplifting, and a really brilliant story.
I enjoyed the nods to some classic SciFi, and really didn't want this one to end.

I'm not sure how I'll contain myself until the next book comes out, this has been truly wonderful and leaves me wanting lots more!

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

More please!

Stumbled on this and couldn't find enough time in my life each day to keep listening.
Great concept and well balanced character driven narrative alongside a good mix of plot lines.
Plenty of amusing tributes and references for sci-fi fans, but without a deep love of any being needed to enjoy the book and appreciate the humour.
I have seen that the series is planned as a trilogy and eagerly await book 2 on Audible. The narrator is well chosen and brings the story to life very well. If I'm being picky I'd have liked the story to develop more and book 1 to have been longer, I guess the old saying "leave them wanting more" has it's place here; if the next book was longer I'd not complain though!
If anyone isn't sure they should give this a go, please take the gamble as I did as it is well worth it.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful