All These Worlds (Bobiverse)

After book two, I went into Book 3 with some reservations. Dennis Taylor definitely delivers in Book 3. I have the advantage or the disadvantage of writing this review after a lot of other folks (as opposed to the Others) have written reviews. Here is a quick summary (without spoilers). Bob learns to embrace what he has become, and not what he was. The Bob-i-verse is all about doing whatever you want without time constraints and few physical limitations. Bob is no longer human, and in this book he embraces what he might be in all of its variegated forms. By the end of the book, the major plot issues (minus one) from the previous books have been addressed in a final way, and you are reasonably happy with where the author leaves things off. While there could be further books in the Bob-i-verse, it seems unlikely, and as a reader, I am fine with where things are left. A little more meaty review follows. ** Beware good reader, spoilers this way lie ** Now to respond to a few criticisms of the book by other reviewers. (1) The timeline is confusing. Yes, you're right. It certainly can be. I listened to the audiobook version and did not have a piece of paper handy to write down times and events, but that probably would have been useful. At times, I had to stop the book audio and think, "that does not make sense in light of last chapter," and then realize that the events of the last chapter did not happen yet for the Bob in this chapter. Given that there were several hundred Bobs by the end of the book and they were spread across several thousand cubic light-years, it would have been tough to portray unless Dennis had done it "Game of Thrones" style. A few chapters are done that way, the ones surrounding the battle at Earth include several chapters that occur near simultaneously. (2) The battle with the Others and the final solution of the Others is anti-climactic. Um, you have not sold me on this one. The entire book leads up to the big battle in Sol, and in a way, Bob is both clever and lucky to win against the Others in Sol. Bob's cheaty knowledge of physics comes to the rescue, and Dennis does remind us repeatedly that the Others are very arrogant. The Bobs very nearly lost the battle for Sol. As to the final destruction of the Others in their home system, the "Hail Mary" play is telegraphed in an early chapter, and every so often we return to the pair of Bobs on the crazy mission. We know that the Others have only colonized one system, and if that system can be wiped out then they are done. The solution, hurl planets into their sun at true relativistic speeds and cause a nova, is a fairly clean, scientific approach as opposed to space opera, but it makes sense in light of the Bob-i-verse, and Dennis did leave us some hints in the earlier books. (3) Bob would not just abandon humanity at the end of the book. Yes, that seemed a bit implausible to me too. That said, all the Bobs did not leave humanity. Some stayed around to patrol the skies around the colonies. Some continued to work on biospheres. Other Bobs raised families. All in all, it seemed reasonable that some of the Bobs would head out to explore new worlds. Those were the main objections I saw. In this book, the Others are beaten at Sol (barely), and their home system is destroyed by causing their sun to nova. Bob moves on from Eden after living for twenty years as a Deltan in an android body. Once his last Deltan friend dies, Bob is ready to move on from mortality. Bob's lack of a family as a human drives him to seek closure for the family need in the early part of his immortality. This arc made sense to me. There is only one additional replicant made, and that is one of Bob's human sweethearts. The book explains that serving mankind in the afterlife seems like a burden. So, ipso facto, no one wants to become a replicant. I'm not sure that I buy that. Dennis deals with religion obliquely and mostly negatively. If you eliminate a religious afterlife then my gut says that many, many people would seek to live on as replicants. No strike, no foul though. There were plenty of Bobs by the end of the book. Yes, true, Dennis never did eliminate the evil Brazilian replicants. Yes, that is an annoying, hanging thread, but the Bob-i-verse is robust and more than able to deal with the one annoying antagonist. At the end of the book, in the final Moot, the Bobs essentially agree that they no longer feel obligated to defend humanity. It is a non-binding resolution, just a general feeling that is codified and passed along to the human colonies. Still, at the end of the book, there are still many Bobs working on helping humans out. The last scene is of original Bob visiting the ice covered glacier that was Las Vegas and bidding farewell to Bill and Will, his first copies. By the end of the final chapter, Dennis had closed out the Bob-i-verse, and I was OK with saying good-bye. That is a fine way to end a trilogy. Well done Dennis!

All These Worlds is the conclusion of the Bobiverse series. It brings all the threads from the previous two books to their conclusion. The series is well written and well edited with several interesting plot lines and characters that are more than just cardboard. The books are fun and fairly quick reads. While not pretentiously philoshical, the Bobiverse books do have some thought provoking elements around what it means to be human and what “self” might mean if personality could be cloned. I really appreciate that the author has a point or two to make along with all the well-crafted action scenes. Given the low price (potentially free if you’ve subscribed to the Kindle Unlimited program) I didn’t have super high expectations for the series, but I was pleasantly surprised. Mr. Taylor is a first rate author and I’m looking forward to reading whatever he writes next.

Each book is better than the previous and each is a solid 5 star. Seriously loved this series, the storyline and characters are outstandingly well written. I binged reading these books from shear enjoyment. Thankfully no cliffhangers and the storyline wraps up well. Highly recommend if you’re looking for a great read that only comes along every so often and is hard to find.

Again, very well researched and an excellent balance of theoretical science, character development, and action. This was exactly the type of series I was looking to read and the rest of the series is just as good. I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a good space based sci fi series to read. Warning: Spoilers The conflict between the Bobs and the Others was a little cliche, but the author made it unique and did a good job of it. It does rely a bit on other sci fi work and pop culture references, but makes up for it with the well researched theoretical science. The mix of conflict, exploration, and a variety of threats that the main characters had to face was great. The main concept of the replicants and the continuous debate about them throughout the series was very well thought out. The only parts that I did not like about the series was the extreme focus that Bob-1 has on the Deltans and his non-existent involvement in the conflict with the Others. I also wish that the story had led to the Bobs discovering another peaceful space based intelligent species, maybe shortly after their victory with the Others, but it was still a good ending. Again, highly recommend for sci fi enthusiasts.

Bob is my spirit replicant. Not a ton of drive just a ton of duty. I loved how this one developed. Curious where they go from here.

Third of these I've bought from Besos-zon. I like the writing style and the premise. A bit light on the hard sci-fi but still enjoyable. Occasionally, the author hits the nail on the head w/observations about human nature, politics, etc. and seems down right prescient. A fun read series that is good for summer or airplanes for sci-fi/"space opera" fans. Heads Up if Buying as a Gift Only problem for me (minus one star) is that the softcover books tend to arrive looking like lightly- to moderately-used books (damaged to the point of not being suitable as gifts - warping, creased or scratched covers, dented corners, and [for the last two] a weird tendency to spread open at middle of book even when laid flat for days). I'll leave it to conjecture as to why (HINT: If I suggested it in my review, even though SFW it would be disallowed 😉).

Really exciting and some weird concepts to grapple with. Would you really want to be immortal?

Creative narrative , futuristic setting, technological possibility, just nudging the unreal with enough credible plots and majorly fuels the questions of tech singularity, good over evil, humaneness and I think god (Bob, rhyme much)

Another arc down, making me wonder what will come next. Fantastic writing a d series. Well worth reading that's for sure

I've been thinking about posthumanism for the past 15 years or so... this is the first sci fi author that gets where we are going right. (Except I tink I know how to get around the initial transfer of conciousness from bio to artificial issue. Hint, microbot injections to gradually highjack natural neuron replacement, yay biomimickry) anyway, good stuff.

Refreshing Seeming New and also old ideas Bowen together in a funny intricate lively way Good light read Must for fans of sf