Should I Read This: Yes, especially if you enjoy monster films from Golden Age of Hollywood
Book Seller Link (non-affiliate, but I do know the owner): Of Monsters and Mainframes
Author’s Website: Barbara Truelove
My father loved the old monster movies from before the 1960s. I must have seen every kind of goofy, yet somehow terrifying, black and white collection of cliched dialogue and surprisingly effective practical effects. Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove captures that spirit, with much, much, much better writing, of those films.
Of Monsters and Mainframes is a delight. It tells the story of a series of monster attacks on the same sentient star liner. The story is told from the point of view of three sentient computers, a couple of monsters, and a couple of normal human beings. The joy of the story is the characters bouncing off the preposterous situation of a starship being infested, multiple times, with monsters. The artificial intelligences in particular, a mix of homicidal disregard for individual life, teenage petulance, and shareholder primacy, are a joy to read. But all of the characters have their moments to shine, and they are all well rounded and distinct. Each motivation is believable.
The plot can be a bit stretched in some places, and there some things are “explained” in a science-fiction fashion, a move I felt was unnecessary and felt a touch forced. But Truelove does a good job of tying all the separate vignettes together in the final segments. The ending is both surprising and perfectly foreshadowed by what had happened earlier, the best kinds of ending. Every section is fine by themselves, but the way they come together at the end made me grin. The action is well handled, the plots hold together despite the sometimes ridiculous nature of the situation, and the characters are all fun to spend time with. And while this is mostly a romp, it also had, running underneath it quietly, like a werewolf sneaking up on you in the dark, a little unnerving story about how we do and do not value individual life.
All in all, the book is a fun tribute to the monster movies of the past, well worth your time to read. It even, of you are paying attention, uses the monsters to give the reader something to think about with regards to the value we do or do not place on life. I recommend it, and I think that Bella Lugosi would be proud.