374 pages
James S. Parker
Morgan James Fiction, 2021
Amazon Description: Every year, all across the planet, people simply vanish, completely disappear and are never seen again. Some areas of the world are well known for this phenomenon. Infinity’s Gateway opens with a very famous incident that took place just after the end of World War II with the United States Navy. The story then jumps to the present day with an unexplainable event that occurs off the coast of Florida, an event that cannot be ignored by the military.
The Navy ship Eclipse and its crew are sent to investigate, but after several days come up empty. Two days before returning to port, the event reoccurs, and the Eclipse is caught up in something it cannot escape. The Eclipse and its crew suddenly find themselves completely isolated, all communication lost, surrounded by a terribly hostile environment where each day is a struggle to survive. Infinity’s Gateway is an intense, action packed story of survival, self-reliance, and discovery.
This book was mailed to me in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I was in no way obligated to provide positive commentary.
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If you scroll through my blog feed and look at the books I’ve reviewed you’ll probably realize that I’m not usually a fan of sci-fi. I’ve read some in this genre and even enjoyed it, but I don’t usually reach for it for the same reason I tend to gravitate towards fiction instead of nonfiction — it feels like more work. World building is a big thing in science fiction and sometimes it can be hard to get acclimated to a set of rules and environment that is totally new to you. I didn’t feel that way about Infinity’s Gateway, and I think it’s because it begins in our regular normal world and when things begin to change, the characters are experiencing it at the same time you are. They are learning the new rules along with the reader, which is easier than being dropped into a world where everyone knows what is happening except you.
I was initially intrigued by the idea of this story being built around the Bermuda Triangle, and that did come into play. One thing I didn’t really like is that it had kind of a slow start to me. I felt like the action didn’t start picking up until about page 75-80, and I think the author could have cut out some repetitive or irrelevant sections on the front end to make it a little more propulsive. Once I reached the point where there was more action it was an engaging story and the mystery of their situation was intriguing and not too far-fetched for me to get on board with.
One thing I will say, which is neither a compliment nor a complaint, is that I didn’t realize Infinity’s Gateway is the first book in a trilogy when I started out, so I wasn’t prepared for the cliff-hangery ending. I started to get a little nervous as I approached the last 10% or so of the book because at that point I was beginning to suspect that there weren’t enough pages left for any of the mysteries to be fully resolved. Like a said, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; just know going in that there’s not a tidy bow around the ending.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Infinity’s Gateway once I got some momentum going. I will probably pick up the next one in the series to see what happens next, and I’m glad I stepped out of my genre wheelhouse and tried something a little new.