ARC REVIEW: Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey

Thank you to Orbit Books UK for providing me with a physical ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

INFINITY IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

The Pandominion: a political and trading alliance of a million worlds – except that they’re really just the one world, Earth, in many different realities. And when an AI threat arises that could destroy everything the Pandominion has built, they’ll eradicate it by whatever means necessary, no matter the cost to human life.

Scientist Hadiz Tambuwal is looking for a solution to her own Earth’s environmental collapse when she stumbles across the secret of inter-dimensional travel. It could save everyone on her dying planet, but now she’s walked into the middle of a war on a scale she never dreamed of.

And she needs to choose a side before it kills her.

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS?

Infinity Gate is a thrilling start to a new series about traversing the multiverse with a big space opera feel!

This is a multi pov story in the fashion that a mysterious first person presence narrates the stories of 3 primary characters and the intersecting events that land them in an interdimensional war. Hadiz, a Nigerian scientist who accidentally stumbles across multiversal “Step” travel while she is conducting experiments to try and save her dying Earth and draws the attention of the Pandominion – the federation that oversees trade and travel across alternate Earths. Essien, an impoverished rogue from a just as bleak variant of Earth who gets thrown into the mix after crossing paths with Hadiz. And Paz, a young sentient rabbit from a very different alternate Earth that is part of the Pandominion, who’s unassuming choices to help a friend prove to be dire.

“Life is a movement that makes itself within the great unmaking that is the entropic universe”

With a complex plot involving lots of moving parts that were masterfully woven together this truly turned out to be nothing like I expected it to be. It’s a story full of tense action, intriguing technologies and equally though provoking and dark moments reflecting on the flaws of our world, touching on themes of power, personhood and prejudice.

The beginning is a little slow and Carey has taken up a linear method of storytelling when it comes to the different perspectives which was a little jarring at first but this also allowed for the protagonists to be fleshed out really well. They aren’t all the most likeable of characters but their individual journeys over the course of the book were so compelling that I was hooked all the way through. Alongside the main three are a couple of other key players and each of them also added an extra layer to the story and expanded the worlds.

“Sentients on every world have this moment when they think intelligence is what separates them from the rest of creation.”

Speaking of which the most fascinating part has got to be the world- or should I say, universe-building of the limitless Earths. I really liked that it wasn’t purely just a bunch of parallel worlds where there are varying alternate versions of the same people and places. More so each alternate Earth could be unique in both subtle and disparate ways, such as Earths where evolution occurred differently to allow varying species to came out on top – hence one of the protagonists being a rabbit. All the technology and scientific concepts involved were really cool too and though there are moments when this got technical (particularly when we’re with Hadiz) it was never too hard to get your head around.

It becomes quite obvious when you’re reaching the last 100 or so pages that this book is more or less a set up for a larger story but it’s safe to say I’m intrigued to see where it all goes next!

Infinity Gate is OUT NOW!

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