As I write this, I am patiently enduring my last day at the day-job. Starting tomorrow, I am a full-time writer. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to put out at least a couple of novels per year, although the afternoon naps may get in the way. 🙂
I’ve had a preliminary talk with my agent about schedules and deadlines and such, and we’ll be bringing the publisher into the conversation soon. I’ll post up relevant details as soon as we have them nailed down.
54 comments
Skip to comment form
Rock on!
Best news ever! I can’t wait to read all the great books that will come from this.
……..and that’s when the ‘writers block’ starts!
Good luck man, love what I’ve seen so far.
Congrats, looking forward to reading more of your books.
This is awesomet! Looking forward to more of your great work. Good luck!
Like Bob#1 a lot but can’t figure out why there is so much, or any for that matter variation between Bobs. Even the Bobs don’t really seem to nderstand. It really distracts me and my enjoyment of the book. What gives?
Author
It’s simple, really. My editor told me there had to be more variation between the Bobs. I went back and added it.
And that’s your introduction to the dirty underbelly of writing. 🙂
Well I like it. For me it gives it provides Bob with a mystery that despite all his knowledge and capacity he can’t (or they can’t) still figure out. It tells me that they are still humans and that the universe has a lot of secrets that maybe he/they will never unravel.
I guess that’s what you get when you ask how the sausage is made.
I thought the hand-waiving explanation given in the book was perfectly fine. Quantum variation. Yeah, that sounds good!
Author rule #1, blame the editor. Editor rule #1…
I just want to say that although I have always been a fan of the science fiction genre, no other author has made the days between releases drag on as much, and as a fourteen-year-old soon to go into ninth grade, I was shocked to discover that the impatient waiting for your book could make summer feel like school time. I discovered you after finishing The Martian by Andy Weir for the umpteenth time, and saw the suggested books on audible. I quickly finished your first bobiverse book, and in my thirst for your witty plot and writing style, I listened to your book at 3x speed. Your writing style is unparalleled practically anywhere, with only Andy Weir and Ernest Cline being close. In fact, I love the writings of the three of you so much that it wouldn’t shock me if you were the same person. All in all, I want to thank you for the three amazing books. I wait expectantly, impatiently, hopefully, and unabashedly excited for the third book in the Bobiverse.
While waiting for book 3, I listened 1 and 2 two time each. And they still get me.
reminds me of when I was your age… waiting for the 3rd Jurassic Park book from Michael Crichton… worth the wait.
Then the movie ruined the first, and second book… third movie got closer to something that was not a “concept” of the book… fourth movie is closer to what I would have expected from the first movie.
I agree completely with your assessment, Will! Have you read any Jim Butcher or Drew Hayes? Not Sci-fi authors, but I think their world-building skills really draw you in. If you want some sci-fi, I’d recommend James S. Corey or Lois McMaster Bujold. Happy reading, from another impatient Bobiverse fan! 🙂
To add to the recommendations, one of my favorite series is Walter Jon Williams’ “Dread Empire’s Fall” trilogy (with, so far, two follow-up novellas). His “Dagmar Shaw” trilogy (one followup novella) is also excellent, but not really SF.
You’ve got a week to read them all before Bob the Third is out. 🙂
Nice! Big fan of the Bob series. Was a fun and interesting read. Looking forward to #3. Thanks
This is excellent news for your readers but I do have a question: How does Mrs. Taylor feel about having you underfoot?
Author
Well, I do have my own office, but yeah…
Retired to write full time.
Living the dream… 😉
Congratulations! Can’t wait to listen to the third book.
Looking forward to more of your books now that you have the time to write them, maybe another worldlines novel?
I have no clue why I put off reading We Ate Legion this long but I had!! Started it yesterday and finished it today! I’m absolutely thrilled that i did! As a LONG TIME sci-fi reader/fan I found the bob-humor perfectly tuned to my inner dialog! Love every name choice. I’ve already picked up book 2 and pre-ordered the third. I’ll start book 2 tonight!
Congrats on retirement. Hope you have a peaceful window and view from which to gaze while you dream up your novels.
> We Ate Legion
Is that the alternate-viewpoint novel from The Others’ perspective?
Haha
Omg. Just seeing my grammar mistake. Thanks for the hilarious policing!! Always love it when I miss my own errors. It’s why I told students to read backwards during editing!
Congratulations on day job retirement! Loving the Bobs. Thanks for making my day job commute something I look forward to thanks to audible.
That’s fabulous news! I am anxiously awaiting the 3rd Bobiverse book, and now I will have to keep my feelers out for anything else you write! Congratz!! 🙂
Read bob verse….Outstanding. Loved Outland ….can’t wait for Earthside. Git er done ! I think Outland would make a great sci-fi series if the network turds don’t change it up. Sci-fi channel is turning into a black hole. Just remember Ghost Brigades. Keep keeping on man. I cant wait !
Loved the Bobiverse books, and I’m looking forward to listening to the next one! Your choice of narrator was perfect. Glad you’re working on writing full time, and glad you’re planning on putting out books that far! I did have a question, though: I see some info on this site about Singularity Trap, but can’t find anything on Amazon or anywhere on if it’s available for purchase. Any news on that? Thanks for the great content!
Author
Singularity Trap is going through final edits right now. It will be released exclusively on Audible for 4 months, then will be released on Amazon. Audible release some time early 2018.
Hey, Audible kept waving money at me until I caved. What can I say?
Read the Bobs, good story so far, in danger of becoming overly fragmented as they spread out.
Outland, after the eruption Erin mentions “Marie’s Disease”. Think you meant her to say something like “acute silicosis”. Used to work the coal mines, anyone who got hit with that was never the same – if they lived. Most didn’t. Usually happened after a methane or dust explosion shut down the air circulation and threw all kinds of nasty gas and dust into the air. Pray the re-breather is working properly.
Symptoms of acute silicosis: Acute Silicosis — results from short-term exposure to very large amounts of silica. The lungs become very inflamed and may fill with fluid, causing severe shortness of breath and low blood oxygen levels. Acute silicosis follows massive exposure to dust in unregulated environments. Acute silicosis causes symptoms of severe dyspnea, cough, fever, and weight loss.
Congratulations! I also want to thank you for releasing the books so close together. I’m not sure if that will continue in the future, but it was a great change of pace to waiting 1-2 years for the next book!
That’s incredible! I just finished Legion and am starting on book 2, and i’m thrilled to hear you’ll be making more books!! Way to go – this is a big change, totally bad ass to take this step. Congratulations!!
I have always admired authors who put science in their books and make the stories accurate, which you do a good job of, but I have a small problem. Considering the fact that they can communicate ftl, cant they use the SCUT drive as a tachyonic antitelephone to tell Bill of the Others the moment that he invents SCUT?
Author
There’s no time-travel aspect to the SCUT.
Any device which could send messages ftl could also send them back in time. PBS Spacetime has a good video about this, to which I’ve linked below, along with a wiki article about an Einstein thought expirement about an ftl telegram.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyonic_antitelephone
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HUMGc8hEkpc
Author
All the arguments for FTL causing time travel and/or causality issues argue from the point of view of the FTL happening within a relativistic reference frame. Wormholes, for instance, do not, which is why they can plop you halfway across the universe without worrying about lightspeed. As soon as you make the assumption that a particular FTL technology operates outside Einsteinian space, all bets are off.
So, are you saying that SCUT and SURGE would opperate like an Alcubbiere warp drive and that the messages aren’t moving ftl, they’re just travelling across shorter distances than the one our Euclidean metric would assign to the endpoints of the message? If so, than that would clear up all of my lingering doubts about this “plothole.”
On an unrelated note, if their are personality diffences between the Bobs, are there intelligence differences as well? And on another unrelated note, if there were female replicants, could the Bobs make non-Bob replicants with them? Or is it impossible for Bobs to have children.
The wait for book 3 is maddening. Only 25 days, one hour and 37 minutes left!
Author
Yes, that’s right.
I haven’t built in any intelligence differences yet. However, in principle the differences in each new clone would effectively constitute ‘genetic drift’ of a sort. Eventually, the new generation would be a different person entirely.
I can’t speak to the last question without getting spoilerish.
As a reader and fan of things like the King Killer trilogy (unfinished), Game of Thrones(unfinished) and the books of the Old Man’s War series (unfinished) I’m not positive that you are actually a human being. You are aware that it’s been less than a year since you started this (amazing) trilogy and it’s not just finished, you were doing that while still working a day job?
Just admit the fact that you are a prototype replicant operating in frame jack and I won’t feel as bad about my lazy ass failing to finish watching a whole TV season in a years time because reddit was distracting me.
I’ve been evangelizing for your series everywhere I can and cannot wait until next month! Congrats on getting to retire, and know that you can count on at least this loyal customer for anything you publish!
Absolutely love the Concept. It’s like a great blend of old school Orson Scott Card wth a twist of BV Larson smashed together with a ton of original plot on the side. I can’t wait for the 3rd. I think both congratulations and thank you are due.
I just wanted to give say congrats on the move to writing full time. A friend gave me the first two books in your series and I went through them in a few short days – couldn’t put them down. Before I had even finished book 2 I had ordered a copy of book 1 for another friend of mine. I had no idea until I was searching for a copy of book 3 that a) it isn’t out yet and b) you have been doing this part time. Great story telling – looking forward to reading more of your books down the road.
If you ever decide to write other stories set in the Bobiverse , may I kindly suggest some chapters from the perspective of the other Probes, or the Others. Great work!
Best,
– Paul
After chewing through all but MHI for Ringo’s works I had to look elsewhere for my scifi fix. I didn’t have much else to go on so I followed Mark Boyett’s name to KJA’s Saga of Shadows. The “backstory” in Shadows sounded too interesting to just get tidbits so I stopped Shadows and went through Seven Suns first. Back to Shadows then I turn to reddit for more suggestions. I mean well when I say this so don’t take “freshman” as any sort of a jab. But Bobiverse is the best freshman work I’ve read yet. Either you have a mountain of “not bad” books squirreled away on your computer or you’re going to be one of the best out there.
Write more books set in the bobiverse. You’ve got a built in audience and a literal eternity of a timeline to set the books in. I don’t care how book 3 ends or wraps things up, if there are more bobs out there, I want to read more stories about them. And I’m not alone. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
Author
It will happen.
This response makes my day. I discovered earlier, with horror, that book three was going to be the last in the series. It’s too soon for this kind of break up Dennis, too soon! 😉
In all seriousness, I had given up on new sci-fi for a couple of decades until I met your Bob. Really nice work and congratulations on being able to turn this in to a full time career. I will keep my eyes peeled and have my credit card ready for any and all future Bobiverse installments.
Congratulations on your retirement, Dennis.
I can’t wait for Book 3; two weeks and the Bobiverse is back! Your books have made me laugh, made me feel pain, made me cry. Most of all, these are books I’ll read again. What more could an author want?
By the way, your editor was right about making the Bobs different. I’m sure you’ve had fun with that, anyway.
I’m wondering what will happen with Archimedes, whether Bob will make him a replicant or take him into space before he passes on. Rest assured I’ll cry when he dies. As a real, live working anthropologist, I’ve loved the Deltan sub-plot. Actually, I’ve loved all of it: the pop culture references, the humour, and Bob as a damn fine humanist, human being.
Thank you for writing. Thank you.
All Hail the BOB!
Congrats! reading through the comments it seems i’m far from alone.
had an interesting experience listening to the first book (uncontrollable binge).. and then second.. and now the agonizing wait.
Thank you!
cant wait to see what comes next
Dennis, where are your from? I live in Colorado, ski quite a bit and am also approaching retirement and trying to figure out what to do next. But, alas, I am not a writer. When I leave air traffic control, I will be trying to find something that keeps me busy and fulfills me, as writing seems to do for you. The adventures of Bob entertain me as I commute. Thanks for the stories!
Ron
Dennis, I agree with Anne. I too had given up on sci-if and I have no idea what made me choose Bob #1, but I immediately had to download #2 and was thrilled to see #3 was available for pre-order. I’m about half way through and already dreading reaching the end and running out of the Bobiverse! So happy to see your hint at a continuance of the series! Other than Outland, which is listed as Book 1 from 2015 and I don’t see a Book 2, can you suggest some books or authors that inspired you and your sense of humor until your next release?
Thank you for retiring to write full-time! Can’t wait to see what you come up with next… and more Bob’s!
Author
I’ve liked the Scalzi books I’ve read. Also, if you haven’t read it yet, Ready Player One is a hoot. I think my favorite writer of all time, though, is Jack McDevitt, with Steven Gould a close second.
I freaked out a little when I read you’re retiring to write full time! I devour audiobooks obsessively. And none bring me as much enjoyment as the Bob books have. Some of the ideas in your books have actually caused epiphanies. One’s I paused the book for and immediately wrote down because they were so profound. One specifically, when Riker was discussing turning Butterworth into a program. It might take up a lot of space to discuss here and gets into some real extensive moral and philosophical thinking (and may be a little dark). But I would love to share the idea somewhere.
I’m not a writer, but I do have a very active imagination. I’ve always fantasized about travelling through space. About looking up close and discovering every planet and moon I could encounter. And learning every bit of information each could offer. I would take an eternity on each one. Discovering what forms alien life might take, in the very likely event that they exist. I get the impression that’s exactly how you wrote these books. You took your fantasies and expressed them beautifully in writing. The fact that Bob is a computer program, gives him almost God-like powers. It is a very fun thing to think about. Akin, in a way to the book, “Ready Player One”. It’s no wonder you’ve acquired so many fans. I’m looking forward to seeing what other incredible worlds and ideas are locked away in that brain waiting for the world to discover!
How synergistic, you’re retiring to write more Bob books and I’m retired to read them!
I just did the same. I had a goal of retiring before I hit 50 and just retired at 49 to chase my dreams.
It took me 4 years to write The Internet President: None of the Above. Now it won’t take so long for my next book.