Circus Infinite

Khan Wong creates a rainbow-sparkle interplanetary consortium of worlds that includes 9 species, as well as a sentient star. There are evil scientists and mafiosos dogging our hero Jes's heels, but the focus is on the emotional texture of his experiences. Appropriate, since one of his unusual abilities is empathy--he experiences the emotions of people around him directly. Can Jes find a place for himself after running away from his home planet where his parents despised him and sold him off for scientific experiments? Can an asexual boy find romantic love (he's not aromantic)? How can he get a blackmailing circus landlord off his back and those of his newfound friends? Finding out will be entertaining and touching.

I thought the plot, the setting, and the pacing were all fantastic. The only things that left me scratching my head were elements of worldbuilding, but I let that go pretty quickly. Wong himself is a circus performer, so the depiction of the dynamics of circus life rang especially true. There's enough interesting questions raised by the unusual worldbuilding to allow for a whole universe of sequels. This was Wong's debut novel and I hope he writes more.

This came up in my ARC list recently. First off, it’s published by Angry Robot. If you don’t know Angry Robot, they describe themselves as seeking to ‘find and give a platform to new voices and new stories that push the boundaries of genre fiction, mess them about, and put them back together again in all kinds of awesome ways – we like to think of ourselves as “genrefluid”.’

When it comes to traditionally published novels, if I’m reading it, there’s a good chance it’s an Angry Robot book.

The Circus Infinite offers up one of the finest found family stories I’ve read in a while – and I love me some found family. It’s an epic tale filled with flawed and adorable characters set in an exquisitely imagined universe.

Jes is a fugitive who hasn’t known love – or even kindness – since his grandparents died when he was a child. He escapes from a mysterious institution, where he’d been studied, tortured, and experimented on and makes his way to the one place he assumes his captors won’t think to look for a sex-repulsed asexual: a seedy pleasure moon in the furthest reaches of the known galaxy.

I suspect the author won’t mind when I say this is an eleganza extravaganza of an adventure that is, by turn, chilling, heartwarming, infuriating, and affirming.

This science fantasy novel explores the nuances of consent and acceptance through the medium of a compelling and unconventional story.

The plot does meander a bit in the middle. But I can forgive that when the characters are as wonderful as Jes, Bo, Esmee, Essa, Quint, and the gang.

Think A Closed and Common Orbit crashes headlong into Space Unicorn Blues with a little sprinkling of The Android’s Dream for good measure.

I received an advance review copy via Queer Sci-Fi for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.