An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens her new home and her fragile place in it, in a stunning sci-fi debut that’s both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.
Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.
On this Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now she has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the …
An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens her new home and her fragile place in it, in a stunning sci-fi debut that’s both a cross-dimensional adventure and a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.
Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying—from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.
On this Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now she has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works—and shamelessly flirts—with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.
But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined—and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.
A utopian town in a dystopian world, and travel to multiverses — but only similar ones. The Traversers can only travel to a world where their doppelgänger has died, so people from the poor outside are hired to traverse.
Good world building, decent characters, the romance seemed tacked-on but that's OK because I wasn't in it for the kissy bits anyway. 3.5 rounded up to 4 because of the ending
A bit too Mad Max for my taste, but I good story and unexpected ending
Unique, haunting, beautiful
This an exceptional book. The author has created a fascinating, unusual world, and in that setting, some exceptionally observed characters and a plot that propels the narrative nicely.
Highly recommended.
"We are pilgrims at an inn. When we leave is immaterial, because we are only meant to leave."
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I really REALLY loved this book.
Multiverses are cool in a headachy kind of way. :)
Characters are deep.
Storyline is fun and complex.
Just a really great story
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"Death can be senseless, but life never is."
I know many people have found this novel exceptionally 'magnificent'. I found it frustrating, unfocused and excessively dependent upon violence. In all honesty, 5 chapters were all I could stomach...
This book will go on my shortlist of books I recommend always.
