The Bobbiverse books follow a man (Bob) whose mind is uploaded into self-replicating probes that explore the galaxy, confront confront aliens, ethics, and questions of identity, and try to ensure humanity’s survival across interstellar civilizations.

The first 3 books start from original (meat) Bob’s death, then to humanity’s basic survival, their first war against an alien species (The Others), and the first signs of fragmentation among the Bobs. These books all consist of short chapters with lots of plot development, but fairly little depth. Good old sci-fi pulp, except… not old. ❤️

Book 4 was the stellar opposite of that: it’s significantly longer than the earlier books, and focuses on only two main plot points. First of these is the escalating, internal rift between the various Bob factions, and second is their search to rescue Bender - one of the earlier Bobs who’s been lost for over a century and turns out to be in a tube-shaped world called Heaven’s River. The world is inhabited by Otter-like creatures, who seem to be regressing over time - losing knowledge and skills. Both story arcs see lots of plot development, but there’s also significant depth added to both the original cast and the new Quinlans.

While slower than the first 3 books, I found book 4 fascinating due to the added depth. Some main points that stuck with me:

• The overlap between the Quinlans and the humans, how biological lifeforms end up at the same spot regardless of differences.

• The spy-vs-spy of the Quin society of Admins, Resistance, and general population - and the top-down enforcement of “can’t get too smart” / an upper tech limit.

• The different primary strands in the (hundreds of) Bobs that turn into factions: the originals (helpers and explorers), the D&D’ers (just wanna have fun), the Skippies (want to evolve post-body), and Starfleet (and its prime directive).

• The philosophical debate on whether AI should help biological (less developed) lifeforms or should leave them be.

• The idea of whether multiple exact clones can exist. In this universe they can’t - and the Bobs’ exploration of this universal limitation (law) leads to some interesting possible explanations (quantum entanglement).

See, lots to think about!

Book 4 reads very differently from the first three, despite clearly still being the same universe and main storylines. It’s a deeper story that “forces” the reader to also think more, while still moving the overall story along. I liked the change of pace, so rated this higher than the previous books. But I can also see how some people would prefer the faster pace, which apparently continues in book 5. I’ve already ordered it, so will get to that one eventually too.