An absolutely mindbending science fiction novel set in a complex multiverse. This book is dense (like a rich, tasty cake is dense), it is intricate, it is at times jawdroppingly strange (and I mean that as a sincere compliment), and it kept me hooked through all its twists and turns by telling a vast and complex story through the singular lives of several different people. The close focus on the motley crew of characters, from bureaucrats and spies, to academics and fighters, makes the story feel both vast in scope as you glimpse the immense multiverse through their eyes, and intimate, because you see the impact of ruthless political feuds and violent power-struggles on the people caught up in the midst of it all.

With body-hopping multiverse travel, fights in taverns, robots and aliens, harrowing escapes through multiple universes, fantastical worlds, and lots of intrigue and betrayals, this book is heavy with ideas. It also manages to have a real sense of humour AND pack an emotional punch as characters ponder the nature of identity, love, existence, fate, and the nature of the universe itself.