What a goofy read… The premise of the series is an pretty novel one, surrounding Von Neumann probes. In essence, the concept is an Artificial Intelligence placed inside a probe, with the capacity to for in situ resource utilisation, and vitally, the ability to reproduce, being able to spread itself across the vast stretch of the universe in a downright reasonable amount of time (ok sure its in the billions, but thats a start…).
Obviously reading a book about an AI powered space probe is rather dry. Enter Bob. Bob is a, or was a software engineer. He died. Now his consciousness has been immortalised, and stuck in a probe, and strapped on rocket. Fun!
The entire series then goes from there. Taylor uses the unique structures of his premise to craft a really unique reading experience. You’re constantly switching between one of many replicants (the reproduced Bobs), each with unique plots, and adventures. The story telling is really fluid, in that you’re mentally juggling at least 5 or 6, sometimes more, plots. Yet it doesn’t begin to overwhelm you.
The liberal usage of relatively simple prose, makes the absorption of the plots rather pain-free, and it becomes an enjoyable experience. The plots do of course intertwine every once in a while, but for the most part, they act as self-sustaining stories.
The rather novel nature of the story lets Taylor extend this to his heart’s extent, and so far that’s been about 7 books. As of writing this, I’m nearly done the 3rd, just shy of a major plot being resolved.
Anyways thats pretty much what it is! Really unique. In fact now that I think of it, it reads more like a comic series, or even a TV show in its structure. Pretty cool differentiator.