Ash Young has always dreamed of joining her world military, in revenge for the death of her sister and parents in an endless interplanetary war. During her final trial, her compassion for a stricken vessel causes her to fail. With a life of useless obscurity in front of her, she is unexpectantly offered a new opportunity as Guardian of the Infinity Files...

The Infinity Files (409 pages) is a young adult science fiction novel, written by S. M. Wilson, who had previously penned the trilogy, The Extinction Trials.

The overall book follows a well-trod structure. A young person plucked out of obscurity meets a wise person, has adventures and finally comes into their own. There is nothing wrong with this, it is one of the essential wish fulfillment stories which humans tell themselves.

Ash is an engaging young woman, part vengeful, for the deaths that she and her people have endured, but she is also fiercely compassionate. That, and her intelligence marks her out as a perfect candidate to become a guardian.

The Infinity Files is a repository of the universes most important artefacts. Some have started wars and must be removed; some are returned to stop a war. Others are there to inspire technological breakthroughs. The job of the Guardian is to retrieve or deposit these things. The repository is overseen by an ageing hologram, who provides Ash with a bracelet that acts as part instantaneous transport and part multi-tool.

There are many good aspects of the novel, the writing is fluid and the pace fast, but this also means that a lot of what could have been special about the story is skipped through. The many-worlds which Ash visits are only briefly sketched in as is the general disposition of the Galaxy. On the one hand, the wars which Ash hopes to fight seems small and parochial against the apparent universal size which the Infinity Files can access, it creates a bit of dissonance between the two settings.

That said, the book is a lot of fun. Wilson writes with energy and wit and hopefully, any future books will be used to deepen the mythology of the Infinity Files.

7

Charles Packer