We Are Legion (We Are Bob) - Book REVIEW!

In this episode of Next Chapter, we review 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)' by Dennis E. Taylor. This sci-fi gem follows the story of Bob Johansson, a man who finds himself as a digital consciousness tasked with exploring the universe. Join us as we delve into Bob's unique journey, filled with humor, adventure, and thought-provoking concepts about identity and existence.

We'll discuss the book's inventive premise, engaging writing style, and the compelling themes that make 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)' a standout in the science fiction genre. Whether you're a sci-fi veteran or new to the genre, this review will highlight why this book should be on your reading list.

Subscribe to Next Chapter for more insightful book reviews and discussions on the latest and greatest in literature. Have you read 'We Are Legion (We Are Bob)'? Share your thoughts and favorite moments in the comments below.

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[cwstatic]

I’ve loved this series! Glad you guys are getting into the series.

[koalabear]

We read this recently on the fantology discord as part of our monthly book club so it was super cool to see you guys discussing it.

I was on the side of Jaden in thinking that Bob was a person. I thought it was interesting that Marty seemed to indicate that a person was a soul / physical self ... Our book club chatted about Ship of Theseus and also what about a recent guy who lost ALL of his limbs through sepsis and there's nothing left of him essentially except his head and a torso and prosthetics.

Others said - what are we if not our memories / thoughts so therefore Bob was Bob and still 'human'... but then we thought - what does this mean for people with Alzheimers or dementia? We had to stop some of our conversations because it hit up against religious issues and we didn't want to argue :D

The other thing that was interesting for me was that when the Bobs split off, it's not necessarily that they become different people - it's just that different aspects of the same Bob became dominant eg it's possible Bob himself didn't know that he had certain aspects to his personality as he may not have been that introspective. For instance, within ourselves we all have goofy / dark / friendly / romantic sides that may not be known to others or even ourselves.

Also in terms of authors who research. I love Connie Willis. Her books take ages to come out because she takes YEARS to research her books ... They are amazing and worth it but she takes such a long time to write them because of all the research.

[TheRicketyBrige]

I havent heard of this one excited to hear of you recommend it. Always looking to add more good books to the to be read list

[Ojamamon]

I just finished the second book amd honestly i feel like the first iteration of AI Bob was the only one that could be considered as still being Bob, but after the first time he has to be be rebooted before he is shipped out then he starts being a little less Bob, as evidenced by the different personalities. That being said, its an interesting concept to essentially see a real life multiverse happen. Its always said how every choice creates a new universe and affects your future but to be able to see how every Bob experiences his own ‘life’ based on the choices he makes that are different from the others is by far the best part! Its so many characters but in reality its only one! Its brilliant!

[ryanskeff]

As someone who hasn't read Sanderson I appreciate the reviews, but...as someone who just finished the Red Rising series I am STOKED for yall to start that one.

[akellerhouse]

After reading all the available Bobiverse books, I'm leaning toward Bob not being his original self. I think after the first book, I still thought of Bob as human. I don't know. It's a tough question. But this series is a lot of fun and I can't wait until the new one comes out in Sept.

[koalabear]

Also... that replicant they found - not a New Zealander. Was an Australian. I know people mix us up :D

[valliyarnl]

8:26 good take from Marty about Bob.i like the soul argument. The bobs r copies

I liked the Bob that met the aliens the most

[Ms.Pronounced_Name]

Walt Disney being cryofrozen is 100% a rumor and probably not true, but related fun fact: the microwave was used to harmlessly defrost cryogenically frozen hamsters. Not a joke, Tom Scott has a video about it where he interviews the guy who did it

[Ifinishedyoutube]

I finished YouTube. Meaning that I have exhausted all of my interests and have had to move on to side interests or expand my original subset of interest. My original subset of interest s were finites things like math. There's only four things. It's rather small but it unpacks rather large. Very useful. Very easy. Very finite. My initial interests were all of the finites because there's a finite amount of them. Now I'm expanding into the infinites, so I'm watching history. There's an impossibly a large amount of history that is created everyday and most of it goes undocumented there's no way to finish history. And now I am where I am

That being said, one of my core interests that I cannot fulfill for some reason on YouTube is books. Even though basically every YouTube video I watch is someone discovering something and making a video instead of a book or they're reading a book or part of a book as a video and demonstrating it. And yet there's like at best 5 channels talking about books regularly of those two of them are actually long enough to enjoy. And yours is the second one I've seen and I'm only 38 seconds into it so I don't know if you're good or bad. All I know is that you're the second video in all of this site that is long enough to enjoy on this particular subject.

[orochiocelote]

Bob seems like the ship of thesesus. If you replace every piece of the ship? Is it a new ship or is it still the same of ship? I guess in some ways we as human are similar. I am not the person I was a year ago, or 2 years ago. We change and become someone new, constantly.

[Ifinishedyoutube]

8:49 The current theory of argument for what the soul is, is the 4D line of continuity. The one piece that cannot be replaced in theseus's ship is his logbook as you can only add on to it. But you can digitize it. And move it to a different shell.

White shirt is correct.

The series presents this with the skippies in like the third or fourth book. I can't differentiate anymore. I stopped trying to. It's just a timeline.

[Ifinishedyoutube]

38:43 Knowing the future of the book. The 8 out of 10 rating for not having a clear future is 😅.

[zigdonfreud]

Are you going to review the other books in this series? Book 5 release date is Sept 5. Also Red Rising is amazing, hope you will enjoy it.

[Ifinishedyoutube]

There are five books now. I expect you to catch up soon.

[TrackerSully]

Haven't listened to the book yet. So my comments are based on your video. You talk about the copies of Bob all having different personalities so they must not be Bob. But the original was a complete transfer, one cell at a time. So, that one is Bob whole the copies are going to have minor "degradations" that would manifest as new personalities. They are not Bob anymore but more like his cloned kids.