Anything can happen in the multiverse

Infinity Gate, book 1 in the Pandemonium series by M.R. Carey

If I’m being completely honest, I started reading this book because I was waiting for my next read to be delivered. This one was on my husband’s list and sitting on the shelf just waiting for someone to crack the spine open. I was a little skeptical because his books tend to be more action packed science fiction and less romance. And I’m all about the romance.

Such a stereotypical lady-brain, I know.

I’m so glad I picked this book up, though!

Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey is book one in the Pandemonium series (it’s currently the only book in the Pandemonium series as book 2 isn’t supposed to publish until May 2024). It’s published by Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.

The book follows Hadiz Tambuwal, a scientist on a dying Earth, set in Lagos, Nigeria. Hadiz accidentally stumbles on how to jump into other dimensions and realizes that she could glean resources from these other worlds, some inhabited, some uninhabited, to save her dying Earth. But the Pandemonium, the political and trading alliance of millions of worlds (though not all of them), doesn’t like that idea.

And that’s the only summary I will provide because spoilers.

Carey’s writing is intricate without being overwhelming. He is able to portray multiple worlds, that are actually the same world, in such a way that you can really see the difference. Though they are all the same place, mostly Lagos, Nigeria, they are each unique. His creativity to think of so many different possibilities for the multiverse was astounding. Only a few of the worlds developed from apes, as our Earth did. Some had developed feline humanoids, some bovine, some canine. Some of the worlds had developed technology faster and some were still stuck in the dark ages.

However, in creating multiple universe and the science to travel between them, sometimes the language became to technical for my understanding. The language used to describe the science may or may not have been real science, but it was still too technical for me to comprehend.

I loved his character development and the way people or “people” interacted within each world. While there were obvious differences, people will always be people and therefore certain driving forces will always control us, no matter if you are human, bovine, canine, feline, or even rabbit.

If you like science fiction and are OK with a lack of romance, I would say to give this book a read!

It’s available for purchase wherever books are sold.