Infinity Gate


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Mike Carey
 Excerpt from Translation State copyright © 2023 by Ann Leckie
 Excerpt from Paradise-1 copyright © 2023 by Little, Brown Book Group Limited
 Cover design by Nico Taylor—LBBG
 Cover images by iStock
 Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
 The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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 First Edition: March 2023
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 Library of Congress Control Number: 2022949332
 ISBNs: 9780316504386 (trade paperback), 9780316504560 (ebook)
 E3-20230215-JV-NF-ORI
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
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 Acknowledgements
 Discover More
 Extras
 
 Meet the Author
 A Preview of "Translation State"
 A Preview of "Paradise-1"
 Also by M. R. Carey
 Praise for the Novels of M. R. Carey
 
 
 
 
 Begin Reading
 Table of Contents
 
 
 
 
 Praise for the Novels of M. R. Carey
 
 The Rampart Trilogy
 “[Carey builds] a broken world that is both marvelously expansive and claustrophobically menacing.… Fans of postapocalyptic science fiction will find plenty to hold their attention.”
 —Publishers Weekly
 
 
 “This series just gets better and better. Clever, compassionate, and genuinely immersive.”
 —Joanne Harris
 
 
 “This is a bold, unique world—be prepared to be engrossed.”
 —SciFiNow
 
 
 “A beautiful book. Gripping, engaging, and absolutely worth the time it takes to burrow yourself into its reality. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”
 —Seanan McGuire
 
 
 “M. R. Carey hefts astonishing storytelling power with plainspoken language, heartbreaking choices, and sincerity like an arrow to the heart.”
 —Locus
 
 
 “The cadence and pacing of [Koli’s] voice adds a depth and richness to the strange and malevolent world.”
 —Booklist
 
 
 “A thought-provoking and deeply engaging story. Profoundly and doggedly humane.”
 —C. A. Fletcher
 
 
 “An exciting post-apocalyptic coming-of-age trilogy.”
 —Shelf Awareness
 
 
 “Narrator Koli’s inquisitive mind and kind heart make him the perfect guide to Carey’s immersive, impeccably rendered world.… A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.”
 —Kirkus
 
 The 
 
 As M. R. Carey
 The Girl With All the Gifts
 Fellside
 The Boy on the Bridge
 Someone Like Me
 THE RAMPART TRILOGY
 The Book of Koli
 The Trials of Koli
 The Fall of Koli
 THE PANDOMINION
 Infinity Gate
 As Mike Carey
 
 FELIX CASTOR NOVELS
 The Devil You Know
 Vicious Circle
 Dead Men’s Boots
 Thicker Than Water
 The Naming of the Beasts
 
 
 
 
 To Chris and Pam, who take us places and bring us back to ourselves
 
 
 
 
 0
 They say that children born in wartime are likely to have problems throughout their lives; to struggle both with the uncertainties of the world and with their own emotions and to search in vain for happiness.
 This has not been true for me. I was born in one of the biggest conflicts this universe has ever seen, the war between the vast empire called the Pandominion and the machine hegemony (which may have been greater still), and what I remember most of all is the moment when I was suddenly able to reflect on my own existence. I had been a thing but now I was a sentient, a self in the language of