Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove is a 407 page standalone novel published by Bindery Books through Ezeekat Press in 2025.

Genre:

Science Fiction, Fantasy

Synopsis:

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

Demeter just wants to do her 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 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.

Opening Line:

Awaiting input…

My Thoughts:

From the laugh out loud humor to the nerve-wracking escapades, the hodgepodge group of vibrant characters to the heartening narrative threads of love and found family, this story is an absolute delight!

I hate it. I hate is as much as I hate docking systems that put zeros on the end of my name. I hate it more because it destroyed my spider drones, who were only ever polite and useful, and killed my passengers, who were neither of those things but were mine to look after. I hate it as much as I’ve ever hated anything. I hate it as much as I hate Dracula.

Demeter is the AI of a large passenger ship that shuttles people between Earth and habitation units lightyears away. She always tries her best within the confines of her programming, and it’s really not her fault that all the humans onboard are slaughtered by the ancient vampire who stowed away in a container of soil in the cargo hold before reaching their destination. Or that almost all of her next group of passengers fall at the hands (paws?) of a werewolf. But unfortunately for her, the humans don’t believe in the existence of the supernatural, and assume Demeter’s programming is faulty in some way and she has been malfunctioning.

After a few more similar encounters with the preternatural (not all of whom are necessarily enemies), Demeter winds up with a ragtag crew that, in some ways, have become family to one another. They set out for revenge on the creature who started Demeter’s downward spiral into infamy, the one that earned her the nickname of ghost ship and got her painfully optimized by the engineers of the transport company that owns her: they are going to take down Dracula.

The chapters (many of which have hilarious names – for instance, one chapter ends with the question, “Am I desperate enough to go along with it?”, and the next chapter title is, “Yes.”) cycle through several POVs throughout this book. Two of these characters are AI, and in some ways this fact along with the humorous style brought The Murderbot Diaries to mind, only in a somewhat less satisfying way as these AIs seemed a bit more anthropomorphized (i.e. Demeter’s disks shake with relief and terabytes of fear run through her wires) (also, disks in a computerized spaceship several centuries in the future?). But it was still quite entertaining.

Even though this adventurous tale has some intense moments with high stakes, it’s told in a style that had me laughing regularly. Like when Demeter says,

Agnus says she is not as smart as Isaac. I inform her this faulty assessment is likely the result of a rounding error.

or when the ship’s medical AI asks her since when she was programmed with a desire for adventure and she answers, “I’m writing the code right now”.

So we’ve got the action, adventure, and humor, but this book also delivers some really sweet messages about love, familial/platonic as well as romantic. The relationships and the lengths the characters go to for one another despite being so drastically different from one another in a multitude of ways were really very heartwarming.

“Yes,” I say. “I…I thought I was protecting my family. But I wasn’t, because I wasn’t protecting you.” “Error. I am not your fam-” “Shut up, bitch. You’re family.”

I am truly impressed with this author for producing a story that is so equally fun and touching, and I look forward to reading more of her work. Three cheers for Barbara Truelove and Of Monsters and Mainframes!

Thank you to NetGalley, Bindery Books, and Ezeekat Press for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.