Synopsis
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.
Review
There are plenty of books that work just as well in any medium – physical, digital, audio. But there are a few books and series that I endeavor to read via audio and the Bobiverse books are on that list. I’m sure they work fine on their own in print, but combining Dennis E. Taylor’s words with Ray Porter’s narration make the Bobiverse books sing.
In 2016, Taylor released We Are Legion (We Are Bob), and a sci-fi cult classic was born. He put out three total books between 2016 and 2017 and it seemed that the Bobiverse was neatly tied up. Then, in the fall of 2020, Taylor released a fourth book in the series, Heaven’s River. While I loved the first three books, I didn’t connect as much with this book, even though it was a nice respite in the midst of the pandemic.
Not Till We Are Lost released four months ago and it was like a comfortable blanket after four years being away from the Bobs. I thought it was a great return to form for Taylor and Porter and enjoyed every minute of it.
So what’s the Bobiverse? Well, it starts with Bob (duh), our main protagonist, getting killed in the first chapter of the first book. Then, he “wakes” up a century later as the brain behind an A.I. that will be controlling exploratory space probes. Throughout the first four books, Bob cloned himself numerous times (and the clones cloned themselves as well), hence a group of “Bobs” who renamed themselves upon cloning. Bill, Homer, Riker are just a few of the names that pop up in the early books with Icarus and Daedalus playing a big part in this installment.
The Bobiverse books are a great framing device for a variety of sci-fi tropes from exploration to first contact, futuristic politics to space wars, and many other subgenres in between. Since Bob (and all of his clones) are Artificial Intelligences, they are essentially immortal, but Taylor keeps it interesting with the lifespans of other characters and how that immortality affects the Bobs themselves. Taylor keeps it all grounded in science, but he has a nice heaping pile of humor that helps each of the stories along.
If you haven’t tried reading any of the Bobiverse books, you really should start with We Are Legion (We Are Bob) and if you do, I bet you’ll find it a quick and enjoyable read. Once you do, I imagine it won’t be too long before you find yourself waiting for the next Bob book, just like me. Not Till We Are Lost is a fine addition to the Bobiverse and sets up future books quite well.
As an Audible Original, Not Till We Are Lost was first published on September 5, 2024. The Kindle version was recently published on January 5, 2025.
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