The first book of this duology, Infinity Gate, was perhaps my favourite read of 2023, so this second part has a great deal to live up to.
(Please note: there are minor spoilers for Infinity Gate that follow.)
The war between the organic species of the Pandominion and the machine-intelligence hegemony called the Ansurrection has continued. Each species tries to outdo the other in its ability to kill the other, the result being that each group now develops weapons that could kill each other off, not just on one world but across the multiverse.
This book pretty much begins where Infinity Gate ended, with our contrasting group of heroes being brought together from various difficult situations by their acquaintance Rupshe, an AI.
This involves a disparate group of creatures – Topaz Tourmaline FiveHills (Paz), is a rabbit from the city of Canoplex-Under-Heaven in Ut, Hadiz Tambuwal, the Earth scientist who was downloaded into an AI construct in Infinity Gate, Essien Nkanika, the Cielo soldier conscripted into the Pandominion’s army but who is now a rogue agent, along with Moon Sostenti, the cat-like Cielo who was Essien’s mentor, all of whom play their part in bringing this series to an end.
Despite their major differences, they are all needed in order to stop the bombshell that Rupshe tells them on their arrival – that they are heading towards an impending event – a Scour, a mysterious occurrence in the past which has led to the removal of all living matter on a planet. Rupshe tells the group that unless they work together, not just a planet but the multiverse could be destroyed.
The AI is determined to stop the annihilation of everything, of all worlds across the multiverse. To do this, it needs to determine the location of the alien Mother Mass briefly mentioned in Infinity Gate. Here it has a much more central role and that our group think that its abilities may be the saviour of life as we know it. Ruphe’s assembled our assortment of characters to do this, of course. Not all get on with each other. Moon shot Essien in Infinity Gate, after all!
There’s a lot going on here. Carey raises the stakes here to mind-boggling levels – we have events happening across a multiverse, planet-destroying weaponry, sentient AI, aliens, post-apocalyptic landscapes, not to mention that our main characters are an AI, a rabbit, an AI anima in a robot-monkey’s body, a cat-like soldier and a hedgehog! On paper it sounds odd, but Carey is such a skilled writer that it all seems possible and even probable.
There’s also more complicated issues involved which elevates this beyond a ‘shoot-em-up’ space adventure. One of the key elements is an ongoing debate about identity and what makes us human (or alien!), and whether a machine society is as bad as the Pandominion makes it out to be.
In fact, there are grey areas here. The organic existence that makes up the Pandominion is clearly who we are rooting for, as humans, even though it is shown that the Pandominion is also a harsh, bureaucratic, restrictive omnipresence. Although we might expect the novel to suggest organic life to have advantages and disadvantages over machine entities, Carey shows here that it is not always plain sailing for organic life.
Simultaneously, although machine-life may seem omnipresent and unstoppable, it is fallible and mistakes are made, putting our beloved endearing characters in jeopardy. Life in this novel is complicated.
This makes the book sound a little dense and perhaps heavy going, but I was pleased to find that it wasn’t. Yes, the bigger ideas are there and yes, they are important, but Carey is a skilled enough writer not to let such things dominate the plot. Even when the plot becomes a little bit Mission Impossible – and yes, the action scenes at this point are amazing – think the Terminator meets Starship Troopers via Warhammer 40 000 and Mechwarriors – there’s also some humour to lighten things a little, although Mike is careful not to add too much of this.
By the end, the group manages to achieve their aims, and the consequences of which are… unexpected. The book actually ends not where I thought we would be (although it has been highlighted from the first pages of Infinity Gate!), but it is a satisfying and appropriate conclusion. Most of all, I felt that the journey over the two books was worth it. It’s a good ending to the duology.
I said at the beginning of this review that I’ve been looking forward to reading this book this year and after Infinity Gate, Echo of Worlds had a lot to live up to. The fact that it does and goes further is a testament to the author. It’s epic, action-packed space opera, with major consequences and characters that (as you would hope) have developed from the first book. I’ve been lucky to read a lot of great books this year*, but at the moment, Echo of Worlds is my favourite science fiction read of 2024 so far.
*And as I type this, we’re about halfway through the year.
ECHO OF WORLDS by M R Carey
Published by Orbit, June 2024
ISBN: 978 0 356 51805 3
490 pages
Review by Mark Yon
