A whirlwind adventure story with a thrilling plot, inventive world-building, and delightfully charming characters. Cam is a refreshing change of pace from traditional sci-fi lead characters.

Enjoyed very much. Kept me thinking until the end. Good work.

I found this a decent read, a little hard to get into at first. I enjoyed the characters, particularly Cameron, and am looking forward to where it goes next.

Lots of action with distinctive characters. Interesting science, portrayed just enough not to be distracting, but the huge gaps in its practicality left unshaded. How did the MC know where it was going?
Editing was mediocre and reading was made much more difficult by the use of plural pronouns referring to single units that had already been identified with the gender-specific labels that I felt should have been used; it made me feel as if the author had only recently become aware of gender fluidity. The use of plural pronouns often confused me, such as when Lhasa was playing with "his" goggles. It's annoying to have to reread paragraphs multiple times to make sure no one else has goggles.
Another immersion breaker was that individual behaviors did not reflect the societies in which the characters grew up.

WOW ........ I loved this book so much I couldn't put its down and now feel sad that I've finished its. This one of the best book I've read in a while.
I received this book from net gallery in exchange for a honest review.

The decision to read this book is quite random. I just wanted to start reading a Netgalley ARC while waiting for my phone to fully charge. I was very surprised how I love the characters, the plot and the writing on this story.❤

I read this book on one seating. Like I flew through the pages of this book (on my Kindle). I knew a few pages in that the writing is up to my liking. It was a smooth read to me. I was able to focus on the plot, the world building and the characters.

Maybe scifi is really my thing. I enjoy books with concepts of time travel and multiverse on it. Admittedly this one isn't that super science-y, but it was just right for me.👍

The book centered on Cam. How at the start he felt that he does not belong anywhere and that something isn't quite right.

I love how the author built the world on this book. I love that there are inter-dimensional gates/portals, different races and all the advance technologies introduced. The characters are likeable especially Cam. I love how diverse the cast is. And the mystery is super exciting.😆

Totally recommended.😄❤

*Thanks to the publisher for making this book available for review via Netgalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest thoughts and opinions of the book.*

*Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own*

I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book as I am a big fan of anything scifi. I think the writing is really good, but I had a hard time really getting in to the book at times. It was fast paced and Cam is a great character, but I wasn't always engaged. I do recommend reading this book!

Wow, this story blew my mind in many ways. I really enjoyed the characters and the plot the most. I was enthralled from the very first page.

Into The Lightning Gate by Robert Roth - 5 stars!

This was a great return to real sci-fi for me. I loved this read and really got into the characters, their backgrounds and of course the diversity represented by the multiverse. Action-packed yet full of reflective moments, the pace felt fairly balanced and by the end I really wasn't ready to leave the story and characters behind!

Bits I liked:
- fantastic diverse cast with rep across the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ spectrum. Full of queer characters, and I was super happy with enby rep that really just flowed as part of the story.
- I found it well-written and nicely paced, avoiding some of the overdone tropes seen more recently in YA sci-fi.
- it felt mostly unpredictable. Though I did see a few bits coming, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story.
- exciting plot with some great quantum and multiverse elements. I'm not a sci-fi expert but I really enjoyed the exploration of a world with completely different human cultural development.

Bits I liked less:
- it took a little while to get to the multiverse part of the story, but that wasn't really detrimental.
- it's not a story that feels complete by itself, the way books in some series can almost stand alone. By the end it really felt like you were at the beginning of the real adventure, with so many questions left unanswered! Again, not necessarily a bad thing, but I wasn't prepped to start what feels like a saga!

Overall it was a fantastic, queer, diverse story with exciting sci-fi action and relatable characters despite the otherworldly plot. I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment!

Wow, such a great story. Stargate vibes, since I'm a huge fan of Stargate and the sci-fi genre, I've enjoyed this book enormously. The character are very good built, the scenario and the background are amazing. I loved how the author explained through Cam his relationship with his parents, and I fully understand why, Cam doesn't want to meet them again.
I loved the different representation and the treatment of some important subjects as racism, capitalism. etc.
It's fast paced, that don't get you bored in any moment of the reading. I would love to read the next book. Highly recommended for the fun of sci-fi.
A huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this amazing book

This book was terrific. I loved how catchy it was. The plot was pretty fast and exciting. The action scenes were described in a way that made them very convenient to visualize.

The diversity is very well done. And I loved how explicitly the skin color, sexuality, etc of the characters was portrayed. It felt bold and we need more of this.
And each character was very complete on their own and interesting to read about. I would watch a 10 season TV show with this gang going on inter-dimensional adventures.

With respect to the advanced, alternative civilizations described in the book, I liked how it was very sociology and psychology focussed, with an obvious ever-present nod of appreciation to non-capitalistic indigenous cultures. It gave the portrayal a level of freshness.

I cannot wait to see what happens next in the series!
Thank you very much for this review copy.

a fantastic opening to what appears to be a promising new science fiction saga, i cant wait for the next books in the saga to come out and continue this adventure

This was such an intense story! It kept you guessing from page to page, and it took a while to work out which way was up, but it was so interesting to read! I loved that your first impression wasn't always to be believed.

The world building and the characters were beautifully queer and diverse! I'm always so happy to find a book that doesn't treat a world as binary, and this book definitely lived up to it. The world building was absolutely fabulous to delve into, and I cannot wait to see what happens next!

Cameron Maddock isn’t just your average twenty-something, gay, tech guy in San Francisco avoiding his less-than-accepting family. He’s a cyber-security genius. But that doesn’t explain why a seemingly-alien assassin is after him.

Robert Roth’s Into the Lightning Gate is a fast-paced, pulpy sci-fi snack with a solid high-concept base that hits all the right notes - it’s a cocktail of easily accessible action, comic-book infused tech, mysterious motivations and topped with a young, gay, multi-racial lead.

Cameron (Cam as he’s known) knows he’s different from the people around him. Apart from being prodigiously smart, he’s always been an outcast - for either his colour, or his sexuality. When his apartment is broken into, his first thought is that it’s a disgruntled cyber-security client of his, but when they attempt to kidnap him he is surprisingly able to defend himself against professionals. And there's a little voice in his head telling him there’s more to his story than he realises.

Think of it as The Long Kiss Goodnight meets The Last Starfighter - as Cam’s newfound abilities throw him into the middle of a multiversal, sci-fi action-thriller. There are plenty of mass-market sci-fi elements on display here and Roth knows how to craft a real rollercoaster of a story. The sci-fi mainly consist of easily digestible concepts (teleports, multiverses, body-hacking etc), any viewer of TV shows like The Expanse, Star Trek or Doctor Who will be familiar with. Roth’s strength’s lie in his ability to print a strong image in your mind and choreograph an on-page action sequence - this is an action adventure page-turner.

As for the queer content, this is gay with a lower-case ‘g’. Cam spends most of the book on the run and while his attraction to his bisexual rescuer/ally Finn is clear (and clearly mutual) there’s no time to explore it further.

At times, Roth’s characters are a little two-dimensional - from a Russian who speaks with a broad accent straight out of a Bond film, and Cam’s best friend who uses frustratingly contemporary (and instantly dated) idioms. Similarly we barely scratch the surface of the wider multiverse at play here but that is less of an issue as Into the Lightning Gate is the starting point for The Gates Saga, hopefully we’ll get into the nuances in further installments.

Into the Lightning Gate is a fast and satisfying story that left me intrigued. A great summer-time read. There are many questions left unanswered, and hints of a bigger canvas to be explored. If this was Season 1 of the TV series, I’d be eagerly waiting for Season 2 to drop.

Told from third person, multi POV (Cam, Agent, Finn, Tony), there’s a lot of action in this novel, with a near constant loop of running/fighting/hiding. Watching the action unfold through various eyes helped keep the cycle fresh.

I loved reading about the gates, including the history of, and the other “Earths.” But the cool gate stuff didn’t really kick off until my kindle hit 27%, which was kind of a long time to wait. The back story and setup were still interesting though. It just felt like a lot of setup.

Great ending which I didn’t see coming—definitely a cliffhanger! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

This ARC was provided by NetGalley and publisher Jetspace Studio in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this! I found the LGBT rep to be some of the best I've seen for a sci-fi novel and the world building was something akin to Sanderson or Tolkien. I really cannot wait to see where this series goes.

Thank you for the e-arc!

This has a likeable MC, and the other characters are enjoyable as well. Good tech and good pacing are also part of the story. Most sci-fi thriller fans will probably like this.

Thanks very much for the review copy!!

This book was a fast-paced and fascinating science fiction thrill ride that reminded me of Stargate crossed with Fringe. The characters were well thought out and incredibly compelling. The LGBT representation was amazing, and the author did a great job of seamlessly introducing some great dialogue on heavy issues, including racism, heterosexism, capitalism, and environmentalism, without distracting from the overall story. The world-building was exquisite and done in a way that was fairly easy to follow without many giant info dumps. I wish I could live in the world the author created for these characters! The plot was interesting and had its twists to keep you guessing, but by the end it felt a bit repetitive, with multiple iterations of run, fight, and hide, over and over. However, the information learned and the world-building kept me from getting bored despite the repetition. I also still have many questions that I hoped would receive some type of answer before the end, but I guess that just means I'll have to pick up the next book. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and rate it 4 out of 5 stars. I recommend it for any science fiction or thriller fans that don't mind critiques of the current social order.

Oh, I LOVED this, this book was so unexpectedly amazing!

What I liked most:

All of the characters, even the minor ones, felt so REAL and layered, masterfully done!

This started off in such a familiar world that I honestly did not expect where the story was going and how huge the world wold become by the end of the book. WOW!

Aaah, that epilogue! I want the next book nooooooooooow!

Cam was such a likable protagonist, I loved seeing the world through his eyes and was rooting for him from page one

The lgbtq+ rep is a big plus of course - we desperately need more good rep in scifi and fantasy!

The pacing was immaculate, it had me at the edge of my seat the entire time and I read the book in one sitting. But despite that it never felt rushed

The world building was really cool and it feels like this is the very solid setup for what I am hoping will be a long and wonderful scifi series!

Overall I highly recommend this if you like scifi stories and/or fast-past, action-packed thrillers.

I loved this book. From the first page to the last it captured and held my attention. The world-building is very well done, uses a great concept of multiverse, and characterization and intersection between characters is so well done. Even side and background characters are well fleshed out. Can't wait for more of this series, and it's definitely one I'll make sure to have hard copies of.

Great book. Interesting characters and an unusual plot . A slow burn romance and a killer cliffhanger ending. Cannot wait for the next instalment.