Reviews

A Fractured Infinity by Nathan Tavares

Only show reviews with written explanations

mallorypen's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I didn't enjoy this book, per se, but parts of it did make me think.

Morally gray characters are a hit or miss for me - I enjoy a hero's hero. I like it when good triumphs over evil, and the labors of the righteous are rewarded with happiness. I think that's what happens when you're fed a steady diet of "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Redwall" and "Lord of the Rings" as a kid (but even then, Frodo having to leave the Shire because his pain wouldn't go away always made me incredibly sad, even if he was essentially going to heaven). I understand and wholly appreciate that heroes with flaws are more interesting and realistic, but at the end of the day I like a person who is, even with their flaws, are trying to be good.

So, all that to say that Hayes as a character didn't win me over. At first I found him low-level annoying, even with his hard upbringing and all the loss he suffered. He wasn't written sympathetically, or perhaps the rest of the plot got in the way of my ability to become attached to who he was. I just found it kind of hard to care about any of the characters, except for Yusef.

... and now that I type that out, I see perhaps that was done on purpose. After all, Yusef (and his multi-verse counterpart) were the

catalysts for literally all of the conflict wrought throughout the entire story.

Beyond Yusef, here's what I liked:

The premise overall was intriguing and, despite the first 60% of the book being a bit of a slog to get through, I feel the book did deliver on the premise well.
The complexity of the thought around morality, consequence, and how a person can be changed by circumstance and how much power they wield.
The Envisioner being anthropomorphized as a dog-like character by Hayes.
The unique multiverses and how creative the different societies and settings were
- particularly the Hotel Celine on the moon and how Logan's hubris mixed with his compassion in a way that held an interesting mirror up to the other Hayeses and Yusefs.
- To this point - I liked and didn't like that, in every universe save one that we saw, Hayes is selfish. And in the universe where Hayes wasn't selfish, he was dead because of his own actions (refusing to stay home and then being killed because he contracted the virus) - thus proving, in a way, that Hayes' selfishness was a fundamental part of who he was no matter how he came to be, or how monstrous that selfishness made him - on a scale of Logan (who was a sleezeball who promised fame for sex and adoration, but who ultimately sacrificed himself for the men he'd lured to his side) to Figueiredo (power-tripping madman playing God who literally invented the very thing that, ultimately, lead to his Yusef's death and impacts to countless universes).

The dawning understanding of the asteroid and where it came from.

What I didn't particularly like:

The framing narrative of the documentary. It made sense, given who Hayes was and how he viewed the world, but it felt incredibly choppy in sections in a way that contributed to my not really caring about Hayes, and to my finding the first 60% of the book to be pretty damn slow.
For some reason, the stakes didn't seem high? Which is ridiculous, because it was a
literal life-or-death situation that was the impetus of the chase through multiverses,
but I didn't really feel that urgency save for a handful of places throughout the novel. I found that to be underwhelming.
The climax of the story was also underwhelming. Luring Figueiredo away and trapping him without an Envisioner? Felt kinda ... flat.
And again ... Hayes' gray morality.

More on that: I can't imagine having to make the kind of choice he made. I can understand the urge to lie to the person you love most, the person you have trauma-bonded to and crossed unthinkable worlds and hardships to protect, especially when you know what choice he'd make in the end. Hayes was in a no-win situation - which, as a reader, YUM - but the solution was to

lie and murder some more? That felt cheap, after all of Hayes' introspection about how lying to Yusef was the worst thing he'd felt, and the lessons he'd had from his Sim friend (who's name I cannot remember and Google isn't helping) about standing for what's right even at the cost of her own life. So what? He now gets to live with Yusef and create a happily ever after like he doesn't have the deaths of billions on his shoulders? It seemed too rosy to be real.

I don't know what kind of ending I would have preferred, but Hayes' selfishness being rewarded with happiness (even tinged with guilt ... he certainly wasn't wracked with it)

is what ultimately had me removing stars.

Content Warnings