Title: Infinity Son
Author: Adam Silvera
Publication Date: January 14, 2020
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Format: Edelweiss eARC
Balancing epic and intensely personal stakes, bestselling author Adam Silvera’s Infinity Son is a gritty, fast-paced adventure about two brothers caught up in a magical war generations in the making.
Growing up in New York, brothers Emil and Brighton always idolized the Spell Walkers—a vigilante group sworn to rid the world of specters. While the Spell Walkers and other celestials are born with powers, specters take them, violently stealing the essence of endangered magical creatures.
Brighton wishes he had a power so he could join the fray. Emil just wants the fighting to stop. The cycle of violence has taken a toll, making it harder for anyone with a power to live peacefully and openly. In this climate of fear, a gang of specters has been growing bolder by the day.
Then, in a brawl after a protest, Emil manifests a power of his own—one that puts him right at the heart of the conflict and sets him up to be the heroic Spell Walker Brighton always wanted to be.
Brotherhood, love, and loyalty will be put to the test, and no one will escape the fight unscathed.
Last year, I asked for both more superhero books and more books about sibling bonds, and Adam Silvera so kindly delivered.
Ask and ye shall receive, apparently. I read They Both Die at the End last year, after much cajoling from other bloggers I know, and I enjoyed it, but didn’t love it (I tend not to be a huge contemporary fan, in general). Still, I liked Silvera’s writing style, so when I found out he was releasing a fantasy book, I knew it was meant to be. This checks off soooo many things for me.
✔ Superheroes with freaking awesome powers.
✔ Sibling bonds and siblings against the world.
✔ Diverse characters (Latinx, genderqueer, F/F, M/M)
✔ PHOENIXES (which is a trope I will never grow tired of)
✔ Humans modifying themselves because they learn zero lessons ever
Infinity Son is set in a world where some heroes are born with powers and some steal them from the blood of magical creatures. It’s packed with action and raises the question: is blood thicker than water?
This book has received a lot of mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it, for the most part. My biggest problem was the ending, but the rest? With sweet brotherly love, a focus on phoenixes (my second loves, after dragons), and superheroes, there was so much here to enjoy.
❧ I have a love for reluctant heroes (probably because if I were ever to be a hero, reluctant is the only sort I’d be), and oh how I feel for Emil in this.
If you’re looking for a hero that comfortably slips into his new role like a bespoke spandex suit … this is gonna be a pass for you. Emil doesn’t want powers. And who would? The world writ large isn’t thrilled with anyone with powers at this point, and anyone who has powers is basically expected to risk their life. Who needs that kind of stress in their life? Especially when you’re getting ready to start college. Isn’t that enough?
My favorite part about Emil was his relatability. Brighton is the brother that comes across as confident and self-assured, but Emil? Emil has some serious doubts—about his ability to save people, whether he’s worthy to be a hero, about his body and his future.
His character hit me hard, because a lot of the things he struggles with are things that I’ve also struggled with. I mean, not the superhero part, obviously. But the other things.
❧ I love the idea of the magic in this book. The execution needs a bit of work (see world-building below), but the magic (and magical creatures) in this world were exciting.
THERE’S PHOENIXES! I mean, they’re not dragons, but it’s a pretty close second. I loved all the little nuances and things we were able to learn about phoenixes, and especially the fact that Emil was obsessed with them. Pffft, who wouldn’t be? My lazy, non-athletic, couch-potato butt would train and climb Mount Everest if I knew I’d be able to get a phoenix egg at the top. So a world with phoenixes, among a host of other interesting magical creatures? Count me in.
To complement the array of magical creatures, there was a lot of varying magical abilities, which had me looking forward to seeing what else these people could do.
I’ve got a thing for superheroes. The more unique powers, the better. This made the fight scenes actiony and fun, and I look forward to seeing what powers the rest of this series has in store.
❧ A book about brotherly bonds and to what extent you’ll go for family! Be still, my heart. <3
I’m a sucker for books with strong familial bonds. It warms my cold, blackened heart … just a little. That’s part of what first attracted me to this book. The idea of one brother getting powers the other so desperately coveted sounded like a delightfully tense and dramatic situation. Did it live up to that? Sort of.
It’s hard not to root for these brothers, because they seem like such an inseparable team, but this book tests just how true that is. And I loved it.
Not because I love the possibility of families being broken up and irrevocably destroyed. Though, okay, I do. Because drama and heart break is delicious. I really enjoyed the speculation, the idea of what would you do in this instance, and having each brother pushed to their own limits and have to decide what their own path was going to look like.
❧ There’s some pretty serious, heavy discussion about what constitutes a superhero and who the “good guys” actually are.
I love anything that really poses moral questions and encourages the reader to think for themselves. Moral grayness is what I live for. It seems like a given, from the start, that the celestials, and particularly the Spell Walkers, are obviously the heroes. Duh. Buuuut … then you meet them. And wow, did I have some questions. I just really enjoyed this dynamic.
“Killing to save the world is different, bro.”
“Heroes shouldn’t have body counts.”
❧ There’s a really cute budding romance towards the end of this, and I’m eager to see what will become of it.
I mean, when you hear “Adam Silvera,” for better or worse, you think M/M, tug-at-your-heartstrings, make-your-feels-ache relationships, right?! For better or worse, it is what it is. That’s where Silvera’s strength lies (though that’s not to say he can’t do other things just as well). I was excited to see it come through here, too.
If you’re going into the book expecting a romance plotline to be a big part of the book, you’ll be disappointed, because it’s very much a subplot. Doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.
Just a fair warning, because based on some reviews, I think people were expecting it to be a fantasy/romance, and this book just isn’t. The next book, though? I sure hope so. I’m looking forward to it.
❧ The world-building and history of this book needs some work. It’s practically non-existent, and I spent most of the time thinking I’d missed something, because I was confused.
I wanted to love this world so much, because I felt I could see where it was going, but it didn’t quite make it there. The world appears to be a mostly modern world, except with both magic and magical creatures. Dragons previously existed, but are extinct, like the dinosaurs. Phoenixes and basilisks exist. So do superpowers. But also, so do cell phones and modern inventions and YouTube and Instagram. The world is obviously divergent from ours, but there’s not enough of a history or backstory of the actual world. Magic simply exists … just because it can, I guess?
There was also this massively important event called the Blackout, but I’m really spotty on the details. Which is probably a bad sign, since this is supposed to be the turning point where the country decided that powers were a threat and that people with powers should be hunted.
There are four groups of people repeatedly mentioned: celestials, Spell Walkers, Blood Casters, and specters. It was difficult trying to keep them straight.
I mean, I eventually got it sorted, but it took a good chunk of the book to figure it out. Celestials are born with powers and specters get their powers from the blood of magical creatures. Then, Blood Casters are a faction of scepters and Spell Walkers are a faction of celestials. None of this was satisfactorily explained, I felt. Add into that Enforcers, who I suppose are the police force, but they use wands that are created with the blood of celestials, which can be super powerful and lethal.
It’s just … a lot. A lot of things are poorly (or sometimes not at all) explained. The saddest part is that this world has so much freaking potential to be brilliant. It just really needed to be fleshed out a bit more.
❧ In my opinion, there wasn’t enough build-up to the ending. None of the characters’ decisions made sense, and it ended up leaving a really bitter taste in my mouth.
This was a solid four-star read until about the 80 – 90% mark, maybe, when everything went sideways, and this was crushing. There’s nothing like a fumble in the ninth inning that loses the game.
The worst part is that I felt like the ending could have been super effective if there had been just a little more care and build-up given to character arcs.
As it stands, I just didn’t see a clear path from A to B, which left me scratching my head where some characters were concerned. Not because I couldn’t see them behaving that way, but I didn’t understand why they were behaving that way suddenly. This wasn’t just a one-off with any particular character, but happened with at least three different characters. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I missed something. But I was confused.
❧ The story was told from multiple points of view, but they all sort of sounded the same.
There were quite a few times when I actually forgot whose chapter I was in and had to scroll back mid-chapter to see who it was. Well, it was either that or be lazy and cross my fingers that an obvious reference came up that would tell me who it was. This happened most often for me with Emil and Brighton, whose characters were entirely different personality-wise, but it wasn’t obvious from their voice.
❧ All the major conflicts felt like they were resolved too easily.
The build-up was there and all the right tension, but when it came to the final showdown, even for subplots, it kind of fizzled for me. I never really felt like the stakes were as high as the book assured me they were.
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Have you read other Silvera books? What’s your favorite? If you could have one mythological creature’s power, which one would you choose?
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I don’t think Adam Silvera is known for his world building skills, so that may be why they were lacking. But this sounds like it has a lot of good stuff in it😁
I mean … I guess that’s pretty fair. xD His niche is contemporary, so there’s not generally a ton of world-building needed for that. It’s just a different ball game entirely from fantasy.
Sounds like a fun book, even with the lack of detailed worldbuilding. I’ll have to keep this one on my radar because it sounds sweet.
I definitely had fun with it, even with my gripes! And honestly, most of my gripes were issues towards the end of the book.
Fab review! I’m definitely curious t o see how I will react to this one now… I loved his contemporaries though. xx
Maybe if you’re not a big fantasy reader, you might not notice the world-building issue? But I feel like, as someone who reads a lot of fantasy, I sort of expect it.
Ah that does make sense! I do enjoy a good worldbuilding in my fantasy reads, but I don’t read a lot of fantasy in general so I might be ok.
Great review, Sammie! Hmm… I can see where the conflict comes from when people read this because it sounds like the good stuff is great and really interesting but then the lack of world building sounds… pretty frustrating and can easily leave people confused? Especially when readers can’t properly understand where all the magic comes from or how it works. Also unsatisfying endings are the worst 😅 I am still keen to give this a try though but I’m definitely lowering down my expectations!
The reviews of this seem to be really divided, so I’ll be interested to see where you fall with it. xD I think it was pretty evenly balanced between the things I enjoyed and the things I didn’t, but I’ll probably still pick up the sequel, so the ending didn’t completely ruin it for me lol.
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