We are Legion (We are Shocked): A Guest Post by Dennis E. Taylor
Meet Bob. He used to be a person, but after an untimely death, his consciousness is uploaded to a machine that gets sent on a dangerous mission across the galaxy. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Dennis E. Taylor on writing We Are Legion.
Hardcover
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We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse Series #1)
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse Series #1)
In Stock Online
Hardcover
$15.00
$30.00
The book that launched a thousand Bobs and the first novel in the Bobiverse series from Dennis E. Taylor, part space adventure, part philosophical voyage, We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is a captivating and hilarious exploration of the joys and dangers of artificial intelligence, the wonders of space, and everything that may await us out there. Deluxe edition, first print only!
The book that launched a thousand Bobs and the first novel in the Bobiverse series from Dennis E. Taylor, part space adventure, part philosophical voyage, We Are Legion (We Are Bob) is a captivating and hilarious exploration of the joys and dangers of artificial intelligence, the wonders of space, and everything that may await us out there. Deluxe edition, first print only!
I started writing SF in mid-2014 on a dare from my wife, after complaining about a book that I’d just DNF’d. At that point in my life, I had written exactly one short story, back in grade 11 English, so I guess you could say that I was armed with an excellent case of confident ignorance.
However, I’m one of those people who will research a subject to death before jumping in with one toe. So I did my homework, learning about POVs, filtering, etc. The number of ‘rules’ in creative writing turns out to be almost infinite.
Then I sat down, fired up Word, and wrote… Outland.
Yes, confession time. WAL wasn’t my first foray into writing. I had two ideas for novels—one inspired by Wildside by Steven Gould, and the other by A World out of Time by Larry Niven. I picked the former for my first attempt, and probably just as well. It’s been said by many people that you must write a million words before you become really proficient. One can argue the actual number, but the basic idea is credible—you learn to write by writing.
Outland didn’t net me an agent, but I self-pubbed on Amazon and actually made coffee money every month. This encouraged me to start on my other story idea. So in January 2015, I opened a new Word doc.
We are Legion was very much an experience of discovery writing. I was working out concepts on the fly, and often doing a lot of backtracking. For instance, I started writing WAL in 3rd person, because it was always going to hop from POV to POV. But then I had the bright idea that, since they’re all really the same person, I could go 1st person without breaking the ‘rules.’
Turns out the ‘rules’, as Captain Barbossa observes, be merely suggestions. Arrrrrr.
Another change was the addition of the VR. The early version of WAL was just a bunch of talking heads (without even the heads). The VR allowed the Bobs to have bodies, play baseball, drink coffee, and be full-on nerds.
But the biggest change, as it turns out, was adding replicative drift so there could be some conflict between the Bobs. It was a minor addition at the time, but has turned out to be an increasingly important theme as the series has progressed.
My primary guiding principle though, is this: I write the kind of book that I would like to read. And with thousands of novels read, I know what works and what doesn’t. On the principle that I’m probably not unusual, it makes sense that if I like a book, others will too.
What I absolutely was not prepared for was how many people like the Bobiverse. I think the series must have struck a nerve or tapped into some kind of group yearning. Whatever the reason, the Bobiverse has been and continues to be hella popular.
And I’m okay with that.
