Title: Not Till We Are Lost
Author: Dennis E. Taylor
Series: Bobiverse #5
Genre: Science Fiction
The Overview: The Bobiverse is a different place in the aftermath of the Starfleet War, and the days of the Bobs gathering in one big happy moot are far behind. There’s anti-Bob sentiment on multiple planets, the Skippies playing with an AI time bomb, and multiple Bobs just wanting to get away from it all. –Goodreads
.
.
Dave’s Review [2.5/5 stars]:
At this point in the Bobiverse series, I find myself increasingly wondering how much longer the premise can carry the story. Not Till We Are Lost continues the familiar formula of the series, following multiple plotlines involving different Bob clones as they explore the galaxy and encounter various problems. There are still some interesting ideas here, but too often these storylines feel shallow and fail to develop into anything particularly noteworthy. With so many Bobs doing so many different things, I found it increasingly difficult to become invested in any particular thread.
The humor is also starting to wear particularly thin. What was initially one of the more entertaining aspects of the series now feels repetitive and increasingly predictable. There are still moments that made me smile, but the jokes have largely passed the point where they feel clever, and the constant stream of Bob references and running gags has become more tiresome than amusing.
There are certainly some fun ideas along the way. Wormholes and dragons should, in theory, be enough to make for an entertaining science fiction adventure. Unfortunately, even the wormholes and dragons could not rescue this one for me.
I still enjoy Taylor’s easygoing writing style and the basic appeal of the Bobiverse concept, but after several books, the formula is beginning to feel too familiar. I am unsure whether I will continue reading the series. Perhaps we are not yet lost, but after this book, the series may have finally lost me.
Niki’s Review [3/5 stars]:
If book four was a series anomaly, then Not Till We Are Lost was much more true to what I’ve come to expect from these Bob books. They tend to bounce around between different plot points with the occasional deep dive into an interesting thread. As much as I enjoyed the fourth book (a massive, book-long deep dive), it was nice to come back to a familiar story structure. That said, I had a bit of a difficult time getting back into the Bobiverse. And I can’t tell if it was because the story lacked some engaging qualities or if the way I read it had an impact. You see, I started the book, set it down for something more urgent, then came back to it a few weeks later. It took me ages to figure out what the story threads were and to care enough to put in effort to keep them straight. It wasn’t until he started talking about dragons that my brain decided to engage… but even then it was a struggle.
I actually like the more grounded storylines best -> the ones where we get to spend a lot of time planetside with a new species. The ones we found in this book (dragons!) were especially exciting. But unfortunately all the other plot threads were forgettable. I really didn’t have anything to latch onto until close to the end of the book, which presented a series-ending plot arc we can expect to explore more in the final two books. It was a good enough teaser that I’m still interested in picking up Infinite Extent (book six, which came out recently), even if my enthusiasm for the series has waned a bit. As it stands, I think this is the least memorable installment so far, and I’ll be hard-pressed to remember much from it a few months from now.
Overall, the series is an enjoyable, light-hearted scifi. One I’d recommend to Scalzi fans who don’t mind a few more dad jokes. These books generally put me in a good mood, and have just enough smidges of depth to make them feel like more than space fluff. I prefer to read them between heavier reads as palate cleansers. But is the entire thing worth reading? The jury is still out (as I’ve two more books to read to complete the series, one of which isn’t even out yet), but I’d say the majority of readers would probably get the best experience stopping after the first trilogy, with the remaining books reserved for us completionists.
Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Karen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Elizabeth, Bee, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa, Derek, Kelly, Grace, Carmen, Leah, and Laura! <3
Other books you might like:
