Roberta R. (Offbeat YA)'s Reviews > Infinity Gate

Mini blurb: The lives of three people all based in Lagos, but from three different versions of Earth - a female scientist, a male rogue and a rabbit girl - get intertwined when the first accidentally stumbles across the secret of interdimensional travel.

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First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Netgalley. Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

This pains me to no end, but despite the juicy premise and my having loved The Girl with All the Gifts by the same author, I stopped reading around the 1/3 mark. The first section was hard sci-fi enough to trouble me a bit, but the first protagonist (a lone Black female scientist living in a dilapidated world that she's intent on saving, if at the expense of others) and her AI helper were interesting enough to keep me going, especially when the actual multiverse stuff made its (albeit timid) appearance. Alas, I never warmed up to the second main character (a Black male hooker/rogue trying to rise out of poverty by any means), and when the more political aspects of the story took center stage, I started to get bored. I'm not sure what I expected - maybe more of a multiverse romp with different, fascinating versions of our planet to visit - but what I got sure wasn't it. I commend the book's being diverse and ambitious in scope though (especially given that it's only the first volume in a series), and I hope - or better, I'm sure - it will find the right audience...

Note: definitive review (I don't have enough to say to justify writing a full-length one later, and of course I don't plan to reread this book).