Vampires taste like shit, by the way. Rotten, slimy, and cold. Can’t recommend.
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Table of Contents
Why Of Monsters and Mainframes?
I first heard about Of Monsters and Mainframes through a positive review of it in cari can read’s July 2026 reading wrap-up video. I thought that the premise was a fun one – a combination of fantasy monsters and science fiction set in the far future where humanity is spread across the stars.
I am always on the lookout for science fiction and so I placed a library hold for the book and received a copy of it shortly thereafter. This was also supposed to be a much needed palate cleanser from the heavier literary fiction I’ve been reading in the past month.
I read a paperback edition (ISBN/UID – 9781964721132) published by Bindery Books in June 2025. This is my first time reading anything by Barbara Truelove. Author blurbs on this edition are from – Craig Montgomery, Kimberly Lemming, and Karen Osborne. Cover illustration & lettering by Holy Moly (@holymolyuk). Cover design by Charlotte Strick.
Let’s get into it.
The Book
Of Monsters and Mainframes is a paranormal science fiction novel which tells the story of a AI of a passenger liner shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri—Demeter. Demeter just wants to do her job but alas her human passengers keep dying due to monster attacks first from a werewolf and then an ancient vampire.
The story is told mostly from the perspective of Demeter with brief “interludes” from some of the other cast members including a human/werewolf (Agnus), an engineer called Frank who happens to be combination of machine and human and whose full name is Frankenstein, and a pharaoh with magic powers who goes by Steve (yes, really).
As you can tell from the names and colourful cast of characters in play, this is supposed to be a campy, fun time. And, it is for the most part. My primary problem with this book is its pacing. The book sets a relatively fast-pace but it also spends almost half of its 416 page count setting up the primary stakes of the book which is Demeter joining forces with her the above cast to save herself from being decommissioned due to her multiple “incidents” on her ship.
The combination of these two factors in addition to one large time jump in the narrative lead to the plot feeling…disjointed. There is a fair amount of attempts at character development in the first half and yet it never quite feels like we get to know the characters until the second half of the book when events really get into motion. Of Monsters and Mainframes does get better in the second half but that first half was rough and I almost considered DNFing the book during that time.
I really wanted to like Demeter as a character more than I actually did. I don’t often read science fiction novels where the main POV character is a spaceship’s AI and it is a perspective that I find intriguing. However, Demeter’s character development throughout this book feels fairly minimal and to be honest I couldn’t make out character traits other than “traumatized” and “insecure”, with only the first one being explored in real depth.
The paranormal elements of this book were fun but I don’t think there is anything novel here. This is a book that relies on your existing knowledge of monster classics like werewolves, vampires, and pharaohs juxtaposed against a world where humans travel in space on spaceships to tell a campy story. The premise of being trapped with Dracula or a ancient pharoah named Steve is funny as much as it is terrifying.
Unfortunately, Of Monsters and Mainframes is one of those books where I can see the disparate elements that could make this an above average paranormal science fiction story but due to the pacing and characterization issues, none of it came together in a way that felt good.
Elements such as the love story between Demeter and Steward were cute but I don’t think it got enough time in the oven to cook due to the way this book is paced and structured. There is also a found family aspect to the story that also doesn’t get explored enough due to where it comes into the story. It really felt like as soon as the book had started to get really good, it ended.
Concluding Thoughts
Of Monsters and Mainframes was a fun read but due to a combination of pacing and characterization issues, it never quite comes together into a novel that I would call, good or even above average. In short – fun premise, middling execution. I suspect I won’t remember much about this book in a month’s time which I suppose is exactly the kind of book that serves well as a palate cleanser.
I wouldn’t mind reading another book by Barbara Truelove in the future especially if the issues I mentioned got cleaned up. I think it would also be interesting to continue the story of Demeter and her eclectic crew as they journey across the stars—there is quite a bit of potential in the premise of this book.
That is all from me, see y’all in the next one.
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