New Favorite Author: Dennis E. Taylor

While browsing through Amazon’s new books I stumbled upon the latest book by Dennis E. Taylor, Outland. I did not hesitate and bought it immediately. Within three days I have finished it. Of course it is part of a series so I will have to wait for the next one to come out. I forget who recommended this author to me but “thank you”.

I got hooked with this author on the We Are Bob trilogy. The basic idea of this book is that Bob dies (spoiler) in the first page of the novel and awakes as the basis of a computer conscience. It turns out he has been given a second life as a Von Neumann probe. The book does a great job of explaining that and maintaining a wonderful sense of humor about the ridiculousness of the situation. I especially love the author’s meta pop cultural references. I highly recommend this trilogy.

Once I read the trilogy, I sought out the author’s other works to find the Singularity Trap. This book was the author’s stand-alone follow up to the Bobiverse trilogy. It was a pretty good outing. Much of the spark of the previous trilogy is there with an unsatisfactory story line.

The latest outing, Outland, is amazing. No, there are no Sean Connery references. This novel features the discovery of a Sliders-like Einstein Rosen bridge at the same time as a Yellowstone eruption. Let the mayhem ensue. This book is just the first part of the Quantum Earth series. Originally published on 2015, I hope the author chooses to make the sequel the next book in his bibliography.

That bibliography is very shallow. I just purchased his short story, Explorations: Colony (Explorations Volume Four) without realizing that it is part four of a series. I hope for the best.

This author’s works read like movies. I cannot wait for the movie version of Outland. Highly recommended.