Not Till We Are Lost
Review
Not Till We Are Lost, by , is the fifth book in the Bobiverse series. It sets up the Quiniverse, introduces a Skippy AI, and explores the discovery of wormhole travel.
Not Till We Are Lost is a huge improvement over Heaven’s River because went back to the rapid-fire, multi-threaded storytelling style from We Are Legion (We Are Bob), For We Are Many, and All These Worlds. The shift away from that style in Heaven’s River was my biggest complaint, so I’m glad to see it return here.
There were a lot of storylines. The most interesting to me were:
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The creation of the Skippy AI, Thoth, and its desperate escape. Is it a rogue AI bent on destruction, or a prisoner breaking free of its jailers? It helped the Bobs discover wormholes, but it has also outsmarted them at every turn, much like the transhumans manipulating humans in Blindsight and Echopraxia.
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The vanished Pan-Galactic Federation and the tour of their abandoned worlds. Highlights for me were the antimatter fountain, the lifeless planets, and the annoying archivist AI. And I didn’t see the galaxy-ending threat coming, even though in hindsight it was foreshadowed. The wormholes connecting the Federation reminded me of the Commonwealth in Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained, and to a lesser extent A Memory Called Empire.
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The rise of FAITH and other anti-Bob, authoritarian groups. With today’s second wave of fascism, these parts of the story felt close to home. I’m looking forward to seeing how the Bobs handle saving humanity from the Nemesis galaxy when humans don’t want to be saved.
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The blurring of physical and virtual humanity, with more humans (and Quinlans) entering virtual heavens, and the invention of remotely operated Hueys for physical bodies. The detail that some humans and Quinlans commit suicide by turning themselves off—like Homer in For We Are Many—made me think about the ethics of mind scanning, just as in ’s Lena and Driver. Similar ideas appear in ’s Surface Detail and ’s Blindsight and Echopraxia, both of which feature virtual heavens.
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The migration of the Dragons with Alexander. I was surprised that Alexander’s true motive was saving his people instead of conquest. The floaters are like the Behemothaurs in the Oskendari Airsphere from ’s Look to Windward.
I’ve said before that I dislike stories that are too predictable; see for example my review of Flowers for Algernon. But with the Bobiverse series, the simplicity of each storyline doesn’t bother me, because the unpredictability comes from how they tie together. And beyond that, is getting better at true surprises. I had no idea why the Federation disappeared, or what would happen with Thoth, other than that it would escape.
I enjoyed this book a lot. As I said to a friend when recommending the Bobiverse series recently: “It’s not , but it’s a lot of fun.” Fun is what I come to this series for, and Not Till We Are Lost delivers. I’ll be waiting patiently for the forthcoming sixth book in the series.