Noah Chinn Reviews: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

In anime, one of the prevalent genres right now is isekai, which translates as “different world.” It basically revolves around the adventures of someone who is transported to a world very much not like our own. It could be a video game world, the far future, an alternate past, whatever.

It’s hardly a new idea, and far from limited to Japan. As a genre, it has the advantage of the protagonist learning about their world at the same pace we do. But I do like using the Japanese term as it instantly lets you know what the setup is: Someone in familiar circumstances is thrown into completely unfamiliar circumstances and must learn to survive and thrive in it.

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) definitely falls into this category. Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. Being a huge nerd, one of the things he does with his newfound wealth is sign up with a cryogenics company to have his head persevered immediately after his death… which happens the very next day at a science fiction convention.

When he wakes up, it’s 117 years later, and his consciousness has been transferred into a computer core… one that’s going to be set in an unmanned interplanetary and, more importantly, self-replicating “Von Neumann” probe.

The problem is that the world is on the brink of war, and every other major alliance out there has similar ideas and don’t want the others to get their first. And it doesn’t help that the America Bob wakes up into is a fanatical theocracy called FAITH (they really like acronyms) that’s as likely to fight itself as other nations. Fortunately, the team working on his development for the probe are more practical than that, and provide the means for Bob to break free of any shackles that were intended for him…