the personal journal of Brent Stewart
Heaven’s River is book 4 in the “Bobiverse”. The concept of the series is the Bob was a 21st century programmer whose head was cryogenically preserved after death. He is resurrected many years later as the intelligence of a Von Neumann probe (an interstellar probe that clones itself). The series takes a long view over human history after-Earth and touches on interesting ideas of individuality, moral philosophy, and the nature of a soul.
For fiction, I’m not going to give a detailed review of the book. I’m just going to answer two questions:
I’ve enjoyed the whole series. It’s interesting and Taylor has found interesting ways to maintain interest past the initial concept.
Yes-ish. Heaven’s River picks up quickly from All These Worlds (book 3). It’s been a year or so since I read book 3 and I struggled at times to remember characters or distinguish between “Bobs”. That’s balanced a bit because Taylor doesn’t iterate through as many narrators in this book. I enjoy the series and look forward to the next book. For readers new to the series, start with We are Legion.