[Blurb goes here]

Overall, an amazing read!

Hadiz Tambual, a scientist looking for a solution to her world's environmental collapse, enlist the aid of Rupshe, an AI. Her fellow scientist are now all gone from the lab, she's the only one working there. She finds a solution, unfortunately, too late. She's probably the only surviving member of the human race.

Hadiz has found a way to transport humans from her planet, to a parallel Earth. With the help of the AI she finds a way to detect Earths similar to hers. There are infinite Earths, in quite a few of them, humans are not the ones who's civilization thrived; in others, not one single species succeeded. As Hadiz finds more and more planets, she decides to settle in one of them, one very similar to hers. Unknown to her, the mighty Pandominion has been watching her "Step" from one Earth to another. The Pandominion has settled thousands of Earths, different species form the federation-like government.

Enter Essien Nkanika, a young man born to poverty, trying to get ahead no matter the cost. He meets Hadiz in his Earth. They begin a relationship. As time passes, Hadiz begins to trust Essien, a costly mistake. As soon as he finds out what Hadiz has been working on, he decides he wants her tech for himself: to sell it to the highest bidder. When trying to trick her, all goes sideways. The mighty Pandominion finds them, fatally wounding Hadiz and forcefully enlisting Essien into The Cielo: the Pandominion army.

Infinity Gate is the first installment on the Pandominion series. It obviously introduces the reader to countless characters and worlds, but in doing so, it never forgets one key factor: non-stop action. M.R. Carey writing style is fantastic, describing each setting in detail, fleshing out each character as if every single one of them was the protagonist in his book, making for an astounding character driven adventure.

The writer follows each player, giving them a unique voice, a unique road to follow. making things harder and harder for each of them, as they walk their given path. The tech is enthralling and unique, and not hard to understand, never giving you the feeling that it came out of a hat, to solve some impending problem.

This is a must for Sci Fi readers, I even go as far as to recommend it to Action/Adventure fans.

Needles to say that now I'm hooked, and will be eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

Even though this isn't my favorite kind of sci-fi, there's no doubt that this book is expertly written. Weaving a cohesive narrative with more than 5 points of view is an impressive feat, and Infinity Gate handles omniscient POV well enough that I was never confused and never felt jerked around by POV switches. Omniscient POV is deceptively tricky to write, and a job well done deserves praise and recognition.
There were some characters I found more compelling than others, and I ended up resenting the less interesting/likable characters for the space they took up. This is in no way indicative of the quality of the writing; I just personally couldn't stand Essien and a couple other characters, and I prefer SF in which I can relate to the characters. The number of POVs and amount of detail in the book meant that I didn't get to spend as much time in any given character's head as I would have liked. Paz, especially, got shortchanged by the sheer number of other things going on. Her and Dulcie's arcs were the emotional heart of the story and IMO also contained the thesis of the book, and I wish I'd gotten to spend more time with them. This was less of a character driven book than what I prefer to read, which doesn't make it a bad book so much as "not my thing." I still enjoyed it and will probably read the sequel, if nothing else to find out how everyone's story ends (another instance of "not my thing:" the book isn't a self contained story). I would recommend this book to fans of The Expanse or anyone who wants a wide, sweeping examination of a conflict as opposed to a book focused on just one or two characters.

[Review to be posted on Goodreads 30 days before publication per publisher's request]

I wanted to enjoy this but overall found the story, characters, and plot to be something not what I was longing for or one that I would pick back up.