Thank you to Dreamscape and NetGalley for the audioarc in exchange for an honest review.

Genuinely such an enjoyable experience! As a very big Dracula fan, I was excited for this one, and I wasn’t disappointed. It had really great nods and references to Stoker’s work, but was truly something new. Truelove really wrote a fun book here. This would make an excellent animated movie.

The audiobook was great. It really captured the humor and I’d 100% recommend it!

Plot: ★★★★★
Prose: ★★★★
Pacing: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
World: ★★★
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Final Rating: ★★★★ (4.2/5)

Audiobook: ★★★★★

I love unintentionally picking up a book with queer characters, especially during Pride month.

The beginning of the book gave me Hail Mary meets The Passenger vibes, but it definitely took on a life of its own. There were some really great characters in this story, and I never expected to have sympathy for a computer, but I found myself really rooting for this oddball team.

I think this is a great mix of sci fi and fantasy with just a touch of romance thrown in.

I did receive an audio copy of this book. Starting an audio with 4 straight minutes of binary code read out loud was a little aggressive and almost made me want to skip the audio (It does happen a couple more times later in the book). There are a handful of narrators who really helped bring individual characters to life. They all did such an amazing job bringing out the emotions of the book. Very easy to follow even at an increased speed.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Unfortunately I didn't vibe with this book, at least in audio. All the numbers were like screeching in my ears and I wanted to DNF the book after ten minutes. It was way to much listing of number sequences. It was the only thing I actually could concentrate on and it ruined the book for me. I can acknowledge some heartwarming moments in the middle and end, but by then the book was already ruined for me. I listened to over 30% before it had some redeeming qualities. That said I think it would be better as a physical book because then I could skim the numbers. If you like sci-fi and a nonsensical humor, intricate plot and an inhuman narrator it could work for you.

⭐️⭐️💫

Unfortunately, this one just didn’t work for me, DNF at ~60%. I really tried to give this one a solid go. It has an amazing premise, and I love the concept of a sci-fi Dracula story. The writing itself was not bad. If the premise sounds like your gig, I would say pick it up! I imagine your mileage may vary.

Personally, I feel that the marketing on this one was off - described as for fans of Gideon the Ninth and Becky Chambers, I saw none of that here. There were too many characters, which means I connected with none of them. Though I admit I didn’t stick around for the resolution of the plot, it seemed haphazard and the first half of the book was very episodic, with few characters at a time. The limited character interactions and the limited movement of the plot made this ultimately too slow for me.

I did enjoy the narration of the audiobook. I felt that the narrators did a great job with different voices, and the ship components were very unique!

Thank you to Barbara Truelove, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for the audiobook arc. I wish I had a better experience with this book!

Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove 4.25⭐️! Monsters in space?! Super fun read about a space ship’s AI named Demeter and it’s robot doctor, Steward, having to deal with their passengers dying all the time from paranormal entities.There’s a bit of sapphic romance, horror, humor, robot spiders and lots of classic monsters. Loved the multicast narrators on the audiobook! I did not enjoy the chapters of just the narrator reading code like, “010101010010100101011…” for 2 minutes straight lol it was not necessary.
🛸🧛‍♂️🐺🚀

I didn’t have any issues with the audio. I thought it was very good quality.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for a copy of the audiobook!

Incredible!

This is a book for fans of Murderbot, and similar, kind of funny, quirky, and creative science fiction books that are not scared to be absolutely bonkers and unhinged. Loved the characters, the plot, and the ideas here. The characters, despite how little time they had to make themselves stand out, still managed to do so. It's, of course, not a perfect book, but I decided to read it at the right time. It's short and sweet, nicely enough that it helped me get over a reading slump after having picked and started the Way of Kings (which I adore, but is very long)

Did not finish. About 35% through, and it was so painfully boring. I love to find the positive in books, but this was so bad. The parts where there is code in the book does NOT work for an audiobook: zero one one zero zero one one zero one……..

I tried. The cover and title are amazing though!

Rounded up from 3.5 stars. I thought this was very creative being from the partial POV of a spaceship and the different programs. I read this via audiobook, received from the publisher via NetGalley which I think is probably the best format for this one. I thought it would end up feeling like a number of short stories but it ended up being a cohesive piece. I thought this was a fun book and I'd pick up another book by this author because I read this one.

This was a unique blend of sci-fi and classic monsters. The story was a little long for me, and the voice for Isaac in the beginning was ridiculously annoying.

This is a great story for people who are reading sci-fi for the first time. The narration cast is fantastic. The cover is beautiful. The story's fast pacing, multiple POV's and the funny (and heartfelt) parts were all great. This is the first time I'm reading a book by Truelove and it will not be my last.

I really enjoyed this story. I wish there was a 3.5 star option. The characters, including the AIs, are so fleshed out and I really felt like I knew them. The story is silly and fun. Sometimes when a story mashes together so many existing characters, it can feel really forced, but this all meshed together so well. The only issue I had was how the character's accents and cadence would change based on which narrators and POV we were in. I wish that there had been a little more communication between narrators so the audio felt more like the same character even when changing POV. It took me out of the story a bit.

This book is so unique. I've never read AI POV characters who are so machine-like while still having so much humanity to them. The monsters were a lot of fun, though I would have loved to see more of them, especially bits that were mentioned but not shown.

This was weird and funny and all sorts of a good time! I love when things don't go as planned and this story takes so many twists and turns. Although whoever read the audio.. the 2 min straight of 01011010011101100110 was a little much.

I loved this audiobook! Thank you Dreamscape Media, NetGalley & author Barbara Truelove for an advanced listener copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

The phenomenal narrators including Chris Devon; Emana Rachelle; Charlie Albers; Eve Passeltiner; Zura Johnson; Cary Hite and Gail Shalan brought this eclectic crew of characters to life.

For fans of sci-fi and quirky - this is a great pick! Combine a sentient passenger ship, her onboard AI physician of questionable morals and add in a werewolf, Dracula, cyborg, her robot companion, a vampire and a …STEVE and you have a great recipe for a fun and funky read.

I was fully engaged - the story manages to create tension, drama, thrills, chills and more. Highly recommend if you are looking to break away from a predictable read and go on an adventure! And for those who don’t care for heavy math/science Sci-Fi, no worries - this keeps the science base user friendly.

I enjoyed this story overall, but felt the format of audio was sometimes hard to follow and the binary sections of the text were hard to listen to and I would have skimmed them or skipped had I read the text.

Thank you Netgalley, Dreamscape Media and Barbara Truelove for the audio Arc of, Of Monsters and Mainframes.
Narrated by Chris Devon; Emana Rachelle; Charlie Albers; Eve Passeltiner; Zura Johnson; Cary Hite; Gail Shalan.

If you're into Sci Fi or you're just dipping your toe into this genre ( or even if you don't like this genre) Of Monsters and Mainframes is going to be such a treat for you! Im not particularly into sci-fi but I loved this book with all my soul. It's fun and quirky with a different main POV of our spaceship, Demeter. She just wants to do her job by safely ferrying humans from Earth to Alpha Centauri but people keep dying. What we get is a mix of sci fi, gothic monsters with some great nods to the horror genre. All mixed in with some great humour.

We have also a multi POV from our humans and monsters who are also on Demeter which makes for a very all encompassing nod never a dull moment. The only slight miss for me was chapter one, which is around a 3-4 mins in this audiobook and it's basically the mainframe of Demeter booting up in binary 0100100111. After around 2 mins , I did actually check to make sure that this audio arc hadn't got stuck or was faulty haha. It didn't detract anything from the storyline and probably " reads" better rather than audio. Other than that, our narrators did a fantastic job keeping all the characters alive with all their quirkiness!

4.5 for Storygraph , 5 stars for Other review sites

I've never read a book that made genre blending so much fun. Part comedy, part horror, part science fiction, Of Monsters and Mainframes is a blast from start to finish. We follow Demeter, an AI in a spaceship, on several journeys that lead to her moniker as a ghost ship. I love a sentient AI, especially one with the potential to be my reluctant friend. That's exactly what we get with Demeter and her med system, Steward as they ferry passengers across the solar system while experiencing several strange occurrences that leave all, or most, passengers dead.
This book had me giggling from the very opening when the narrator spent 4 minutes reading binary code. At times serious, then sweet, this book would pull me in, then slap me in the face with a joke that had me giggling as I listened and walked my dogs. Of Monsters and Mainframes is a book you need to read, if for no other reason than to meet Steve. This is one I will certainly be rereading in the future.

I was able to listen to the audio arc for this one and I loved it. The full cast did an excellent job of bringing each character to life and really bringing an extra dimension to the story.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this book. It started off strong but ended up getting a little weird toward the end. It felt like the book was trying to do a lot at one time. There were so many different creatures and things happening. It wasn’t always easy to keep track. I had fun at some points but the last half of the book wasn’t my favorite. I think the idea was good but it wasn’t just a little all over the place for me.

There was a lot going on in this book and I found it a bit overwhelming at first but once I got used to the characters and learned the writing style in characters I found myself really enjoying this book. It was a lot of fun and I love a band of misfits story. Just because this book takes a little bit to get into i wouldn't sleep on it cause once you click with this book it's amazing.

this was so incredibly unique and heartfelt with just the right amount of humor and heartbreak - and really makes you stop and think about the future of technology and the implications of AI