Of Monsters and Mainframes - Barbara Truelove

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.

Reviews

·"A book that will make you incredibly invested in the relationships between AIs. This is a clever and imaginative retelling of aspects of Dracula that makes you both giggle and gasp." —Kimberly Lemming, USA Today bestselling author of I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com

·"A gloriously clever mashup of genres that captures the loneliness of space and the joy of finding companions to explore it with. I laughed one page, cried the next, and cheered for Demeter and her motley crew throughout. Of Monsters and Mainframes is a delight from start to finish." —Maiga Doocy, Sunday Times bestselling author of Sorcery and Small Magics

·"Of Monsters and Mainframes is fast and fun, with crackling prose, airlock-cold chills, and a lot to love in its too-human inhuman protagonists. It's a treat to read a book that feels so modern and so classic at the same time, sitting right on the bridge between Murderbot and a monster movie." —Karen Osborne, author of Architects of Memory

·"I devoured this like a mythical creature feasting on an interstellar crew. Delightful, unhinged, and obscenely compelling. Told through a quippy lens, this story is incredibly warm for a monster mash set in space. It feels like a new wave of fable, and I can't recommend it enough." —Craig Montgomery, author of A Circle of Stars

·"Of Monsters and Mainframes is an exquisite kaleidoscope of genre and style that drips with nostalgia yet remains fresh and exciting. Truelove deftly balances laugh-out-loud humor with cutting-edge tension while weaving a heart-swelling tale of friendship, identity, and the meaning of humanity." —S. Hati, author of And the Sky Bled

·"This book is a warm hug in bloodied arms. Mixing hull breaches with skeletons eating chips, it's a fantastic and strange journey into interspecies friendships and slow-burn platonic robotic love. The entire cast could step off the page and slap me in the face, and I would thank them for it." —Eli Snow, author of The Divine Gardener's Handbook