Oh my goodness, I absolutely LOVED this book! I haven’t enjoyed an audiobook this much since, maybe The Hail Mary Project by Andy Weir (which incidentally it reminded me of in places, when there was fun science explained in a way that was entertaining and informative). The other series which of course this book reminded me of is The Long Earth books by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter because this it a story about someone who discovers how to step into parallel universes.
This book begins in our world (or one like it?) at a point in time when the world is ravaged by climate change and global war is imminent. It starts with a socially awkward Nigerian scientist who is so focussed on her work (some kind of particle physics stuff) that she barely notices that the world is falling apart around her and only when she needs assistance with her new discovery does she realise that she is alone in her university facility.
She logs into her colleague’s AI since there are no humans to help her, and part of the story is narrated by this ‘self’.
The multiverse world she finds is also experiencing war, this time between organic ‘selves’ (not all earths have the sentient life evolved from apes, in some world the ‘selves’ are evolved from cats or dogs or rabbits) and beings from worlds where artificial or mechanical life is dominant and a lot of the tension comes from both sides not being able to comprehend that the other is actually sentient and not ‘just a machine’ or ‘just an animal’.
The book is so well written – introducing characters and fleshing them out with full backstories so we get to know and love (or at least understand) them, and at the same time nothing is wasted space because everything comes together beautifully and masterfully at the denouement (it make me think of A Prayer for Owen Meany or Holes in that things which just seemed to make the story interesting actually turned out to be pivotal to the overarching narrative!).
The only negative I felt was the abrupt ending, and that I guess is because this is the first in a series of books and the action will pick up in book two which I now can’t wait for!!!
Sarah Wray Writer 