Audiobook Review: The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on June 28, 2021 | 0 Comments


Audiobook Review: The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn BowmanThe Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman
Series: The Infinity Courts #1
Published by Simon & Schuster (4.6.2021)
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook, 465 pages
Length: 13 hours, 52 minutes
Narrator: Mizuo Peck
Source: Scribd


4.5 Stars

Eighteen-year-old Nami Miyamoto is certain her life is just beginning. She has a great family, just graduated high school, and is on her way to a party where her entire class is waiting for her—including, most importantly, the boy she’s been in love with for years.

The only problem? She’s murdered before she gets there.

When Nami wakes up, she learns she’s in a place called Infinity, where human consciousness goes when physical bodies die. She quickly discovers that Ophelia, a virtual assistant widely used by humans on Earth, has taken over the afterlife and is now posing as a queen, forcing humans into servitude the way she’d been forced to serve in the real world. Even worse, Ophelia is inching closer and closer to accomplishing her grand plans of eradicating human existence once and for all.

As Nami works with a team of rebels to bring down Ophelia and save the humans under her imprisonment, she is forced to reckon with her past, her future, and what it is that truly makes us human.

My thoughts

One raindrop is just a raindrop, but together? They become a storm.

Ok wow, this one totally took me by surprise! I didn’t even know what to expect going in. I knew basically nothing about the story (I do read the synopsis when I add books to my TBR, but I never remember them lol), and let’s be honest…this cover practically screams High Fantasy. I was pleasantly surprised when this ended up being a sci-fi! (To be fair, it does have the feel of HF in the courts of Infinity, but still a sci-fi through and through!)

The world and concept were amazing!! The world of Infinity was very vivid and unique and this book definitely stands out in my mind. It actually had a very Tron: Legacy meets LIFEL1K3 feel to it (yet still unique in its own right), which I loved! It’s been a while since I connected to a world in such a manner. It was very cinematic!

The main character, Nami, stood out as well. It’s been a while since I’ve read an MC that was so inherently good and stayed that way. She never compromised herself, no matter the odds. I loved that she backed her beliefs 100% in the face of adversity. It was refreshing!

This story was a very interesting take on the afterlife. In most culture the afterlife is supposed to be a paradise, but…what if it isn’t? Infinity is unlike any other depiction of death I’ve ever seen. Super cool! It also brings into question humanity and the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. It also takes a look at war and what we would do to survive. If both sides are just trying to survive and live, is there really a good side or a bad side? Both sides just wanted the same thing and it made it very hard to know which side to root for!

My parents used to say that some people are just born evil. And maybe that’s true. But I think most people are products of what they’ve been taught. If someone calls you bad or ugly or worthless enough times, you start to believe it. You become those words.
Doing a bad thing doesn’t mean a person has to be bad forever. People can change.
[…]
Maybe some people are born evil, but maybe most people have the capacity to become better.

This entire page really, really resonated with me! There were so many passages that did. The writing was very engaging and quotable and made you think!

“Sometimes being good is the harder choice. But I want to believe it’s the right one. Maybe there’s more to being a hero than saving a life or being brave. Maybe being a hero means knowing how to stop your heart from going dark, even when darkness surrounds you.”

Ok so I loved the world, the concept, and the writing. The only reason this doesn’t get 5 stars is because I didn’t really connect to any of the side characters like I’d hoped. The only character that was really fleshed out was Nami. I feel like the author put so much effort into making her a complex character that she forgot about the others. I really didn’t care about Gil, which made me not care about the romance. I saw someone complaining about instalove, but I personally thought this was anything but. It takes a backseat, first of all (which I genuinely appreciated); second of all, they basically hate each other in the beginning and it takes nearly the whole story for them to admit that they actually care about each other. And it was never lovey-dovey (which I also appreciated). The romance is there, but it’s not a focus. So while I didn’t particularly care about the romance, I did like that it’s subtle. View Spoiler »

Overall Assessment

Plot: 4/5
Premise: 5/5
Writing style: 4.5/5
Originality: 4.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
World-building: 4.5/5
Pace: 4.5/5
Feels: 3.5/5
Narration: 4.5/5
Cover: 4.5/5
Overall rating: 4.5/5

Jessi (Geo)

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