I found the writing in this story strangely juvenile and could not really feel any connection with the main character. It was not a bad book per se, but just really not my cup of tea. It was lacking the complexity I was hoping for given the setting.

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

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

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

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

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

Highly recommend this one!

what a delightful little space opera this was! who cares why there's dracula in space... dracula's in space! and he's coming to kill all of you! this was so quirky and weird and queer, following essentially the love story of two AIs and then also the family that they made against all odds who are also immortal and will be with them forever. this is such a weird plot that it definitely isn't for everyone, but it was for me.

This startet off really cute and wholesome and it kept going strong, until the "wtf" took over 👀 This has so much going on for cozy sci-fi but turns into a weird monster buddy fantasy. Then I found out that it basically takes the plot from the movie Monster Squad from the 80s and I was completely turned off. :(

Sorry my Netgalley review of this is late, I posted my TikTok review ages ago. I LOVED this! Incredibly fun, queer, sci fi / monster movie mash up.

I have a new favorite book! Of Monsters and Mainframes is fantastic. From the witty dialogue to the wonderful characters, there is so much to love about this one. I never thought I would get into a sci-fi book where the ship is the main character, but here I am. Demeter is such a great character, and their back-and-forth with Stewart made the book for me. The monster characters are also equally great. Frankenstein is my favorite, followed closely by Steve and Agnus. I really cannot say enough good stuff about this one. Read it, you won't regret it. I cannot wait to read more by this author. I love their writing style.

The main character is our passenger ship - Demeter, an AI. She just wants to do her job, and do it right, but something keeps messing up her journeys between Earth and Alpha Centauri, and all of her passengers are kill.ed. Now she needs to figure out why. With a rag-tag cast of monstrous personalities, Of Monsters and Mainframes is seriously funny, playful, and delicious. One of the easiest reads I've had all year. I will be recommending this to everyone I can.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was such a fun little paranormal read. A ship AI and medical AI have to deal with a host of creatures, from vampires and werewolves to fish people and mummies. This was such a whimsical read that didn’t take itself too seriously. I loved that Demeter was able to cause mischief and while there wasn’t character development for the ship (thank god, I loved that it wasn’t a gains consciousness AI), there was a development of a found goofy family and a whole host of featuring cast and crew over the span of decades. Each page leaves you wondering “what now?”, and you won’t put it down until you find out.

Kind of a slow start here but I urge you to stick with it. This book was fantastic. Well written and wholly enjoyable. I couldn’t put it down once the story revved up. Ended up reading the whole book in one session. Id love to read more about these characters. Nice use of monsters. In the acknowledgments the author calls this a “not so cozy” book but I disagree. It was very cozy.

Oh, I absolutely LOVED this book!

From the first page on I was hooked with the witty humor and lovely characters that are all so perfectly non-human and still somehow human enough. The banter, the ideas, the mashup of different folklore and literature classics is amazing and I screamed with glee after discovering new hints to what new thread we face.

Barbara Truelove definitely made a big entry on modern science-fiction with "Of Monsters and Mainframes" and I cannot wait to read more by them!

This story follows the sentient AI Demeter, whose job it is to fly a spaceship and whose existence is suddenly disrupted when during one voyage her crew inexplicably dies. The only thing that left that trip alive was a big black dog, that did not show up on her camera. The human investigators want to blame her or some unknown virus for the death, but she knows who is actually at fault here. Dracula. And she’s gonna make sure he pays!
During her multiple voyages, which do not always end well, we get to know Demeter as a very interesting character. One of the most interesting things about her was her way of thinking and especially that she despite not really being programmed for it, has changed her own program enough to be able to experience emotions as well as grow in her interaction with others. Despite being known as the ghost ship by other ships and even humans, shunned and bullied by some, she manages to form connection with other AIs and humans alike, who care for her, which was very sweet as well.
I also liked the other characters, with my favorites being Steward, the medical AI, in particular in the way her and Demeter’s interactions slowly change over the course of the book as they realize they have to work together in order to save their passengers, and Agnus, a teenage werewolf, who was one of two survivors of Demeter’s second lost crew and raised by her and Steward during their journey through space. My favorite monsters were definitely the cosmic horror fish aliens, because I found their behavior particularly interesting, but they only appear as a one-off monster unfortunately. I was still glad they were included.
Finally, I also enjoyed the writing style. It is fast paced, tense, explores some classical horror creatures in a sci-fi setting, and also includes a lot of funny scenes that made me laugh. The story also switches between a variety of POVs, which was interesting as they all have very different styles of thinking and interacting with each other, which made this book just fly by.
There was only one scene that bothered me a bit, which is when Steward has her speakers disrupted, she thinks about using a very big probe for a prostate exam. I personally do not find humor in thoughts of medical malpractice, and I found it weird that a medical AI would be able to imagine the discomfort of medical exams and find joy in that. I wish that either this ability of AI to choose how they perform their duties had been explored in a bit more detail or that this scene had been left out as it made me wonder for a while if this would be explored more, which it then wasn’t. But obviously that is just a little nitpick on my part and the only scene that I did not enjoy, otherwise I really had a blast reading this book.
All in all, if you enjoy long journeys through space, AIs learning about emotions, lesbian werewolves, nonbinary Frankenstein’s monsters and Dracula stories where Dracula is not really all that important, you should check this book out.

TW: blood, mass death, medical content, mention of medical malpractice, murder, violence

Demeter is an economy passenger ship taking people on the multi-year journey between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Life for her, and the medical AI Steward, is normal until a monster attacks the people on board and Demeter is forced to fight back in order to save herself.

I really enjoyed the early part of the book where all the different monsters were introduce, and I loved the ending, but I felt like there were parts in the middle that were a little slow. I really loved the characters. Demeter and Steward really grew on me over the course of the book as they grew through their unexpected adventures traveling between Earth and Alpha Centauri.

This book was such a fun romp. I loved figuring out all of the references and the characters. I haven't giggled as much in a long time. Will be recommending this to others

4/5 ⭐️

I loved the nods to Dracula, Frankenstein, werewolves, and other horror stories and tropes. The writing style was fun and easy to get through - made it a quick read. I did feel like Demeter was sort of lacking for me. Steward had such a big personality from the start whereas Demeter’s character wasn’t as well displayed. We got to know several characters throughout the story but I never felt like I was fully attached to any of them. There is a theme of found family that was nice but didn’t feel entirely earned for me at the end.

Ultimately I would recommend it. It was fun, weird, paranormal, sci-fi, horror, queer.

On a side note, anyone comparing this to Gideon the Ninth (which I saw a few reviews making this claim) is sorely mistaken. This is not the same kind of vibe.

Thank you to NetGalley, Barbara Truelove, and Bindery Books for my early access to this.

This book is ideal for readers who enjoy fast-paced, genre-blending tales with heart, humor, and a diverse cast of misfits confronting cosmic evils while exploring themes of identity and belonging.

When you combine:
a spaceship AI that's having a harder time combating her inner humanity that Dracula,
"It would be nice to seem nonthreatening to someone."

a girl growing up and getting a super robot arm along the way,
"What a weird way to find out I like goth girls."

and an extremely sassy med bot?
"I had several more hours of mournful monologuing planned."

A five star book that scratches that Murderbot itch.

I haven't had so much fun with a book in such a long time, there was really great grief rep, and I simply can't wait for the next book to come out.

This was a fun one! Definitely engaging from the start and full of quirky characters, which made it really easy to read. I loved the element of found family in this one - it was so lovely to see all these different kinds of characters, human and not, connect and create such strong bonds. I will say it did feel quite repetitive, and as the story progressed, I felt myself losing some interest. However, if you’re looking for a fun, fast read, I would recommend this one. Also, I’m incredibly obsessed with the cover!

TW: murder, gore (blood), forced memory loss, medical content

Such a unique story! I loved every chapter of this book. On first glance the beautiful cover caught my eye but I wasn’t totally sure I’d be interested in a book about computers and monsters, I ended up being completely wrong, I was super into this novel! There is so much to each character of this book and I loved that we got to hear from multiple view points. My favorite characters were Demeter and Frankenstein. There was a lot of action in the book which I also appreciated. The story spans over several years but in the best way, capturing the most important parts. There are so many parts of this book that could appeal to readers from so many different genres and I’d recommend it to anyone! I am looking forward to more books from this author.

This was one of the most fun reads I've gotten to enjoy this year. A stellar example of found family set in a gorgeous space opera with the most delightful literary references. Fun is truly the best word to describe the reading experience. The fact that the story was so incredibly queer from beginning to end was just the cherry on top. I loved Demeter and the family she built for herself and made the choice to love, and I'm going to miss her.

3.5 stars

Of Monsters and Mainframes is a science fiction novel centred around AI-run space ships plagued by paranormal murders. To save her passengers and settle a grudge, the ship Demeter, must team up with her own team of monsters. The start of this book is by far the best part in my opinion, I was very confident it would be 5 stars, but I feel like less would have been more plot-wise. It deviated too far from what made the set-up so enjoyable which was the character work.

I really loved that this book included perspectives from both AI systems and humans. The AI characters were super charming and endearing. I didn't connect with the humans as much but I liked how the two groups bounced off one another. The band of monsters that come together later on definitely didn't each get the time and attention they deserved in order for me to feel one way or another about them.

I love that this is accessible sci-fi and straight forward enough for readers who are not familiar with the genre to enjoy (I think it could possibly be enjoyed more by newbies to the genre). It also stands out from the pack because of how character driven it is - similar to Becky Chambers' work in that sense.