Series:Bobiverse (#5) Narrator: Ray Porter Format: Audible Audio Published: September 5, 2024 by Audible Originals Language: English
Description
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.
My Review
I might have done a happy dance when I got the notification that this audiobook was available, and even more when I realised I had an Audible credit to use.
I love the Bobiverse series and I always want to know what will happen next. In this instalment, we follow Icarus and Daedalus on their adventure to Sagittarius A* and their side-tracks, which leads them home at last, but with terrible news. It’s certainly an entertaining and clever solution to the Fermi Paradox, although I maintain my hypothesis that the other sentient species of the galaxy took one look at us and decided to leave us to our own devices because we were too much trouble. The second plot is Howard and Bridget’s adventures among the dragons. Another is the mission to develop wormholes, defeat the self-aware AI Thoth that the Skippies have let loose on the galaxy, and deal with increasingly hostile humans, while the Quinlans get their own ‘net and Charles makes a confession about the origins of Starfleet.
There are always a few plot lines in a Bobiverse book, because they’re an ensemble cast, but it gets confusing. I really enjoyed the different plots but I’d love it if I could just focus on one at a time! The plots are mostly linked, but sometimes they’re just separate stories. Howard and Bridget’s adventures among the dragons could have been a novella, for instance. I think Bob and Teresa’s story definitely needs more attention, too.
As ever, Ray Porter is a superlative narrator. I love his voice!
Overall, a great return to the Bobiverse, but may need more than one listen to get everything that’s going on. I shall be relistening soon.
The number one best-selling author of the Bobiverse trilogy returns with a space thriller that poses a provocative question: Does our true destiny lie in ourselves – or in the stars?
If it were up to one man and one man alone to protect the entire human race – would you want it to be a down-on-his luck asteroid miner?
When Ivan Pritchard signs on as a newbie aboard the Mad Astra, it’s his final, desperate stab at giving his wife and children the life they deserve. He can survive the hazing of his crewmates, and how many times, really, can near-zero g make you vomit? But there’s another challenge looming out there, in the farthest reaches of human exploration, that will test every man, woman and AI on the ship – and will force Ivan to confront the very essence of what makes him human.
My Review
Had I heard/read The Singularity Trap before any of Taylor’s other books I would definitely have sought out his other works, because the writing is still good and characters interesting. The thriller element comes out well, and the central plot of Ivan becoming a metal man and the risk of annihilation by either A.I. or the Computer and its Masters, is gripping. I was really rooting for Ivan and the crew of the Mad Astra. The Naval command drove me up the wall, being pompous hawks. I liked the solution to the problem of what to do about the threat from the Computer and its development as an individual sharing a body with Ivan.
But…
This is my least favourite Dennis E. Taylor novel. I’ve only got it on audio book and I’m not particularly bothered about ordering the paperback, even though it would go nicely beside my Bobiverse books, along with Outland when it’s published in a couple of months. I don’t know if it’s because Ray Porter narrates them all so they feel like alternative universes. A lot of the characters have similar names. The main characters are all engineers/computer scientists and feel like the same character re-imagined in different circumstances. The Bobiverse books and Outland are sufficiently different that you can’t get them confused – apart from the coffee obsession. The Singularity Trap and theBobiverse are quite similar, they could be alternative futures had the events described in We Are Legion (We Are Bob) as happening after Bob dies and before he is uploaded, been slightly different. Unfortunately these similarities kept distracting me from the qualities of the book itself.
When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, it’s up to six college students and their experimental physics project to prevent the end of civilization.
When an experiment to study quantum uncertainty goes spectacularly wrong, physics student Bill Rustad and his friends find that they have accidentally created an inter-dimensional portal. They connect to Outland – an alternate Earth with identical geology, but where humans never evolved. The group races to establish control of the portal before the government, the military, or evildoers can take it away.
Then everything changes when the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts in an explosion large enough to destroy civilization and kill half the planet. The team has just hours to get as many people as possible across to Outland before a lethal cloud of ash overwhelms them.
Nothing has prepared the refugees for what they find – a world of few resources and unprecedented dangers. Somehow, they must learn to survive, because Outland may not just be a safe haven – it could be their new home.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 