Reviews and Comments

I don't feel like I can adequately review this book, I simply don't have the education necessary to ascertain the quality of the information presented here. As someone with no background beyond a strong interest in health and someone with at least a moderate dose of natural skepticism, it's really difficult for me to make a recommendation on whether anyone else should read this book one way or another.

With that caveat out of the way, I will say that a lot of this book seemed reasonable, there's a lot of very specific technical information presented about how our nervous system works, what drives the responses we get from it and how that then has a profound impact on how we feel, both physically and emotionally. It sounds quite legitimate, well understood and technically informative, right up until the author starts talking about “energy,” at which point pseudoscience alarms started going off in earnest.

Part of the problem is that I listened to the audiobook, I didn't read it, so where I'd normally look at how well sourced the arguments are and how valid they themselves seem was unavailable. Unfortunately, Audible/Amazon reviews were zero help in categorizing accuracy, shocking, right?

Ultimately, I think there is value here, I do think there's a lot of potentially informative material here and some that might still be helpful as a thought exercise even if it isn't accurate. It also was very motivating to continue researching the topic further, hopefully with better material that didn't happen to be one of the few options available from my library's Libby catalogue.

If you’re interested, read it, but do so with a skeptical eye toward the science presented.

In one sense, All These Words feels like a pretty standard expansion of the series. We get more bobs, the alien races get a bit more depth, and humanity starts to find its footing in a wider galaxy. All delivered with the same entertaining storytelling that made the first two so charming.

But where All These Worlds really excels is its growing heart. Time is passing rapidly and the Bob's effective immortality provides an emotional challenge as the ephemeral mortal lives they have come to character about change, age and begin passing away while our protagonists largely stand still. The books haven't spent that much time building complex narratives around secondary characters, but Taylor still manages to impart a level of emotional authenticity that was only hinted at in the first two books and adds hints of genuine sadness that can be felt resonating while all the other exciting events streak past.

All These Worlds feels like it's completed an arc in many of the lives of viewpoint Bobs but leaves of room for another new arc to begin and threads still to be written. I'm looking forward to reading the fourth and fifth book to see where it goes next.