For We Are Many by Dennis E. Taylor

„Bob Johansson didn't believe in an afterlife, so waking up after being killed in a car accident was a shock. To add to the surprise, he is now a sentient computer and the controlling intelligence for a Von Neumann probe. Bob and his copies have been spreading out from the Earth for 40 years now, looking for habitable planets. But that's the only part of the plan that's still in one piece. A system-wide war has killed off 99.9% of the human race, nuclear winter is slowly making the Earth uninhabitable, a radical group wants to finish the job on the remnants of humanity, the Brazilian space probes are still out there, still trying to blow up the competition, and the Bobs have discovered a spacefaring species that sees all other life as food.“—Publisher's description.

I didn't enjoy this very much at all. Everything I disliked about the first book was amplified, while the aspects of the story I did like were toned down.

I kept thinking about the fact that we need more people with backgrounds in social sciences and the humanities in the tech sector, in the real world. A lot of Bob's misadventures, such as his problems with the Deltans and his sad romance, come about because he doesn't understand how people and communities work. I understand that original Bob was a tech guy, and he acknowledges that he isn't the person best suited for a lot of the tasks he needs to do. But when he has the technology to create new replicants, he offers it to a biologist and to a military strategist. He needs an anthropologist or sociologist or something, and he definitely needs to learn about diplomacy.

There is finally a prominent female character, Bob's love interest, but the romance is really from “nice-guy” land. At no point does Bob consider her feelings; he assumes that she was not interested in him romantically because he isn't human, and not because she just doesn't feel the same way about him. I rolled my eyes a lot at that whole plot.

The plot with the Pav was pretty good, and I was disappointed that it was introduced and basically resolved so close to the end of the book. The Pav essentially exist in the book to show us that the Others are a real threat, without the narrative exploring all that much about the Pav's culture, planet, or anything. The plot on Earth was also pretty good, with the terrorists and so on, although I didn't really find it as gripping as I think it could've been. For some reason, the emotional stuff with Homer didn't have much impact on me.

The humor started to grate on me after other aspects of the book began to annoy me, so I'm not sure if it's cornier here than in book one, or if my mood just changed. But this writer really relies a lot on cliches. It made me want to read something set in a totally alien fantasy or sci-fi world.

I can see why this series is so popular, but it isn't really to my taste. But I will probably read the last book eventually because I do want to know what happens.

Yup, still good! If you like the first book, this is more of that! A bit more of an emotional story compared to the first book, and it sets the stage for the last installment quite well.