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The Singularity Trap
The number one best-selling author of the Bobiverse trilogy returns with a space thriller that poses a provocative Does our true destiny lie in ourselves — or in the stars? If it were up to one man and one man alone to protect the entire human race - would you want it to be a down-on-his luck asteroid miner? When Ivan Pritchard signs on as a newbie aboard the Mad Astra, it's his final, desperate stab at giving his wife and children the life they deserve. He can survive the hazing of his crewmates, and how many times, really, can near-zero g make you vomit? But there's another challenge looming out there, in the farthest reaches of human exploration, that will test every man, woman and AI on the ship - and will force Ivan to confront the very essence of what makes him human. Bobiverse a signed limited edition of all three books in a boxed set, signed by the author, is now available on Amazon. Look for The Bobiverse [Signed Limited Edition] on Amazon
428 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 5, 2018
850 people are currently reading
4923 people want to read
About the author
Dennis E. Taylor
24 books9,461 followersI am a retired computer programmer, an enthusiastic snowboarder, and an inveterate science fiction reader.
And, apparently, an author now. Did not see that coming.
And, apparently, an author now. Did not see that coming.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 886 reviews
July 3, 2022
Nanotech body horror, „we´re so small in comparison“ moments, and secret service conspiracies.
That´s why readers of the Bobiverse won´t like this so much
It´s an attempt of producing a space opera, technothriller, hard sci-fi hybrid that stays quite average, doesn´t live up to the potential, is way too short, and should have been made a serious series. The Bobiverse, on the other hand, is an outstanding experiment of what mind upload, theory of consciousness, etc. could lead to and is filled with fresh, creative ideas, easy to read, and thereby a bit outstanding in the often complicated sci-fi genre.
Grey gooed
This must feel really uncomfortable, but at least it comes with some special abilities. And what better way to show humankind who is boss than by producing Clarketech nanobots that can fuse with and pimp any kind of physiology. Also, the immense trope potential of the nanos is once again expanded with some added ideas to the already maximum mix of the minis.
The ending comes far too fast and acceleration starts too slowly
I don´t know why Taylor, who flexed his muscles with the Bobiverse, did this. Maybe he wanted to make a series, but the publishers just wanted a standalone or he just didn´t care, tricky to say. But first, it takes endless time until the real meta action and plot kick in, then there is far too much conspiracy and first contacts en masse in a short time and then, without any real longer epic showdown, it ends with a completely unsatisfying conclusions. Authors who do sci-fi series use 1,5 books to describe in detail what happens in the last few chapters of this work.
Criticism on a high level
Don´t get me wrong, without the Bobiverse, it would be a solid first 4 star work with its typical teething problems. Most probably part of a series, because this is how they often start. So all in all it left me with the feeling that there could have been so much more, especially regarding the humor that is also kind of lacking and not igniting in this novel.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
That´s why readers of the Bobiverse won´t like this so much
It´s an attempt of producing a space opera, technothriller, hard sci-fi hybrid that stays quite average, doesn´t live up to the potential, is way too short, and should have been made a serious series. The Bobiverse, on the other hand, is an outstanding experiment of what mind upload, theory of consciousness, etc. could lead to and is filled with fresh, creative ideas, easy to read, and thereby a bit outstanding in the often complicated sci-fi genre.
Grey gooed
This must feel really uncomfortable, but at least it comes with some special abilities. And what better way to show humankind who is boss than by producing Clarketech nanobots that can fuse with and pimp any kind of physiology. Also, the immense trope potential of the nanos is once again expanded with some added ideas to the already maximum mix of the minis.
The ending comes far too fast and acceleration starts too slowly
I don´t know why Taylor, who flexed his muscles with the Bobiverse, did this. Maybe he wanted to make a series, but the publishers just wanted a standalone or he just didn´t care, tricky to say. But first, it takes endless time until the real meta action and plot kick in, then there is far too much conspiracy and first contacts en masse in a short time and then, without any real longer epic showdown, it ends with a completely unsatisfying conclusions. Authors who do sci-fi series use 1,5 books to describe in detail what happens in the last few chapters of this work.
Criticism on a high level
Don´t get me wrong, without the Bobiverse, it would be a solid first 4 star work with its typical teething problems. Most probably part of a series, because this is how they often start. So all in all it left me with the feeling that there could have been so much more, especially regarding the humor that is also kind of lacking and not igniting in this novel.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
July 5, 2018
2.5 very meh stars for the Audible version narrated by Ray Porter.
This was just very meh for me and it's partly my own darn fault that I didn't like this. I must not have read the description fully, because I thought I was going to be listening to the adventures of a space miner and I anticipated something more fun.
Instead, this is more a thinly-veiled introspective and moralistic look at how a possible interaction with an intergalactic species might occur; it repeatedly reminded me of some of Robert A. Heinlein's more preachy fare. Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse books managed to show how very mortal humans are while still having fun, but this book did not manage to stay light enough for me.
Unfortunately, the narration and special audio effects also drove me batty. I'm usually a big fan of Ray Porter, but I was kind of disappointed that the female characters in this book not only didn't really stand apart from each other, they all sounded much too similar to Harry from Paradox Bound, which I listened to a few months ago. So similar, in fact, that now I'm wondering if my meh rating on Paradox Bound actually had more to do with Mr. Porter than Peter Clines.
Badass Female Character score: 2/5 -- This is hard to rate since I had so much trouble distinguishing any of the main female roles from each other. There were definitely way more male characters, and most of the positions of power were definitely held by men. There were a couple of token women doing some kind of important stuff, though, so I'll throw in a couple of points for that.
This was just very meh for me and it's partly my own darn fault that I didn't like this. I must not have read the description fully, because I thought I was going to be listening to the adventures of a space miner and I anticipated something more fun.
Instead, this is more a thinly-veiled introspective and moralistic look at how a possible interaction with an intergalactic species might occur; it repeatedly reminded me of some of Robert A. Heinlein's more preachy fare. Dennis E. Taylor's Bobiverse books managed to show how very mortal humans are while still having fun, but this book did not manage to stay light enough for me.
Unfortunately, the narration and special audio effects also drove me batty. I'm usually a big fan of Ray Porter, but I was kind of disappointed that the female characters in this book not only didn't really stand apart from each other, they all sounded much too similar to Harry from Paradox Bound, which I listened to a few months ago. So similar, in fact, that now I'm wondering if my meh rating on Paradox Bound actually had more to do with Mr. Porter than Peter Clines.
Badass Female Character score: 2/5 -- This is hard to rate since I had so much trouble distinguishing any of the main female roles from each other. There were definitely way more male characters, and most of the positions of power were definitely held by men. There were a couple of token women doing some kind of important stuff, though, so I'll throw in a couple of points for that.
July 31, 2018
Where the Bobbiverse novels relied on an equal mix of pop-culture nerdiness and solid SF idea exploration in the realm of a self-replicating AI who is still effectively "human", The Singularity Trap jumps on some of the same solid SF ideas and plotting but does it without most of the humor.
I can only assume this might piss off a few fans of the other books, but not me. It just proves that Taylor has the grit to back up his SF idea exploration with nothing more than good characterizations, big tech, and even better Fermi/Game Theory musings.
The novel begins with a mining ship finding something strange which can be surmised from the cover, but more than that, this is a novel of equations. Not math we have to do ourselves, of course, but equations such as survival equations, cost/benefit equations, moral equations, or even engagement equations. What happens when a crewmate is being transformed, full body-horror included, and we have to balance it against nearly unlimited wealth? How about the risk of contagion versus unlimited tech? At what point does a person stop being a person?
When does a troublesome species like humanity become too much trouble to bother with?
I won't spoil the hell out of this novel, but one thing is certain: it does a great job at laying out all the questions and deriving a ton of conflict out of them all. The mirroring is also quite good. At what point does a transformed species still remain its parent species? At what point does an AI stop being the consciousness of the alien and be the same kind of AI that it thinks its fighting? Between nanites and AI's on the BIG playing field, I can't tell the difference except in how they play their Game Theory.
So let's hear it for the Prisoner's Dilemma! :)
This might be a standalone novel or a series. It's primed for a series. And I hope so. I'm enjoying this as much as the Bobbiverse. :)
I can only assume this might piss off a few fans of the other books, but not me. It just proves that Taylor has the grit to back up his SF idea exploration with nothing more than good characterizations, big tech, and even better Fermi/Game Theory musings.
The novel begins with a mining ship finding something strange which can be surmised from the cover, but more than that, this is a novel of equations. Not math we have to do ourselves, of course, but equations such as survival equations, cost/benefit equations, moral equations, or even engagement equations. What happens when a crewmate is being transformed, full body-horror included, and we have to balance it against nearly unlimited wealth? How about the risk of contagion versus unlimited tech? At what point does a person stop being a person?
When does a troublesome species like humanity become too much trouble to bother with?
I won't spoil the hell out of this novel, but one thing is certain: it does a great job at laying out all the questions and deriving a ton of conflict out of them all. The mirroring is also quite good. At what point does a transformed species still remain its parent species? At what point does an AI stop being the consciousness of the alien and be the same kind of AI that it thinks its fighting? Between nanites and AI's on the BIG playing field, I can't tell the difference except in how they play their Game Theory.
So let's hear it for the Prisoner's Dilemma! :)
This might be a standalone novel or a series. It's primed for a series. And I hope so. I'm enjoying this as much as the Bobbiverse. :)
July 31, 2018
I read this purely because I liked the author's other books so much. However, I was actually shocked to feel so different about this one compared to the Bobiverse series.
We follow Ivan, the MC, who is a miner in financial trouble. Humanity has managed to not stop global warming. On the contrary: many coastal places such as Florida are gone due to melted ice caps. More than ever, if you're not born into a rich family, you are at a serious disadvantage (death definitely being an option). So he buys a share on a mining spaceship, hoping for the same things all explorers during the Gold Rush hoped for. During one trip, after finally striking gold so to speak, he gets too reckless/curious and gets squirted by alien technology for his trouble. It's no spoiler that they slowly but surely convert his body - but into what? And why?
As it was, the book had less humour than the Bobiverse but that worked well enough here. Instead, we got body horror and the exploration of concepts such as the game theory, prisoner's dilemma, big questions regarding the future of humanity (ecological as well as social and technological), outthinking the enemy in order to save our entire species (creative solutions when you're outnumbered and outgunned) ...
The sequence asking the reader "what is self" and is there any "self" left when all the physical parts have been replaced, was a good one. An oldie but goodie.
But then there were the problems.
I would have liked more more body horror (everyone was so annoyingly calm and Ivan as well as the nanites got along just fine); and more charcterization, not just the constant "I'm poor, I have to make money no matter how - no, not like that" nonsense or the phrase "Ivan wished he could cry". We get it, we don't need constant repetition!
Other stuff was just not coherent. Such as there being no real political / military structure, which was unrealistic even when considering that this was a story of first encounter. Even within one nation there was too much chaos.
On a smaller level, one of the miners first strongly protected Ivan and then completely abandoned him once the quarantine was lifted. The wife wasn't even trying to get her husband back (even before ). The admiral even did a complete 180 (and way too fast).
All of which was too over the top for me and interrupted the flow of the story for me (easy and convenient ways out).
The lack of detail about what the nanos were doing, people just mentioning how awesome their capabilities are, was disappointing as well. I mean, learning a language from scratch with not even cultural context is NOT easy and the experience we have with that is still within the same species - imagine doing it with an alien species!
For me, a book with good ideas and bad characterizations is as bad as a book with great charcterizations but almost no ideas. I like balance. Scifi can and should have both. It might be trendy right now to have this kind of scifi that is not or only barely exploring much in terms of ideas, but that just proves again that I'm not into trendy things.
That being said, it was still written well enough. Maybe I just preferred a nerdy joker like Bob on a personal level. I was also very much interested in the Builders and AIs and the How and Why - and wanted to know if humanity got a chance or not / would use a chance if given.
Moreover, Ray Porter once again did a great job with the audio version.
We follow Ivan, the MC, who is a miner in financial trouble. Humanity has managed to not stop global warming. On the contrary: many coastal places such as Florida are gone due to melted ice caps. More than ever, if you're not born into a rich family, you are at a serious disadvantage (death definitely being an option). So he buys a share on a mining spaceship, hoping for the same things all explorers during the Gold Rush hoped for. During one trip, after finally striking gold so to speak, he gets too reckless/curious and gets squirted by alien technology for his trouble. It's no spoiler that they slowly but surely convert his body - but into what? And why?
As it was, the book had less humour than the Bobiverse but that worked well enough here. Instead, we got body horror and the exploration of concepts such as the game theory, prisoner's dilemma, big questions regarding the future of humanity (ecological as well as social and technological), outthinking the enemy in order to save our entire species (creative solutions when you're outnumbered and outgunned) ...
The sequence asking the reader "what is self" and is there any "self" left when all the physical parts have been replaced, was a good one. An oldie but goodie.
But then there were the problems.
I would have liked more more body horror (everyone was so annoyingly calm and Ivan as well as the nanites got along just fine); and more charcterization, not just the constant "I'm poor, I have to make money no matter how - no, not like that" nonsense or the phrase "Ivan wished he could cry". We get it, we don't need constant repetition!
Other stuff was just not coherent. Such as there being no real political / military structure, which was unrealistic even when considering that this was a story of first encounter. Even within one nation there was too much chaos.
On a smaller level, one of the miners first strongly protected Ivan and then completely abandoned him once the quarantine was lifted. The wife wasn't even trying to get her husband back (even before ). The admiral even did a complete 180 (and way too fast).
All of which was too over the top for me and interrupted the flow of the story for me (easy and convenient ways out).
The lack of detail about what the nanos were doing, people just mentioning how awesome their capabilities are, was disappointing as well. I mean, learning a language from scratch with not even cultural context is NOT easy and the experience we have with that is still within the same species - imagine doing it with an alien species!
For me, a book with good ideas and bad characterizations is as bad as a book with great charcterizations but almost no ideas. I like balance. Scifi can and should have both. It might be trendy right now to have this kind of scifi that is not or only barely exploring much in terms of ideas, but that just proves again that I'm not into trendy things.
That being said, it was still written well enough. Maybe I just preferred a nerdy joker like Bob on a personal level. I was also very much interested in the Builders and AIs and the How and Why - and wanted to know if humanity got a chance or not / would use a chance if given.
Moreover, Ray Porter once again did a great job with the audio version.
July 7, 2018
I expected so much more. So, so much more ☹️
Preordered the book as soon as I heard about it (Thank you, Jane! ❤️) and set a very high expectation bar. After all, Dennis is the guy who brought us Bobiverse series. How could I not?
As it turns out, I shouldn't have.
⚠️ Warning ⚠️
⛔️ Do not read this if you haven't read the book yet, but want to. This review is full of spoilers! I'm just so pissed off right now that I don't feel like using spoiler tags. Read on at your own peril ⛔️
On the other hand, there isn't much to spoil anyway. Book has been telegraphing the ending since page 1. Twists and turns? Not so much.
We follow the story of an unfortunate astronaut, Ivan, who discovered an alien life form. Actually, the alien life form kind of discovered him when he tried to touch it. It then started replacing his body parts with a metal version while keeping him him throughout the process.
Ivan, the chrome man now, figured he'll eventually die. And was right. Humanity collectively figured out it will keep existing forever. It was not right. And there's the book for you. It is one huge thought experiment.
We are presented with some of the very interesting moral dilemmas and witnessed characters making difficult choices from time to time. The book moved just slowly enough for me to keep listening while in the back of my mind pondering what would I do if faced with the same situation. I liked that.
More often than not, in the absence of facts and data, our guys were jumping to conclusions. Far too conveniently, they were almost always right. I mean, it's fine. This isn't a detective novel. But, there is a but. I like my books smarter than that.
Dennis spoiled me with his Bobiverse stories. I just love the way he writes. And it's all so ready for the audiobook delivery by the god-like Ray Porter. I suppose I'm more angry with myself, for setting the unrealistically high expectations than with the actual book.
But, in the immortal words of Frank Underwood, I'm entitled to nothing.
Frank Underwood, House of Cards, speech to American people
I miss this show so much 😓
So, yes. The book isn't as good as expected. Suck it up and carry on. Who cares what you expected.
I know I'll do proper research next time, before blindly pre-ordering a book. Any book.
Well, in case you missed my point in all this whining above, let's do it again. We are mortal. We are going to die. The end.
The book shrouded me in its gloom. And I like gloom - if there's a point to it! This gloomy gloom was just depressing for the sake of a dark thought experiment. This is how humanity will end up when aliens find us.
Yeah, I get it. We're an extremely belligerent species and the entire planet would be better off with us extinct. Yet, somehow, I don't see that happening. Or at least not in the "let us assimilate you because there's a huge galactic battle going on so you can pitch in" way.
I don't know. It felt empty. For the whole time, I was waiting for something to happen. It never did. Just like reading a newspaper.
On the bright side, I learned what a Détente is. The second bright side is listening to Ray again. I missed his voice 😍
Another good decision by Dennis is for not letting anyone else read his books. I guess that counts as a plus.
I haven't given a 3* rating in at least two months. Partly because I'm easily amused and don't seek literary perfection, but it's well-deserved here. Still, even if I did look for perfection, this would have been a far cry from it.
I almost dropped the rating to 2* because of completely unnecessary argumentum ad populum. I'll save you the trouble of reading Wiki:
In argumentation theory, an argumentum ad populum (Latin for "argument to the people") is a fallacious argument that concludes that a proposition must be true because many or most people believe it, often concisely encapsulated as: "If many believe so, it is so."
"I haven't mentioned homosexuality at all in my 11+ hours long book. It will probably be a good idea to appeal to masses and net me some popularity points. So, 5 minutes before the book ends, I'll state that one of the male characters is happily married to another guy and they have kids. Yes, that will do it. No matter that such an action doesn't add anything of the value to the character, nor does it further the story in any conceivable way."
I hate when people do that. But not enough to convert this to 2*. The story is bad, yes, but with Ray's star power it becomes an okay 3*.
I wanted more 🙁
The Singularity Trap
by Dennis E. Taylor (Goodreads Author), Ray Porter (Narrator)
Preordered the book as soon as I heard about it (Thank you, Jane! ❤️) and set a very high expectation bar. After all, Dennis is the guy who brought us Bobiverse series. How could I not?
As it turns out, I shouldn't have.
⚠️ Warning ⚠️
⛔️ Do not read this if you haven't read the book yet, but want to. This review is full of spoilers! I'm just so pissed off right now that I don't feel like using spoiler tags. Read on at your own peril ⛔️
On the other hand, there isn't much to spoil anyway. Book has been telegraphing the ending since page 1. Twists and turns? Not so much.
We follow the story of an unfortunate astronaut, Ivan, who discovered an alien life form. Actually, the alien life form kind of discovered him when he tried to touch it. It then started replacing his body parts with a metal version while keeping him him throughout the process.
Ivan, the chrome man now, figured he'll eventually die. And was right. Humanity collectively figured out it will keep existing forever. It was not right. And there's the book for you. It is one huge thought experiment.
We are presented with some of the very interesting moral dilemmas and witnessed characters making difficult choices from time to time. The book moved just slowly enough for me to keep listening while in the back of my mind pondering what would I do if faced with the same situation. I liked that.
More often than not, in the absence of facts and data, our guys were jumping to conclusions. Far too conveniently, they were almost always right. I mean, it's fine. This isn't a detective novel. But, there is a but. I like my books smarter than that.
Dennis spoiled me with his Bobiverse stories. I just love the way he writes. And it's all so ready for the audiobook delivery by the god-like Ray Porter. I suppose I'm more angry with myself, for setting the unrealistically high expectations than with the actual book.
But, in the immortal words of Frank Underwood, I'm entitled to nothing.
Frank Underwood, House of Cards, speech to American people
I miss this show so much 😓
So, yes. The book isn't as good as expected. Suck it up and carry on. Who cares what you expected.
I know I'll do proper research next time, before blindly pre-ordering a book. Any book.
Well, in case you missed my point in all this whining above, let's do it again. We are mortal. We are going to die. The end.
The book shrouded me in its gloom. And I like gloom - if there's a point to it! This gloomy gloom was just depressing for the sake of a dark thought experiment. This is how humanity will end up when aliens find us.
Yeah, I get it. We're an extremely belligerent species and the entire planet would be better off with us extinct. Yet, somehow, I don't see that happening. Or at least not in the "let us assimilate you because there's a huge galactic battle going on so you can pitch in" way.
I don't know. It felt empty. For the whole time, I was waiting for something to happen. It never did. Just like reading a newspaper.
On the bright side, I learned what a Détente is. The second bright side is listening to Ray again. I missed his voice 😍
Another good decision by Dennis is for not letting anyone else read his books. I guess that counts as a plus.
I haven't given a 3* rating in at least two months. Partly because I'm easily amused and don't seek literary perfection, but it's well-deserved here. Still, even if I did look for perfection, this would have been a far cry from it.
I almost dropped the rating to 2* because of completely unnecessary argumentum ad populum. I'll save you the trouble of reading Wiki:
In argumentation theory, an argumentum ad populum (Latin for "argument to the people") is a fallacious argument that concludes that a proposition must be true because many or most people believe it, often concisely encapsulated as: "If many believe so, it is so."
"I haven't mentioned homosexuality at all in my 11+ hours long book. It will probably be a good idea to appeal to masses and net me some popularity points. So, 5 minutes before the book ends, I'll state that one of the male characters is happily married to another guy and they have kids. Yes, that will do it. No matter that such an action doesn't add anything of the value to the character, nor does it further the story in any conceivable way."
I hate when people do that. But not enough to convert this to 2*. The story is bad, yes, but with Ray's star power it becomes an okay 3*.
I wanted more 🙁
The Singularity Trap
by Dennis E. Taylor (Goodreads Author), Ray Porter (Narrator)
Verdict Expected so much more...
Runtime 11:22
Overall
Performance
Story
June 14, 2018
The fast-improving SF author revisits many of the themes of his Bobiverse series in this entertaining hardish-SF novel that's a clear leveling up of characterization and story-telling with less sarcastic humor and pop=culture references.
The asteroid mining ship the Mad Astra is on a hard luck streak when it finds the strike of a lifetime. However, that break comes with a sting when one of crew members, IT guy Ivan Pritchard encounters a bizarre substance that attaches itself to the arm of his spacesuit. After cutting him free of the arm of his space suit and returning him to the Mad Astra Ivan wakes the next day to find his arm turned into living metal, and the conversion is not stopping there. What happens next threatens humanity and the whole solar system in a tense standoff with the alien intelligence behind Ivan's transformation and Earth forces.
The author's interest in the Fermi Paradox is on show with a solution postulated here that's been much discussed already in the SF field. It's an interesting one from the physics, tech and engineering perspective of hard SF and I always enjoy books that postulate interstellar civilization without completely ignoring relativistic limits.
Where this deviates from what I'd describe as hard SF is the nano-machine stuff. Nanotechnology as self-replicating nano-machines is increasingly looking like science fiction's lazy magic-substitute and I think as a component of hard SF it needs to get ditched.
And speaking of laziness, one of the components of this book is the Sino-Soviet Empire. That one's straight out of the 1980s or even the Red Panic of years before. Particularly as a Russian-led entity as it appears here. The idea of an SSE as a political and military entity is almost less believable than the alien nanotechnology. It also puts on full display the scitech-geek contempt of the "soft" political and sociological sciences that you see in a lot of other hard SF stuff (I'm strongly reminded of the sociopath US President in Seveneves as an example of how tone deaf this point-of-view is). There's also a deep cynicism around human nature. Humanists these writers are not.
All that being said, this delivers on the central premise of a lot of the hard SF field. The scientists and geeks get to save the day (or at least try to), despite human nature and the military mind, and from a level of threat based around scientific concepts that only the scientists are really equipped to understand. Despite what I've written above, there is nuance in the portrayal of non-scientists here in the evolution of the character of Admiral Moore and some of the other military officers and this is done well, but it's still clear who the heroes are.
The asteroid mining ship the Mad Astra is on a hard luck streak when it finds the strike of a lifetime. However, that break comes with a sting when one of crew members, IT guy Ivan Pritchard encounters a bizarre substance that attaches itself to the arm of his spacesuit. After cutting him free of the arm of his space suit and returning him to the Mad Astra Ivan wakes the next day to find his arm turned into living metal, and the conversion is not stopping there. What happens next threatens humanity and the whole solar system in a tense standoff with the alien intelligence behind Ivan's transformation and Earth forces.
The author's interest in the Fermi Paradox is on show with a solution postulated here that's been much discussed already in the SF field. It's an interesting one from the physics, tech and engineering perspective of hard SF and I always enjoy books that postulate interstellar civilization without completely ignoring relativistic limits.
Where this deviates from what I'd describe as hard SF is the nano-machine stuff. Nanotechnology as self-replicating nano-machines is increasingly looking like science fiction's lazy magic-substitute and I think as a component of hard SF it needs to get ditched.
And speaking of laziness, one of the components of this book is the Sino-Soviet Empire. That one's straight out of the 1980s or even the Red Panic of years before. Particularly as a Russian-led entity as it appears here. The idea of an SSE as a political and military entity is almost less believable than the alien nanotechnology. It also puts on full display the scitech-geek contempt of the "soft" political and sociological sciences that you see in a lot of other hard SF stuff (I'm strongly reminded of the sociopath US President in Seveneves as an example of how tone deaf this point-of-view is). There's also a deep cynicism around human nature. Humanists these writers are not.
All that being said, this delivers on the central premise of a lot of the hard SF field. The scientists and geeks get to save the day (or at least try to), despite human nature and the military mind, and from a level of threat based around scientific concepts that only the scientists are really equipped to understand. Despite what I've written above, there is nuance in the portrayal of non-scientists here in the evolution of the character of Admiral Moore and some of the other military officers and this is done well, but it's still clear who the heroes are.
February 20, 2020
3.5/5 stars, rounded up.
I loved the Bobiverse books and thought I'd try this one which is by the same author and has the same audio narrator. I thought this story interesting though there seemed to be a couple of big holes in the story-mostly regarding the political situation and governmental administration in the U.S.
Nevertheless, this was an interesting tale with a few Sci-Fi and Star Trek references which I enjoyed. I did miss the sense of humor I found in the Bob books, but this story didn't have a lot of room for comedy.
As usual, Ray Porter's narration was excellent and there were a few sound effects that I thought enhanced the story.
Recommended for fans of the Bobiverse books and other science fiction.
*I bought this audio from Audible with my own hard earned cash.*
I loved the Bobiverse books and thought I'd try this one which is by the same author and has the same audio narrator. I thought this story interesting though there seemed to be a couple of big holes in the story-mostly regarding the political situation and governmental administration in the U.S.
Nevertheless, this was an interesting tale with a few Sci-Fi and Star Trek references which I enjoyed. I did miss the sense of humor I found in the Bob books, but this story didn't have a lot of room for comedy.
As usual, Ray Porter's narration was excellent and there were a few sound effects that I thought enhanced the story.
Recommended for fans of the Bobiverse books and other science fiction.
*I bought this audio from Audible with my own hard earned cash.*
May 2, 2025
I listened to this book while working this week and it was NOT comparable to We Are Legion.Not even fucking close. It wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great either.
July 8, 2018
3 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2018/07/07/...
After completing his Bobiverse trilogy, Dennis E. Taylor tries his hand at something a little deeper and more serious in The Singularity Trap. Despite the slight drop in humorous moments and the pacing being a little uneven in places, it was still a very entertaining read complete with an old-school sci-fi feel and plenty of nods to hard science.
The story begins on the mining ship Mad Astra where readers are introduced to protagonist Ivan Pritchard, the most recent addition to the crew. With no other options left for him on Earth, Ivan has risked everything he has left on this venture in the hopes of providing a future for his wife and kids. But the asteroid mining business can be risky too, and if the Mad Astra can’t pull off a successful run this time, Ivan will be even worse off than when he first started.
Against all odds though, the miners wind up hitting pay dirt, finding an asteroid loaded up with all kind of valuable materials…among other things. While investigating an anomaly on the rock, Ivan unwittingly triggers an extraterrestrial booby trap which releases an unidentifiable substance onto his arm. Despite the crew’s best efforts to cut off the contaminated parts of his suit before returning him to the Mad Astra, the next morning Ivan wakes up to a shocking sight. The affected arm has been transformed completely into living metal—and it doesn’t seem to be stopping there. Even amputation is no use, as it is discovered that alien nanites have infected Ivan’s bloodstream, and they would simply strip the ship for resources to rebuild the missing limb.
Little by little, Ivan becomes replaced by the new alien technology. Soon, he even begins hearing a voice in his head, the one belonging to the artificial intelligence that has taken over his body. It reveals it mission: to convert and upload all life it encounters for its masters—and unfortunately for humanity, it’s next on the list.
If you enjoyed the Bobiverse books, the good news is that The Singularity Trap will scratch a lot of the same itches. It’s another unique premise offering a few twists on some classic ideas, and it also presents hard sci-fi concepts in an fun and accessible package.
However, it’s also clearly meant to be a more serious endeavor. For one, it’s not as light as the Bobiverse books, with less action and humor. There’s also a lot more exposition as the author waxes on about technological and scientific concepts. All this is interesting stuff, though admittedly not as engaging when it’s constantly hampering the flow of the plot. The book suffers pacing issues near the beginning, taking a long time for the story to get started, and then again in the middle as the parties involved in determining Ivan’s fate are locked in tireless discussion over what to do with this nanite-infested self. I won’t lie; staying focused was a struggle at times, and Ivan as a character was nowhere near as likeable or endearing as any of the Bobs. He didn’t seem to do much either, playing a relatively passive role for much of the book until the very end.
Still, despite my gripes, I suppose The Singularity Trap was enjoyable enough. The ending was satisfying, even if the climax was not as intense as it could have been. I think I had expected something a bit more from Taylor, after seeing what he was capable of in his previous trilogy, but overall I had fun.
Audiobook Comments: I was really happy to see Ray Porter on this project, because anyone else narrating a Dennis E. Taylor book would be a travesty. His reading was brilliant as always, adding an extra layer of immersion to the story. Sound effects were also a pleasant surprise and a nice touch!
After completing his Bobiverse trilogy, Dennis E. Taylor tries his hand at something a little deeper and more serious in The Singularity Trap. Despite the slight drop in humorous moments and the pacing being a little uneven in places, it was still a very entertaining read complete with an old-school sci-fi feel and plenty of nods to hard science.
The story begins on the mining ship Mad Astra where readers are introduced to protagonist Ivan Pritchard, the most recent addition to the crew. With no other options left for him on Earth, Ivan has risked everything he has left on this venture in the hopes of providing a future for his wife and kids. But the asteroid mining business can be risky too, and if the Mad Astra can’t pull off a successful run this time, Ivan will be even worse off than when he first started.
Against all odds though, the miners wind up hitting pay dirt, finding an asteroid loaded up with all kind of valuable materials…among other things. While investigating an anomaly on the rock, Ivan unwittingly triggers an extraterrestrial booby trap which releases an unidentifiable substance onto his arm. Despite the crew’s best efforts to cut off the contaminated parts of his suit before returning him to the Mad Astra, the next morning Ivan wakes up to a shocking sight. The affected arm has been transformed completely into living metal—and it doesn’t seem to be stopping there. Even amputation is no use, as it is discovered that alien nanites have infected Ivan’s bloodstream, and they would simply strip the ship for resources to rebuild the missing limb.
Little by little, Ivan becomes replaced by the new alien technology. Soon, he even begins hearing a voice in his head, the one belonging to the artificial intelligence that has taken over his body. It reveals it mission: to convert and upload all life it encounters for its masters—and unfortunately for humanity, it’s next on the list.
If you enjoyed the Bobiverse books, the good news is that The Singularity Trap will scratch a lot of the same itches. It’s another unique premise offering a few twists on some classic ideas, and it also presents hard sci-fi concepts in an fun and accessible package.
However, it’s also clearly meant to be a more serious endeavor. For one, it’s not as light as the Bobiverse books, with less action and humor. There’s also a lot more exposition as the author waxes on about technological and scientific concepts. All this is interesting stuff, though admittedly not as engaging when it’s constantly hampering the flow of the plot. The book suffers pacing issues near the beginning, taking a long time for the story to get started, and then again in the middle as the parties involved in determining Ivan’s fate are locked in tireless discussion over what to do with this nanite-infested self. I won’t lie; staying focused was a struggle at times, and Ivan as a character was nowhere near as likeable or endearing as any of the Bobs. He didn’t seem to do much either, playing a relatively passive role for much of the book until the very end.
Still, despite my gripes, I suppose The Singularity Trap was enjoyable enough. The ending was satisfying, even if the climax was not as intense as it could have been. I think I had expected something a bit more from Taylor, after seeing what he was capable of in his previous trilogy, but overall I had fun.
Audiobook Comments: I was really happy to see Ray Porter on this project, because anyone else narrating a Dennis E. Taylor book would be a travesty. His reading was brilliant as always, adding an extra layer of immersion to the story. Sound effects were also a pleasant surprise and a nice touch!
June 23, 2018
Forgive my absence of late. I’m doing my masters and unfortunately this means that my reading time now consists of reading research reports and text books instead of fiction. And there is another 2.5 years of this! Thankfully with travelling to and from work, and lots of cleaning up to do with two young kids, there is plenty of time for audio books!
This was the first Dennis E. Taylor book I have encountered. It was a lot of fun. I will pretty much listen to anything that Ray Porter narrates so I was excited to see he had narrated another sci-fi – and I was not disappointed.
Down on his luck, Ivan scores a job on a mining ship, searching for metals that will make them all rich so he is able to provide for his family. While on an asteroid, Ivan touches something and all hell breaks loose. The substance clings to his suit and makes its way into it. It starts to change him… All of a sudden Ivan is not quite Ivan anymore. And all of a sudden he has to save the human race!
This was a really fun ride! I thought it might be a bit slow at first, despite Ray’s narration, but man, it quickly got into it and I found I couldn’t stop listening!
It had a really great message embedded between all the drama, action and adventure. What do we have to do as a species to get our act together!?? I really enjoy this kind of sci-fi. A lot of fun, but also makes you think and opens up your mind.
I loved the characters, loved the action, and I am looking forward to giving more Dennis E. Taylor books a go!
I do wish there was a little bit more romance. There was a little bit, but it didn’t quite hit the spot for me, even though I realise that it wasn’t what the book was about, and I imagine some would argue that it was just the right amount as to not detract from the story… But I enjoy a bit more romance in a book.
Would I recommend The Singularity Trap?
Absolutely! It was a really great ride, with twists and turns. It was intelligent and a lot of darn fun! And if I ever write a sci-fi adventure, I hope that I can get Ray Porter to narrate it! Brilliant!
I purchased The Singularity Trap at my own expense through audible.com
This was the first Dennis E. Taylor book I have encountered. It was a lot of fun. I will pretty much listen to anything that Ray Porter narrates so I was excited to see he had narrated another sci-fi – and I was not disappointed.
Down on his luck, Ivan scores a job on a mining ship, searching for metals that will make them all rich so he is able to provide for his family. While on an asteroid, Ivan touches something and all hell breaks loose. The substance clings to his suit and makes its way into it. It starts to change him… All of a sudden Ivan is not quite Ivan anymore. And all of a sudden he has to save the human race!
This was a really fun ride! I thought it might be a bit slow at first, despite Ray’s narration, but man, it quickly got into it and I found I couldn’t stop listening!
It had a really great message embedded between all the drama, action and adventure. What do we have to do as a species to get our act together!?? I really enjoy this kind of sci-fi. A lot of fun, but also makes you think and opens up your mind.
I loved the characters, loved the action, and I am looking forward to giving more Dennis E. Taylor books a go!
I do wish there was a little bit more romance. There was a little bit, but it didn’t quite hit the spot for me, even though I realise that it wasn’t what the book was about, and I imagine some would argue that it was just the right amount as to not detract from the story… But I enjoy a bit more romance in a book.
Would I recommend The Singularity Trap?
Absolutely! It was a really great ride, with twists and turns. It was intelligent and a lot of darn fun! And if I ever write a sci-fi adventure, I hope that I can get Ray Porter to narrate it! Brilliant!
I purchased The Singularity Trap at my own expense through audible.com
August 22, 2020
Lame! Hoping Taylor is not a one trick pony but so far... This is more of a 2.5 stars that I rounded up because I truly enjoyed the bobiverse. The first half is a decent if mundane, space miner story that ends up being a first contact scenario. The second half is an utterly boring investigation and justification of game theory. The dialog was weak, the scenarios half baked. Give this one a miss and hope for the best with his new bobiverse book.
June 17, 2018
I really wanted to like this book. After all, it had everything going for it. Written by Dennis E. Taylor, who has recently finished what has become one of my all-time favorites series with his “Bobiverse” trilogy. As I almost always consume my books by audio anymore, Ray Porter returning to narrate was also another element strongly in favor of this new book.
Let’s get some positives out of the way, for there are several. As stated, Ray Porter once again brings an A game to the narration with distinct voices for the major characters…though, having finished the Bobiverse not too long ago and also having listened to him narrate the works of Peter Cline, it is getting a little harder to not notice some similarities in voices across the different books. Still, there’s only so many voices one person can produce. At this point, I liken it more to recognizing actors who tend to pop up in different roles on the various syfy shows being filmed up in Canada. As I say, for these books, the character voices are distinct and easy to tell who is who at any given time.
The characters themselves are well written and engaging. I can tend to forgive a lot of story writing sins if the characters are at least interesting enough to make me care about what they are going through. Once again, Mr. Taylor delivers on that front.
Finally, the concept itself showed a lot of promise. A first contact situation for humanity is a common science fiction premise, so it’s getting harder to come up with something original. Weaving in the Fermi Paradox and Game Theory as integral elements of the story gave this a different spin. So, while I give credit to Mr. Taylor for this take on first contact, it’s the execution that ultimately soured me.
Especially getting through the meat of the story in the middle, one name kept popping up in my head – Prometheus. The movie set in the universe of the Alien movies. If you’ve seen it, one of it’s biggest problems is how much of the plot is driven by supposedly highly educated scientists making a string of amazing dumb decisions. At every turn in the middle of the book, I kept finding myself questioning out loud things like “Why would they do that?” “Who’s been watching this guy?” “Why is nobody talking to this guy every day?” So much of the conflict arises from an unbelievable lack of communication by a group of people who are all together in the same facility. I can appreciate some level of mistrust on the part of the central protagonist as he moves through this middle part of the story. But with that, he shouldn’t have been able to get away with doing much of what he did without being noticed. What compounds all this, and in many ways makes it worse that what happened in Prometheus, it just how dumb the alien intelligence is as well.
I’ve danced around any major spoilers up until now. I’m going to get into a few more detailed examples to illustrate some of my issues. I’ll try to keep spoilers limited, but I am going to reveal some more details. The book starts off with an alien probe arriving in our system, identifying Earth as a place with a good potential for sentient life to emerge, and leaves behind a small part of it’s payload to….sit inert until someone is dumb enough to make a grab for it. After Ivan is “infected” and has gone through his transformation, he begins communicating with the machine that has essentially replaced his body. Ivan is asked why the aliens just left a small package to be discovered. He replies with something along the lines of it allowed the aliens to make due with a minimum amount of material. The implication is that the main probe wandering the galaxy has a limited payload, so it leaves a small, inert batch in each system it identifies that waits for the local species to become advanced enough at space travel to come out and find it. The problem is that this whole premise quickly falls apart. Mr. Taylor shows that the alien artifact has considerable manufacturing capability in the form of nanites. It uses them to very quickly conduct major planet changing transformations – building mega structures on Mercury, Venus, and Mars in a matter of a few hours or days. The technology makes the 3D printing capabilities of the Bobiverse look like a quilting bee by comparison. It’s hard to reconcile a collection of alien intelligence that advanced leaving a package to sit dormant, doing absolutely nothing until it gets discovered. You would think it would have built itself up enough in the ensuing millions of years to establish contact and make regular transmissions back to the “space address” for lack of a better term, that is had hard coded within itself. Reporting back on the progress of human development on Earth and getting updates on the state of the galactic war over the ongoing millions of years – even at 142 years a round trip, would have made far more sense than leaving the whole thing to chance.
The book suffers from a number of other structural issues particularly with regard to how time flows through the narrative and how quickly things are able to move and, as mentioned above, be built, relative to other moving parts of the narrative.
Finally, I just found the world building itself implausible and lacking in internal consistency. As most science fiction readers know, we have to engage in a certain level of suspension of disbelief to accept the world that we’re asked to visit through piece of media like this. Warp drives, laser swords, space folding – various concepts that we buy into. But, we expect some level of internal consistency; some set of rules that are either explicitly spelled out by the author, or implicitly communicated by the events of the narrative. Certainly some properties handle this better than others. A system with strong space faring capability, multi-planet settlements, and the ability to exploit the resources of the system via mining is hard to reconcile with an Earth that is still suffering from rising oceans and global warming. This same system suffers from what seems to be near poverty and desperation for most of the population, yet the system has an abundance of exploitable resources and the “big rock” strike turns a crew of mining prospectors into billionaires with monetary resources to impact the behavior of governments. If this book had been written 40 years ago, I could forgive some of this. But, a lot of science fiction has been written, read, and critiqued in that time. Even though the author makes explicit references to some of our commonly know science fiction, in many ways, it tries to operate as though none of that literature and the thoughts behind it are part of our common understanding.
The book feels like the author really wanted to offer lessons in Game Theory and the Fermi Paradox and wrote a story backwards to build toward them. However, at least for me, the whole premise that he starts from just doesn’t make enough sense to be able to believably follow this ride. I think if this were posted on Bobnet, the Bobs would take Mr. Taylor to task for this piece of writing. He’s demonstrated that he is capable of far far better than this.
Let’s get some positives out of the way, for there are several. As stated, Ray Porter once again brings an A game to the narration with distinct voices for the major characters…though, having finished the Bobiverse not too long ago and also having listened to him narrate the works of Peter Cline, it is getting a little harder to not notice some similarities in voices across the different books. Still, there’s only so many voices one person can produce. At this point, I liken it more to recognizing actors who tend to pop up in different roles on the various syfy shows being filmed up in Canada. As I say, for these books, the character voices are distinct and easy to tell who is who at any given time.
The characters themselves are well written and engaging. I can tend to forgive a lot of story writing sins if the characters are at least interesting enough to make me care about what they are going through. Once again, Mr. Taylor delivers on that front.
Finally, the concept itself showed a lot of promise. A first contact situation for humanity is a common science fiction premise, so it’s getting harder to come up with something original. Weaving in the Fermi Paradox and Game Theory as integral elements of the story gave this a different spin. So, while I give credit to Mr. Taylor for this take on first contact, it’s the execution that ultimately soured me.
Especially getting through the meat of the story in the middle, one name kept popping up in my head – Prometheus. The movie set in the universe of the Alien movies. If you’ve seen it, one of it’s biggest problems is how much of the plot is driven by supposedly highly educated scientists making a string of amazing dumb decisions. At every turn in the middle of the book, I kept finding myself questioning out loud things like “Why would they do that?” “Who’s been watching this guy?” “Why is nobody talking to this guy every day?” So much of the conflict arises from an unbelievable lack of communication by a group of people who are all together in the same facility. I can appreciate some level of mistrust on the part of the central protagonist as he moves through this middle part of the story. But with that, he shouldn’t have been able to get away with doing much of what he did without being noticed. What compounds all this, and in many ways makes it worse that what happened in Prometheus, it just how dumb the alien intelligence is as well.
I’ve danced around any major spoilers up until now. I’m going to get into a few more detailed examples to illustrate some of my issues. I’ll try to keep spoilers limited, but I am going to reveal some more details. The book starts off with an alien probe arriving in our system, identifying Earth as a place with a good potential for sentient life to emerge, and leaves behind a small part of it’s payload to….sit inert until someone is dumb enough to make a grab for it. After Ivan is “infected” and has gone through his transformation, he begins communicating with the machine that has essentially replaced his body. Ivan is asked why the aliens just left a small package to be discovered. He replies with something along the lines of it allowed the aliens to make due with a minimum amount of material. The implication is that the main probe wandering the galaxy has a limited payload, so it leaves a small, inert batch in each system it identifies that waits for the local species to become advanced enough at space travel to come out and find it. The problem is that this whole premise quickly falls apart. Mr. Taylor shows that the alien artifact has considerable manufacturing capability in the form of nanites. It uses them to very quickly conduct major planet changing transformations – building mega structures on Mercury, Venus, and Mars in a matter of a few hours or days. The technology makes the 3D printing capabilities of the Bobiverse look like a quilting bee by comparison. It’s hard to reconcile a collection of alien intelligence that advanced leaving a package to sit dormant, doing absolutely nothing until it gets discovered. You would think it would have built itself up enough in the ensuing millions of years to establish contact and make regular transmissions back to the “space address” for lack of a better term, that is had hard coded within itself. Reporting back on the progress of human development on Earth and getting updates on the state of the galactic war over the ongoing millions of years – even at 142 years a round trip, would have made far more sense than leaving the whole thing to chance.
The book suffers from a number of other structural issues particularly with regard to how time flows through the narrative and how quickly things are able to move and, as mentioned above, be built, relative to other moving parts of the narrative.
Finally, I just found the world building itself implausible and lacking in internal consistency. As most science fiction readers know, we have to engage in a certain level of suspension of disbelief to accept the world that we’re asked to visit through piece of media like this. Warp drives, laser swords, space folding – various concepts that we buy into. But, we expect some level of internal consistency; some set of rules that are either explicitly spelled out by the author, or implicitly communicated by the events of the narrative. Certainly some properties handle this better than others. A system with strong space faring capability, multi-planet settlements, and the ability to exploit the resources of the system via mining is hard to reconcile with an Earth that is still suffering from rising oceans and global warming. This same system suffers from what seems to be near poverty and desperation for most of the population, yet the system has an abundance of exploitable resources and the “big rock” strike turns a crew of mining prospectors into billionaires with monetary resources to impact the behavior of governments. If this book had been written 40 years ago, I could forgive some of this. But, a lot of science fiction has been written, read, and critiqued in that time. Even though the author makes explicit references to some of our commonly know science fiction, in many ways, it tries to operate as though none of that literature and the thoughts behind it are part of our common understanding.
The book feels like the author really wanted to offer lessons in Game Theory and the Fermi Paradox and wrote a story backwards to build toward them. However, at least for me, the whole premise that he starts from just doesn’t make enough sense to be able to believably follow this ride. I think if this were posted on Bobnet, the Bobs would take Mr. Taylor to task for this piece of writing. He’s demonstrated that he is capable of far far better than this.
November 25, 2018
Executive Summary: A slow start, but a strong finish. Not as fun as his Bobiverse books, but still pretty enjoyable. 3.5 Stars.
Audiobook: Ray Porter once again does a good job. Even though this isn't a Bobiverse book, it feels as though it could be, and that may partially be due to the same narrator returning. He does a few accents and generally is just the type of narrator that adds to the book.
Full Review
There were some similar themes and ideas in this book. Our protagonist is a Software Engineer for one thing. I feel like it could almost be a prequel for his Bobiverse books. However this book is really it's own thing.
I wasn't sucked in right away like his last books. I think it's because it really took awhile for things to get setup. Once the main plot finally got going (much later in the book than I'd have liked) it became a lot more enjoyable.
It's not as funny as his other book, but there is a sort of lightness to the book despite the high stakes of the plot that makes this one of those palate cleanser books when you need something after a particularly hard or heavy story.
So far I've enjoyed all of Mr. Taylor's books, and despite him not writing another Bob book, he's shown to me that he's likely going to be an author whose books I'll continue to enjoy.
Audiobook: Ray Porter once again does a good job. Even though this isn't a Bobiverse book, it feels as though it could be, and that may partially be due to the same narrator returning. He does a few accents and generally is just the type of narrator that adds to the book.
Full Review
There were some similar themes and ideas in this book. Our protagonist is a Software Engineer for one thing. I feel like it could almost be a prequel for his Bobiverse books. However this book is really it's own thing.
I wasn't sucked in right away like his last books. I think it's because it really took awhile for things to get setup. Once the main plot finally got going (much later in the book than I'd have liked) it became a lot more enjoyable.
It's not as funny as his other book, but there is a sort of lightness to the book despite the high stakes of the plot that makes this one of those palate cleanser books when you need something after a particularly hard or heavy story.
So far I've enjoyed all of Mr. Taylor's books, and despite him not writing another Bob book, he's shown to me that he's likely going to be an author whose books I'll continue to enjoy.
June 15, 2018
The dynamic duo of Dennis E. Taylor and Ray Porter have done it again! This author and narrator team have once again created an incredible sci-fi story that was extremely unique, and so much fun to listen to.
Ivan is a newbie space asteroid miner who touches a rock that squirts a liquid onto his arm. Turns out the asteroid is an alien booby trap which has been waiting around for eons to catch some poor species unawares. Ivan begins to turn into metal little by little and eventually he discovers that there's an alien in his consciousness.
This story was completely addictive to me and I found myself listening until the wee hours of the morning. There was really interesting science, even though most of it was way over my head. Ivan was such a great character along with Dr Kemp and Captain Jennings.
This book gives you a bit to think about for the future of our human race and Earth.
After reading the Bobiverse series, Taylor is now an insta-buy author for me, especially if Ray Porter is narrating. Well done!!
Ivan is a newbie space asteroid miner who touches a rock that squirts a liquid onto his arm. Turns out the asteroid is an alien booby trap which has been waiting around for eons to catch some poor species unawares. Ivan begins to turn into metal little by little and eventually he discovers that there's an alien in his consciousness.
This story was completely addictive to me and I found myself listening until the wee hours of the morning. There was really interesting science, even though most of it was way over my head. Ivan was such a great character along with Dr Kemp and Captain Jennings.
This book gives you a bit to think about for the future of our human race and Earth.
After reading the Bobiverse series, Taylor is now an insta-buy author for me, especially if Ray Porter is narrating. Well done!!
June 5, 2018
The team of Dennis E. Taylor and Ray Porter have again delivered audiobook gold!
The Singularity Trap, penned by Taylor and voiced by Porter is a new hard sci-fi Audible exclusive release. The story incorperates first contact, nanotechnology, military conspiracies, interstellar conflict and more all wrapped in the warm quilt of Taylor-Porter fun and frivolity.
I've been patiently waiting for this release and have not been disappointed.
I wish I could give this five stars squared!
The Singularity Trap, penned by Taylor and voiced by Porter is a new hard sci-fi Audible exclusive release. The story incorperates first contact, nanotechnology, military conspiracies, interstellar conflict and more all wrapped in the warm quilt of Taylor-Porter fun and frivolity.
I've been patiently waiting for this release and have not been disappointed.
I wish I could give this five stars squared!
June 17, 2018
The Singularity Trap – Dennis Taylor
There is no doubting that Dennis Taylor is an incredibly gifted writer. On the back of the ‘Bobiverse’ series, comes ‘The Singularity Trap’. This had some very high expectations, and for me, I wasn’t disappointed.
The story follows Ivan, a young man who like many people in this Universe, is desperate for work. The world is not in a particularly good way, with tides rising, land shrinking, high unemployment etc. Ivan is married and has a family to support, and needs a job, one that has a decent return. So he turns to mining, something that can have big returns, if you survive. Ivan is able to program robots, something that very few that sign on have, so is very welcome on-board.
The story follows Ivan as he signs onto the crew of a mining ship, the Mad Astra, to go and mine asteroids.
Things go along uneventfully for a while, no major issues, until one day, the crew discovers something and Ivan does the highly intelligent thing and picks it up. Because that is what you should do when you find something unknown on an asteroid in the middle of nowhere, that looks vaguely alien, pick it up, I mean, what’s the worst that could go wrong…..Oh…..
And so our real story starts.
And this is where we see Dennis Taylor at his absolute best. This is where he creates the most amazing characters, and starts to tell this incredible story properly, the rest has really all been preamble just leading to this.
Without giving too much away, Ivan has his life changed irrevocably by touching the item, it starts physically, but from there, he starts to change in other ways as he realises his life is never going to be the same again.
As the story unfolds, the impact of the changes to Ivan, on his family, his crew, and the implications to the human race are astounding.
As Ivan continues to ‘change’, and these changes and the impact this will have on both him and humanity are fully realised, the story really starts to pick up.
This is an incredible story, of humanity, of loss, of sacrifice, of intelligence (and of one really stupid act of course), but it is also one of brilliant characters. Ivan’s character, and how he interacts with the rest of the crew, his family, himself and others is just outstanding, some exceptional character dialogue that makes this such a brilliant book that should not be missed.
Taylor continues to prove that We Are Bob was not just a one off, that he is one of the stand-outs in Sci-Fi writing, especially with character writing.
The Singularity Trap is a fantastic read, and you won’t be disappointed.
There is no doubting that Dennis Taylor is an incredibly gifted writer. On the back of the ‘Bobiverse’ series, comes ‘The Singularity Trap’. This had some very high expectations, and for me, I wasn’t disappointed.
The story follows Ivan, a young man who like many people in this Universe, is desperate for work. The world is not in a particularly good way, with tides rising, land shrinking, high unemployment etc. Ivan is married and has a family to support, and needs a job, one that has a decent return. So he turns to mining, something that can have big returns, if you survive. Ivan is able to program robots, something that very few that sign on have, so is very welcome on-board.
The story follows Ivan as he signs onto the crew of a mining ship, the Mad Astra, to go and mine asteroids.
Things go along uneventfully for a while, no major issues, until one day, the crew discovers something and Ivan does the highly intelligent thing and picks it up. Because that is what you should do when you find something unknown on an asteroid in the middle of nowhere, that looks vaguely alien, pick it up, I mean, what’s the worst that could go wrong…..Oh…..
And so our real story starts.
And this is where we see Dennis Taylor at his absolute best. This is where he creates the most amazing characters, and starts to tell this incredible story properly, the rest has really all been preamble just leading to this.
Without giving too much away, Ivan has his life changed irrevocably by touching the item, it starts physically, but from there, he starts to change in other ways as he realises his life is never going to be the same again.
As the story unfolds, the impact of the changes to Ivan, on his family, his crew, and the implications to the human race are astounding.
As Ivan continues to ‘change’, and these changes and the impact this will have on both him and humanity are fully realised, the story really starts to pick up.
This is an incredible story, of humanity, of loss, of sacrifice, of intelligence (and of one really stupid act of course), but it is also one of brilliant characters. Ivan’s character, and how he interacts with the rest of the crew, his family, himself and others is just outstanding, some exceptional character dialogue that makes this such a brilliant book that should not be missed.
Taylor continues to prove that We Are Bob was not just a one off, that he is one of the stand-outs in Sci-Fi writing, especially with character writing.
The Singularity Trap is a fantastic read, and you won’t be disappointed.
March 27, 2020
ZDF Fernsegarten goes Space, oder, warum ich Status Quo liebe ...
Es ist immer wieder erstaunlich mit wie wenig Inhalt ein Buch auskommen kann.
Es ist immer wieder erstaunlich mit wie wenig Inhalt ein Buch auskommen kann.
April 26, 2019
This was written by the same guy who wrote We Are Legion (We Are Bob) and I think I may even like this better. No, I definitely like it better. Taylor has some big sci-fi ideas and he’s really good at building a story and characters around them. For anyone who didn’t care for all the humour in WAL, you’ll probably like this better because, well, no Bob.
Who we do have is Ivan. He’s taken a job as a miner on a spaceship headed out to find an asteroid hopefully loaded with enough ore to sell so they don’t all have to go bankrupt. And there it is...the big find. Yay, but there’s a smaller rock so let’s go check it out. That’s where Ivan finds an alien artefact and he just can’t help himself - he decides to touch it. When it touches him back and won’t let go, things get bad for Ivan.
I want to keep telling you about this great story but you need to read this yourself. I don’t want to give away anything. It’s really good. Highly recommended for science fiction lovers, or likers for that matter.
Who we do have is Ivan. He’s taken a job as a miner on a spaceship headed out to find an asteroid hopefully loaded with enough ore to sell so they don’t all have to go bankrupt. And there it is...the big find. Yay, but there’s a smaller rock so let’s go check it out. That’s where Ivan finds an alien artefact and he just can’t help himself - he decides to touch it. When it touches him back and won’t let go, things get bad for Ivan.
I want to keep telling you about this great story but you need to read this yourself. I don’t want to give away anything. It’s really good. Highly recommended for science fiction lovers, or likers for that matter.
July 8, 2018
I really enjoy this combination of author and narrator. The use of sound effects is just enough to create atmosphere, without being distracting and it was a very pleasant surprise to realize that Ray Porter is pretty good at female voices (which he didn't really have a chance to show off in the Bobbieverse series).
I don't think I can talk about this book without comparing it to the Bobbieverse, so I'll apologize in advance.
The humor is more subtle and this feels like a more serious book, though it's still a lot of fun.
The cast is more diverse (as a friend put it, it's amazing how diverse your cast can be when it's not 90% comprised of the same character!) and the political and social aspects feel less cartoonish
The alien threat immediately trumps most internal conflicts
As with Bob, the main theme is what it means to be human when your mind becomes divorced from the physical aspects of humanity. Ivan gets stuck as an emulation inside a replica of his former human body.
The ending wrapped up enough plot threads to make the wait for the next book bearable, but still keep me looking forward to it
I don't think I can talk about this book without comparing it to the Bobbieverse, so I'll apologize in advance.
The humor is more subtle and this feels like a more serious book, though it's still a lot of fun.
The cast is more diverse (as a friend put it, it's amazing how diverse your cast can be when it's not 90% comprised of the same character!) and the political and social aspects feel less cartoonish
The alien threat immediately trumps most internal conflicts
As with Bob, the main theme is what it means to be human when your mind becomes divorced from the physical aspects of humanity. Ivan gets stuck as an emulation inside a replica of his former human body.
The ending wrapped up enough plot threads to make the wait for the next book bearable, but still keep me looking forward to it
July 11, 2018
I enjoyed Taylor’s Bobverse Series so grabbed this book when I saw it. The book has the same tone to it as Bobverse with a similar type of humor. I could read this book just as a fun sci-fi story, or I could ponder the philosophical/moral issues Taylor presents. There are several moral and philosophical questions the author presents: one of them being the “prisoner dilemma”. The ending of the book is interesting. Looking for a good sci-fi story for the summer? Try this one.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is about eleven and a half hours. Ray Porter does an excellent job narrating the book. He is a perfect narrator for Taylor’s style of writing. Porter also narrated the Bobverse Series.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is about eleven and a half hours. Ray Porter does an excellent job narrating the book. He is a perfect narrator for Taylor’s style of writing. Porter also narrated the Bobverse Series.
June 19, 2018
3☆ good but not great
July 8, 2018
This book made me think of a place I worked where every Monday people asked "how was your weekend". There was a guy who always had the greatest stories. Even people who didn't know him would stop and get caught up. But honestly, not much ever really happened during those weekends. Just regular daily life. The dog went to the vet, friends over for dinner, whatever. But something about the guy's stories were fascinating. People would ask for updates about the dog. Everyone was invested.
Now there was another guy who, when asked the same question would just say what he did in a sentence or two. People would smile, and that's it. But here's the thing... guy #2's weekends were AMAZING! He would go mountain climbing, race bicycles, flying lessons, kayaking; all exciting stuff. But his laid back, nonchalant attitude made it all seem like no big deal, so he didn't get much reaction.
What's that got to do with this book? The main character is kind of like guy #2. He gets a job to get on a spaceship and go mine asteroids. He's betting everything on this last ditch effort to keep his family out of the poor house. The Earth's economy at that time in "the future" is at a point where there aren't many other opportunities for anyone. Crazy, insane things happen to him all throughout this book. But he's the type of guy who takes it all in stride, so nothing feels really momentous. Even though the events are actually epic, and world shaking.
These events could have been told as a thriller, or sci-fi horror story. Or a blockbuster action story. Or a apocalyptic end of the world story with a possible light at the end of the tunnel.
In other words, the things that happen in this book are fascinating and thought provoking. But it's presented as a quiet, thoughtful personal story of a normal guy going about his day.
I kept going back and forth about whether that was a good thing or not.
I'm also not sure if I want to give it 3 stars, or 4. It's well written, and the events are interesting. And I feel as if the writer accomplished the exact tone he was going for.
A little more punch would've made this book more entertaining. But that's not what this book was trying to do. For better or worse.
Now there was another guy who, when asked the same question would just say what he did in a sentence or two. People would smile, and that's it. But here's the thing... guy #2's weekends were AMAZING! He would go mountain climbing, race bicycles, flying lessons, kayaking; all exciting stuff. But his laid back, nonchalant attitude made it all seem like no big deal, so he didn't get much reaction.
What's that got to do with this book? The main character is kind of like guy #2. He gets a job to get on a spaceship and go mine asteroids. He's betting everything on this last ditch effort to keep his family out of the poor house. The Earth's economy at that time in "the future" is at a point where there aren't many other opportunities for anyone. Crazy, insane things happen to him all throughout this book. But he's the type of guy who takes it all in stride, so nothing feels really momentous. Even though the events are actually epic, and world shaking.
These events could have been told as a thriller, or sci-fi horror story. Or a blockbuster action story. Or a apocalyptic end of the world story with a possible light at the end of the tunnel.
In other words, the things that happen in this book are fascinating and thought provoking. But it's presented as a quiet, thoughtful personal story of a normal guy going about his day.
I kept going back and forth about whether that was a good thing or not.
I'm also not sure if I want to give it 3 stars, or 4. It's well written, and the events are interesting. And I feel as if the writer accomplished the exact tone he was going for.
A little more punch would've made this book more entertaining. But that's not what this book was trying to do. For better or worse.
July 4, 2018
I loved every bit of the Bobbiverse books so when I saw Dennis E. Taylor had a new book out, I didn't hesitate to click the Pre-order button. I knew I had to keep my expectations in check and I knew I wasn't getting another rehash of the Bob books, but I still turned out to be dissapointed with this one.
Story
I usually try not to read the blurb, because often times they contain more spoilers than I care for, so I just got into this book and started listening. About 15% in, I was quite confused about what this story was actually going to be about, so I went back and read the blurb fully, which I regretted not long after, since it was basically the first 42% of the story condensed in a few paragraphs.
In an even shorter version, the story boils down to this, mankind encounters alien stuff, and in true human nature style, like the neanderthals we are, we immediately poke it with a sharp stick.
It reminded me a lot of Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past Series, but not as deep.
Characters
Given the fact that we get a small cast, which we follow along, at no point did I feel for any of them, which is a missed opportunity in my book. I didn't even relate to Ivan's family issues, despite being a familiy man myself. Again, not sure why.
It also didn't help that all military characters were cut from the same cliché cardboard as Hollywood action movies make them out to be.
World-Building>
As far as I can tell, good stuff. Not great, but solid enough. There's a lot that's left fuzzy, but everything that is required for the story is explained in a plausible way and I had no problems with it. Humanity's stupidity included.
Writing>
I liked the writing here. Nice and crisp, with plenty of dry humor to go around.
Conclusion
As interesting as the premise is, it fell short for me. I enjoyed it, but feel like this could have been more. 3 stars.
Also, I found out that I truly despise named chapters and they should never ever be used by anyone ever again.
Story
I usually try not to read the blurb, because often times they contain more spoilers than I care for, so I just got into this book and started listening. About 15% in, I was quite confused about what this story was actually going to be about, so I went back and read the blurb fully, which I regretted not long after, since it was basically the first 42% of the story condensed in a few paragraphs.
In an even shorter version, the story boils down to this, mankind encounters alien stuff, and in true human nature style, like the neanderthals we are, we immediately poke it with a sharp stick.
It reminded me a lot of Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past Series, but not as deep.
Characters
Given the fact that we get a small cast, which we follow along, at no point did I feel for any of them, which is a missed opportunity in my book. I didn't even relate to Ivan's family issues, despite being a familiy man myself. Again, not sure why.
It also didn't help that all military characters were cut from the same cliché cardboard as Hollywood action movies make them out to be.
World-Building>
As far as I can tell, good stuff. Not great, but solid enough. There's a lot that's left fuzzy, but everything that is required for the story is explained in a plausible way and I had no problems with it. Humanity's stupidity included.
Writing>
I liked the writing here. Nice and crisp, with plenty of dry humor to go around.
Conclusion
As interesting as the premise is, it fell short for me. I enjoyed it, but feel like this could have been more. 3 stars.
Also, I found out that I truly despise named chapters and they should never ever be used by anyone ever again.
February 20, 2019
I just wanted more bobiverse.
May 4, 2023
The Military Trap
The Singularity Trap is advertised as man vs alien machine, but would be better described as the politics of humanity when it faces a First Contact event. The setting is a small leap forward in time with a lot of page count spent on worldbuilding. It's a creative effort that tries to resolve modern-day paradoxes with fictional solutions — classic sci-fi — but because of strange pacing choices, the time spent on those elements is cut short.
While the back of the book mentions the military as an off-hand statement, the fact is that The Singularity Trap spends most of its page count on our propensity to respond with Armed Forces. How would the fractured nations of our world handle the appearance of an alien visitor? How would the people react? Considering the novel was published before COVID-19, the author is surprisingly accurate in his depiction of human society facing a global crisis. The best part of this novel is the time spent on realistic politics, bureaucracy, and even the economics of this future.
Unfortunately, the flip-side is that the majority of the novel is still just humans dealing with human problems. And while Ivan starts off as the sole narrator, as the novel proceeds, more and more narrators are added until the military threads are nearly half the novel. This really damages the pacing, since we're solving those problems instead of witnessing alien nanites joyriding inside the human brain. By the time the plot refocuses on the external menance, there's little page count remaining to properly explore the big paradoxes that should have been the meat of the novel.
Authors need to make editorial decisions when writing one-shots, and that's to devote page count to things that uniquely sell the novel. I don't think Dennis Taylor made the right choice. The titular Singularity Trap deserved to be the focus of the book, but comes across as a side element while dealing with a military problem. Worse, as Ivan plays his games of brinksmanship, the author removes him from the narrative to intensify the suspense and to hold back big secrets from the reader… and this further divorces us from the alien element in this novel.
There are a lot of great science-fiction ideas in this novel, but the author didn't take the time to explore them. He presents these concepts as fait accompli, beating us over the head with heavy-handed prose instead of asking us to use our imagination.
Recommended with reservations.
The Singularity Trap is advertised as man vs alien machine, but would be better described as the politics of humanity when it faces a First Contact event. The setting is a small leap forward in time with a lot of page count spent on worldbuilding. It's a creative effort that tries to resolve modern-day paradoxes with fictional solutions — classic sci-fi — but because of strange pacing choices, the time spent on those elements is cut short.
While the back of the book mentions the military as an off-hand statement, the fact is that The Singularity Trap spends most of its page count on our propensity to respond with Armed Forces. How would the fractured nations of our world handle the appearance of an alien visitor? How would the people react? Considering the novel was published before COVID-19, the author is surprisingly accurate in his depiction of human society facing a global crisis. The best part of this novel is the time spent on realistic politics, bureaucracy, and even the economics of this future.
Unfortunately, the flip-side is that the majority of the novel is still just humans dealing with human problems. And while Ivan starts off as the sole narrator, as the novel proceeds, more and more narrators are added until the military threads are nearly half the novel. This really damages the pacing, since we're solving those problems instead of witnessing alien nanites joyriding inside the human brain. By the time the plot refocuses on the external menance, there's little page count remaining to properly explore the big paradoxes that should have been the meat of the novel.
Authors need to make editorial decisions when writing one-shots, and that's to devote page count to things that uniquely sell the novel. I don't think Dennis Taylor made the right choice. The titular Singularity Trap deserved to be the focus of the book, but comes across as a side element while dealing with a military problem. Worse, as Ivan plays his games of brinksmanship, the author removes him from the narrative to intensify the suspense and to hold back big secrets from the reader… and this further divorces us from the alien element in this novel.
There are a lot of great science-fiction ideas in this novel, but the author didn't take the time to explore them. He presents these concepts as fait accompli, beating us over the head with heavy-handed prose instead of asking us to use our imagination.
Recommended with reservations.
August 12, 2018
OK, I am now an official Dennis E. Taylor fan. TST has a very different feel from his Bobverse books, but is just as good. As I have come to expect from Taylor, we get lots of nerdy goodness.
This book gives us some interesting characters trying to do their best in a very strange situation. None of them are bad guys really, just people making the best decisions they can with limited information.
With a twisty plot, some space action, and life-or-death decisions for the human race, what's not to like? 4+ stars.
This book gives us some interesting characters trying to do their best in a very strange situation. None of them are bad guys really, just people making the best decisions they can with limited information.
With a twisty plot, some space action, and life-or-death decisions for the human race, what's not to like? 4+ stars.
March 3, 2019
Darn, that was a disappointing read!
After the Bobiverse I expected a lot, but this book never delivered.
Some of my main disappointments:
- Characters where way to flat and one-dimensional.
- Too many dumb nineties pop-culture jokes that didn't fit in a story 200 years in the future (and felt like a Ready Player One rip-off)
- Storyline was super slow, it took about half the book to get into it.
- There was almost no talk about the singularity, or what that would look like.
I would say: just go read another book. This one isn't worth your time :(
After the Bobiverse I expected a lot, but this book never delivered.
Some of my main disappointments:
- Characters where way to flat and one-dimensional.
- Too many dumb nineties pop-culture jokes that didn't fit in a story 200 years in the future (and felt like a Ready Player One rip-off)
- Storyline was super slow, it took about half the book to get into it.
- There was almost no talk about the singularity, or what that would look like.
I would say: just go read another book. This one isn't worth your time :(
September 17, 2018
I scored this one low, but it might be because my expectations of this book were not aligned with what it set out to deliver? What happened over the course of the entire story, I was hoping to be Act I of three or book one of a trilogy. The characters were pretty forgettable, too. I would personally skip this one, especially if you liked the Bobiverse books.
June 9, 2018
Taylor is a very good story teller, and you can tell he loves his genre.
I hope he writes more in this world. I like the way he ended this, with a lot of potential for future stories with the MC.
I hope he writes more in this world. I like the way he ended this, with a lot of potential for future stories with the MC.
January 19, 2020
Of the last 10 books I have read this year, the Singularity Trap is easily the best. It is star trekky in the best sense and creates a great sense of empathy for the hero.
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