This is a book about a spaceship AI trying to get revenge after a vampire killed all its passengers. With the exception of one of the romances that felt very rushed (because most of it happened off-page, during a time skip), I really like everything this book had to offer. From the very likeable characters to the fast-paced plot, the combination of those things makes it very easy for readers to go through this book quickly, even though at 400+ pages, it's not the shortest book, but it can definitely feel like it (in the best possible way that leaves you wanting more). The writing is also generally excellent, very readable in a pulpy way while still being good prose, with the exceptions of some modern references that threw me off, like the mention of Pilates. Overall, an excellent monster sci-fi reads for people who like not-so-cozy space opera.

Imagine doing a tandem read of Murderbot and Dracula, having a really weird dream, and then writing a book about it! That's basically how the author described coming up with the premise for this book and I'm so glad she did!

This book is absolutely bonkers in the best way possible. Yes there's some goofy horror but there's also so much heart! I never thought I'd fall in love with a book about monsters in space but it happened and it's called Of Monsters and Mainframes!

Of Monsters and Mainframes tells the story of Demeter, the computer of a transport ship who has just realized that while she was powered down all her human passengers were murdered by Dracula! Unfortunately, Demeter then earns a bad reputation as a "ghost ship" when on future voyages her passengers continue to be killed by other monsters! Luckily the ship is equipped with an AI robot Doctor named Steward who while maybe not the BEST doctor is able to interact with the humans better than Demeter and helps her save at least a couple of the passengers. Eventually they team up with some friendly non-humans including Frankenstein, Steve the mummy, and a werewolf to help track down Dracula and restore Demeter's reputation!

If you enjoy campy horror movies, What We Do In The Shadows, goofy/whacky sci-fi, then you should love this one!

For fans of Murderbot and Gideon the Ninth.

Of Monsters and Mainframes is a fresh, head-spinning take on space opera, pairing urban mythos with high-tech sci-fi good stuff, pulp horror, and and a sense of humor you can't help but enjoy. We follow the story of Demeter, the artificial intelligence system of a Nos-C71897 Demeter space shit as she tries to do her job of shuttling humans across the universe all the while supernatural creatures like vampires, werewolves, and Frankenstein keep mucking it all up.

More than anything, Of Monsters and Mainframes is a love story about relationships. Romantic, platonic, and everything in between and outside, and what it means to be human. It moves fast and often with sharp, quick jumps in perspective that weren't personally my cup of tea, but I can absolutely see how other folks might enjoy it. It's fun and exciting and filled with fantastical characters that are a step outside of the box, but still interesting and relatable in their own ways.

Of Monsters and Mainframes is an ever moving tale (literally and figuratively), about connection, freedom, and understanding. It's fun and weird and a great all-around read with little bits of everything. It's weird and funky and though not my top book of the year, I can confidently say I haven't read anything like it. Nevertheless, it was a fun read despite some quirky pacing and while the ideas were excellent, it didn't hook me nearly as much as I was hoping (but maybe that's just a me thing). Sits at a solid 3.5 for me, so I'll round it up to 4.

This is the weirdest book I have read in an age and I absolutely loved it. I want to delete it from my brain so I can read it for the first time all over again. It just goes to show that there is no idea to strange to write about. At first I had no idea what was going on, but then neither did Demeter. Once things got going, I couldn’t put this book down. More like this please!! Barbara Truelove, what else do you have up your sleeve? Can everyone read this so I can gush over it with you?

What a ride!
I’m so sad this is finished, I really want more adventures with this crew. What a unique story full of well crafted characters. The interactions between creature, Ai and human were surprisingly fluid and didn’t seem forced. Dialogue and the small details also ended up being funny without even trying. Reinventing the story of Frankenstein really was something cool to me.

I absolutely loved every minute of this one. I went in blind thinking “what a wild sounding plot”. It was indeed wild and I’m glad I was around for the ride.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ezeekat Press/Bindery Books for the arc of this book. This book is an interesting concept. This book is charismatic and told from multiple points of view. One of the main points of view is Demeter the AI of a spaceship. This book also has mythical beings as characters. This was a fun read.

This book was SO much fun. I almost don’t know what to say about it, that’s how much I enjoyed it. The concept is bonkers, but it works really well, and the characters are all loveable enough that I was content to just be along for the ride. The dialogue was also super funny; I laughed out loud throughout the whole book. This wasn’t just a fun time though, there were super tense parts, and such a sweet found family that it made me tear up a little.
I will say, although this story was perfect for me, I will flag a few things that I think could have been better, or that other readers would dislike. Firstly, I thought the pacing was a bit off. I was having so much fun that I didn’t really care, but it was still noticeable, and I could see other people not being into it. The first 50% of the book has almost nothing to do with the revenge plot against Dracula - the main plotpoint the blurb promises - and some of the main characters don’t get introduced until even later than that. And then, the main climax is told to us after the fact, we don’t get to experience it firsthand. I also think the whole “Dracula in space” thing could have been clarified a bit more. Why attack there? Why not on one of the planets where he has a bit more control over the setting?
However, I still had a great time, and I would recommend this to fans of Gideon the Ninth or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It was funny, yet still heartfelt, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy and recommend it to everyone I know after it comes out.

Barbara Truelove’s "Of Monsters and Mainframes" is a fun, genre-blending ride that manages to be both strange and heartfelt. The story centers on Demeter, a sentient spaceship AI whose main job is to ferry humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri, except her passengers keep dying. And not just in any old way: these are paranormal murders, courtesy of none other than Dracula himself, who sneaks aboard and wreaks havoc, leaving Demeter to pick up the pieces.

At first, the narrative feels a bit disjointed, with each new voyage seeming like a fresh nightmare for Demeter and her medical AI sidekick, Steward. But as the book progresses, the threads start to weave together, and you find yourself rooting for this motley crew.

What really makes this book shine is its quirky, sarcastic dialogue, especially between the AIs and the monsters. The characters are endearingly weird, and their relationships develop in unexpected ways. The found-family vibes are strong, and it’s hard not to get attached to Demeter and Steward as they bicker, bond, and try to keep everyone alive.

The pacing can be uneven, especially in the first half, where it sometimes feels like you’re just waiting for the next disaster to strike. But once everything comes together, the story really takes off, blending classic horror with futuristic sci-fi in a way that feels fresh and exciting. The book also manages to tackle deeper themes about what it means to be a “monster” and the value of friendship, all while never taking itself too seriously.

Of Monsters and Mainframes is a delightful, unhinged, and compelling read that proves you can mix just about anything; pulp horror, classic sci-fi, and even a dinosaur-themed party in low gravity and still come out with something brilliant.

Honestly, I picked this up for the fresh, unique premise and ended up falling in love with the crew. It’s weird, it’s funny, and it’s full of heart. Highly recommend.

Not only is this a comedy, sci-fi and horror novel mostly told from the abrupt and brutally honest POVs of two different computer systems within a spaceship hurtling between planets, but the non-tech protagonists also happen to be Dracula and some of our favourite characters from classic literature. A bizarre combination of genres that inexplicably works thanks to Barbara Truelove’s distinct writing style.
Of Monsters & Mainframes is an irreverent, time skipping, multiple POV novel that will give you emotional whiplash and a fierce love for two polar opposite computer systems that are just doing their best to preserve human life while their passengers keep inexplicably dying. Truelove’s writing style and down-to-earth characters feel reminiscent of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series, but with a graphic thread of horror stitched through the supernatural mystery unfolding in the ship.
Truelove wields ‘show don’t tell’ like a weapon against her readers as she describes the baffling events through the limited view of the ship’s computer, Demeter, who is obedient, dedicated, and fact-oriented, but also undeniably sassy. The computer in the med bay, Steward, is even snarkier (and a little terrifying) due to a faulty ethics chip. The lovable characters are the spine of this monstrous hug of a book: we see the world and its problems through their eyes and their (sometimes wildly differing) interpretations of the baffling events that occur across decades.
The frequent time jumping in this book was the one hiccup to my unfettered enjoyment of it. While mostly well-signposted and reflected in the characters’ development, there was more than one occasion where the characters’ development didn’t seem to reflect the amount of time that had passed. One particular time skip towards the end of the book squashed a number of significant developments into passing comments instead of exploring them in a way that would have added to the story.
Overall, this is an engaging mystery with lovable characters and a unique set-up that you’re not going to find anywhere else at the moment. I would recommend it to fantasy lovers who want to dip a toe into the sci-fi genre.

A science-fiction re-imagining of Stoker's queer classic Dracula (and yes, it is a queer classic)?
Count me in.

I enjoyed my time reading this book. It was fun and original. Fresh air was breathed into an overused story, but I didn't exactly loved it as much as I thought it would. Still, I would recommend it.

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

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

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

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

Our intrepid ship the Demeter is doing her job shuttling humans through space when Dracula has the audacity to kill all of her passengers. Since obviously vampires can't exist, the deaths are blamed on an 'equipment failure' and Demeter is branded a 'ghost ship'. As paranormal deaths keep piling up during her journeys, Demeter decides its time to get revenge on Dracula for starting this whole mess. And, she will recruit a cast of other famous horror movie monsters and the ship's medical AI to do it,


This book was so much fun and packed a lot of heart in between all of the violent deaths. I appreciated that Truelove doesn't bother to explain how Dracula, werewolves or Lovecraftian monsters exist in this universe, they just do. (And with a book like this, no explanation is really needed. We are here for the vibes and the vibes were great). I did love her unique twist on Frankenstein's monster and the unique bond it had with technology. I think Mary Shelley would be proud.

However, the stand out was definitely our main lady, Demeter. I admire how quickly Truelove managed to get me to love that ship. And Demeter's banter with the medical AI, Steward, was just fantastic and so funny. By the end Demeter has herself a beautiful found family and it just gave me the warm and fuzzies. (She calls them 'her people!'). I do think it was a wise decision for the climax of the fight with Dracula to be off page since Demeter didn't witness it and this was always Demeter's story. (Some people may find that annoying but I would disagree).

My only minor complaint is that the romantic subplot between Mina and Agnus felt a little rushed and tacked on. It wasn't really necessary for the story or the character arcs so it probably should have been cut if it wasn't going to be given more attention.

Otherwise, fantastic cozyish book that I anticipate rereading.

Reviews going live on Tiktok, Goodreads, Storygraph and Fable on 6/5.

Where to start with this one? Of all the books I’ve read, <i>Of Monsters and Mainframes</i> is definitely one of the more unique ones. The best way I can describe it is a cozy, non-cozy space fantasy. The stakes aren’t as high as your typical space opera (no world-saving, no undermining corrupt government systems, no deep philosophical ponderings of existential questions), but they aren’t particularly low either (you and everyone in your found family will die if you don’t succeed). Typical cozy fantasy themes of found family, breaking free from the mold, and queer romance sprinkled in with bits of humor.

The most unique part of this story is that the main character Demeter is an AI. I admit I haven’t read that many books with robotic main characters (mostly just <i>Murderbot</i> by Martha Wells and <i>Psalm for the Wild Built</i> by Becky Chambers), but I particularly enjoyed how Barbara Truelove portrayed Demeter and Dr. Steward. I find that often the theme in these human-AI interaction stories is that AIs are just like humans. But Demeter? She is an AI through and through and the author never lets you forget that. She speaks in lots of computer terminology. Her hobby is obsessing over efficiencies and accuracies down to the 0.001. She even resolves conflicts and grows as a character in a very computer-esque way. She’s not human and she doesn’t try to be, and yet she’s interesting and loveable enough to be a main character all on her own.

The only con I would give to this book is the pacing. It starts pretty slow and it’s not really clear where the plot is going until about 60% of the way through. I think this is a story may have benefitted from non-linear storytelling. Start with the action, then get to the mystery of how we got here and interpersonal relationship building.

Overall 4/5, definitely enjoyable if you’re looking for a slow, cozy read.

This quirky book is unlike anything I've read before and despite not being my usual genre, I truly enjoyed it.

4.25 stars

If you look for a multitude of things, you might be arriving at the right ship!
You’ll get monsters and space and a lot of things to think and also a bit of bops to just find funny. It is an incredibly well balanced book which portrays the story, its characters and the weird marvellous adventure in a very graspable way. And graspable in a sense - It feels like you’re right there!

Of Monsters and Mainframes is a great book which mixes the supernatural with scifi in a way that even I, someone who usually stays out of scifi, enjoys it to the T!

I loved the narrative voice, and it was a lot of fun. However, I would have liked a bit more narrative logic woven through all this referencial game. Especially concerning one particular ancient... You have to be very very very patient to finally hear from those again.

Overall I have pretty mixed feelings about this book. The premise sounded amazing and I really enjoyed parts of the book but there were a couple of things I didn’t enjoy.

What I liked: there was a fun and quirky group of main characters. I enjoyed that the ship (Demeter) and a medical AI were both main characters that are POV characters most of the time. The plot was also relatively interesting though this is where I started to have some issues with the book.

What I didn’t like: the plot. This is definitely more about the vibes than the plot which I usually like but I just wasn’t a fan of the execution here. Basically there are massive time jumps and the narrative is incredibly broken up which made it hard to care much about the main objectives of the characters. The main goal of the book is to kill Dracula and I felt like this was sort of an afterthought.

Read this book if: you like found family, non-traditional timelines, books that are very “meta” and pull from other stories.

This wasn’t my favorite but I think some people will really enjoy it!

A delightful blend of space adventures and well known Victorian monsters, Of Monsters and Mainframes was a never-ending rollercoaster! Poor sentient ship Demeter just wants to complete her voyage, but wait, are all the humans aboard dead? What?

Demeter soon figures out what the reader has known as soon as the listing of "soil" is listed as cargo: that Dracula is aboard and that, clearly, Demeter needs help to defeat this ancient evil.

I love how from the beginning, Demeter's personality is so well defined. She's determined to figure this out, to ignore the continued "everything is fine" coming from the other computer systems, and clever enough to know that to fight a monster, you need a bunch of monsters.

My first book by Barbara Truelove, but not my last.

Demeter is a spaceship AI and she really can't catch a break. She has to deal with the feisty medical AI, bullying from other ships, and, weirdly, her voyages keep killing off her human passengers. It all started with the vampire Dracula, and though Demeter isn't programmed for revenge, for this monster, she'll make an exception. As the supernatural predators leave bodies stacking up, Demeter gets a reputation as a ghost ship. To fight a monster, she may need to assemble her own team of supernatural beings.

This was such a delight of a novel! Sci-fi with a bit of horror and a strong dose of dry comedy, this was a fun ride. As the reader, you have a lot of Demeter's POV, but you get short interjections from other POVs too. Give this a read if you enjoy:
- allusions to classic horror monsters (reimagined in the future and space)
- snarky AI humor
- found family
- pirates
- fish out of water situations/not programmed for this

Thank you to Bindery Books and Ezeekat Press for an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. This book will be published on 6/3/25. I'll be posting to Instagram shortly.

Being an AI of a spaceship is a straightforward job that Demeter does well. Until the said ship is en route to the destination, but no humans are alive. What happened? When did this happen? Why was she asleep?
It is years later. The same ship, the same route, everything is as it is supposed to be. Or is it? There are only 2 humans alive and a mystery shadow trying to kill them. Is the ship cursed? Or possessed?

I went into this book for the sci-fi, space travel adventure with a slaughter mystery. I came out with a found family and a weird attachment to 2 AIs. And on top of that - I’m not sure if I would ever sign up for a multi-year space travel from one habitation to another. Especially when as a passenger you cannot escape the weirdos.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery for this ARC in exchange of an honest review.