Overall I enjoyed this YA fantasy. While it wasn’t absolutely gripping, the queer rep is fantastic and I thought it was fun with interesting world building. I would have liked it to have been split into two books though, it almost felt like a summarized version at times and there was so much that got kind of skimmed over to fit it all into one book. Which is too bad because it’s a cool concept and premise, it would’ve been nice for it to be fully fleshed out and go more in-depth with the development of the relationships and characters.

I really enjoyed how the magic system was built. If you know anything about Eastern religions/philosophies, yoga, new age spirituality, western esotericism, metaphysical energy work, etc it will feel very familiar because a lot of the theory for the magic system was clearly pulled from their core concepts, which was fun for me because they’re things I have been studying for years.

I enjoyed listening to the audiobook, the performance was good and kept me engaged with the story.

And while I’m not like…chomping at the bit for the next book, I will definitely read it when it does come out and I look forward to seeing where it takes the trio.

I don't think I have read a book like this. Ash wants to be in alchemy but he can't. Then the mysterious Ramsey and him worked hard on trying to find the book of source. Then it goes to crap. Now he's with callaum and he has to decide if he should trust him or not.
I love that the alchemist view gender as a whatever you want it's just beautiful
Honestly I spent this whole book is a wonderful state of what is going to happen. That also was made better by the narrator. I felt like I was there watching people have conversations and it had me so engrossed.

DNF @ 49%, start of chapter 20

I haven't picked this up in almost 2 weeks now and I have no desire to go back to it. I tried. I really wanted to like this. There were aspects I liked but overall I can't force myself to finish another 51% of this book when I just don't care.

Ash is an annoying brat who thinks he knows better than everyone else. And I hate to break it to you, but you really don't Ash. Maybe listen to others once in a while. Ash is also trans and that doesn't seem to be a problem in this world - his lack of respect for anyone but himself is what the problem is.

Ramsey was interesting and I enjoyed getting to know him/her/them. Ramsey is genderfluid and I loved how normal that seemed for this world. It made her seem like a stronger alchemist because of it!

And I had just met Callum and really wished I had gotten to know him more, as I know this story does involve a poly relationship between Ash/Ramsey/Callum but I didn't get that far unfortunately.

I liked the concept of this but honestly I think it's Ash's attitude that kept frustrating me and making me dislike the story.

I do hope this finds its audience. I loved the other books I've read by Kacen, this fantasy one just didn't do it for me.

Lively characters, compelling world-building, and a search for a magical object all add up to a fun YA fantasy novel. The best things in this book are the explorations in gender, gender expression, love, and sexuality. However, the thing that brings this book down is the pacing. I'm not sure if this would have been better off as two books or one book with a tighter plot, but ultimately the pacing made it hard for me to get through.

3.5 stars

Infinity Alchemist had so much potential, and while I enjoyed it for the most part, I ended the book feeling ever so slightly disappointed. The LGBTQIA+ representation in this book is incredible and I love how gender and sexuality were handled in this book. One of the main characters is transgender and another is gender fluid. There is also a potential poly relationship. I think for the ages of the characters, it made sense that they made rash decisions, even though I was screaming at them sometimes. I also think the writing was really easy to follow and understand, especially for a fantasy novel. I had some issues with the pacing of the story and I felt like the end was incredibly rushed and felt a little too convenient. I did find myself confused about the magic system throughout the story and while I understood the basics of it, there were times where I was confused or couldn’t understand the magic system and how it worked in that moment. I hope that these issues get fleshed out as the series continues because I think it has SO MUCH potential!!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for an Audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Now that is a love triangle!!

This is a story about an Unlicensed Alchemist in a world where its illegal to practice Alchemy without a license. One day at the Alchemy school he works at as a grounds keeper type of person, someone finds out that he is illegally practicing Alchemy and he gets pulled onto an unexpected quest.

Its a queer love triangle thats FULLY a triangle, if you catch my drift. And I really enjoyed the character interactions more than anything. Yes, there is a big epic-ish type of quest that they are on, and there are different types of stakes that they deal with, but I was here for the characters and their bonding and interactions.

Since I JUST finished the book, I'll admit that I'm not 100% sure if I'm happy with the ending. I think part of me wants a little more... BUT then again, another part of me is perfectly satisfied with were it ended. It feels like it could be a standalone since it does wrap everything up nicely (for the most part) but it seems like it is the first in a series and I do plan on continuing since thats seems to be the case.

Good Times.

Thank you NetGalley and Tor publishing group for the e-arc!
This book incorporates some of my absolute favorite things when reading fantasy: Diverse characters, unique magic systems, and fantastic character development. The mix of characters and their stories converge and develop throughout the book is spectacularly done. I always love books featuring alchemy as there's so much authors can do with this type of magic. I ended up thoroughly enjoying the way the author set up the world and how the magic interacts. The world features many dystopian elements with this society being focused on power and maintaining control.
This is definitely one of the books that starts off kind of slow but really builds as you continue to read. Both the characters and the world-building become so much more immersive and engaging as you understand more about the story. The narrator also does a great job of differentiating between characters and really creating the different characters through the narration. I read part of this through the audiobook and part of this through the galley. The narrator was honestly such a fantastic choice as I think they did a fantastic job from the story to life.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐


Overall Review (spoilers)

I really enjoyed this book. It had a YA feel but for college students. The trans, poly, and genderqueer representation was fantastic and was explained in such a way that made sense to the world. The magic system was unique and one I really enjoyed. I like when authors try and take a scientific approach to magic, as that feels very realistic to me. I will say I didn’t like the multiple POV in this book, I think it should had only had one POV. In addition, there were points where the main character just felt stupid and rash, but that is his personality flaw and the moments of that were rare. I definitely recommend this book, especially the audiobook format.

Plot Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spice Rating: 🌶️

Genre: fantasy, fiction, modern fantasy

Trigger Warnings: graphic description of death and bullying.

I had been looking forward to this book the moment I read that alchemy was criminalized for the MC and the cast was full of queer poc, but unfortunately this fell flat. The writing in this was juvenile at best, and did a whole lot more telling than showing at worst.

I enjoyed the writing of queer people, from their gender to sexuality. From Ash's certainty in his masculinity, to the handling of his dysphoria, to everyone respecting Ramsay's genderfluid pronouns. I was also interested in the magic system, but wish there was more time spent diving into it. At times it felt like we were kept on the edge of the full potential of this world's magic and history.

What I didn't like...well, for starters, there's a big problem with insta-love that happens between the characters in the polycule. Ash and Ramsay only know each other for two weeks, and then Ash and Callum only know each other for a different two weeks, before Ash is practically head over heels for both of them.

I don't think either Ash nor Ramsay clicked with me as characters - and I really wanted to like Ramsay - and it makes having to follow Ash's POV and watch him make one dumb and childish decision after another rather painful. Funny enough, Callum was more likable, which I assume was on purpose because he only gets the last 52% of the book to make a case for himself to be introduced as both a protagonist and a romantic interest (yes, he's brought up as someone from Ramsay's past a few times, but there's no indication leading up to it that he is about to join them for the plot train). I liked his genial, caring, and soft nature, and his struggle to choose between what's right and his family.

There's also a serious pacing issue, where the book breezes through fights and conflict, but then sits and chews on relationship drama and childhood trauma. The climax of this book felt like it was over in the blink of an eye, and with no real build up to it. The resolution was, to quote Ryan George from Pitch Meeting, "super easy, barely an inconvenience."

Marlowe was another sore spot for me. I expected her to have a much bigger place in the story, considering she was given a couple chapters to herself, but she was simply a character of convenience. She would be shelved until needed again.

And because I had both an e-copy of the book and an audiobook, I was a bit baffled by the collection of accents spread across the Houses. While the narration and main cast held American accents, other characters would appear with an European accent, from French to British to Irish and so forth, and with no explanation of their origin.

Not that I mind it, the narrator Wes Haas did an excellent job; I just couldn't quite place what the intent behind this decision was.

Considering there are the established Great Houses with different jurisdictions in New Anglia, and New Anglia is at a minimum 200 years old according to the text because they haven't been at war in 200 years, and the Alexander family leads the Houses because they won the war 200 years ago...would they not all hold similar degrees of accents after generations of being in one area? (And yes, there's a line about the colonization of stolen land, but I digress, 200 years is a long time for a state to not fall into similar accents with varying degrees of dialect. Even a New Orleans accent sounds like a Boston accent at times, despite the distance between the two cities.) Am I looking too deeply into this, probably yes. It's truly not that big of a deal, just something that caught my attention multiple times while listening to the audiobook and reading along.

Over all, while I really wanted to like this book, the interesting characters could not save the flimsy plot and bad pacing issues.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the ALC.

I liked the world that was described in this book but the characters were not fully fleshed out for me. They were all very one-dimensional with little to no character development. I never felt fully invested.

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up

In this world, alchemy is the magic system. People are born with the gift to perform alchemy or not, some stronger than others. The education, and then licensure, to be able to use one’s alchemy is gate-kept under the guise of “keeping society safe”, ie: if you have money and we like you, you can come. Ash is our main character with Ramsey and Callum as secondary main characters.

This book is so interesting beyond the storyline. There are several concepts that could be used as a starting point for intellectual conversations about modern society. I found myself daydreaming that if I was a college professor, who teaches one of those lovely gen ed courses every student is forced into, I could base many discussions off of this book covering a wide range of political and social topics.

The diversity representation, especially for gender, was wonderful. Our 3 main characters have different gender representations; minor descriptions were provided to gain some understanding, as you would with any character, and that was that. I want varying representations in books where there isn’t much thought given as to why people are the way they are but because they just are. As real people just are. This book did that beautifully.

I think the narration is where I had the most difficulty. The narration was flat - not monotone Beuller style but such minimal voice inflection that emotions were excessively muted. The narrator didn’t emote much of anything that makes the characters worth while and believable. I think it really hurt the likability of the story.

Round up: I think the book is worth your time as an easier YA fantasy read. The concept isn’t groundbreaking fantasy - the book’s characters in a fantasy setting kind of are (not saying it’s the first). I would skip the audiobook and physically read this one.

I wanted to love this and I’m not sure if I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to because I’m not in the intended age range or because the execution fell flat for me. This is a young adult fantasy book with great queer rep. Ash, the main character is Black and trans and I loved the casual references to his binder and his feelings of dysmorphia. There is also a genderfluid love interest, and I liked the way Callender paid attention to her pronouns as well as how he played into the idea of love and showed that multiple kinds of love exist and it’s possible to feel romantic love towards more than one person.

Do these characters always make the best decisions? No, it they’re teens and their reasoning makes sense given their ashes and who they are. Where this story kind of falls apart for me is in the pacing. The plot centers around a quest for this object and along the way we learn about the world, and while I initially enjoyed seeing Callender’s take on alchemy/magic, the plot started to drag which found me focusing on the holes in the worldbuilding. This is a book aimed for teenagers and the issues I had as an adult reading this are probably not issues I’d have cared about as a teen myself, so I would wholeheartedly recommend this to teenagers!

The audiobook was narrated by Wes Haas and I really enjoyed the performance! It looks like this is their first audiobook, but I hope to hear more from them.

Infinity Alchemist was a beautiful audiobook telling the story of Ash as he tries to make his way in the world of alchemists from the outside. Ash was rejected by the Lancaster College of Alchemic Science, so he takes a job as a groundskeeper and tries to learn alchemy in secret, as it is illegal for unlicensed alchemists to practice the science. Ramsay Thorne is an assistant professor at the college and discovers Ash's secret, but the two come to a deal. Ramsay will teach Ash alchemy, but Ash has to help Ramsay find the Book of Source, a book of extraordinary power that other alchemists will stop at nothing to find. The story has mystery and intrigue, a unique system of magic, gender and romantic representation, and an exciting tale of adventure. The narrator also did an excellent job in the audiobook. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy or adventure stories.

This story is all over the place. Some little thing happens and the MC is is on death row. They have one conversation and they decide to betray their new love interest. I can't finish it.

Unfortunately, this is one of those books where the romance completely overshadows any plot. Indeed, the plot only serves to create drama for the romance/relationships. Add in very unlikable protagonists, one of whom falls squarely into the 'too stupid to live' trope, and you get the idea. Note: I listened to the audio version and the narrator did no favors to the book: the read was flat, the characters made even more unlikable (and stupid), and I found myself bored through most of the story.

Story: Ash works as a lowly groundskeeper's assistant at a prestigious magic college. Frustrated that kids of his economic condition are not able to attend despite their level of ability, he walks around with a chip on his shoulder and practices magic in secret and illegally. When he is caught by teacher assistant and noble-family connected Ramsay, he is coerced into helping Ramsay clear his/her (Ramsay is gender fluid) parents of murder and find a mysterious all-powerful book. But there are those who are determined to ensure Ramsay does not succeed - even through murder.

First off, Ash is a hard character to like. He exhibits no charisma, reacts off the cuff to everything, and is about as intelligent as a thoroughly inbred dog. Ramsay is unpleasant, unlikable, and supposedly we are supposed to believe that the dumb kid would fall for the rude one. I had a hard time not wanting the bad guys to succeed in offing either character so the story would end. I know that sounds harsh but I just didn't like, believe in, or want to follow either character. Yes, we get it, they had hard lives (Ash living in poverty and not being able to save his mother/Ramsay dealing with her parents' executions after they murdered a hundred people looking for the special book). But there should be some reason to like them and there just isn't.

The plot itself was just to throw Ash, Ramsay, and Callum (Ramsay's ex) together. Every plot point was there just so the characters could bond or have a relationship. If you took out the relationship building, there really was no plot. Certainly, too much felt like someone indelicately pounding a round peg into a square hole just so two characters can look at another and think, "I want to kiss he/her/them."

The worldbuilding is lazy. Yet another pseudo-medieval/renaissance era Britain with very little imagination. To really start to like this book, I would have at least needed the author to create a true world and a more intricate magic system (rather than magic whose only purpose or explanation is to force the characters to kiss).

What I did like is how the author handled the LGBTQ+ aspects in this society. They made sense and added to the story as well as provided much needed nuancey.

The audio narration was not good. The narrator's only way of differentiating characters was to give them a random accent: from Irish to French, to cockney, to Texan, every new person had a completely inexplicable and random accent that certainly did not make sense in that homogeneous society. The reading was flat, lacking depth and intrigue, and honestly sounded kind of immature.

In all, I was bored throughout due to a narrowly focus plot, poor narration, unbelievable worldbuilding, logic holes, and thoroughly unlikable characters. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Solid read. The main characters
Were empathetic but had that youthful edge that creates the sparks.

Ash Woods has waited all his life to be an alchemist, but when he's rejected by the prestigious Lancaster Mage's College, he's forced to practice alchemy in secret.

INFINITY ALCHEMIST by Kacen Callender gives us Ash's story that at points will have you on the edge of your seat!

It's dangerous business, because alchemy is illegal in New Anglia, but to Ash it's worth the risk. He accepts the job as assistant groundskeeper at Lancaster, and perfects his craft in the shadows, eavesdropping on classes and practicing in secret. That is, until he's caught by Ramsay. Ramsay is the heir to the once-great Thorne family, fallen from grace when his parents committed the mass-murder of hundreds of people in pursuit of the famed Book of Source, which grants its reader unlimited and extraordinary power. Rather than turning Ash into the Reds, Ramsay offers him an alternative: he can help Ramsay find the Book of Source to clear his family's name and Ramsay will teach him alchemy in secret.

The problem is, there are some pretty powerful players who also want the Book of Source, and for far more nefarious reasons.

This was a stunning fantasy debut. The world building was heavy but also easy to follow along with, and you're totally immersed in the spirit of New Anglia and the fear and mistrust of alchemists. There are so many parallels to real life that, especially in the connection between House Loon and religious zealots that we've all likely encountered in our world. There's a lot of angst, and a lot of frustrating teenagers, but I think that all readers should keep in mind that these are teenagers. They're impulsive and frustrating and will absolutely drive you insane because they are actual children in a pretty freaking scary situation. They all have some pretty fickle feelings, especially in terms of relationships, but to me, that made it all the more realistic. I was all over the place as a teenager, so it tracks that teenaged characters would be, too! I also always love how, in all of the Kacen Callender books I've read so far, the villains are awful, but they're NEVER going to intentionally mis-gender someone, or be homophobic. They'll kill you, happily, but they're not going to stoop that low, which is such a lovely world that I wish would bleed over into our world. Respecting who someone is, even if they're your enemy, is just so, so, soooo inspiring to read. That's to say nothing of the diverse cast of LGBTQIA+, polyamorous, and people of color representation, which we know to expect and fall in love with in any book Kacen writes!

Kacen does a fantastic job of pace on this book--so much so that while listening to the audiobook, I couldn't have told you how long had passed, I was so invested in what was going to happen next that the book kind of flew by, even as it took me a few days because, ya know, life. I could've used some of Ash and Co's alchemic skills to take care of all of those, am I right? 

Trust and believe, INFINITY ALCHEMIST will work its magic on you.

NOTE: I read an advanced copy of this book via audiobook, and any misspellings are unintentional. I did not, at the time of writing this review, have a text to reference. In addition, Ramsay Thorne is gender-fluid, and his pronouns change throughout the book. The pronouns in my review shift to fit my memory of Ramsay during the scenes I'm referencing. When asked which pronoun to use, Ramsay said something along the lines of, "however you last saw me." My changing of Ramsay's pronouns in this review is my attempt to respect those wishes and use the pronouns that were used in the scene as they happened.

It is slightly rare to some across a fantasy novel that is quite this character driven. Don't get me wrong, the setting and magic system are really well thought out. The solid world building is just absolutely second place to the characters here, which isn't always the chase within high fantasy. It does mean that if you aren't clicking with the leads and the romance, this isn't going to work for you. For me, it totally works. I found Ash to be sympathetic and interesting. He's angry at the world for very valid reasons. The two love interests are indeed heavily privileged, but they both are in the process of realizing the pros and cons of their societal status. I definitely want more from this world and am looking forward to the sequel.

1.5
Only an elite few are legally permitted to study the science of magic and three alchemist find themselves on a quest for true power. While the numerous irrational anger and repeated emotional outbursts and fighting are an accurate reflection of angsty teenagers in real life, unfortunately their personalities really didn’t work for me in this book, especially since there was no character growth for any of the characters. It just made quite a stressful reading experience for me, especially since the narrator leaned into the petulance of the MC. Furthermore, I have discovered that it’s a personal boundary of mine that I don’t ever want to read light/implied BDSM in YA books even if the rest of the sex scene is fade to black. And there was quite a number of sex scenes in this too, and I personally prefer otherwise in YA books. The exploration on queerness, gender, sexuality, and discussions on dysphoria were the highlights in this for me.
(+) Black trans author; QPOC trans, genderfluid, polyamorous MCs, NB narrator

I loved the magic system created here, as well as the exploration of gender and relationships. This was such a creative fantasy world and I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure it took me on. Ash was not the most likable character, but I can see how growth will occur throughout the series as he discovers himself more. Overall I am so impressed by Callender’s first venture into fantasy writing!

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the ARC.