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Of Monsters and Mainframes

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Of Monsters and Mainframes

By: Barbara Truelove
Narrated by: Gail Shalan, Emana Rachelle, Chris Devon, Zura Johnson, Charlie Albers, Cary Hite, Eve Passeltiner
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About this listen

Spaceships aren’t programmed to seek revenge—but for Dracula, Demeter will make an exception.

Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans.

To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of monsters: A werewolf. An engineer built from the dead. A pharaoh with otherworldly powers. A vampire with a grudge. A fleet of cheerful spider drones. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

The queer love child of pulp horror and ​classic ​sci-fi, Of Monsters and ​Mainframes ​is a dazzling, heartfelt odyssey that probes what it means to be one of society’s monsters—and explores the many types of friendship that make us human.

©2025 Barbara Truelove (P)2025 Dreamscape Lore Adventure Fantasy Genre Fiction Horror Humorous Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Fiction Heartfelt Paranormal Greek Mythology Wolf Mythology Ancient Greece Shifter
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This is a saga about a couple of ill-matched A.I.s who run a passenger spacecraft and are fated to have to deal successively with werewolves, passengers transforming into monsters, and vampires.
This summary makes it sound completely ridiculous, but it is so cleverly crafted and well performed that it is quite captivating .... until the jarringly stupid final climax. This was presumably a deliberate choice by the author in her send-up of the hard SF genre, but it did spoil the end of the book for me, hence 4 stars instead of 5.

A both funny and suspenseful send-up of both hard SF and Lovecraft horror.

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If you've ever wondered what would happen if you put monsters on a spaceship, this is definitely the book for you! I really enjoyed this rollicking read. I don't think I've ever seen the short story and novel formats blended into such a cohesive story before. The characters are great; familiar but you wonder how they'll get out of it this time! Do yourself a favour and pick up this book, you'll love it!

Unique and a rollicking ride

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