I have mixed feelings about this book.

The plot was not quite what I was expecting. For a while, it was just monster attack, the ship (comprised of two AIs) tries to figure out what happened, new voyage, monster attack, the ship tries to figure out what happened, new voyage. Then it shifted some of the focus to non-AI characters. The stuff in the description about the crew coming together to help Demeter fight Dracula didn’t really happen until pretty close to the end, and it was a small part of the book.

The whole Dracula thing didn’t make any sense. As in, yeah, he was the reason that one voyage ended with everyone dead. But he had nothing to do with the other unfortunate incidents. Well, he sort of did for one, but it was still coincidence that it happened on this ship instead of another. One incident was completely unrelated, I think. So I just didn’t understand the whole, “This is all Dracula’s fault!” thing.

I was confused and a little disappointed about the “monsters” mentioned in the description. Most of them were not really that monster, and this seemed to be an alternate world in which the stories like Dracula and Frankenstein didn’t exist, and the ones in this book were more like references to them just for the reader. Like, there was a man named Victor Frankenstein, but he was an artist who created an AI-human being, and his wife was named Elizabeth, and his dog was named Shelly. Dracula was there, and another vampire named Mina, but this Mina was just a random person in this future time. And the pharaoh/mummy was not that at all. There was a werewolf, at least.

It was pretty interesting though seeing what would be space horror if it were from the POV of the humans on board, but instead seeing it through the POV of the AI on the ship, sort of disconnected, still at risk of death, but not really in the same way.

I also enjoyed this portrayal of sentient AI. They didn’t feel like they were just humans in robot form, but they still had some feelings and sense of self. It’s hard to explain, but it was really fun, their limits and the way things were explained and how they viewed everything. That was definitely a highlight of the book.

My favorite thing though was seeing the relationship between the two AIs grow. Their arguments at the start were funny. Their care for each other by the end was sweet.

Relatedly, I liked how the book portrayed love as a choice. Or as something that can be a choice. Whether or not these AI could feel emotions, they could choose love regardless and choose to then help those they loved, and isn’t that just as good? Isn’t it our choices that matter?

I’m marking this down as no romance on my blog. There is only the briefest mention of romance right at the end.

As for the audiobook, go with ebook or print if you can, if you’re picky. There were so many narrators, one for each POV character, I believe, but there wasn’t really any consistency among how they voiced each others’ characters. Which is not their fault if they weren’t given clear instructions or allowed to hear how the other narrators sounded, but it was still distracting. Also, I didn’t like some of the individual narrator choices. The Demeter narrator was great as the robots, but then for the humans, the closest comparison I can make is… Rugrats? I know they were meant to be kids/teens, but this was a bit much. And even when they grew up and were adults, they didn’t sound much different. I think there was a different narrator for Steward, and to be honest, I didn’t love how she voiced the humans either. Sometimes it also seemed like a single character in a single narrator’s chapter would change. There are also book sections of just ones and zeros, so you sometimes have to sit through minutes of that. The audiobook wasn’t as terrible as I’ve probably made it sound, each narrator was good for their character, but I still don’t recommend it if you’re picky like me.

Overall, this didn’t really deliver what the description promised, but it had a really interesting portrayal of possibly sentient AI, some touching relationships, and a sometimes slightly horrifying but also fun story.

*Rating: 3 Stars // Read Date: 2025 // Format: Audiobook*