Published 30th March 2023 by Orbit.
From the cover of the book:
From the international bestselling M. R. Carey comes a thrilling novel set in the multiverse - the tale of humanity's expansion across millions of dimensions, and the AI technology that might see it all come to an end . . .
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.
***********
Scientist Hadiz Tambuwal is desperately looking for a way to save Earth from catastrophic environmental disaster. While Lagos collapses around her, and her fellow researchers abandon the university, Hadiz toils away in her lab, but any useful solution eludes her. Then something very surprising happens - she accidentally stumbles across a way to travel between dimensions.
With the help of an advanced AI called Rupshe, the only other working mind left behind in the deserted university, Hadiz perfects a way to control movement between the dimensions, figuring that at least she can save herself if no one else - but what she does not know is that this is technology that already exists and is closely monitored.
The Pandemonium, a political and trading alliance, is in control of multi-dimensional travel between a million diverse iterations of Hadiz's Earth, and they jealously guard all operations through the strong arm of their military force, the Cielo. They have the unwitting Hadiz in their sights, and will not rest until they have put a stop to her unauthorised meddling.
Hadiz is about to stumble into a war of unimaginable proportions, and the choices she makes will decide the fate of millions of worlds...
Infinity Gate is the first foray of best-selling author M.R. Carey into the sci-fi realm of the multi-verse, and it is an absolute knockout. The roots of this novel lie squarely in Carey's previous work exploring apocalyptic scenarios, which is where this story begins, but curiously it is also a natural extension of the idea of sentient Artificial Intelligence that he explored in the Rampart Trilogy. Using this familiar ground, he takes a leap into a far-reaching and ambitious adventure that echoes some of the classic sci-fi concepts of masters like Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov, and nods to bits and pieces of some epic books and movies, with an added twist all of his own.
The direction of this story evolves slowly, with threads that link together in unexpected ways. Through them Carey builds an intricate literary world made up of fragments of multiple universes that are all intriguingly different versions of Earth - some like our own, and some mindbendingly different.
At its heart this is a character-driven story, with a set of central characters with compelling back-stories that steer the individual strands of the tale as they weave and touch, forming a complex framework. There are heroes and villains, but the are often morally grey, and as the story expands it is not easy to see which side of the good-evil line they sit, which is hugely enjoyable.
There comes a point when all the threads collide in a gripping cat and mouse chase through the multi-verse that had me on the edge of my seat, and this sets up a glorious hook into the next part of the duology. There are still so many questions about what is really happening at the core of the Pandemonium, and how the war to end all wars might be prevented by the errant little band of unlikely co-conspirators that come together in the final section of the book. I am itching to read the concluding part of the duology, and will await its arrival with bated breath.
I adore a multi-verse story, and this one is beautifully crafted. This is a direction that really suits Carey, showing off all his skills as an accomplished story teller, and offering a glimpse of a side of his imagination that I have not seen before. More please, Mr Carey!
Infinity Gate is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Orbit for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and to Compulsive Readers Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the author:
M. R. Carey has been making up stories for most of his life. His novel The Girl With All the Gifts was a word-of-mouth bestseller and is now a major motion picture based on his own screenplay. Under the name Mike Carey he has written for both DC and Marvel, including critically acclaimed runs on Lucifer, Hellblazer and X-Men. His creator-owned series The Unwritten appeared regularly in the New York Times graphic fiction bestseller list. He also has several previous novels, games, radio plays, and TV and movie screenplays to his credit.
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