To start things out: the Pandominion is a Federation-esque multiverse-spanning body consisting of a million-ish alternate versions of Earth. The obvious advantage of being able to hop at will around an infinite number of alternate Earths is a complete lack of scarcity; there’s always a nice, uninhabited version of Earth ready to supply whatever resources you need. The Pandominion has recently encountered the Machine Hegemony, an organization of similar scale comprising a single, distributed artificial intelligence. As the Pandominion is in general rather paranoid about AIs (though they rely on them heavily) conflict was pretty much inevitable.
The book is divided into roughly three sections. The first is centered on a physicist from our Earth, who discovers the technology to jump between multiverses too late to prevent humanity from tearing itself apart in resource wars. The second is centered on a guy who grew up in the slums of a parallel Lagos, one very similar to our own. The third is centered on a girl from the Pandominion who gets caught up (for, to be fair, very good reasons even if not her fault) in the fear and paranoia of the war with the machines.
The big theme of the books seems to be centered on who gets to be considered a person. The Pandominion is very clear in their opinion. They’re very accepting of different sapient species. (The guy from Lagos, Essien, his first encounter with a citizen of the Pandominion, who happens to have evolved from a cat-like species, is revealing. He blurts out “What are you?” to which the response is “Well, that’s fucking rude. A self is what I am, the same as you, but with better manners.”) AIs, though, aren’t people, and can’t really think anyway: they can just mimic it. They can even be made to think that they think, but they’re still just machines.
The first section, as the physicist (Hadiz) realizes what she’s discovered, is good if rather bleak. The second section, Essien’s, I honestly felt dragged. Essien has been dealt a pretty shitty hand at life, growing up as he does in the slums of Lagos, but he responds to the injustices he experiences by being, bluntly, a selfish prick. I kept thinking that Carey’s editor dropped the ball here, and should have pushed to cut a few chapters that just felt unnecessary. The third section, featuring Topaz Tourmaline FiveHills (generally known as Paz, who happens to be descended from a rabbit-like species) is our chief “insider’s” view of the Pandominion, and I was enjoying it quite a lot. Then shit hits the fan, and Paz finds herself on the run in yet another alternate version of Lagos, and I again found myself thinking this sequence wasn’t necessary and should have been cut.
Credit where credit is due, though: I was wrong. Carey knew where he was going with this, and everything came full circle for the climax. So if anyone else shares my feeling that things are starting slow, please accept my assurance that it’s going somewhere worthwhile.
There’s also a low-key mystery spread throughout the books: we don’t know who exactly is telling the story. It’s clear that whoever the narrator is, they’re an AI, but other than that, I have no idea. It reminds me of Jemisin’s Broken Earth in this regard.
I’ve been a Mike Carey fanboy for a good long time now, and I’m happy to say that this book hasn’t changed that in the slightest.
Comes out March 28.