Sally Strange reviewed Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey (The Pandominion, #1)
What if we could have infinite growth?
4 stars
The premise of the book: if the multiverse exists, and a new reality arises every time there's a choice to be made, that means there are infinite branching realities. And if one could easily breach the dimensional barrier, then one could have access to infinite worlds much like one's own, or very different from one's own--with infinite gradations of similarity and difference. When scientist Hadiz Tumbawal discovers a means to hop dimensions, that's her first thought, since her own Earth is dying. But the multiverse is already inhabited by the Pandominion, an alliance of Earths inhabited by bipeds of various lineages, and it turns out that even infinite resources don't obviate the tendency towards conflict.
As he often does, M. R. Carey explores the nature of machine consciousness vs organic consciousness, even suggesting that machine consciousness could evolve without being first created by an organic consciousness. In which case, what …
The premise of the book: if the multiverse exists, and a new reality arises every time there's a choice to be made, that means there are infinite branching realities. And if one could easily breach the dimensional barrier, then one could have access to infinite worlds much like one's own, or very different from one's own--with infinite gradations of similarity and difference. When scientist Hadiz Tumbawal discovers a means to hop dimensions, that's her first thought, since her own Earth is dying. But the multiverse is already inhabited by the Pandominion, an alliance of Earths inhabited by bipeds of various lineages, and it turns out that even infinite resources don't obviate the tendency towards conflict.
As he often does, M. R. Carey explores the nature of machine consciousness vs organic consciousness, even suggesting that machine consciousness could evolve without being first created by an organic consciousness. In which case, what even is "organic"?
Personally I don't care much whether Carey gets the science of multiple dimensions or evolution correct--the result here is that you have multiple characters who are, essentially, human-animal hybrids. There's an intimidating cat-woman soldier, a gruff bear-man convict, and a brave bunny-girl student, in addition to the tradition ape-derived human species. It's fun, and I can't wait to read the second book to find out whether Carey does indeed create a universe(s) where machines arise from the muck of primordial life on Earth just as organic life once did in our reality.
