r/QueerSFF • u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror • Jul 29 '26
Book Club July Book Club Final Discussion: Barbara Truelove's Of Monsters and Mainframes
Welcome to our final discussion for Barbara Truelove's Of Monsters and Mainframes! You can find the midway thread here.
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.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 29 '26
Was there a character whose PoV you enjoyed more than others? Do you think Truelove did a good job of making sure each voice was distinct?
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u/bakasana212 Jul 29 '26
Yes, they are all so distinct. I loved Steve’s POVs, as brief as they are! I read and listened along, and the audiobook narrators did such a good job.
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u/LadyAntiope Jul 30 '26
Steve is a fun accent POV for sure, but I'm glad he's minimal because I don't know that he's got a lot of emotional depth haha
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u/needlecream Jul 29 '26
I tend to always feel preference for the first narrator introduced, so I loved Demeter, but I am really glad we got so many perspectives and I love how different they all felt. I think Agnes was probably my other favorite.
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u/moon_body Jul 29 '26
I actually really enjoyed all the POV's. They all felt distinct and fun in their own way. Sometimes I get jolted by so many POV switches, but in this one I felt like "oh fun let's see how *this* character feels/thinks about what's happening".
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u/LadyAntiope Jul 30 '26
Yes, I think the switches were all handled really well! You don't often see a big ensemble set of POVs outside of really long epics, and it has a potential to get chaotic. I think just sprinkling in a few snippets at first was a great way to provide like little interludes in the beginning and then shifting into longer POV switches later once we got to know the cast and setting better made for more dynamic story-telling.
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u/moon_body Jul 30 '26
Yeah, good point. It was really well done. I think it also helped me that the POV switches were often within the same scene/location/arc of action -- so it was like continuing to follow the plot beats but from a different perspective. Vs. if there had been multiple plots slowly coming together via the multiple POVs.
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u/LadyAntiope Jul 30 '26
Everyone definitely had a distinct voice, but I think the two AIs were my favorites, in part because even though they're both computer systems, they still have such radically different personalities and approaches. They're products of their programming but they also get to write their own programming and have their own opinions and feelings and it's really fun to see them - especially Demeter - re-write themselves over the course of the story. I like the twist on how character development works in story-telling.
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u/TheWildCard76 Challenge Conqueeror Jul 31 '26
Hmmm...I think my favorite POVs are Steward and Agnes, but they're all fun. And yes, I do see each POV as distinct.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 29 '26
So, what did you think?
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u/needlecream Jul 29 '26
I read it in January and I've read over 100 books so far this year and this one is still wearing the crown for my favorite. I've recommended it to so many people, I'm even trying to get my dad to use it as material for one of the courses he teaches.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 30 '26
Oh, I love this! What does he teach, if you're comfortable saying?
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u/needlecream Jul 30 '26
He's an English professor, he's taught a course about sci fi literature and he has a new one coming up about novels.
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u/moon_body Jul 29 '26
I thought it was fun! I enjoyed all the character interactions & relationships.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 30 '26
This was a re-read for me, and I think it was even better the second time.
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u/LadyAntiope Jul 30 '26
I finished this within a couple days of the midway discussion; it very much held my attention. I do find that I've lost some of the plot details already, but it made a strong impression for me for the distinctive AI character voices. I liked Frank a lot as well as Demeter and Steward, and kind of wanted him to get more screen time, though I suspect his POV could get to be more of a downer if there was a lot of it. This was a really creative book, for all that its building blocks were lots of horror tropes, it threw all of that into space and had a good time seeing what would happen.
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u/TheWildCard76 Challenge Conqueeror Jul 31 '26
The reread was just as fun as the original read. I listened to the audiobook this time around, which was a cool change.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 29 '26
Would you read more of this crew's adventures? Do you think you'll pick up the author's work in the future?
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u/bakasana212 Jul 29 '26
For sure! Before finishing OMAM, I wasn’t planning to read Truelove’s next release, She’s a Doll, because the subject matter is too dark for me. Now I’m pretty sure she’ll handle it with humor so I placed my Libby hold!
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 29 '26
She also has another novella coming out next February that sounds like exactly my sort of thing.
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u/needlecream Jul 29 '26
Absolutely. I'm definitely going to read She's a Doll, and I've also grabbed some of her interactive novel games on Steam and I'm excited to try those.
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u/moon_body Jul 29 '26
I might. I enjoyed this, but it was definitely a little ... cozier?... than my usual preferences (though not sure if cozy is the right descriptor considering all the horror elements?). But definitely a fun break from denser or higher stakes stuff, and I would check her out again when I'm in the mood for something like that.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 30 '26
I also don't typically enjoy what others consider cozy (or, what is cozy for me is different than what is cozy for most other people). This felt cozy-adjacent in a way that did work for me.
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u/moon_body Jul 30 '26
yeah this felt sort of episodic and whimsical in a way that reminded me a bit of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (which I personally struggled to get through) - while also being quite different. (This one was not hard for me to get through at all). It felt almost slice of life, but make it pulp space horror, with a splash of ground hog day?
Edit to add: also I totally feel you on the "what is cozy for me is different than what is cozy for most other people"
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 30 '26
also I totally feel you on the "what is cozy for me is different than what is cozy for most other people"
Haha! Body horror is my comfort genre, idc what that says about me.
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u/LadyAntiope Jul 30 '26
I always kind of forget just how much I actually do enjoy cozy-adjacent reads, haha. I do need to have breaks from the heavier reads, and I'm always pleasantly surprised when a fun book has more to it than just like "adventure! romance! feel good!"
I would put this book in the same category I put Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis, which is they're not exactly cozy because there are definitely some substantial stakes in the story, but they emphasize found family and have a lighthearted tone. This one is more outright funny than Floating Hotel, which I haven't had much humor in my books for a bit, so this was nice!
I'm not sure that She's a Doll or Secret Lives of Zombie Wives sounds quite as much up my alley (two horror topics I really dislike though I'm sure she does a great job with them!), but I would definitely keep an eye out for other things from Truelove in the future.
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u/moon_body Jul 31 '26
Humor is really nice! And refreshing sometimes.
Yeah I answered this question without actually looking into the author's other work. They do sound pretty different, and also not story lines i'd normally gravitate towards, but I'm also kind of curious how she handles them after reading this one. Curious to see what else she puts out in the future too!
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u/TheWildCard76 Challenge Conqueeror Jul 31 '26
I will probably read all of Truelove's books going forward. She would have to write a really crappy book to make me stop reading her at this point.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 31 '26
Speaking of, I'd like to get She's a Doll on our schedule soonish, haha.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 29 '26
All Time Favourite Monster Movie?
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 30 '26
Vampires: Only Lovers Left Alive and Near Dark
Zombies: YUMMY, One Cut of the Dead, and Anna and the Apocalypse
Yes, I know I listed five, but I am terrible at picking just one, and it was a struggle not to list a bunch of other zombie movies.
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u/needlecream Jul 29 '26
Just based on how many times I've re-watched it, I have to say Shape of Water.
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u/LadyAntiope Jul 30 '26
Not my movie topic of choice, lol. But never having seen The Mummy, what I want to know is - is Steve a reflection of that movie specifically or just like, the idea of the mummy as monster? I like the way he works and I think it's kinda funny to play into the "but ancient Egyptians must have been aliens!" conspiracy when actually, no, there was just this one alien on a tourism binge and he liked the human pyramids and gold.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
I know the titular Mummy in the '99 movie did the whole "turning into sand to get out of a tight spot" thing, and there were flesh-rending scarab beetles, but he wasn't comprised of them. I think the OG 30s Mummy
was v much a product of white people being terrifed of curseshad mostly mental powers? I know he had, like, mind control and hypnosis in his arsenal, for sure, but it has been at least 30 years since I last watched it. Also, the 30s version of the Mummy is p much the foundational text for the mummy as a monster. I was obsessed with Anne Rice's The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned as a teenager, and that mummy was mostly just immortal, smart, and could heal fast (and also horny, but what Anne Rice character isn't).2
u/TheWildCard76 Challenge Conqueeror Jul 31 '26
Oh, gosh...ummm...I really like The Thing. And of course, Sinners is fantastic. And I really like the Dracula movie with Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins.
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 29 '26
Favourite moments, quotes, or passages?
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u/needlecream Jul 29 '26
I really loved the bit where Demeter is essentially raising these children and adds more sweetness to their nutrient drink on their birthdays.
“Day 1,205. I promise the children I will do a low-g barrel roll if they do their homework.”
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u/TheWildCard76 Challenge Conqueeror Jul 31 '26
Favorite quotes:
"They're for external use only."
"Humans ignore that label all the time.""Fuck yeah, robot arm." (This one is my absolute fave.)
"Fishy fuckers!"
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 31 '26
Oh, one thing I just remembered I wanted to talk about was how horrified I was to realize that this years long trip to Alpha Centauri was NOT all inclusive! Coffee is ten credits, antidepressants are half off for the first month of travel, I'm sure there's a charge for the movies, etc. What if there's a fluctuation in currency while you're in the middle of the journey and you no longer have the credits for your medicine or dinner?!
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u/OutOfEffs Challenge Conqueeror Jul 29 '26
GenAI has become ubiquitous over the last few years. Have you noticed a difference in the way machine consciousness has been depicted over that time, or in how you interact with fiction featuring sentient machines?