Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds by M. R. Carey

A double review today as I tackle M. R. Carey’s absolutely brilliant Pandominion duology – Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds.

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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.

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Two mighty empires are at war – and both will lose, with thousands of planets falling to the extinction event called the Scour. At least that’s what the artificial intelligence known as Rupshe believes.

But somewhere in the multiverse there exists a force – the Mother Mass – that could end the war in an instant, and Rupshe has assembled a team to find it. Essien Nkanika, a soldier trying desperately to atone for past sins; the cat-woman Moon, a conscienceless killer; the digitally recorded mind of physicist Hadiz Tambuwal; Paz, an idealistic child and the renegade robot spy Dulcimer Coronal.

Their mission will take them from the hellish prison world of Tsakom to the poisoned remains of a post-apocalyptic Earth, and finally bring them face to face with the Mother Mass itself. But can they persuade it to end eons of neutrality and help them? And is it too late to make a difference?

Because the Pandominion’s doomsday machines are about to be unleashed – and not even their builders know how to control them.

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I find science fiction a little daunting at times, but Infinity Gate, the first novel in The Pandominion duology, came highly recommended to me, and so I decided to give it a go.  I loved it.  So much so that I very quickly went out and bought the sequel, Echo of Worlds.  I’m quite glad that I did read them relatively close together – the second novel picks up right after the events of first novel, and as these books are both around the 500 page mark, there’s plenty going on and so I think it’s useful to come to the second novel with the events of the first still fresh in one’s mind. 

I absolutely love the characters in these novels.  In particular, I like that the main characters are so different from each other, and yet are able to put those differences aside (something that’s not always easy at times, but they do) and find a way to work together in spite of those differences and finding mutual respect for each other.  Hadiz Tambuwal is a scientist on our version of Earth.  She works at a research base with the crème de la crème of scientific minds, all of them focussed on trying to undo the harm done to Earth by us.  It’s no spoiler to say that whatever plans, schemes, and ambitions they have come too late, and through Hadiz’s eyes we witness the apocalypse.  What she does discover, almost by accident, is the ability to step to alternate versions of Earth – some more recognisable than others.

She meets Essien on one of those worlds – one which is very similar to our own.  Essien is a grifter, looking to take advantage of others to his own benefit.  As they enter into a casual relationship, it very quickly becomes clear that he is looking for ways to take advantage of Hadiz, although it’s equally clear to the reader, if not Essien, that she is no pushover.  Through his schemes, he comes to the attention of the Pandominion and their military arm, the Cielo.  Given a choice that is no real choice at all (death, or join the army) he joins the army.  Through Essien, Carey explores the horrors of warfare and how these might affect an individual – both through PTSD but also the guilt that may be suffered for atrocities committed under orders.  While I may not have been keen on Essien to begin with, I did feel sympathy for him later on, and I enjoyed the development of his character in the second novel in particular. 

Topaz Tourmaline FiveHills (Paz) is again a very different character, and it’s at first a little difficult to see how she will fit in.  She is a school pupil who is forced to go on the run after she unwittingly befriends a spy of the machine hegemony, which has recently come to the attention of the Pandominion, the two now at war.  She is my favourite character in these books.  She’s young and a little naïve, and yet she is entirely sensible and a genuinely good person.  She does not bear grudges, is respectful, and she is much smarter than those around her give her credit for.  She has a role to play, and I loved discovering what that role would be.

The first novel pulls the reader in gently.  We begin with Hadiz’s narrative, before moving on to Essien and then Paz.  This works really well to introduce each character and establish the concept of Carey’s multiverse without overwhelming the reader with too much, too soon.  I also found that I developed a more in-depth understanding of each of the main characters and their strengths and weaknesses than I might have done had the perspectives switched around more frequently.  Later in the first novel and throughout the second, the perspectives do rotate between the chapters, with other perspectives from some of the more minor voices in the novels included where needed, but by then I was entirely comfortable with the who’s who that I didn’t mind it at all.

I also loved the world building.  It starts on Earth – our Earth – with Hadiz discovering the secret to stepping to other versions of our world.  Some of these worlds are very similar, with only minor changes, and Essien is from one of those worlds.  Others are very different, however.  For some, there was never a mass extinction event to end the dinosaurs reign, and so mammals never got a look in on those planets.  For others, mammals do get their opportunity, but it is not always ape descendants that become the dominant species.  Some worlds are feline, ursine, and, in Paz’s case, leporine.  Yes, Paz is essentially a rabbit (but a big rabbit, and boy can she kick!)

As the blurbs above highlight, there is a war ongoing between the Pandominion and the machine hegemony.  Hadiz is not the first to discover how to travel between worlds, and this technology has long been used by the Pandominion to bring together millions of worlds under one vast political umbrella.  Part of their exploration of unclaimed worlds brings them into contact with the machine hegemony – an equally vast power comprised of non-organic artificial intelligences.  This war takes something of a backseat in the first novel, although I did enjoy that moment of first contact between the two, but it becomes much more significant in the second novel as our characters seek to end this war before it destroys everything. 

The Pandominion duology is absolutely superb, and while these are both relatively chunky novels, there’s no padding.  I think that some readers may not like the omniscient narrative voice, although I actually quite liked the subtle hints that it drops as to what’s coming – I found that it made me want to read on to discover more.  And I liked the reveal of the identity behind that narration, which comes in Echo of Worlds.  I highly recommend both Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds – I found them to be fun and immensely enjoyable reads while tackling some more thought-provoking themes.