TL;DR: Van Helsing, but as played by a Murderbot-style ship’s AI, with the delightfully cozy and heartwarming flavor of Becky Chambers The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.
Synopsis:
Spaceships aren’t programmed to seek revenge—but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.
Demeter just wants to do her shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans.
To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. A fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.
The queer love child of pulp horror and classic sci-fi, Of Monsters and Mainframes is a dazzling, heartfelt odyssey that probes what it means to be one of society’s monsters—and explores the many types of friendship that make us human.
Full Review:
I had no idea what to expect from Of Monsters and Mainframes, but having finished it, it’s safe to say this is currently my favorite sci-fi read of 2025!
Demeter is the AI of an older, outmoded spaceship, who wants nothing more than to do her job of delivering her passengers safely to their destination at the end of the universe-crossing voyage.
There’s just one problem: all of her passengers are dead, brutally torn apart by…she’s not sure exactly what, because there’s no way her internal sensors could actually be picking up DRACULA, right?
After a few years in storage following this bloodbath, the “ghost ship” is sent on another voyage to convey passengers back to Earth. And wouldn’t you know it, there’s more murder and mayhem—only this time, it’s a…werewolf?
With everyone aboard save two children dead, Demeter has to fight all of her programming to try and keep these innocents alive and somehow get rid of the werewolf.
And that’s just the beginning of the wild, ludicrous, and absolutely adorable story.
Of Monsters and Mainframes has the same slightly sarcastic, dry humor and self-aware machine sentience that made Murderbot such a fun read, but with the cozy and heartwarming feel of a Becky Chambers novel.
The whole cast of characters—the hyper-neurotic Demeter and her fussy onboard medical AI, Steward; Agnes and Isaac and Frank and even Steve-the-very-much-not-Steve—are a delight, with so much humanity despite many of them being absolutely not humans.
The “monster hunting spaceship” flavor of the story is absolutely absurd and beautifully creative. I loved seeing Demeter and Steward’s desperation to avert disaster and bloodshed with their limited capabilities. It was an incredibly inventive use of science fiction and space travel, and demonstrated an impressive understanding of (fictional) aerospace engineering and astrophysics while still being a light-hearted and fun read.
Fans of Project Hail Mary and The Long Way to A Small, Angry Planet will delight in this book as I did. It strikes a wonderful balance between cozy and adventuresome, action-packed and heart-warming, with a whole lot of entertaining AI neuroticism on display.
A hell of a ride, and a hell of a story!
Leave a Reply