Echo of Worlds

Pandominion #2

by M.R. Carey

Following the critically acclaimed Infinity Gate comes the second and final novel in the Pandominion by international bestselling M.R. Carey. A thrilling adventure set in the multiverse, it tells of humanity's expansion across millions of dimensions, and the AI technology that might see it all come to an end . . .

Two mighty empires are at war - and both will lose, with thousands of planets falling to the extinction event called the Scour. At least that's what the artificial intelligence known as Rupshe believes.

But somewhere in the multiverse there exists a force - the Mother Mass - that could end the war in an instant, and Rupshe has assembled a team to find it. Essien Nkanika, a soldier trying desperately to atone for past sins; the cat-woman Moon, a conscienceless killer; the digitally recorded mind of physicist Hadiz Tambuwal; Paz, an idealistic child and the renegade robot spy Dulcimer Coronal.

Their mission will take them from the hellish prison world of Tsakom to the poisoned remains of a post-apocalyptic Earth, and finally bring them face to face with the Mother Mass itself. But can they persuade it to end eons of neutrality and help them? And is it too late to make a difference?

Because the Pandominion's doomsday machines are about to be unleashed - and not even their builders know how to control them.

Discover the conclusion to the spectacular Pandominion duology - an exhilarating science fiction series from the author of the million-copy bestseller The Girl With All the Gifts . Perfect for fans of The Space Between Worlds, The Long Earth and Children of Time.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Space Opera, Dystopia, Aliens, Science Fiction Fantasy

496 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2024

About the author

Mike Carey is the acclaimed writer of Lucifer and Hellblazer (now filmed as Constantine). He has recently completed a comics adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, and is the current writer on Marvel's X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four. He has also written the screenplay for a movie, Frost Flowers, which is soon to be produced by Hadaly Films and Bluestar Pictures.

Also writes as Mike Carey

Reviews

[Khalid Abdul-Mumin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preamble:
This is a direct continuation of the events following Infinity Gate and that one should be read first. It concludes the duology pretty nicely and ties up the plot really well.

Synopsis:
This one starts off following our protagonists from the first book after their escape from near death.

The Pandominium, an alliance of many hundreds of thousands of Earths from parallel realities, continues its hopeless war with the Machine Hegemony, which is sort of a collective hive mind of a digital nature.

Events eventually lead to an impasse where both sides are inevitably forced to consider and implement drastic and genocidal measures in order to win the war for various intrinsic reasons unique to both empires.

Thoughts:
A very well structured ending although I'd have liked to see the concept of Mother Mass to have been more realized than it was, nevertheless, the ending more than makes up for all the shortcomings.

Just like in the prior installment, the plot is well paced and the protagonists/characters are expertly thought out. The writing is straightforward with a bit less technical Sci-Fi jargon than in the first book.

Conclusion:
The story remains thrilling from the onset through out and I'm looking forward to adding more books from M.R. Carey. Recommended.

2025 Read

[Lorelei · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sequel in the Pandominion duology, Echo of Worlds is a VERY satisfying conclusion – but what else do you expect from M.R. Carey, everything this man writes is gold!

Humanity is at risk of extinction in a no-holds-barred war with an AI civilization. The Pandominon – an empire consisting of countless alternate Earths spread throughout the multiverse – is desperately seeking a weapon that can defeat them, consequences be damned. But what if there’s a way to end this conflict peacefully? Are the AI’s really an evil, mindless force? And will the very weapon the Pandominion seeks to use be their own undoing?

We return to the same wonderful characters, a mix of ‘selves’ from different evolutionary chains on different Earths. We have soldiers, AI’s, children, and spies, working together to save their worlds and atone for their own pasts. M.R. Carey seamlessly blends action and a well paced story with the emotional stakes. Thorough world building and character development are a hallmark of this author. I always know when I pick up any of his work, I’m going to drop right into a whole new world where I don’t see gaps or holes in the story. It feels like a world that has always existed and will continue to exist once I put down the book; I’m just here visiting for a bit. The science is futuristic enough to feel exciting and novel, but realistic enough to not feel absurd. The ending feels earned and extremely satisfying.

I’m a sucker for multiverse stories, and if you are as well, then I strongly recommend this duology. It hits all the sweet spots with a complex world, human vs AI, the question of what it is to be human and sentient, rich characters, great science. The first book, Infinity Gate, is just as great, and Echo of Worlds will be out June 25.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This was definitely one of the best sci-fi books I’ve read so far this year.

[ابوالفضل نصری · Rating 4 out of 5]

نسخه فارسی کتاب به گودریدز اضافه شد

امروز ۲۰ بهمن ۱۴۰۳ بازخوانی نهایی رو انجام دادم و کتاب رو می‌فرستم برای چاپ.
خب امروز ۲۶ آذر ۱۴۰۳ ترجمه کتاب تموم شد. هرجوری حساب می‌کنم جلد دوم و پایانی دوگانه پاندومینیون بعد از اون شروع طوفانی اصلا پنج ستاره نبود. با این حال، سه ستاره هم نبود و بهش چهار تا ستاره می‌دم.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pandominion duology, I am happy to report, wraps up well.

Everything I liked about the first book, Infinity Gate, carries through here. Good characters, interesting world building, and thorough consideration of the implications of all the science-fiction at work. All good, and all familiar to those who read book 1.

I don’t honestly know how I was expecting the conflict between the Pandominion and the Machine Hegemony to be resolved - if I had any ideas when I read book 1 I’ve forgotten them. But I know I didn’t expect the end that happened. Obviously I’ll say no more because of spoilers.

The identity of the narrator was another unknown from book 1. The mystery around it reminded me strongly of the Broken Earth trilogy. The reveal here wasn’t quite as good as what Jemisin was able to pull off, but it still was very good. Didn’t see that one coming until very late in the book.

What struck me from a writing perspective is just how well and how thoroughly Carey used the Chekov’s Gun principle. He planned this duology out very thoroughly; nothing done in the first book was wasted. Everything I expected to matter from book 1 mattered in book 2. Many things I did NOT expect to matter from book 1 mattered in book 2. The sheer economy of it was extremely impressive. And I suspect a result of Carey’s extensive history writing comics, if I had to guess.

I’ve been a Carey fanboy for a long time now, and nothing in this book changed that.

My blog

[Cheng Bogdani · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be completely honest, this was disappointing. Infinity Gate was a five star read for me, so I came to this with very high expectations. Unfortunately Echo of Worlds fell a bit flat for me.

This book starts up right where Infinity Gate leaves off; it's like one book has been split into two volumes. This volume spends some time setting up motivation and creating tension, then sidequests for what feels like way too long, then finally comes to the unsurprising conclusion in the last few percent. Overall, my biggest issue is the pacing - it felt like it dragged except when critical conflicts were being resolved in way too few words.

I am still completely enthralled by the characters and the setting and the world building in general. It's still a good book and it's a necessary read if you start the series. On it's own, it's not the best MR Carey book but it's still a good read and worth the time.

[Justine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.

Weirdly, I have always had a bit of an issue with Carey’s writing style, but whatever it was that previously bothered me was nowhere in evidence in this top-notch duology. Both books are amazing, with complex characters and a story that never lags. This second book picks up the story smoothly from the first and absolutely sticks the landing.

[Ruxandra Grrr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was thiiiiis close to giving it a four-star rating, but it kind of fell short in the end. I think I was happy with the resolution of character journeys (though it felt too tidy, not messy enough for me), but the resolution of the systemic stuff didn't feel satisfying at all to me. Something about an all-powerful entity doing a literal deus ex machina, solving everything and having all that power didn't sit right with me, cause we're supposed to basically trust et to know what is best because of Paz-Dulcie? I don't know, maaaaaan. I am primed to mistrust that kind of authority figure!

Yeah, it was all about the ending with the rating, but I have to say I did enjoy a lot of the journey. The politics of this were in the right place for me (up to a point), and I enjoyed what it was saying about the characters, redemption, etc, but I never felt like I was *loving* it. It was interesting with how it explored AI freedom and the permutations of all kinds of collaborations between AIs and humanoids. There were a lot of small things from the first book that were relevant here, and this one was better paced. Did not notice one extraneous chapter like the previous one had, example: when it takes a few pages to explain that a rabbit-like humanoid will choose to run in an emergency.

That said, I think these two 500-page tomes should have been one book. The ending of the first one smells too much like a midpoint, actually.

3.5/5, rounded down.

[John Devlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me nostalgic for my youth when I heartily enjoyed a good space opera that balanced the grand scale vs the interpersonal drama.

The premise of many worlds and machine vs organic intelligence is not new but the author serves it up with enough nuance and spin to make the concepts engaging..

Where the book shines is in the well drawn characters that you’ll root for…

Perhaps a little bit too much deus ex machina but even that is delivered well…

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent! I had such a blast with the first book, and my only caveat was the infuriating cliffhanger of an ending. Echo of Worlds concludes the story and suffers from no such issue. This book kept the elements I loved, the adventure and sharp insights and witty lines (especially from Moon Sostenti), and kept me guessing. I did not see the twists and reveals coming, mostly, and was pleasantly surprised. I should add the disclaimer that despite loving Infinity Gate, what I remembered were broad strokes and I had to do quite a bit of rereading to bring me back up to speed on finer plot points--but I really didn't mind and enjoyed it as well the second time through.

I was given an ARC by the publisher and Netgalley, but I was absolut determined to read this after Infinity Gate, whether or not I got access to an advance copy, and I assure you that is has no bearing on my review. Plenty of fun and heist-y high stakes as our very oddball team tries to stop a war that will destroy life across hundreds, maybe thousands, of multiverse worlds inhabited by intelligent life. Recommended.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5* rounded down - This action-packed conclusion to Infinity Gate was pure entertainment. The immersive world-building of the first novel facilitated a more plot-intensive, faster-paced work with plenty of cinematic appeal (ie. Mission-Impossible-like heists, battles, explosions, chases, etc.).

Although it might sound like the set up for an action film, it certainly isn't absent of meaningful content. Carey does a deeper dive into big ideas explored in Infinity Gate. For example, questions of selfhood and identity are contemplated through:

- untethered AI’s that undergo experience-based learning, growth, and development
- organic minds decanted into digital substrate
- machine and organic hybrids
- individuality vs collective or merged consciousness

Alongside the entertaining story and philosophical ideas, the characters undergo significant development, in some cases redemptive transformation. And after any war, systemic upheaval, for better or for worse, is always fodder for reflection.

You really can't read Infinity Gate without also reading Echo of Worlds - and in my case, I totally enjoyed both.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

It felt like almost the inverse of the first book — starts with a rather uninteresting military sci-fi mission, but then ends up going to fascinating places that really add to the imaginative world-building.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Echo of Worlds is the sequel to Infinity Gate and I was disappointed to realise that there will be no further books in the series. The setting, an empire spanning thousands of parallel Earths, is fascinating and both books are highly entertaining fast-paced sci-fi thrillers. Echo of Worlds picks up immediately where Infinity Gate left off and follows the same main characters. The conflict between the Pandominion and rival AI empire is escalating and both sides are seeking a doomsday weapon that will end the war. Carey carefully shows how bureaucratic procedure and disregard for collateral damage can lead to genocide. The doomsday weapon planning chapters are suitably ominous and creepy. The Mother Mass is also an appealing and unsettling concept, which reminded me of Alasdair Reynolds' Inhibitor Phase.

Meanwhile the main characters, a ragtag band of escapees from many Earths and both empires, scramble for some way to avert looming catastrophe. They continue to be a very engaging lot and I enjoyed their desperate plots to infiltrate, rescue, steal, convince, etc. Carey switches point of view for each chapter, the same approach that worked so well in James S.A. Corey's Expanse series. Carey is also adept at bridging the gap between vast pan-universal empires and a small group of misfits, with the help of near-omniscient rebel AI Rupshe. Questions of identity and individuality of consciousness are considered in breathing spaces between exciting action scenes. The technological world-building is full of cool mind-bending details, explored in ingenious and often explosive ways. Events move speedily and I had a great time getting carried along by them. A friend pointed out that as the main characters include a bunny girl and a cat woman, on some level this series is a furry fantasy. But let's not worry about that. As I replied at the time, perhaps the reader is only supposed to notice if they're into it.

[Lata · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic finish to a fantastic duology. We leave author M.R. Carey's Pandominion and our main characters greatly changed.

Rupshe informs the group she's pulled into their's and Hadiz' Tambuwal's world that the Pandominion and the Ansurrection have stepped up their attacks, with the entire multiverse is at peril. Rupshe has a plan that will send them all over the multiverse to locate the Mother Mass, a mysterious and immensely powerful, who could stop both empires from annihilating everything.

The reluctant team consists of:
-Essien Nkanika, a former con artist then Cielo private trying to atone for his mistakes,
-Moon Sostenti, a Cielo corporal furious that a young lagomorph bested her, and Rusphe yanked her into a plan where Moon feels it best to eradicate the machine intelligences, and failing that, get blisteringly drunk
-Topaz Tourmaline Fivehills, an idealistic girl on the run from the Cielo
-Dulcie Coronal, a former spy for the Ansurrection, now firmly on Paz's side, and confined to a damaged anima, and
-Hadiz Tasmbuwal, a digital copy of the deceased physicist, confined to a box.

They must make multiple, extremely dangerous forays to other worlds, picking up much needed supplies and information, each Step taking them a little closer to their goal. Every trip heightens their danger, as Moon knows that it's just a matter of time before the Cielo track the team back to their base.

Carey doesn't miss a beat in this tense narrative, easily blending worldbuilding, action, humour and weighty philosophical questions without them feeling weighty into a narrative that picks up just after the end of book one of this series and leads nonstop to an unexpected and welcome conclusion.

Along the way, I fell even more in love with all the characters, though, the standout was the magnificent Paz, who comes up with important ideas, finds ways to connect with strangers, improvises well, and shows a level of unexpected toughness that I had not expected when I first met the formerly naïve, soft hearted girl. She retains her compassion and kindness throughout, while Essien and Moon find theirs, and Paz and Dulcie make some incredibly difficult decisions, which lead to the surprising and well-earned resolution to this terrific story.

Thank you to Netgally and to Orbit Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

[Jamedi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally on JamReads

Echo of Worlds is the second and final book in the science fiction duology Pandominion, written by M.R. Carey and published by Orbit Books. An explosive conclusion, with two superpowers threatening to destroy the other, the Pandominion and the Ansurrection, with a third force, the Mother Mass, that might be necessary if our group wants to stop the annihilation from both sides.

With all the previous build-in work done on Infinity Gate (and probably at this point, I might recommend doing a re-read before diving into Echo of Worlds), Carey sends us into a journey against the clock with our unlikely band; while the first book could be said it's more focused on the individuals and how they reunite, this one plays more with the collective idea, not discarding the elements, but using them in a different way.

An agile pacing that plays into the idea of the urgency makes the perfect complement to that unknown narrator that eventually gets revealed; each single element that was put in the tabletop is used, sort of fulfilling the Chekov's Gun principle. While the first book might have promised a longer series, I feel quite satisfied with how Carey decides to keep it as a duology with the potential of returning to this world that is quite similar to the Long Earth.

Echo of Worlds is a quite smart way to conclude the Pandomonion series, a perfect read for all the SF readers, especially those that love space opera and a more military approach at times. Carey shows why he's a master of the genre, and hopefully, I will continue reading his books in the future.

[Yuri Krupenin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Первая книга не была ничем выдающимся, но — была местами изящно и изобретательно написанной вещью, которой интересны и её персонажи и что-то в более широком мире; с налетом боевой фантастики и технотриллера.

Вторая каким-то образом пережевывает по второму разу все сюжетные биты первой (не бывшие и её сильной частью), и не делает особенно ничего сверх этого.

[Levi Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful, delightful ride. This series is shaping up to be one of my favorite space operas of all time.

We get all of the original cast of eclectic characters back, but now their paths all converge and they go on missions together—albeit reluctantly on the part of Moon Sostenti.

We pick up the plot of the war between the Hegemony and the Ansurrection. The war escalates explosively, and our ragtag group of friends are mere specks compared to the sheer magnitude of the events happening. And yet they take actions that affect the course of history, which isn’t unique in the space opera genre (which this undoubtedly is, although it’s notable for being a space opera epic where very little occurs in actual space).

But unlike in many other books, I actually buy that this group has such profound impact on the happenings of the universe (or the multiverse in this case). And it all boils down to Rupshi, the AI that Hadiz released from its programmed restraints, which can think freely for itself, for which a word is invented: untethered.

That fact is key because in the Pandominion, there are no untethered AIs. That is strictly verbotten, even more so now that they are at war with the machine hegemony, which is essentially one massive untethered AI.

And so Rupshi has a special status in the multiverse. She’s an untethered AI who is able to go after and procure massive resources and think deeply on different problems. She has an outsider’s perspective on the Pando, the Ansurrection, and the war, as well as everything else…

And now I’m being intentionally vague because in that “everything else” are a couple of very very key facts about the universe which has been mentioned before but ends up being key to understanding the history and future of the multiverse.

Gah! I struggled with whether to write this review with spoilers or not, but decided not to. Suffice it to say there is a lot of sheer awesomeness at the moment when Rupshi unlocks for them a really key understanding on the war that ties in previously mentioned fascinating details about the universe that now become extremely relevant. And Rupshi comes up with a way of solving the problem that only someone with an outsider’s perspective and a very creative mind would come up with. It’s the most exciting direction I could have thought of for the second book to go in.

Essentially, an apocalypse of such extreme proportions is coming that it is at an existentially profound scale. And only our group of “heroes” has a chance to stop it.

I put “heroes” in quotes because, and this leads me to another thing I love about this book, our cast is diverse in terms not just of biology and origins but also motives and personalities. I love that they aren’t all perfect paragons of virtue. Paz is cute and cuddly and endearing and very relatable, and arguably becomes the main protagonist in this story, but among the group are very selfish individuals who are also relatable in their own ways. I love just how amazingly diverse the viewpoints are of the main cast, which really adds to the effect of feeling that we are in a setting of grand scope, akin to Star Wars or the Expanse.

There’s also a sheer profusion of fascinating worldbuilding ideas in this series. Actually, I was disappointed to learn from Orbit’s site that this is the only other book that will be in this series. I really wish we got more books in this universe actually, in order to cover the breadth of ideas that are quickly touched on.

First, you have fascinating differences between machine intelligence and organic intelligence. For instance, one point that I love that they make is this: in the same way that biologic organisms struggle to believe that silicon-based organisms could be truly “alive,” silicon-based organisms struggle to believe that biologic organisms are truly alive. They would think of themselves as living, but why would they believe that we are actually living and not just the equivalent of advanced slime molds?

Second, you have the evolutionary origins of different sentient organic species being relevant to the plot and those things affect the cultures of those peoples and therefore how they interact with and view each other. For instance, I love how the implications of Pax's rabbit-like body is continually explored throughout the story. How would people see you differently if they were homonids and you weren't?

Third, you have machine intelligence being explored in multiple ways. What if AIs were joined into a hive mind? What if they were created by organic civilizations but then untethered? Or what if instead, they arose on their own with no prior knowledge of organic intelligences and had to figure out how to analyze them when they did? What might they think of us?

All of these and many more are touched on in a way that is very interesting, and yet it’s also only in passing as we go on the ride of the plot. Many of my favorite books are this way: this really intoxicating blend of worldbuilding and fast plot, this nice mix that’s not too fast, not too slow. Overall, I could stand for the pace to be just a little slower to explore even more of these fascinating thoughts MR Carey has on all of these topics that are of great interest to me. But it’s really delightful.

In summary, it’s really satisfying to see all of the main characters from the previous book now coming and working together on a grand mission. It’s satisfying to explore the most interesting parts of the multiverse and go in the most interesting directions. It’s epic and fun to have a romp across the multiverse while saving it all from certain destruction. The dialogue and interactions are pretty fun, and just about everything about this was delightful. The ending is epic on many levels.

So we could stop there. It’s really great; go out and buy it!

But if I’m nitpicking, the book isn’t perfect. The prose doesn’t impress. Also, I’m not completely satisfied with some of the character arcs which feel too sudden or black and white. And when interacting with a less advanced culture, or with some people group who plainly believes differently than the author, it sometimes feels as if they are painted as an ugly caricature.

And then there’s the pronoun thing, about which I have mixed feelings, and because of my peculiar type of nerdiness as an amateur linguist, I really want to divert to discuss. The normal review is over here, but stick around if you want to hear about linguistics.

In the book, they use a made-up pronoun, “et,” to refer to sentient artificial selves. Oh by the way, they use the word “self” when “person” would perfectly suffice. And “et” when “it” would perfectly suffice. Well, I say “perfectly suffice.” The point is made in the first book, Infinity Gate, that a machine consciousness would be very different from our own and using “it” denotes non-sentience.

Now, I do see his point, but at the same time, there’s really no reason that “it” couldn’t be co-opted to include sentient machine consciousnesses. And I like that option better, because no matter how many time this book uses the words “et,” “ets,” “etself,” etc., over and over, it just never comes to feel natural. It just rattles against the mind and sounds and feels weird, and therefore is a perpetual distraction.

There is an actual scientific reason for this. As someone who’s taken a few graduate-level linguistics classes, it reminds me of one of the interesting things about how the brain stores and processes language.

The brain divides all words into two types. Linguists call the first type “content words,” and they include nouns, adjectives, adverbs. “Cat,” “pretty,” “fast.” The second type they call “functional words,” and they include articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and—saliently to our discussion—pronouns.

Content words and functional words are stored in separate parts of the brain. It uses them differently. And if you think about it, it makes sense…in multiple ways, both from an evolutionary perspective as well as an efficiency standpoint.

You see, there are many animals that have a system of signals. When people say that bees have a language, or ants, etc., that’s not true. They don’t have true language, they have a limited set of signals, usually a small handful, with very specific meanings, and they aren’t able to really combine them together.

One of the definitions of language is the ability to combine words, to make an infinite amount of sentences—which we do spontaneously on the spot—as well as decode an infinite number of sentences, which we also do spontaneously on the spot. And the reason we can do that is the power of functional words. Functional words are basically the things that allow you to combine content words into complex thoughts.

Why did I go into that? Well, the brain not only stores these separately but processes them differently. Content words are easily added to the lexicon. Every year, scores of them are added to the global consciousness. Someone starts referring to pizza as “za,” and next thing you know, lots of people are. The brain is very accepting of new nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. For all intents and purposes, the amount of these in the human language is infinite—not in reality, mind you—but from the perspective of an individual speaker of a given language. You can spend your whole life learning new nouns every day and still never learn all the nouns in the English dictionary. The brain easily accepts new entries into these categories because it knows exactly what to do with them. It knows what you can do with something that’s a noun and furthermore, there are all kinds of subcategories of nouns. If I tell you a new color you didn’t know—fuchsia or what have you—it’s easy for you to immediately comprehend how to use that in sentences. It’s easy! You just use it in all the exact same ways that you would use blue, green, yellow.

But for functional words, it’s a different story. This is one of the key differences between the human brain and all other animal brains that we know of: we have functional words. And that is so key because each one of them is essentially like learning a new operator. By analogy, when you learned math, every new number you learned was just a new content word and learning it was trivial. But learning a new operator? Do you remember when you only knew how plus and minus worked, and then you had to learn how multiply and divide work? Or the exponent? Or integrals?

So, I have majorly digressed, but the point is this. The reason it feels so weird in your brain to try adapting to these new pronouns that various people try to proliferate is that your brain actually *does* react differently to them.

Pronouns are a type of functional word. You might think that pronouns are just a subset of nouns, but they really aren’t. Nouns always have a specific referent; only with pronouns the referent (the actual thing referred to) changes depending on context. If Levi and Bob are talking to each other and Levi says “I” he means Levi, but if Bob says it he means Bob. And “you” could mean all kinds of people, anyone so long as you are talking to them. Pronouns are essentially a way of combining conversational context (speaker/addressee/other) with noun-ness, gender, plurality, possessiveness, reflexiveness, and sentience (or whatever you want to call the distinction between “it” and the other pronouns). There is only a very small number of pronouns relative to the number of nouns, adjectives, or adverbs, and they are relatively static in English as well as all other known languages.

To be clear, every part of a language *does* change given enough time, but it has been shown that throughout the history of a language, functional words change orders of magnitude slower (or less frequently) than content words. Old English had another set of pronouns (thee, thy, thine, thineself) that have since been dropped. So pronouns can change given enough time. But it’s really rare.

This is mostly just a long observation, but if I had any “point” to this, I guess it would be this. If people want to be successful at changing the English language, they need to recognize the actual difficulties with getting something like that to change in the mass consciousness and approach the problem appropriately. It’s not going to be something that just easily catches on because one person started doing it, like “on fleek.” I don’t think it will be a single book that will a new pronoun change catch on. I think there would have to be a very coordinated if not centralized strategy.

Anyways. That really doesn’t majorly detract from the book, but I thought I would write it down and find out if it was interesting to anyone else besides me.

[Aldi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very moreish, great concepts, and overall a satisfying conclusion to this duology. The premise involved some really massive-scope elements and I love that MR Carey doesn’t shy away from the big ideas that don’t have easy answers. As in the first book, the exploration of personhood, organic and data-based, was wonderful.

I will say that this felt like a more visibly crafted book than the first one, and most of Carey’s other work. By this I mean that the narrative functions of the characters were pretty obvious at all times, and the messaging (about AI and technology, about sustainability, about autocracy, about humanity’s self-destructive tendencies) was somewhat heavy-handed. It didn’t detract from my enjoyment as such but it did at times feel like a very self-conscious story. I’d also hoped that some of the long-term plot would start coming together sooner, but events that were teased on literally the first few pages of the first book and that were pretty obvious/easy to anticipate didn’t coalesce until the very last part of the second book. There’s a lot of worldbuilding in this duology and it’s for the most part really captivating, but it did feel like the balance with payoff in terms of narrative resolution and character engagement was a bit off.

Still, you know, it’s MR Carey, so “a bit off” is generally still really fucking good.

[Azrah · Rating 4 out of 5]

[This review can also be found on my BLOG]

**I received a copy of the book from Orbit Books UK in exchange for an honest review**

CW: violence, gun violence, blood, injury, war, death, genocide/mass murder, kidnapping
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Echo of Worlds kicks off right where Infinity Gate left off with the culmination of the interdimensional war between the Pandominion and the Ansurrection. As with the first book this conflict is a key part of the overarching plot of the series however, the primary focus of the narrative lies with the multi-species rag-tag group of characters that we have slowly come to know and follows them on various missions as they try to put a stop to what looks to be the complete annihilation of the entire multiverse.

I was mistaken into thinking that this was going to be longer than a duology with the way the first book had this expansive space opera feel to it but nevertheless this sequel sure wrapped up the story in a satisfying way. All the groundwork has been laid so the storyline in this one leans much more on the action/adventure and character development side of things and whilst the pacing dragged in some parts, the overall thrill of the high stakes easily keeps you turning the pages to see how everything goes down.

I didn’t get a chance to go back and reread Infinity Gate before picking this up but a big difference I noticed was that there seemed to be less of a balance with the perspectives of the original protagonists this time round. Hadiz’s involvement for the most part was a little subdued, Essien felt much more like a background character and then Paz stepped more into a central role.

This could be down to the fact that the chronological narration at the start of the series gave each of those characters more of a spotlight before their paths aligned. That being said I was still very much invested in their individual journeys and loved how this dysfunctional found family feel developed between them all. I was surprised to find that Moon who was more of a secondary character in the first book played a bigger part too and I loved the contrast between her character and Paz. The banter between them was great.

The worldbuilding was still the most fascinating aspect and I enjoyed how there were moments where Carey zoomed out to the wider picture of this showdown between the Pandominion and the Ansurrection within the main storyline, even touching on some of the background and history to it all and how it in turn circled back to the unknown narrator. There are definitely some moments when you have to dispel belief but at the same time the discussions on the themes of power, personhood and prejudice ground the story too and give us much to think and reflect on with regards to the real world.

Overall, this was a solidly enjoyable duology that I’d highly recommend for its rich character work and wholly original take on the multiverse!
Final Rating – 4/5 Stars

[Jay Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had a lot of fun listening to this, delivered in erudite & scientific stanzas this duology explores a space opera set on a single planet Earth and all it's alternates across the multiverse. The science fiction of multiversal traversal and the implications of an infinite set of possible worlds inhabiting a mandelbrot set are used to explore the meaning of sentience, and self determination.

Interestingly In the stories universe our own world (Earth) is a minor backwater at the brink of an apocalypse caused by warring factions, we learn that other worlds in the extra dimensional empire that is the Pandominion are far more advanced socially, culturally and technologically than Earth. In fact humanity being descended from Apes is a suboptimal form of sentience being war like and flawed. In this universe world's where the sentient beings descend from rabbits (Lagomorphs) are far more stable and advanced.

The characters are thus pulled from across the multiversal Pandominion and feature different sentient species, life took different routes on parallel worlds. Most of the events in the story occur in an around Lagos Nigeria and it's multiversal counterparts; Lago Decaramo, Canoplex of planet Ut (a Rabbit earth) and others. It was refreshing to see an African country, city and even characters being central to the plot.

The story starts on our earth with a Nigerian scientist Hadiz Tambowell attempting to save her world from destruction before accidentally discovering "step technology" and becoming embroiled in an Interdimensional war that takes our characters on a philosophical journey of self discovery.

This story is about sentience or as the author says "Self-hood"; what is a self? Who is a self? What about AI and the implications of digital sentience. What forms can sentience take and can a sentient species recognise sentience in another species? What are the implications when different sentient species discover one another but don't understand each other? Interspecies communication is a thread handled deftly with aplomb.

The story boasts strong and distinct characters from all walks of life and life forms. I recommend as a fun caper tackling philosophical themes on identity, family and artificial intelligence.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

How much I had forgotten since I read the first book in the series just 7 months ago. It took me a while to get myself situated with the band of characters, stepping from one town in the multiverse to another with “like” conditions. What is different this time is the role created for a supercomputer that did all the calculations to keep things humming along, but without any context. In other words, like a child savant. What happens when that child starts asking questions, when weapons are aimed at planets where the life forms are unknown to us but clearly exist? Lots to ponder w/r/t the future of A.I. and the definition of sentient life. It did drag in places where it felt overly long/repetitive, but, overall it’s interesting and enjoyable as a sci-fi adventure. 4.5 rounded up.

[kartik narayanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both the books in the series were great, but I think they should have been printed as one. I liked how the ending is not a deus ex machina like in the Naked God trilogy, but is an actual rational solution.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spoiler: This is book two of a series. I will probably be referring to stuff that happens in book one, so if you don't want to be spoiled go read that first.

Generalities: great writing, good characters, incredible world-building (or should I say worlds-building plural since we are, after all, talking about the multiverse) and good whatever else is important that I can't think of right now.

The multiverse. In this duology scientists have figured out a way to "skip" between parallel worlds, which is what we used to call the multiverse back in my day until someone figured out that if they were really parallel there wouldn't be any differences between them just like parallel lines that are one inch apart are always one inch apart. Whatever you want to call it they have figured out a way to communicate and travel between worlds that are very similar (humans reign) and dissimilar (rabbits reign). I assume there's one where frogs reign but that's not featured in the books. And once communication and travel gets started it inevitably leads to the Pandominion. Not "pandemonium" but pan- (meaning many) plus -dominion (meaning rule). An organized government spanning hundreds of thousands of Earths. Because the stars are too far away and communication too slow to have a dominion like we usually see in sf. So 'Earth' or 'Ut' or whatever you call your version in your part of the multiverse it's connected tot he greater Pandominion. Not to say that every single instance of Earth out there is included. There are some where advanced life never got going, some that declined to be part of the Pandominion not to mention the gazillion other slices of the multiverse where no one has explored yet.

But what should happen one day? Explorer probes discover life out in the multiverse and it ain't human, it ain't lagomorph either (that's what they call the bunnies), it's machine life. [cue suspenseful music] And not just machine life but a kind of all-is-one hive thing that doesn't understand that single selves are unique beings that are sentient, and therefore the machines think these things that keep popping out of the multiverse to attack them (because what else would you do if you discovered machine intelligent but go to war? Everyone's seen The Matrix. We know what could happen if we don't wipe them out.) are just animals and they swat them down with a vengeance.

While the leaders of the Pandominion are trying to find ways to win the war against the machines, our intrepid heroes (Paz the bunny child, Dulcie the AI friend who used to be a machine spy, Moon and Essian the former elite soldiers of the Pandominion called Cielo, physicist Hadiz Tambuwal who used to be human but is now an AI because she uploaded herself into a box, and Rupshe the AI comrade of Hadiz who has a plan. Oh, and AIs are referred to as 'et' instead of 'it', which I find annoying but whatever. Everyone has to have their own personal pronoun these days, even AIs.

Rupshe says that if they don't prevent the Pando (I'm so sick of writing out the full word) and the machines (which thankfully do not have a name for their empire) from fighting all out war then they will just end up killing each other off. It's happened before in the way long time ago past. Called a "Scour" event, scouts would find worlds with absolutely no life at all, not even microbes. Rupshe theorizes that the Scour worlds show extinction events from the past where two mighty empires collided and if they want to save a crap-zillion selves (the quaint way they refer to 'people') then they are gonna have to stop it. Rupshe has a plan but et doesn't tell the whole plan to the gang but just the next step. Hmm...that's not suspicious at all.

Part of Rupshe's plan is to contact the Mother Mass, a Gaia world that the Pando had tried communicating with in the past only to have selves die from this massive mind trying to understand these itsy bitsy ittle minds that are so fragile. To do so they first have to find the coordinates, which are a closely held secret in the upper eschalons of the Pando.

Stuff happens, more stuff happens, and even more stuff happens culminating in a satisfying ending. And for once an author didn't try to stretch out their story into the ubiquitous trilogy but kept it at two books because that's all the story needed.

One final note: don't underestimate a Lagomorph just because they look like a bunny. Those feet pack a wallop!

[Jake]

Really enjoyed Infinity Gate and looking forward to the sequel. I loved the exploration of diversity and different types of lifeforms and the way they relate to their worlds. In Infinity Gate I definitely felt the big societal (cosmic, in this case) changes that are unfolding in this story and I really did enjoy the thread of optimism and empathy throughout. I’m sure this book won’t disappoint:)

Will write a full review after I have a chance to read this.

[Gbolahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fingers crossed. I haven't read a Carey story I didn't like. (Feb 2024)




(July 2024): So. Mixed feelings. 3.5/5
Not quite a 4/5
Readable scifi. Fast paced. Die-hardesque.

Realistic ending, to be honest, it's just...

I don't know.

[Dana Nourie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. I enjoyed it even more than the first book. This one is a continuation of the same fascinating story, interesting and believable characters, and intriguing science speculations. I’m going after the author’s other novels. The writing and pacing was excellent!

[Saif Shaikh | Distorted Visions · Rating 4 out of 5]

Advanced Review Copy provided in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley.

Score: 3.5/5 (rounded to 4/5)

Since this is an ARC, the review aims to be as Spoiler-free as possible.

Read this review and more on my Medium Blog: Distorted Visions


A fresh take on the often-trod setting of the multiverse, Echo of Worlds is the gripping conclusion to the Pandominion duology, following the well-received Infinity Gate.

The sequel continues the high-octane conflict between the multi-Earth governance Pandominion, as they face the looming threat of the Machine Hegemony, known as the Ansurrection. This greater conflict was set up in the closing chapters of Infinity Gate. The first book dealt with the worldbuilding of the reality-teleporting “step plate” technology and how that gave rise to the Pandominion. It also introduced and fleshed out the key players of the series, brought from various factions and various realities, forced together to face the larger threat facing the entire Pandominion. Thereby setting up the central premise of Echo of Worlds.

Echo of Worlds follow our rag-tag group of unlikely protagonists, the artificially enhanced rabbit-analog Topaz “Paz” Tourmaline FiveHills, her friend-but-actually-imposter-Hegemony-traitorous AI being, Dulcimer “Dulcie” Standfast Coronal, the fox-analog grizzled Pandominion jarhead Moon Sostenti and human-soldier-dealing-with-battle-PTSD Essien Nkanika, the treacherous Watchmaster Orso Vemmet, as well as the scientist-turned-AI Hadiz Tambuwal and her faithful benevolent super-AI friend, Rupshe. Forced together by the culmination of the events of the first book, this multi-species, the multi-allegiance group has to work together to come up with a plan to thwart the inevitable Mutually Assured Destruction event, the Scour, from annihilating both the Ansurrection as well as the billions of lives across all realities of the Pandominion.

With stakes as mind-bogglingly vast as this, Carey does an amazing job zooming in and out between the “bigger” picture of the reality-spanning conflict, as well as the smaller set-pieces of our protagonists navigating various subquests to effect a change in the larger conflict. While many of these set-pieces felt a bit too “checkpoint-y” and not properly motivated beyond “benevolent AI says this will help the war effort so we must push on”, it does help to ground the reader into a more familiar territory rather than getting lost in the technobabble that multiverse sci-fi usually devolves into.

The compression of this series into a duology caused uneven pacing issues and a rushed second half as the plot raced toward its conclusion. Carey does a serviceable job tying up all the loose ends in a reasonably satisfying way, I cannot help but feel a wee bit shortchanged in the journey to get there. There was plenty of material and an expansive plot structure to spend the requisite time fleshing out a more robust second act to make even the dreaded “middle book” a rewarding setup for the final conflict in what could have been an explosive conclusion to the trilogy.

A particular gripe was that the Mother Mass was set up to be a key plot element (not a spoiler since it is mentioned in the official synopsis). Still, the entire plotline felt quite lackluster and left me scratching my head about its ultimate need in the overall story. It was also the aspect of the book where the story dived into the metaphysical side of SciFi which is often my least favorite aspect of this genre, and I find myself glossing through the overly philosophical sections. Again, Carey does a much better job than other writers, but if your name doesn't begin with Adrian and end with Tchaikovsky, these overtly abstract set pieces are best left out.

The author tried his level best to give some level of depth, to varying degrees of success. I preferred the more morally grey characterization of all the protagonists in Infinity Gate and the switch to “we have to be on the same side, the side of good” felt a bit hamfisted, with only Sostenti’s character devolving into the stereotypical naysayer. Paz’s character too felt too hero-washed and her character became more of a caricature of the “even a small creature can change the universe” trope, again, a little too heavy-handed. To repeat, many of these issues would have been assuaged greatly by the luxury of having a third book to flesh out the characters, their motivations, their roles in the plot, and the overarching conflict to yield a more thorough product.

Still, Echo of Worlds is a satisfying and largely enjoyable read, with cool concepts, and a fresh take on the tired multiverse trope that Marvel has driven into the ground. With influences ranging from the Culture series to the Children of Time series, along with a smattering of other classic and modern sci-fi elements, Echo of Worlds and the Pandominion duology can largely be called a success!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what an end to the duology! I have to say, the sequel for me actually outshines the first installment a bit. Carey has really done a lot here: really effective multi-POV storytelling, lots of excitement, meaningful diversity, and thoughtful treatment of ethical and philosophical questions. In the first book I found some POVs more compelling than others, but in this one each finds its place and they all work together well. I feel like everything about this duology feels very deliberate: nothing is filler, nothing is extra, everything works together toward the conclusion and what a conclusion it is. This duology is the first of Carey's work I've read and on this basis, I'll definitely be checking out more.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

Content warnings: violence, war, murder, death, gun violence, blood, injury detail, discussion of genocide

[TonyR · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent sequel to Infinity Gate - further development of the ideas introduced in that book. Interesting notions of how AI could develop, the interactions between purely organic and purely machine intelligences and also hybrids. Although one could imagine that infinite resources would abolish conflict, there are still scenarios with accidental conflicts between intelligences that don’t quite understand each other. References to Stanislaw Lem’s Them but with a twist. Having read Carey’s biographical notes I can understand how this feels like it could be developed into a script - it could make a great set of movies. Happy to have them on my shelves as books - and probably to be reread one day.

[Goshak · Rating 4 out of 5]

As fun as the first book, with bits that read almost like The Three-Body Problem. Also, the ending is a bit random, with most events of the novel making no significant difference in the end. And I’m assuming no further sequels are planned? I’m fine with it, to be honest.

[Jeroen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this series.