Our Infinite and Inevitable Ends
Given the current state of our world and most of humanity’s seeming disinterest in combating climate change, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that a lot of recent sci-fi is set in a near future wracked by its effects. Our Infinite and Inevitable Ends by A.D. Sui offers a new take on the topic while also being a great queer romance and a study in addiction.
When the book opens, we meet Dr. Cassandra “Cas” Barlowe, who is living on a giant island of trash in the Pacific Ocean studying plastic-eating fungi to help clean up the world. She receives a call from her estranged ex, Dr. Yana Gulsvig, with just a single-sentence message before the connection ends. Cas soon realizes something terrible has happened: a giant explosion has taken place at the research institute that Yana created and works at, and very shortly after that, Cas herself is arrested by Interpol officers for suspected involvement in the explosion as an act of terrorism. From this propulsive first chapter, we are thrust into a compelling but very dystopic vision of the future.
The story takes place a few decades in the future, and the effects of climate change have started taking their toll on the whole world. Most of the action takes place in a futuristic Toronto that is beset by near-constant acid rain that residents have just learned to deal with as a part of everyday life. Most efforts to stop the worsening conditions of the planet have been put on hold due to the discovery of the central plot point of the book, a drug called deleria. In this world, we learn that thanks to Yana’s research, parallel universes are real, and it’s possible to tune into those universes by taking this psychedelic drug. The world at large has decided that the best course of action going forward is to devote money and resources to just finding the version of the universe where humanity has “solved” the climate crisis, and just copy their work. After close to a decade of trying, however, it doesn’t seem like that plan is really working out. The drug’s main practical use is being prescribed to people who have recently lost loved ones, so that they can still see the versions of them that are still alive. It’s that use of the drug that is the main thrust of our narrative here.
We follow Cas as she works through her grief over the loss of Yana, while still seeing the echoes of her as she takes deleria over and over again to try and piece together what caused the explosion at the Institute. All this is made more complicated by the fact that the authorities are trying to place the blame on her while also trying to leverage Cas into helping take down the largest black-market dealer of deleria in the city, who just happens to be a woman who may have been a lover of Yana.
Despite some qualms I have over the way the magic drug is supposed to work, I really enjoyed this book a lot. The world building was great, including a lot of cool tech like contact-lens computing devices and even the drug itself. The state of the world in the book also holds up a mirror to our present day, particularly with the rise of the Effective Altruist sect that has taken over the mindshare of a lot of AI thought leaders these days. They also take stark utilitarianism to its extremes, while neglecting more common-sense actions. It’s also very ironic in the book that the goal of using deleria to find the “perfect” solution to climate change and to world problems in general is that if that is the default state for humanity, the majority of the parallel universes that people would encounter would also just be stuck waiting for a salvation that would never come.
I highly recommend Our Infinite and Inevitable Ends if you’re looking for some good near-future dystopia with a queer romance angle. And if you want an even more far-future, and even weirder, book, The Iron Garden Sutra, also by A.D. Sui, is excellent and also well worth your time.
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