Dennis E. Taylor

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Dennis E. Taylor
BornCanada
OccupationNovelist
LanguageEnglish
NationalityCanadian
GenreScience Fiction
Website
dennisetaylor.org

Dennis E. Taylor is a Canadian novelist and former computer programmer known for his large scale hard science fiction stories exploring the interaction between artificial intelligence and the human condition.

Career[edit]

While working as a computer programmer, Taylor self-published his first novel and began working with an agent to try to publish his second novel,We Are Legion (We Are Bob). However, Taylor still had difficulty getting any publishing house to take on his work, and eventually published it through his agent's in-house publishing arm. An audiobook rights deal with Audible was also reached. Once recorded, We Are Legion became one of the most popular audiobooks on the service and was awarded Best Science Fiction Audiobook of the year.[1]

Taylor has been noted as an author whose work debuts in audio form rather than print to take advantage of the explosive growth of the audio medium.[2]

Taylor's 2018 novel The Singularity Trap as well as his 2020 novel Heaven's River debuted on The New York Times Bestseller List for Fiction Audiobooks.[3][4][5]

In September 2020, Taylor released his sixth novel Heaven's River, the fourth book in the Bobiverse series. The new novel follows a loose thread from the earlier novels involving the Bob clone named Bender, who had disappeared mysteriously many years before and prompts a galaxy-spanning search.[6]

Major themes[edit]

Taylor's "Bobiverse" series explore how technologies like cryonics, mind uploading and artificial intelligence might change the society and the human condition.[7][8] Another major topic is global catastrophic risk, which is also featured in Outland and The Singularity Trap.[9][10]

Stern magazine praised Taylor's distinctive humour style, often based on nerdy inside jokes and references.[7]

Recognition[edit]

Taylor's works have been translated to several languages, including Japanese,[11] German,[12] French[13] and Polish.[14]

The We Are Legion (We Are Bob) novel was a finalist of the 2019 Seiun Awards.[11]

In October 2018, Taylor was added to the XPRIZE Foundation Science Fiction Advisory Council as a "Visionary Storyteller".[15] This group of accomplished science fiction authors help advise the XPRIZE team on envisioning the future.[16][17]

In May 2019, Taylor was invited by Google to one of the "Talks at Google" where he gave some insight into what inspired his writings, and what his plans are for the next few years.[18]

Personal life[edit]

Taylor resides near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with his wife and daughter. He enjoys snowboarding and mountain biking[19][20][21] when he is not writing or traveling.

Bibliography[edit]

Bobiverse (2016–2021)[edit]

No. Title Date ISBN Notes
1 We Are Legion 20 October 2016
  • 978-1-68068-032-4 (1st ed.)
  • 978-1-68068-058-4 (rev. ed.)
 Self-published as We are Bob in 2015. Revised edition published in 2016 with new title.
2 For We Are Many 18 March 2017 978-1-68068-059-1
3 All These Worlds 8 August 2017 978-1-68068-060-7
4 Heaven's River 26 January 2021 978-1-68068-226-7 The New York Times Bestseller,[5] Audie Award Finalist,[22] Prometheus Award Finalist
5 Not Till We Are Lost Release Date:

5 September 2024

TBD

Quantum Earth (2015–2023)[edit]

No. Title Date ISBN Notes
1 Outland 9 January 2015
Self-published in 2015. Revised edition published in 2017.
2 Earthside 26 May 2023 978-1-68068-337-0 Audiobook was available as an Audible Original in January 2023.

Standalone works[edit]

Title Date ISBN Notes
The Singularity Trap 11 July 2018 978-1-68068-088-1 The New York Times Bestseller[3][4]
Roadkill 9 December 2022 978-1-68068-312-7 Audiobook was available as an Audible Original in August 2022.
"A Change of Plans" 9 October 2017 978-1-9781-3894-0 Collected in Explorations: Colony, vol. 4 of the Explorations anthology series.

Audible Original stories[edit]

Stories released as Audible Originals as read by Ray Porter (who has also read other books by Taylor). Roadkill and Earthside were later published in paperback. As of September 2023, Feedback is available to read exclusively on Amazon's Kindle platform.

Title Audible release Kindle edition Ref.
Feedback 19 November 2020 15 February 2023 [23]
Roadkill 4 August 2022 1 December 2022 [23]
Earthside 26 January 2023 25 May 2023

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Best of 2016 | Sci-Fi". Audible.com.
  2. ^ Alter, Alexandra (2 June 2018). "Want to Read Michael Lewis's Next Work? You'll Be Able to Listen to It First". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  3. ^ a b "Audio Fiction Books - Best Sellers - July 15, 2018". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  4. ^ a b "Audio Fiction Books - Best Sellers - August 12, 2018". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  5. ^ a b "Audio Fiction Books - Best Sellers - Oct. 18, 2020". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  6. ^ Taylor, Dennis E. [@Dennis_E_Taylor] (April 21, 2020). "The release date for Heaven's River on Audible has been set for September 24th" (Tweet). Retrieved 2020-05-30 – via Twitter.
  7. ^ a b "Weltraum-Dramen und Zukunftsvisionen: die sieben spannendsten Science-Fiction-Klassiker". stern.de. 21 May 2023.
  8. ^ Taylor, Dennis E. (July 30, 2018). "Wem gehört eine künstliche Intelligenz?". Die Zukunft.
  9. ^ Cain, Fraser (May 21, 2019). "Interview with Dennis E. Taylor, Author of the Bobiverse Trilogy".
  10. ^ "The Singularity Trap – Classic Science Fiction from Dennis E. Taylor". Bleeding Cool. 5 June 2018. Archived from the original on 2020-10-17. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  11. ^ a b "2019 Seiun Awards Nominees". locusmag.com. April 8, 2019.
  12. ^ Berg, Guido (December 12, 2019). "'ChaosKatrin' aus Kolkwitz für Youlius-Award 2020 nominiert". otz.de (in German).
  13. ^ "Un logiciel lancé à la conquête de l'espace, parce que les humains..." actualitte.com (in French).
  14. ^ "Lubimy czytać". lubimyczytac.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  15. ^ "Many, many things". dennisetaylor.org. Dennis E. Taylor. 2018-10-26. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  16. ^ "Science Fiction Advisory Council". xprize.org. XPRIZE Foundation. 2017-05-31. Retrieved 2018-11-16.
  17. ^ "Dennis E. Taylor". xprize.org. XPRIZE Foundation. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  18. ^ We are Legion (We are Bob) | Dennis E. Taylor | Talks at Google, retrieved 2022-05-27
  19. ^ Taylor, Dennis E. "About Me". dennisetaylor.org. Dennis E. Taylor. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
  20. ^ Taylor, Dennis E. [@dennis_e_taylor] (May 23, 2020). "New bike. Strictly for conditioning. Yeah, that's the ticket" (Tweet). Retrieved March 8, 2024 – via Twitter.
  21. ^ Taylor, Dennis E. [@dennis_e_taylor] (June 6, 2021). "In my defense, this cost less than... I mean, it's not like it... Sigh. Never mind. I have another bike" (Tweet). Retrieved March 8, 2024 – via Twitter.
  22. ^ "2021 Audie Awards Finalists". Locus. 2021-02-23. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
  23. ^ a b ASIN B0BNWHFVVS, Roadkill (2022-12-01)

External links[edit]

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