Review: A Fractured Infinity by Nathan Tavares
A thrilling race across the multiverse to save the infinite Earths – and the love of your life – from total destruction for fans of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, The Time Traveler’s Wife and Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.
Film-maker Hayes Figueiredo is struggling to finish the documentary of his heart when handsome physicist Yusuf Hassan shows up, claiming Hayes is the key to understanding the Envisioner – a mysterious device that can predict the future.
Hayes is taken to a top-secret research facility where he discovers his alternate self from an alternate universe created the Envisioner and sent it to his reality. Hayes studies footage of the other him, he discovers a self he doesn’t recognize, angry and obsessive, and footage of Yusuf… as his husband.
As Hayes finds himself falling for Yusuf, he studies the parallel universe and imagines the perfect life they will live together. But their lives are inextricably linked to the other reality, and when that couple’s story ends in tragedy Hayes realises he must do anything he can to save Yusuf’s life. Because there are infinite realities, but only one Yusuf.
With the fate of countless realities and his heart in his hands, Hayes leads Yusuf on the run, tumbling through a kaleidoscope of universes trying to save it all. But even escaping into infinity, Hayes is running out of space – soon he will have to decide how much he’s willing to pay to save the love of his life.
Review:
Dear Nathan Tavares,
Your book was recommended to me by DA Commenter SusanD when I complained about having trouble finding SFF books with gay romance being an integral part of another storyline. Of course I bought it right after I read the blurb. In some ways your book was a perfect fit for me, it is exactly what I want to read in the book that features romance. The setting was well drawn, the characters had depth and the underlying adventure was very enjoyable.
The book has a lot of social commentary in it as well, some of it I agreed with, some I empathically disagreed with but still that was something I was quite worried that we may end up with. However, I very much appreciated how well all of it was incorporated in the setting.
I have to say though that I also found the structure of the book to be a bit … chaotic I guess. I understood that it was chaotic by design. I think partially because the book chapters meant to invoke the feeling that not only Hayes is filming his movie, but also that the story itself can be seen as a movie and I got a little dizzy sometimes trying to figure out what was real and what was his imagination playing tricks on him. Also, during a major part of the story our main characters jump to different universes trying to run away from the people who were trying to catch them. No, no, I am not going to tell you whom they are trying to outrun, but I think this also played into the chaos I felt at times while reading. And I think also the fact that throughout the book Hayes himself is trying to figure out how different universes work.
I was really curious to see how the actual romance would develop during all the action and excitement that was going on and I was very pleased with that as well, all despite the short time Hayes and Yusuf had to start falling in love, but probably because they spent a lot of time in different universes somehow it felt as if they spent more time together. And I loved Yusuf so much I just had to say that.
Lastly, since it is hinted in the blurb but not described in detail, I am just going to briefly mention that. The moral dilemma of one life v many lives is featured quite prominently in the story and let us just say that I found at least part of the resolution quite surprising.
Grade: B+
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Glad you enjoyed it! Will be interested in your reaction if you read his newest book, Welcome to Forever.
This sounds like a lot of fun. I might see if my library has it.
@SusanS: I did, thanks for the recommendation! I want and I worry, because you mentioned that it is actually confusing and I already was a little confused here, as to how the verses interact, so if it is much more confusing, I dont know, but it was interesting and fun to figure out so I most likely will :).@Janine: Well if you do, share what you thought with us :).
This does sound intriguing, Sirius. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!