I don't read a lot of fiction, so when I do it's usually very good, and mostly science fiction, because that genre holds the most parity with the non-fiction that I prefer to read.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E Taylor, definitely ticks those boxes.
The title is a nod to the Bible quote from Mark 5:9 "My name is Legion, for we are many", though that phrase has now entered common parlance, giving name to an episode of the British sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, as well as a recent documentary on the hacktivist collective, Anonymous, also called "We Are Legion"
The story starts with Bob, attending a sci-fi convention, having just sold his software company to a competitor, and recently spending some of the money agreeing to have his head cryogenically frozen in the event of his death, for the purposes of it being resuscitated at some time in the future, should that become possible.
Everything goes both brilliantly to plan and contrarily against as the protagonist is hit by a truck swerving to avoid a crowd of jaywalking cosplayers and dies. Thus commencing his journey as, well, something else. Something that is mostly Bob, and kinda Bob 2.0, but definitely not immortal or living in the luxury of a futuristic utopia, certainly not at first anyway. At this point I need to be careful of spoilers.
What I can say is the original Bob's aptitude for technical problem solving, his neurodivergent affinity for solitude and his love of sci-fi all give him a huge advantage in his new 'life'. For it turns out he isn't the first, but is the most viable of his kind, and the unexpected benefactors of his new life are pinning a lot of hope on him to do.. something. And that is where the story really comes into it's own. The way the central character handles the tensions between different future organisations, individuals, AI agents and even the emergence of another intelligent race, while trying to save his own to boot, while being in several place at once, is just sublime.
The chronological backdrop for all this switches from decades to milliseconds and back again depending on the narrative. The physical scales occupy similar orders of magnitude. My only gripe with the story is that it can be hard to follow all the arc juggling, but that's kinda the point...
The story cleverly positions itself in such a way as to be able to tackle many subjects simultaneously, including, but not limited to, AI, nuclear holocaust, political and religious extremism, space travel, mental illness, populating other planets, finding other forms of alien life, and my personal favourite, the question of what it would be like to digitise ourselves into potential immortality, and what it would be like to duplicate such an entity.
The story also finds a way to make the protagonist a modern day character, born in the 20th century, living in the 21st century, but dragged quite unexpectedly, Buck Roger's style, into the 22nd Century. He is also, like the author, and, I'm guessing, like the average reader, a sci-fi nerd and a retired software engineer.
There's also a fair amount of practical problem solving, some very real speculation on how we will approach many different problems of survival, weapons, engineering and travel in the future. Specifically discussion of Von Neumann Probes, or self replicating spacecraft, which is both a real concept, as well as great fodder for science fiction. The bullet-time narrative of the space battles take available resources and game theory into account to make some spectacular tactical decisions unfold in what feels like real time.
There are some touching moments too, how he deals with an abandoned mentally ill AI, or an adolescent alien finding his place in the tribe, provide some balance against the reclusive, problem solving engineer.
The writing style is actually quite light, given the subject matter. Mixing existential threats with humour makes me feel as though I'm reading a Douglas Adams novel one minute, and a James Corey novel the next, and I think that's a great way to approach a story like this, that knows when it's being serious, and knows when to stop.
Finally, the part I love the most, it tries to answer important philosophical questions about how our identity, mortality and emotions might one day be abstracted and spliced with technology, and if possible, what the consequences might be.
I'm now reading part 2 - review of part 2 here.
The continuity is perfect and the story is just getting better.
Buy the book here