This book is an amazing premise - one that is incredibly unique and teens will love. After a teen is killed, she finds her way to the infinity courts - and must take a side on a war she doesn't fully understand.

The storyline has a similar feel to an episode of Black Mirror - it is a realistic sci-fi horror. It is fast paced, but in an easily understood way. The action leaves you on the edge of your seat, unsure of what will happen next. The characters are well developed - you feel the protagonist's uncertainty when she first enters the world, and slowly begin to believe in and trust the other characters alongside her. The characters are realistic, and have flaws that both strengthen and weaken them at various times. The protagonist must come to some hard truths about herself, and who she really is.

All that said, I felt that the ending was rather abrupt. There was so much lead up to the final few moments, and then it was just...done. It wasn't one I felt satisfied with. It seemed too nicely wrapped up. It was also the only time the protagonist seemed to act in a way that went against what she had been built up to be.

I would recommend this novel for teens or young adults. There are a few scenes that may be a bit graphic for middle schoolers, but if they were mature it would be fine for them as well. This would be a great novel to do a read aloud with each day for high school, or as a choice for an individual book project. I really enjoyed the author's writing style, and will be recommending this book to both students and friends.

Ever think about robots and if they have feelings? What about Artificial Intelligence? Do you think just because a machine can talk that is deserving of our sympathy? And I don’t mean calculators, I mean Siri, Alexa, Sherpa, and other virtual assistants. Do you ever find yourself “considering” them at all?

We’ve seen this examined in countless doomsday scenario type stories but now with technology catching up to our imaginations, these once thought pie-in-the-sky fantasies are becoming real world issues. A movie like “Her” for example looks at what can happen when our digital dreams become digital realities.

And so, if you are the type of person whose sympathy neurons are uber-developed, you can see how easy it would be to put yourself in their shoes, look at things from their point of view. This is the dilemma Nami finds herself in in Book One of The Infinity Courts series.

After getting murdered she not only discovers that there is in fact an afterlife, but that it’s controlled by the very Artificial Intelligence that’s been strapped to her wrist for many years, and this A.I., named Ophelia, is pissed.

The is a good start to this series, providing more than enough worldbuilding and system management to give you a very clear picture of this place called “Infinity” And there’s a handy map at the front of the book, something I’m always thankful for.

Listen, if you’ve read enough books then you’ll start to figure out what’s what early on, and they’ll be no questioning certain narrative choices and character motivations. The big question’s for Nami, besides who can you trust and what the hell is going on, is, can she stay true to herself despite being pulled in so many different directions. Not to mention there’s still that little issue of being murdered, dealing with that, and coming to grips with the fact that she won’t see her family ever again, or at least for a very long time. That’s a lot for anyone, and now she’s being asked by the Colony, the local resistance in Infinity, to help take down Ophelia and her Four Courts before she wipes out all of humanity. Whew!

Ominous singularity forecasting aside, this book is full of fun contemporary riffs including enough pop-culture references to shake a lightsaber at. As the lead, Nami is definitely frustrating sometimes as her heightened question attitude and stubbornness leads to a lot of bickering amongst the Colony’s top brass. They've been for a very long time, she hasn't.

But because so much of this book is about perspective, put yourself in hers. What would you do in that same position? What would you say? How would you act? Seems perfectly reasonable to me that anyone in that situation would act in a similar fashion. For this reason, I’m cutting her a bunch of slack and besides, knowing how these “chosen one” things tend to go, Nami is destined for awesomeness and I’m here for it.

One thing that is absolutely killer, is the type of “magic” that Akemi infuses in the story. It’s actually more about world manipulation than magic but it’s very cool stuff. Trust me, whether its casting, veiling, or engineering, it’s some of the books more creative and stylistic components.

Because it’s a series, the book ends kind of where you’d expect it to, but when it comes to the question as to whether or not you care enough to continue with this story, the answer will be yes.