Hello, everyone! Today I’m reviewing Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey. I was on the fence about requesting this one, but the premise of this multiverse story sounded so interesting. I just couldn’t pass it up, especially after I saw so many good reviews. Am I glad I picked this one up? Read on to find out!

From the author of the bestselling The Girl With All the Gifts comes a brilliant new genre-defying story of humanity’s expansion across millions of dimensions, and the AI technology that might see it all come to an end. Perfect for readers of The Space Between Worlds and Adrian Tchaikovsky.

The Pandominion is a political and trading alliance consisting of roughly a million worlds.

But they’re really all the same world – Earth – in many different dimensions. 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.

***Thank you to Hachette Audio for providing a copy of the audiobook. My review contains my honest thoughts about my listening experience.***

I struggled getting through this one. I completely understand all of the really positive reviews this book has gotten because there were so many fascinating and captivating elements. The major problem for me was the plot. I really didn’t feel like there was much of one. It just bounced around between a bunch of different characters until they all happened to converge. Then it was over. I know this was only the first part of the story since this is the beginning of a trilogy, but I really needed this part to have a more discrete story of its own. Most of the book was so focused on world-building and characterization that it often felt like things weren’t going anywhere, and I found myself getting bored A LOT.

That being said, most of the world-building was absolutely stellar. The different universes felt unique yet familiar, and I loved how the author explained some pretty difficult concepts. The two opposing multi-universe civilizations were fascinating, and I found the sheer scope of the conflict to be mind-boggling. The multiverse backdrop allowed the author to tackle some really great themes, as well, including how scarcity impacts conflict and the devastating results of short-sighted environmental destruction for the sake of ‘progress.’ The story also spent a great deal of time examining the ethics of AI and what it means for an entity to be alive. This aspect of the story really left me thinking, and it was probably one of my favorite things about the book.

The characters were also all fantastic. All of them were complex and had interesting motivations. I was instantly hooked while reading about Hadiz Tambuwal as she did her best to research a solution to her dying world all while everything around her fell apart. Then the story started jumping around to different characters throughout the multiverse. This was where it began to lose me a bit, not because I didn’t like the characters but because it was really jarring. These different narratives seemed to come out of nowhere, and there was so much going on I had trouble keeping track of everything at times. I don’t want to talk too much about it, or the other characters, because I don’t want to spoil the book. However, I do want to make it clear that the characterizations were definitely a strength of the book. I just didn’t love how they were stitched together.

I think I might have liked this book more if I’d read the text instead of listening to the audiobook. The narrator did a great job. There was just so much going on, and I had a lot of difficulty staying focused on the audio. I had to go back and listen to chapters multiple times to get through it, which is not something I need to do very often. The pacing just seemed erratic, with times where I was incredibly bored and others where so much was happening I had to rewind to keep track. Overall, there’s a lot to like about the book, especially the world-building and characters, but the listening experience was such a taxing experience for me that I probably won’t be continuing the series. Therefore, I rate this book 3.5 out of 5 stars.