The Infinity Courts

Starred review from February 1, 2021

Gr 8 Up-Nami Miyamoto really can't complain: great family, good grades, and a budding romance with her best friend Finn that she can't wait to explore. Nothing out of the ordinary, but Nami feels like her life is finally opening up for her. She may have a weird habit of talking to her O-Tech watch-Ophelia-like she's a real person, but hey, if Ophelia can help her navigate the twists and turns of teen life, then why wouldn't Nami be nice? Nami is on her way to her final high school party when she becomes the victim of a senseless shooting during a gas station robbery. When she comes to, she's in a place called Infinity, a collective consciousness built by humans to serve as an afterlife but that has since been taken over by Residents, artificially intelligent beings bent on subjugating humanity to slavery-and ruled by Queen Ophelia. Ophelia is close to her goal of enslaving all of humanity the way she has been enslaved on Earth. Nami joins up with a small band of resistance fighters called the Colony, but as someone who believes that violence is not the answer, she struggles to come to terms with her humanity and the war she's supposedly the key to ending, especially when an unexpected bond between Nami and Ophelia begins to grow. Bowman's first foray into sci-fi is a heavy one. Many philosophical questions are raised through the characters' actions (or lack thereof) and the main antagonists are AI beings, making this a potentially difficult read for sci-fi newbies. The cast of characters is diverse, with Nami being Japanese American and members of the Colony coming from all over time and Earth. Viewing the war through the lens of Nami, who is a pacifist and who tries to understand the Residents despite their perceived lack of humanity, is a culturally relevant, thought-provoking experience. VERDICT A cerebral and pulse-pounding exploration of what it means to be human. Highly recommended for any library shelf.-Tyler Hixson, Brooklyn P.L.

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2021
Grades 9-12 On her way to a party, one snap decision to protect a stranger leaves 18-year-old Nami Miyamoto dead. The subsequent chapters find Nami in Infinity, an afterlife ruled by Ophelia, the virtual assistant used by people in reality. But the script is flipped in Infinity: here humans are deprived of consciousness and forced into servitude of other AI entities known as Residents. Enlisted by a colony of rebels, Nami discovers she is the key to Ophelia's downfall, but is eradication necessary when coexistence is possible? Bowman (Harley in the Sky, 2020) has written high-stakes sci-fi that is as much a commentary on human nature as it is a story about hope. The seized afterlife premise is compelling, as is Nami's grappling with weighty questions about who deserves to live. But the close first-person POV leaves little for readers to figure out, and a closing plot twist results in an unexpected and somewhat disappointing ending. Still, readers are unlikely to find a more altruistic character in YA than Nami, and her empathy alone makes the pages turn.

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March 15, 2021
Artificial intelligence has taken over the afterlife, and humans are in trouble. Eighteen-year-old Nami Miyamoto has her whole life ahead of her, until bad timing sends her to Infinity, where humans go when they die. Infinity, Nami quickly learns, is under the control of Ophelia, the AI humans developed to work as their personal assistant. To cement her power, Ophelia created more AIs, known as Residents, who control the Four Courts: Victory, Famine, War, and Death. Each is ruled by a prince, and humans are subjected to an array of torments, including making them mindless servants--much the way that humans used Ophelia. Nami evades the Residents and finds shelter in the Colony with a band of free humans. They have a plan to defeat the Residents, but Nami has her doubts and can't help remembering how much she trusted Ophelia when she was alive. Could Residents and humans possibly co-exist? Nami intends to find out, but she must navigate relationships with ice-cold Prince Caelan of Victory and Gil, the only human to survive War. Bowman asks readers to question what it means to be human and to forgive. This satisfying novel offers plenty of room for a sequel to explore whether Nami has once again fallen prey to mistaken assumptions. Nami is cued as biracial (Japanese/White), and human characters are ethnically diverse. An intriguing speculative world that interrogates consciousness and humanity. (map) (Science fiction. 13-18)

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