Modern Monday - Heaven's River: A Review

For those who haven't yet read or audio-booked Dennis E. Taylor's "bobiverse" series, you're missing out.

The series begins with We Are Legion (We Are Bob), which was published first as an audiobook in 2016, becoming one of Audible.com's most popular selections. It was subsequently published in paperback in 2017. Two more volumes, For We Are Many (2017) and All These Worlds (2017) soon followed.

Some quick background: Bob Johansson, a wealthy eccentric, signs an agreement to have his brain put into cryo-stasis after death, then is subsequently killed in an accident. Decades later, his brain is uploaded into a computer - a process which destroys his original brain. As a living program, he is placed into a probe and sent into space. But he is not just any probe, he is a Von Neumann probe, capable of making copies of himself to spread to other parts of the galaxy and explore even further.

At first he is reluctant to copy himself. When he eventually does, the copies name themselves after beloved sci fi and pop culture characters, like "Will Riker," "Luke," or "Bender." Sometimes pairs named themselves things like "Phineas and Ferb," or "Bert and Ernie."

In the first three novels, "Bob" and his copies manage to accomplish many things, including saving the people of Earth by repopulating everyone to new alien worlds, defeating another VN probe determined to destroy him, and the entire human species, and assist a burgeoning alien civilization. The third book culminates with the defeat of a menacing Type-I civilization which considers humans and their technology merely food.

Now, book 4 is out, and Bob and his "children" are out to rescue one of their own. Bender went off exploring back in book 2, and his whereabouts have been unknown ever since. Original Bob goes after him, soon realizing that Bender's trajectory went off in a different direction as he discovered evidence of another alien civilization. After a search, they discover Bender's ship, remnants of the ship which attacked him, and the housing for his computer brain - but no Bender. Realizing that the aliens must have taken him, Bob tracks them to a nearby star which has a ring-like structure around it, reminiscent of Larry Niven's Ringworld. But upon closer inspection, they realize it is a Topopolis - a toroid spring-like structure which loops continually around the star, rotating to create artificial gravity.

The inhabitants of the Topopolis are otter-like creatures with limited technology. How such creatures created such an advanced habitat with only primitive machinery is a mystery, until it is discovered that the topopolis is governed by an advanced computerized mind - the first true computer intelligence that the Bobs have yet encountered.

And somewhere, lost among these primitive otters, is Bender.

Meanwhile, several generations of Bobs have caused them to go their own way. They break off, declare independence, and (worst of all) cut off all communications - right in the middle of Bob's rescue mission.

Overall, this is a good continuation of the first three novels. It's hard to top the overarching threats that were presented in book 3, and book 4 does not, but it does present good challenges, and the internal conflict among the younger Bobs makes for some interesting plot developments.

Highly recommended, especially if you enjoyed the first three.

And if you haven't yet read the first three, do so!

Eric

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