• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Stance on AI
    • Contact
    • Friends of FFA
  • Blog
    • Reviews
      • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
      • Comics/Graphic Novels
      • Fantasy
        • Alt History
        • Coming of Age
        • Epic Fantasy
        • Fairy Tales
        • Grimdark
        • Heroic Fantasy
        • LitRPG
        • Paranormal Fantasy
        • Romantic Fantasy
        • Steampunk
        • Superheroes
        • Sword and Sorcery
        • Urban Fantasy
      • Historical Fiction
      • Science Fiction
        • Aliens
        • Artificial Intelligence
        • Alt History
        • Cyberpunk
        • Dystopian
        • Hard SciFi
        • Mechs/Robots
        • Military SF
        • Space Opera
        • Steampunk
        • Time Travel
      • Thriller
    • Guest Posts
    • Lists
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Why You Should Read…
    • Interviews
      • Book Tube
      • Authorly Writing Advice
  • Fear For All
    • Demons
    • Ghosts
    • Gothic
    • Lovecraftian
    • Monsters
    • Occult
    • Psychological
    • Slasher
    • Vampires
    • Werewolves
    • Witches
    • Zombies
  • SFF Addicts
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2025
    • TBRCon2024
    • TBRCon2023
    • TBRCon2022
  • FFA Book Club
  • FFA TBR Toppers
    • Advertise Your Book on FFA!
  • Writer Resources
    • Artists
    • Cartographers
    • Editing/Formatting/Proofing

Review: Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse #5) by Dennis E. Taylor

January 15, 2025 by Will Swardstrom Leave a Comment

Rating: 9.25/10

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. 

Filed Under: Aliens, Artificial Intelligence, Cloning, First Contact, Genetic Engineering, Hard SciFi, Mechs/Robots, Military SF, Reviews, Science Fiction, Sentient Spaceship, Space Opera Tagged With: Artificial Intelligence, Audible, Bobiverse, Book Review, First Contact, Ray Porter, Science Fiction, Space Exploration

About Will Swardstrom

Will S. loves books of all varieties, but thrives on Fantasy and Sci Fi. He spends his days in Southern Illinois teaching middle school history and learning all the latest Internet trends from pre-teens. He enjoys spending time with his wife and kids and watching British detective shows. In previous lives, he's dabbled in radio, newspaper, writing his own speculative fiction, and making Frosties at Wendy's.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Review: The Girl in the Walls by Meg Eden Kuyatt

Review: The Vengeance (The Vampires of Dumas #1) by Emma Newman

Review: Overgrowth by Mira Grant

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

FFA Newsletter!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Author Hub

Read A.J. Calvin
Read Andy Peloquin
Read C.J. Daily
Read C.M. Caplan
Read D.A. Smith
Read DB Rook
Read Francisca Liliana
Read Frasier Armitage
Read Josh Hanson
Read Krystle Matar
Read M.J. Kuhn

Recent Reviews

Recent Comments

  1. Mark Matthews on COVER REVEAL: To Those Willing to Drown by Mark MatthewsJanuary 7, 2025
  2. Basra Myeba on Worth reading Jack Reacher books by Lee Child?January 5, 2025
  3. Ali on Review: Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav BarsukovJanuary 5, 2025
  4. Carter on So you want to start reading Warhammer 40,000? Here’s where to start!January 4, 2025
  5. M. Zaugg on Bender’s Best LitRPG reads of 2024January 3, 2025

Archive

Copyright © 2025 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In