Review: Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove

SiriusB- Reviews / Book Reviewscomputers / SFF / Vampire / werewolf2 Comments

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.

Review:

Dear Barbara Truelove,

Your book was an impulse buy after I read the blurb for it on Goodreads. SFF with murder investigations and queer love story and AI as a main character?  Sign me up. I have read science fiction with AI as a main character or one of the main characters and I had fun, so I was very eager to read this one.

The story left me scratching my head, because I have no idea how to read it. Also I went to read some reviews before I wrote mine, which is something I do rarely, but I needed to know if some readers may have had the same issue with this story as I did.

I loved the blurb and even though after finishing the story I did not think it was misleading, I still do not think that I got out of the book what the blurb promised, because I felt as if the really fun stuff (the joining forces promised by the blurb) happens rather late in the book, I think somewhere around sixty – seventy percent of the book. The first half or maybe even two thirds of the book (and I know it sounds weird, because Demeter is a computer, not a human being) the main character is trying to tell anyone with authority position over her that there was something wrong, that there is something wrong, that there is evil on board and nobody listens. She is being blamed for the murder, she is being put in temporary coma/sleep, she is being optimized, but nobody is actually helping her. I was so frustrated for Demeter. I was not bored by the book at all, but I was very frustrated by it. I thought that it was not well paced at all.

And when the motley crew that blurb promises finally gets together and learns to work together yes, the story moves along quite well. I was intrigued and entertained by the characters and was hoping that someone will *finally* help Demeter to deal with her real problem. I will leave you to find out what happened.

I am also not sure what I think about queer love story. The f/f romantic element happening at the end I found very insta love and did not invest in the potential of that relationship. There was another love story in this book that I found touching and fun.

Grade: B-

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Sirius

Sirius started reading books when she was four and reading and discussing books is still her favorite hobby. One of her very favorite gay romances is Tamara Allen’s Whistling in the Dark. In fact, she loves every book written by Tamara Allen. Amongst her other favorite romance writers are Ginn Hale, Nicole Kimberling, Josephine Myles, Taylor V. Donovan and many others. Sirius’ other favorite genres are scifi, mystery and Russian classics. Sirius also loves travelling, watching movies and long slow walks.

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