---

Ok, let’s get this out of the way right at the beginning: multiverse and/or time travel stories can be confusing as fuck, no?

At least I certainly find that to be the case.

So under other circumstances, I might have approached INFINITY GATE with some small amount of trepidation. But M. R. Carey is legit one of my favorite authors…I think this is the ninth or tenth book I’ve read by him, and I’ve loved all of them.

But dang, the overall experience of reading INFINITY GATE was unlike any I’ve had reading Carey’s books. The scope of the this story is almost unimaginable. Calling this a sci-fi epic is vastly underselling it.

I’ll definitely admit that the first chunk of the book (maybe 75-100 pages) had me reeling a bit…it was all just a bit dizzying & I wasn’t sure where the story was going.

But as things moved along, I got increasingly obsessed with this story. I didn’t even meet my favorite character until around page 200, so this is for sure a book that rewards some patience on the part of the reader. But gah…INFINITY GATE is so fucking brilliant & beautiful.

Hadiz Tambuwal is the scientist (in our world) that discovers the ability to enter the multiverse. She does so with the help of an extremely sophisticated AI that she was reluctant to even work with in the first place. She’s based out of Lagos, and it’s clear that our world is…kind of crumbling to pieces. The city is largely abandoned, and feels ominous.

As Hadiz begins to look for a new Earth, the story begins to move forward…but also sideways. Carey starts to paint a picture of a seemingly-infinite multiverse, where some versions of our planet are nearly identical, and some…not so much.

Instead of meeting all the main characters of the story early on & then alternating chapters, the structure of INFINITY GATE is more like…we meet a character, spend a considerable amount of time with them, before moving on to another character. Until ultimately, inevitably, these characters all cross paths in truly remarkable ways.

It’s almost as if Hadiz is methodically assembling an Avengers-like crew for the pending multiverse war, only instead of Thor and Hulk and the gang, we’ve got, among others, a brilliant scientist, an angry foul-mouthed super soldier, and a teenaged girl/rabbit.

For sure it was Topaz Tourmaline FiveHills, better known as Paz, who captured my heart the most in INFINITY GATE. Paz’s rabbit-like species has evolved as the dominant species on her version of Earth, and she’s just an incredibly well-written character. She’s angsty & wears her heart on her sleeve, and when her girlfriend Dulcie turns out to not be exactly who she claims to be, it sets off a chain of events that changes Paz’s world (and all the other worlds) forever.

Moon Sostenti is another character that’s a total blast to meet. She’s one of the Cielo, a group of super soldiers who travel between worlds. She’s on the frontline of the looming war between the Pandominion and the machine hegemony, but has her allegiance tested again and again. Moon is cantankerous & hilarious, and definitely someone you want on your side in a battle.

I’ve done a relatively poor job explaining much about this book, but oof…it’s just a mesmerizing novel. It asks a lot of questions about artificial intelligence and who is or is not a self. The book kind of demands your attention as a reader, for sure. It can feel a little overwhelming at times & you might feel momentarily lost in the scope of this world(s)…I know I did.

But wow. The rewards are just endless & this book had me FEELING THINGS, constantly. The story M. R. Carey tells is compelling, relentlessly imaginative, and powerfully emotional. One of my favorite books of the year, no doubt. A fucking masterpiece!

Massive thanks to Orbit for sending a copy my way!

P.S. I mixed in the occasional chapter via the audiobook & the narrator, Dami Olukoya is OUTSTANDING! Highly recommended if you like listening to audiobooks!