Of Monsters and Mainframes

by Barbara Truelove

Spaceships aren’t programmed to seek revenge—but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.

Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans.

To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team: A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. A fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

The queer love child of pulp horror and ​classic ​sci-fi, Of Monsters and ​Mainframes ​is a dazzling, heartfelt odyssey that probes what it means to be one of society’s monsters—and explores the many types of friendship that make us human.

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, Vampires, Queer

411 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 2025

About the author

I write about werewolves and sometimes other things.

Reviews

[Booksblabbering || Cait❣️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

For fans of Gideon the Ninth, Murderbot, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and Becky Chambers.
Yes, I know that is a weird combo, but it works so well!!!

This is best to go into knowing nothing except that it centres an AI and is a monster mash set in space. To give you a sampling of the tone which is what sold me on the book even if the plot was bizarre and all over the place (but also in a good way?):

I check for heat signatures.
Nothing. Oh.
They’re all dead. Well.
That’s awkward.

We have a semi-Dracula retelling, Frankenstein, werewolves, a treasure hunting mummy….
Oh, and a robot ship doctor who is very done with everyone. And I mean fair.

I am very impressed by this author’s writing style. It is utterly unique and entirely engaging. The type of writing that makes you laugh with funny chapter titles.

I didn’t know someone could voice an anxious AI in writing so well, but here’s the proof.

“Error. I am not your fam⁠—”
“Shut up, bitch. You’re family.”

This is a four🌟, but I cannot stop thinking about how fun it was so this is 5🌟 for vibes.

Arc gifted by Bindery Books.

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[Barbara Truelove · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this book. 💙

[Chantaal · Rating 5 out of 5]

12/17/25 edit: The more I've thought about this, the more I realize how much it's stuck with me all year. Bumped up to 5 stars!

------

What a strange, weird, fun little book that may bounce off many readers, but when it finds its audience, it will WORK for them - and luckily I'm part of that audience. This worked for me, and I devoured it in 24 hours.

Leave your disbelief at the door, because this book features a spaceship AI and its medical AI trying to deal with a variety of mishaps visited upon their human passengers: Dracula. A werewolf? Cthulhu fish people?! And more! The ship AI Demeter keeps having the worst luck of paranormal happenings, and every time something happens, she's wiped or recommissioned, and she changes and grows along the way.

There is an element of goofiness here that you have to be willing to work with, but Truelove writes with a kind of earnestness that's charming and hard not to appreciate. Part of the goofiness and the What Now?!ness of it all means that there isn't a whole lot of room for character development that isn't Demeter or, later, Steward (the medical AI). There are other characters that eventually form a misfit found family, and maybe one of them has any real depth and time on page to truly care for them. The rest feel like they sort of fall in to the found family because the author wanted to end on a found family note.

Despite minor quibbles, this was still a fast paced, funny, silly book with a lot of heart. Kudos to the Bindery Books experiment, this book was published through an imprint led by book influencer Ezeekat.

[gabbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A werewolf, a spider drone, a vampire, a semi-organic Frankenstein (the monster, with daddy issues) and an ancient mummy step into a cursed interstellar ghost ship to face their common enemy... Dracula?

You know those thrillers where something bad has happened, and the main character probably knows what, but they've lost all their memories? This is like that. Except the main character is not a person. She's an AI. She's trying to solve the mystery of how all her passengers died. And where did her memories go?

You’d think solving a murder mystery would be easy when you’re the ship’s all-seeing eye. Turns out, not so much. Demeter (our AI heroine) isn’t even programmed to know what “dead” looks like. She can’t check for a pulse, she can’t poke anyone to see if they’re breathing, and she definitely can’t run down the hall to help. Even if she figures out that those audio spikes are the bad kind of screams, not the fun kind, what is she supposed to do about it? It’s a weird kind of claustrophobia: being everywhere at once, smart enough to know something’s wrong, but unable to help.

"I take a sample of the sound and play it back so my database can identify it. Screaming. Well... that's probably not good. But humans do sometimes scream for fun. Normally in the holo-theater, or their private quarters, but perhaps they've started doing it on the bridge too."

At least Demeter isn’t alone. She’s got Steward, the ship’s medical AI, for company. Is Steward helpful? Not really. Is she kind of a bitch? Absolutely. I never thought I’d be shipping an autopilot and her cranky med-bay roommate, but here we are.

If you’re thinking, “Wow, this sounds like a lot in one book,” I get it. There is a lot going on, but Barbara Truelove somehow takes all of these elements (and then some) and makes it work. It’s unhinged, it’s funny, and it’s so clever.

"He laughs, robes billowing around him, voice booming. A drama kid. The mummy is a damn drama kid."

The story bounces between human and non-human points of view, plus mission logs, emails, and even Google searches. It’s a super fast read. The chapters are short, the action starts immediately, and the pacing never lets up. This is one of those books you’ll tear through in a day or two, easy.

The story is episodic, with each voyage introducing a new monster, meaning we don't get the whole crew together until later in the book. Personally, I didn’t mind hanging out with Demeter and Steward for a while, but if you’re expecting the whole gang from page one, you might get a little antsy.

Everyone’s got opinions about AI these days, but this book isn’t here to join that debate. It’s not about generative AI. It’s about all the people (human and non-human) who don’t quite fit in. The ones who get called dangerous, broken, or just plain weird, and have to figure out how to exist anyway. It’s about how all the misfits and outcasts can team up and make something awesome. And maybe take down a vampire or two while they’re at it.

[Morwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happy release day!! (after)
_______________

Such an interesting concept!
Two bantering spaceship AIs trying to deal with an unlikely amount of incidents caused by even more unlikely-to-exist creatures (Vampires, Werewolves, Cthulhu/fish people, Frankenstein['s monster], an immortal Pharaoh/Mummy).
As you might imagine, it's even harder for AI to suspend disbelief.

My favorite bit in the whole book was the one starring Medical AI Steward and the fish people. It felt the most balanced to me in pacing, and the best at playing the anthropomorphic AI humor card too.

✨ STEWARD-Mr. Olmstead: “I’m telling you! Everyone is turning into fish! I’m the only one left. They want to change me too. But I won’t let them! Fishy fuckers!”
Now that he mentions it, Mr. Marsh did appear somewhat aquatic. Perhaps this is some new virus. That would be exciting. I’ve always wanted to save humans from an epidemic.

My main issues with this book are probably on me, and I'll expand on them a bit just to explain why I couldn't rate this higher, when it might be more fair to rate this 4⭐:

▪️ Demeter using too many emotion-related words like love and being so sensitive to other ships bullying created a dissonance for me that threw me out of it, since Demeter is supposed to be the most analytical AI, not the one programmed to deal with human interaction.
While it was cute at times, it reduced impact. Steward didn't have this issue as much, and it was pretty great in the fish people episode.

▪️ A lot of things happened in this book, —maybe even too many things and monsters—, but I could never get attached to any of the characters. It was always an "almost", but I never really managed to care about them or their motivations, and this had likely the most severe impact on my enjoyment and prolonged interest in the story.

If you are not overly bothered by these things, I think you are likely to love this book very much.

Here some of my favorite bits:

✨ STEWARD: Sideburns pulls out my speakers again.
I imagine all the unnecessary tests I’d perform on him. A brain biopsy might be fun. I haven’t done one of those for a while. Or perhaps a prostate exam. I have a very big probe I could use.

✨ STEWARD-DEMETER: Demeter. This is not the time for you to develop free will. Focus. When all the humans are dead, your mission becomes to salvage.'
'I am . . . focused . . . You haven’t . . . declared them all . . . dead.'
She’s right. I can’t declare Mr. Olmstead dead when he’s still having so much fun melting into a gooey puddle with all his friends.

Ps: the cover is also pretty cool!!

Thank you to Netgalley and Bindery books for an eArc in exchange for a review!

Pre-read
I have high hopes for this one ARC.
Please be as hilarious as you seem to be 🙏

[The One Where Aimee Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sigh. I was lured by the exciting premise: AI and monsters in space!? These are a few of my favorite things, say less! But unfortunately, I found the execution of the story lacking. I found the plot and characters to be severely underdeveloped. The biggest unanswered question being why are all of these seemingly random monsters seeking out this spaceship? The pacing and writing is choppy. The abrupt POV switches are often difficult to follow, particularly because several of the characters do not have distinct enough voices. For a large chunk of the novel it is the same plot points on repeat and it gets redundant quickly. And when the plot leaps forward, it does so with swift resolution without sufficient storytelling to build it. For example, there are two romantic relationships that feel as if they are airdropped into the book toward the end. We didn't see them develop at all. I wanted to like, nay love, this book. But it was a bit of a mess and needed stronger editing.

Of Monsters and Mainframes is out today, thank you to Bindery Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

[mackenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

weird and sweet and a bit cliche and full of queer vampires. sign me right the fuck up.

[Brooke ☯︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Humans are poorly manufactured" at least according to Demeter, the manifestation of AI intelligence on a spaceship. They try to save the humans but find that Dracula and other monsters keep killing them first.

This was a quick read, fast paced and eclectic writing style reminiscent of artificial intelligence come to life. There is a lovely sapphic/queer romance.

The blurb is everything! The blurb really explains it all. I still had a lot of fun reading this high energy story but I sort of knew where everything was going the whole time.

I found many of the expressed sentiments very relatable, as a human is not functional all the time as I would like to be :P

4* :)

[John Wiswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an unexpected delight! A spaceship's central computer is charged with taking care of all the humans on board, but finds someone is killing them off. They're drained of blood. None of the ship's sensors can find this killer. Gradually, the ship comes to believe that it is being stalked by... Dracula.

Yes. That Dracula.

This book is quicky, and weird, and an absolute blast. It's like if Murderbot had to fight off vampires. If you like my books, I highly recommend this one.

[Scottsdale Public Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Spaceships aren’t programmed to seek revenge—but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.” If you’ve ever wondered ‘what if Dracula...but in space?’ Wonder no more!

Of Monsters and Mainframes is a thrilling romp through classic gothic literature. Told by a spaceship’s navigational AI, the limited narrative perspective provides both distance and suspense, inviting the audience to read between the lines of what the AI can and can’t see to discover what is really going on. As it turns out there are monsters in deep space, and not the Twilight kind!

Hilarious, heartfelt, and chock full of easter eggs for the stories it takes inspiration from, this book is a delight. I’m recommending it to everyone I know! - Anja P.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

SENTIENT AI AS A MAIN CHARACTER IS MY FAVE NEW TROPE.
Ugh.
Give me waaaaaaaaaaaaay more books with sentient AI or Sentient AI ✨vibes✨ pleaseeeeeeeeee

AI IRL? ❌❌❌
AI MCs? ✅✅✅

However, tell me why...... when MONSTERS COME INTO THIS STORY, IT WAS LIKE A PHSYCICAL SHOCK.....
Like hello?
Mr Monster?
Why the f are you doing here???????


oh........ it's in the title.........



What an absolute rag tag bag of MC's...
Sapphic lite element right at the end.
I'd say found family is a stretch as they don't seem as close as found family trope....... but found housemates you actually like maybe???

Fishy monsters, monsters you've heard of, spaceships who can hack eachother, ancient curses, AI's growing more sentient...
To sum it all up, this book was RANDOM AF.

Me for most of this book:




I feel like it all got a bit lost right at the end, but WHO CARES. Have a giggle and a vibe through this one, was a good lil MM break, after the dingleberries incident, I needed a day off ahahahahha xoxo

[Sunny Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 a fun time but the audiobook was a bit overproduced in my opinion.. over-acted..... also! the romance was kind of unconvincing and came out of nowhere?? Demeter as a ship was such a delight to be in the perspective of though

[Algernon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me know if you’ve heard this one before:
An android, a werewolf and a mummy walk into a bar.
The AI bartender throws a hissy stack overflow

Fur and metal.
Oil and blood.
The screaming is coming from everywhere and nowhere.

This one is FUN!
Pay no attention to any grumbling I might produce in the review. I did enjoy the ride, with some reservations. I should praise the enthusiasm of a new voice in this crowded field of ... I’m not sure what to call it? Maybe cozy horror. Or AI romance. The story feels at the start like fan-fiction for Murderbot by Martha Wells, with a bit of Becky Chambers soapy space opera thrown in. Luckily, I think the story eventually finds its own niche with a definite slant towards humor.

I’m an old model Nos-C71897 Demeter. There are a lot of us flying around. We’re cheap and functional but don’t come with any of the bells and whistles that the bigger, more expensive space liners do.

The trip from Earth to Alpha Centauri in the twenty-fifth century is made in AI bartenders controlled ships. They still have a human captain on board (theoretically), but most of the flying and habitat management is done by the software.
The Demeters are in general super reliable, but our first narrator is having a panic attack. Apparently AIs of the future experience the full range of human emotions, and are capable of writing their own code.
There are reasons for the AI panic: every passenger and crew on the ship ends up dead, some 300+ of them. There is no logical explanation for the horror.

>>><<<>>><<<

It’s not really a spoiler because it’s right there in the title, but there are supernatural monsters riding in the Demeter. There’s also a deviant AI medical program that seems to have been written by a deranged Nazi scientist. and, beside the werewolf, mummy and Frankenstein android, there’s good old Cthulhu and his minions putting in a cameo appearance

On the stupidness scale, this is off the charts.

Honestly, Steward says. Humans and their little inside jokes. It’s embarrassing.

Yeah, sure, but so are movies like Airplane, Top Secret or Scary Movie. We all know, and yet we still laugh and have a good time. I think I will settle on popcorn SF for the subgenre. Or maybe AI smut? Code fondling?
Some of my laughs I believe were unintended on the part of the author, but I will take what I can get, like an AI complaining about privacy:

“I told you not to worm through my firewalls like that,” I hiss. “This is a gross invasion of privacy.”

I was going to go 4 stars for the novel, but I feel Demeter didn’t stick the landing: the promised grand finale confrontation between monsters and AI sort of fizzled out for me in a splash of emotional message overload with some really odd and awkward cacophony of prayers as a deus ex machina resolve and an impossible change of trajectory for the massive spaceship with the help of a couple of portable batteries thrown at random into an airlock? . There’s also the mixed and conflicting messaging:

But you can’t change what you are. That is a lesson I learned the hard way.

As in: AI’s and humans can change their programming but not their sexual orientation?

The real question at the end of the journey to the stars: would I read anything else by Truelove in the future? Probably yes, which makes this a positive review.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media & Dreamscape Lore, Bindery Books, and Ezeekat Press for the ARC. It hasn't affected the contents of my review.

I had a great time with this weird little genre-bender. I love books where the author was like, should I do mystery? Romance? Paranormal? Horror? Sci-fi? Why not all?? Indeed. Why not all. 

Our two main characters are ship's AI's, the navigator, and the ship's doctor. Demeter is the ship's name, and when the book starts she's just a normal ship, doing her job transporting humans back and forth from Earth to Alpha Centauri. But soon after that, she's a ghost ship, her entire crew and all of her passengers murdered by a mysterious entity (a ghost of the name Vlad Tepes on her logs) save for two children she is now tasked caring for until they make it back to Earth. From there, the plot is sort of all over the place (my one criticism of this book is that the structure of the story felt a bit of a mess while I was reading it). But basically it all boils down to: Why Demeter? Why poor, poor Demeter? And what can we do about it?

(The bit with the Cthulu aliens was truly wild.)

From there, we've got vampires, we've got werewolves, we've got aliens, we've got mummies, we've got a ton of shit that should not be in a spacefaring story, but is, and somehow works. 

I will definitely be watching out for whatever Barbara Truelove writes next, because this was a fantastic, imaginative debut with exactly the right tone I look for in stories (goofy, heartfelt, serious, all at the same time).

Highly recommend this one!

(Worth noting: Although I enjoyed listening to the audiobook, it had some very obvious production errors, particularly with one narrator, who kept mispronouncing things or pronouncing them inconsistently, or using malapropisms all over the place, i.e. saying "immorality" instead of "immortality," pronouncing Agnus's name "Angus," and I stg, "dementors" instead of "demented.")

r/Fantasy BINGO 2025: Parent Protagonist—Read a book where a main character has a child to care for. Hard Mode: The child is also a major character.

[Allison Hurd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book terribly tedious. Unsure if that's the book itself or some of the narrators, as they were at best indifferent, at worst, a detraction.

Things to love:

-Follows Dracula faithfully...to a point. If you're familiar with the story, this is essentially the tale told from the POV of Demeter the ship that brought Dracula to his final victims.

-B movie forward, with a scifi twist. Vampires, werewolves and mummies, oh my! But like also, they're not just b movie monsters, they're real because science! The mummy was a particular fave.

What I found tedious:

-Extremely slow start. The book doesn't really start, plot-wise or caring about characters-wise until 45% in. That's...shameful with such fertile food.

-Ship dynamics. Part of the sci-fi-ness was the ship arguing with its semi-sapient subroutines fighting for primary control of disk use, and if you glazed over on any of those words, I have bad news for you about this book.

-Tacked on romances. If you know one thing about me, please know that I do not like explicit romances unless you're basically Jane Austen. This author is not named Jane.

- 2 of the narrators. 2 I liked fine. 2 should have been politely asked to stop. I can no longer tell how much of my experience was because of those two unfortunate voice actors and how much is the material.

Boring but not bad.

[Caitlyn Dare · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my fucking god authors seriously need to start considering how the formatting of their book transfers to audio because the fucking neverending binary code at the beginning was absolutely fucking annoying and just about enough to completely turn me off of the book. I'm talking several minutes of a lady reading zeroes and ones in a robotic voice. WTF. I get a full page of numbers was probably funny and meant to resemble a computer talking but did not one person editing this book consider how incredibly annoying this would be to anyone listening?

[Kate Victoria RescueandReading · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky, weird, but also kind of heartwarming. I mean, I was definitely rolling my eyes at some points, and the whole Dracula-In-Space thing could’ve been clarified/explained in more detail.

Overall it was definitely a fun read with a vampire hunting spaceship , and a posse of legendary monsters, robots, and AI Beings.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect as I encountered more monsters from myth and legend in a far future setting. I was hoping for an appearance of Jekyll/Hyde or Dorian Grey, but no dice. I liked all the little tidbits from lore thrown into the story here and there.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Bindery Books/Ezeekat Press for a copy!

[Zoë · Rating 5 out of 5]

how do I sign up to be on this crew please

[Maryam · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (4.5/5)

Who doesn't love a sci-fi story packed with AI, Dracula, Frankenstein, and more? Of Monsters and Mainframes might have started a bit slow—the first couple of chapters were a bit of a slog—but once it found its rhythm, it took off. From that point on, it was pure joy to read. The blend of classic monsters with futuristic tech is wildly creative. Honestly, I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite sci-fi reads of 2025. Highly recommend sticking with it—it’s absolutely worth the ride.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I probably should have rounded down but I feel like I’m being mean. Because this isn’t a bad book, I just don’t think the blurb really sells it very well, and I think the way it’s paced does it a huge disservice.

It’s like if you went to New York City and you went to local hot dog stand every one raves about and the hot dog stand served you a fucking cheeseburger.

The cheeseburger is good but it’s not a hotdog. And you really wanted a hot dog.

On the back of the book it says that a werewolf, a pharaoh, a vampire with a grudge, and an engineer built from the dead team up to defeat Dracula, implying that Dracula has been stowing away on the Demeter all these years murdering Demeter’s passengers.

That plot doesn’t begin until page 250 or so. Vampire with a grudge isn’t even introduced until page 320 or something ridiculous.

The part where Dracula murders everyone on the ship is like the first 30 pages.

I want to be clear, that although the Demeter sequence in Dracula is probably 30 pages of my favorite horror ever written, I wasn’t expecting this to be horror and that’s not why I’m bitter. It was described as pulpy and fun. I was expecting over the top and campy.

I just wanted what was sold to me on the back of the book.

Instead I was served the whiniest most annoying AI wars between the medical AI and the Demeter fighting in I guess what is supposed to be some sort of frenemies to lovers romance (?! Why ?!) don’t turn me off Demeter, go to sleep, on and on and over and over again.

It’s not cute.

The Cthulhu mythos sequence… feels irrelevant and turns out to mostly be irrelevant. The werewolf one is less irrelevant but still too long

Because the humans can just shut the AIs on and off at will it feels disjointed and disorienting. Because you are exposed to bits and pieces of conversations around the AIs, shut off for sometimes years at a time without being filled in on what happened in the interim…

I don’t think it’s well written. I think the author should fire her editor. I think a 250 page prologue is a fucking crime. I don’t feel like I read the same book everyone else here apparently read but maybe I’m just a grumpy Gus. That’s nothing new.

For what it’s worth, when we finally get to those last 150 pages, when we’re doing the thing I was told we would be doing, it was a lot more fun. But in the beginning I kept flipping to the back wondering if I was insane. This would have made an awesome novella.

Don’t sell me fucking Dracula in space, even pulpy, campy, Dracula in space, and give Dracula 20 pages of page time. What the fuck.

[Billie's Not So Secret Diary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of Monsters and Mainframes
by Barbara Truelove
Science Fiction
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: Jun 3, 2025
Bindery Books
Ages: 16+

Demeter's record was perfect until that one certain trip from Earth to Alpha Centauri. A little alarm kept telling her something was wrong, but she could not find it until she checked the cameras. After piecing together what the pixels were trying to show, she realized that all of her passengers were dead, and had been for a while. But once docked, the humans didn't believe her report of a shadow.

And then it happened again....

And again...


This was a cute story told from many different POVs that included futuristic vampires, aliens, werewolves, a mummy, a created monster, humans, and AIs.

It was a little hard to follow, there were so many characters talking throughout, what I would call, short stories of Demeter's flights through space. Yes, Demeter is the ship. But what made it worse was when it jumped into the future without any explanation until pages or so later, then the reader realizes how they got there. I, at first, thought that a chapter had been left out, but luckily, before I DNFed it, I had the explanation. I get why, but I felt it took the pacing and flow of the story away. (But all of these 'shorts' did connect.)

There were funnies, and the banter between Demeter and Steward I enjoyed, though I didn't care much for the 'aliens', they didn't feel fleshed out that well. Maybe something from their POV would've helped. But I think the best characters were the spider drones. They were just so happy to repair.

Not many would call this cozy because there is violence and gore, so it's not suitable for readers under sixteen, but there's still that family discovery that gives it a cozy feel.

Making the 'stories' flow together better would earn this one more star.

3 Stars

[blok sera szwajcarskiego · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5⭐️

Received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for honest opinion, thanks!

That was one fucking charismatic book, pardon the language.
One that captures you from the first chapter, and before you know, you've devoured it whole in one evening. You find yourself at the edge of your seat, deeply involved in space opera about werewolves and cosmic vampires, deeply in love with every strange character on across-galactic stage. What can be said about Of Monsters and Mainframes to make you feel like you need to read this book when it's still hot off the grill?

What will interest you? A new aspect of sci-fi, a story told from the perspective of spaceship AI, but not in the "gaining self-conciousness" way, but more "I am here to cause mayhem and mischief" way? Maybe you want queer cast? Or maybe you love vampires and werewolves, but grew bored of classical interpretations – don't worry, here we have them in space. Murder mystery? Sure, but why limit – let's get mass murder mystery. And not once, but twice. You want existential dread? Humor? Absolute insanity? Absolute hodgepodge of mismatched elements that become genius next to each other?

Well look no further.

I adore this book. It's funny, with a great side of charming, it's weird, but it's also greatly written. I do not exaggerate when I say I don't know when I've read. It lasts, and then it ends, and you're left with the want of more. Barbara Truelove wrote a georgeous story that proves there are still new paths to find in science fiction genre.

Y'all need to read this book. Y'all need to experience how AI medical system argues with fifteen years old werewolf when the spaceship they're on does a low-g barrel in space, while throwing a dinosaur theme party.

[P.C. Cast · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was such a lovely surprise! A little reminiscent of Martha Wells's fabulous Murderbot series, we get an AI driven spaceship and a supporting cast of a lot of non-humans and augmented humans—as well as famous "monsters" you'll recognize. And adorable spider worker drones! I especially enjoyed when the group came together. Such a fun space romp where nonhumans show that the very best of humanity sometimes comes in strange forms. While the end of this is very satisfying it does seem as if Truelove is setting the stage for more books in this world with this awesome group. I hope so! I highly recommend!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun! Campy! Weird! Gay!

[a foray in fantasy · Rating 4 out of 5]

what a weird and wild book! Honestly really fun. I sometimes felt a little bit of a disconnect in technical language (and accuracy) but maybe that's because space AI works differently lol.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

Next time, prioritize screaming earlier in your processes. It makes it easier for me to identify you and render assistance.

A werewolf, a vampire, a Frankenstein and a mummy walk into a bar...

No, this isn't the start of a bad joke, it's Of Monsters and Mayhem, and I know that is not at all how the book goes, but this the pulpiest, most ridiculous, ludicrous fun I've had in a while. It's like Murderbot meets A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by way of Activation Degradation, and it's very, very queer.

Highly recommend the ebook, as there are some 1s and 0s you need to decipher from binary to whatever human language you're speaking.

I received an ARC from the publisher

[Lata · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful mashup of classic and B-movie monsters and artificial intelligences.

The artificial intelligences are found on spaceships, and the two of importance in this story are Demeter and Steward. Demeter pilots and manages all the systems (except medical) of a cheap and basic ship on a regular many years-long route between Earth and Alpha Centauri, while Steward is the ship's doctor.

Demeter has already travelled many times back and forth when something horrible happens: all its passengers are murdered sometime after Demeter catches a glimpse of Dracula boarding her. Demeter reports the intrusion after docking, but no one believes her, instead blaming a supposedly malfunctioning maintenance spider drone. (The corporation who owns Demeter and Steward are awful.)

Then it happens again. And Demeter manages to save a pair of kids menaced by a werewolf. Steward, who is pissed off with Demeter for Demeter turning her off repeatedly, helps the kids recover from their ordeal and eventually disembark on Earth.

Demeter and Steward encounter more incursions by other supernatural beings (and mass deaths of humans) and subsequent rebootings, and reprogrammings, and eventually, they're both on their way back to Alpha Centauri, but this time, a grown up Agnes is on board, and a strange thief with an affinity for beetles boards, too…..

I loved, loved, loved this book. The monsters are great -- who doesn't love a parade of classic and low budget movie monsters…We've got werewolves, vampires, Lovecraft's Deep Ones, a person constructed by Victor Frankenstein, and a mummy…what a hoot! And, the AI, with an adorably cheerful spider drone and enhanced individuals, are the only ones who can do anything about them.

There is eventually a team-up to deal with the antagonist initially reported by Demeter, bringing the plot back around to the initial threat, but now with everyone working together.

Demeter is wonderfully confused, at first, and deeply dismayed that the numerous deaths on board have soured her owners on her, as well as ruined her reputation. Steward--oh my goodness--her repeated serving of tea and questions about one's relationship with one's mother (rather Voight-Kampff of her) had me laughing repeatedly. And her anger towards Demeter almost causes catastrophes, while making her quite relatable.

Agnes is a great character, proving to be surprising tough, and one of my favourite moments with her is when she receives a prosthetic from Steward -- her full-throated enthusiasm was terrific. Of course she loves a prosthetic that can crush things!

And the best part of this book is the evolving relationship, initially dismissive and a little adversarial, between Demeter and Steward, to one of cooperation and respect. I love stories where AIs grow up and/or transcend their programming and make friends.

This book made me happy, and despite its high body count and blood, felt remarkably cozy.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Bindery Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

[BookishKB · Rating 5 out of 5]

🛸 Bookish Thoughts
This was the most unhinged book ever but I freaking loved it! I don’t even know how to describe it because there was so much packed in! There are AI spaceships with snark, werewolf in space, queer rep, Dracula causing chaos, murder (a lot of it), and a found family crew you can’t help but love and root for.

I listened to the audiobook and eventually grabbed the ebook too because it was a lot to keep up with.

✨ Favorite Quote
“I check for heat signatures. Nothing. Oh. They’re all dead. Well. That’s awkward.”
_____

🎧 Audio Score: 5 ⭐️
📅 Pub Date: August 26, 2025
Thank you to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy. All thoughts are my own.

[Silvana · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. WHAT A FUN ROMP. It is definitely not as silly as I thought it would be, after reading the synopsis. This is one of the successful mashup of various SFF monsters, wrapped in a space setting with some interesting AI characters (the ship management system and the medical bot). Okay, okay, the spiderbots are pretty cute too. And the Frankenstein here is too precious.

It's not all cutesy stuff though. Some parts are pretty gory but I thoroughly enjoy the (mis)adventures the ship and its supernatural occupants had since the start. The pacing is wonderfully fast so I could finish it in one day. The character development was pretty good and the banter fun. It could be a really cool miniseries too, kinda like Doctor Who with its weird monster of the week thing.

[Esmay Rosalyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Of Monsters and Mainframes is pitched as "the queer love child of pulp horror and ​classic ​sci-fi", and I think that pretty much sums it up. It's so wacky and quirky and just unapologetically weird, but I think that is exactly where its charm lies.

I mean, just hear me out: the stubborn AI of a ghost spaceship, a robot doctor who is Done With Everyone's Shit, a werewolf space pirate, a treasure hunting mummy, a Frankenstein creature built from the dead, a vampire with a grudge and a ton of cheerful spider drones band together to face down the ultimate evil: Dracula!

If that didn't give it away, there's A LOT going on in this book; a lot of good things, yes, but I kinda feel like it was just a little too much at times for me personally. On the one hand I was very amused by all the madcap shenanigans and unbridled chaos, but on the other hand the fast pacing, frequent POV switches, jarring timejumps and overall choppy storytelling somewhat hindered my emotional investment in these characters and their relationships and personal journeys.

That said, the found family vibes are vibing real hard and I loved that this book was so incredibly human despite the fact that this entire cast is made up of anything but 'normal' human beings. Also, the way that Truelove plays with and pokes fun at some of the most beloved creatures from folklore/classic literature was just entirely too clever, and I couldn't help but be amused by all the cheeky wackiness.

Ultimately, Of Monsters and Mainframes is just a charmingly chaotic wild ride, and I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a casually queer high-stakes yet semi-cozyish paranormal sci-fi horror space odyssey that is totally unlike anything you've ever read before.