We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is Dennis E. Taylor's 2016 self-published debut, the first book in his bestselling Bobiverse series. Bob Johansson, a thirty-something Bay Area software engineer, has just sold his small company and signed up to be cryonically preserved when he is killed crossing the street. He wakes up a century later in a deeply Christian-nationalist America that has cryonically thawed him for a single, non-consensual purpose: to upload his mind into a Von Neumann probe, an interstellar spacecraft that can replicate itself with raw materials gathered along the way, and crew it for the United States in a quiet sprint against rival probes from Brazil and the Eurasian Union. Bob, dryly nostalgic and steeped in geek culture, names his copies after fellow Bobs and sets off into the local stellar neighborhood. Taylor mixes hard-SF speculation about Dyson swarms and stellar engineering with first-contact ethics and the comic potential of a single voice scattered across a galaxy.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about We Are Legion (We Are Bob)
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Software engineer Bob Johansson sells his startup, signs a contract with a cryonics company, and is hit by a car the same week.
Yes. The series is a continuous arc, and starting anywhere but book one would spoil major reveals and leave the cast confusing.
Yes. Bob's voice is geeky and self-deprecating, with steady references to Star Trek, science fiction in general, and twentieth-century pop culture.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) was written by Dennis E. Taylor, published in 2016 by Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is 345 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, We Are Legion (We Are Bob) takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is a standalone novel by Dennis E. Taylor, not part of a series.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.