For certain, The Infinity Gene is fast-paced with a likeable heroine. Thankfully, for genres of this nature, for me as a male reader, the romance was nicely touched upon, sweet and just sprinkled in strong plot points and the heroine, Aeris, is never reduced to a blubbering figure who pines over her guy, Hunter.
My problem is the story’s credibility. Many times, Aeris is on the run, but at the same time there are many periods in the book where she’s hiding and resting, even riding horses, and discussing with many of the key players in the book. I like the balance of action and quiet, but I didn’t understand the place of the “Tribunal” in this world. Is this world not a dystopian society, but rather, our contemporary world with democratic countries, and this “Tribunal” is just one of the hundreds of bureaucratic, neutral agencies that currently exist? If so, the members of the Tribunal wouldn’t resort (and they don’t, in this book) to the tools of oppression typically used in books such as The Hunger Games, tools like massive military presence, torture, targeted executions, and subterfuge. Indeed, what I’ve read of the discussions between members of the Tribunal is that they sound reasonable and nuanced—they discuss pros and cons and weigh the evidence. Not terrible villains. I wasn’t sure why at various points in the story “men” were on the chase for Aeris. What fear or terrible outcome would happen to their “world" if they left Aeris alone? In fact what is their “world”?
There was a strange scene where Aeris enters a bar and makes her way through crowds and blaring music to a private room with a "head honcho" who sounds like a drug kingpin, and then later on there's a fistfight that appears out of nowhere? Lots of action, but no sense.
I was a bit confused at times by the plot. Why was the villain’s daughter tied up under orders of the villain and placed in a dangerous situation at the very beginning of the book? Why are so many characters in the book—King, Aeris's father, and Gage living so close to one another? What is their relationship to one another, as they have very different life paths that just don’t cross. As neighbours, they must have been aware of one another for several years. I felt a bit strange when Aeris talks to her father and can’t express her fears. If I had been there in that scene, I wouldn’t have understood her fears either. Why are people after her? I felt like the father at that point in the book, thinking, “Hey, yes, all seems well… how are you doing?”
One interesting part in the story that just appears once and has no lasting relevance is when Hunter and Aeris swim to an island, the middle one of five, see a nice home on it that belongs to Hunter, and then they swim back to the mainland immediately. That was a real head-scratcher, but it was fun as a fantasy. As well as imagining sleeping out in the countryside in a barn on nothing but hay and seeing the stars out at nighttime. Maybe the whole story would make more sense to me as a fantasy where Aeris imagines all these things happening to her.
And the book starts with a cliffhanger from a previous book and ends again in a cliffhanger. This is a book with a "middle" feel and this is more difficult for me as reader.