This core genre novel received all the love back in 2023. But that’s been the trend with Carey’s work. People adore his stuff—his comics and Felix Castor series. I have been less enthused. The last novel of his I read, more than a decade ago, was the much-vaunted “The Girl With All The Gifts”. I thought it was fine but over-hyped. Since then, I’ve never felt the urgency to return to Carey’s work.* Yet, here I am again, drawn to this, the first in a duology because people I respect rated it.And it’s fine.**It’s actually better than fine, but it suffers from an issue that I’ve noticed with a couple of genre novels I’ve read recently (including a forthcoming review): they start with a conceptual, idea-laden blast that isn’t sustained; the interesting ideas are gradually replaced by a series of long and repetitive action set-pieces.Carey already had my interest piqued before I cracked the covers. I like parallel universe narratives and always have.*** Carey, like me, is less interested in people meeting slightly different versions of themselves and instead considers how power would flow in a Universe where dimensional travel is possible. The invention of “Step” technology leads to a multiverse ruled by the Pandominion, an empire of human and non-human societies across multiple Earth-like realities. The Padominion thought they were alone—the only empire with access to dimensional travel. They are wrong. An encounter with machine intelligence, the “Ansurrection”, leads to war across all of existence.Exciting stuff.Carey does the smart thing of telling this epic tale from the perspective of a limited cast. There’s Hadiz Tambuwal, a Nigerian scientist living in a dystopian version of Lagos, who discovers “Step” tech with the help of an AI. In a slightly less compromised version of Nigeria, we meet Essien Nkanika, a young man living in poverty who crosses paths with Hadiz and, for plot-related reasons, is conscripted into the Cielo, the Pandominion’s military force. And then there’s Topaz FiveHills, my favourite character, who is a rabbit. Yes, a human-shaped rabbit. She gets sucked into the plot when she discovers that her bestie is a spy for the Ansurrection.The first half is tremendous fun—an even measure of ideas, world-building and action. The character work is also strong. But, it slows down once the Ansurrection war starts. The novel’s second half is an extended chase sequence in Hadiz’s version of Nigeria. There are lots of explosions, violent deaths, and our heroes nearly dying or being imprisoned. It goes on for far too long and diminishes, at least for me, the goodwill built during the novel’s heady opening section.****Will I read the second book? Yes. Because, like I say, the conceptual stuff is interesting. But I’m in no rush.*To be fair to Carey, this was also the time I started aggressively moving away from core genre fiction. It wasn’t so much him as me. Well, Ok, it was a little bit him.**You knew that was coming.***Although the MCU’s multiverse has nearly killed off my interest.****I find action scenes boring, especially when they’re described in minute detail, like here. Your mileage may vary.
This core genre novel received all the love back in 2023. But that’s been the trend with Carey’s work. People adore his stuff—his comics and Felix Castor series. I have been less enthused. The last novel of his I read, more than a decade ago, was the much-vaunted “The Girl With All The Gifts”. I thought it was fine but over-hyped. Since then, I’ve never felt the urgency to return to Carey’s work.* Yet, here I am again, drawn to this, the first in a duology because people I respect rated it.
And it’s fine.**
It’s actually better than fine, but it suffers from an issue that I’ve noticed with a couple of genre novels I’ve read recently (including a forthcoming review): they start with a conceptual, idea-laden blast that isn’t sustained; the interesting ideas are gradually replaced by a series of long and repetitive action set-pieces.
Carey already had my interest piqued before I cracked the covers. I like parallel universe narratives and always have.*** Carey, like me, is less interested in people meeting slightly different versions of themselves and instead considers how power would flow in a Universe where dimensional travel is possible. The invention of “Step” technology leads to a multiverse ruled by the Pandominion, an empire of human and non-human societies across multiple Earth-like realities. The Padominion thought they were alone—the only empire with access to dimensional travel. They are wrong. An encounter with machine intelligence, the “Ansurrection”, leads to war across all of existence.
Exciting stuff.
Carey does the smart thing of telling this epic tale from the perspective of a limited cast. There’s Hadiz Tambuwal, a Nigerian scientist living in a dystopian version of Lagos, who discovers “Step” tech with the help of an AI. In a slightly less compromised version of Nigeria, we meet Essien Nkanika, a young man living in poverty who crosses paths with Hadiz and, for plot-related reasons, is conscripted into the Cielo, the Pandominion’s military force. And then there’s Topaz FiveHills, my favourite character, who is a rabbit. Yes, a human-shaped rabbit. She gets sucked into the plot when she discovers that her bestie is a spy for the Ansurrection.
The first half is tremendous fun—an even measure of ideas, world-building and action. The character work is also strong. But, it slows down once the Ansurrection war starts. The novel’s second half is an extended chase sequence in Hadiz’s version of Nigeria. There are lots of explosions, violent deaths, and our heroes nearly dying or being imprisoned. It goes on for far too long and diminishes, at least for me, the goodwill built during the novel’s heady opening section.****
Will I read the second book? Yes. Because, like I say, the conceptual stuff is interesting. But I’m in no rush.
*To be fair to Carey, this was also the time I started aggressively moving away from core genre fiction. It wasn’t so much him as me. Well, Ok, it was a little bit him.
**You knew that was coming.
***Although the MCU’s multiverse has nearly killed off my interest.
****I find action scenes boring, especially when they’re described in minute detail, like here. Your mileage may vary. 
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