The Circus Infinite

Starred review from November 1, 2021
Wong’s intimate, joyful space opera debut hooks readers from the outset with its blend of action, magic, and queer romance. After Jes, an empath with the power to manipulate gravity, breaks out of The Institute, a laboratory built to study his special abilities, he needs to lay low. Luckily, the pleasure moon Persephone-9 is the perfect place for an interspecies outcast like him to covertly figure out his next move. Jes lands a job at Persephone-9’s circus, makes new friends, and even finds a potential love connection—until he pops up on the radar of crime lord Niko Dax, who blackmails Jes into becoming Dax’s new lacky. Now Jes must decide how far he’s willing to go to protect his freedom and his friendships. Even as Jes’s actions become morally dubious, readers won’t be able to help but root for this tender, endearing protagonist in his quest to find somewhere to belong. Wong luxuriates in sweet scenes between Jes and his first love, Bo, and develops heartwarming found family dynamics in Jes’s other relationships. The worldbuilding is just alien enough while still inviting readers in, and it’s a pleasure to witness the world through the lens of its progressive social dynamics. It’s a thoroughly enchanting adventure. Agent: Amy Collins, Talcott Notch Literary.

February 1, 2022
Empath Jes is on the run, boarding a shuttle to Persephone-9, the universe's Las Vegasesque pleasure moon. He figures he'll be safe from the Institute, the abusive scientific-research lab that wants to dissect him to figure out his other psychic abilities, and immediately finds himself a job among a motley crew of circus performers who accept him without question. Unfortunately, Jes also attracts the attention of crime boss Niko Dax and becomes an unwitting henchman doing things in the interplanetary drug wars that go against his principles. Jes unexpectedly finds a chosen family and a romantic relationship, both things he never expected as someone who had little stability in life and whose asexuality had previously limited his romantic prospects. Author Wong is a self-described homoromantic grey ace, and he succeeds at writing a slow-burning queer romance that feels authentic and sweet without overtaking the plot. While things do wrap up a bit conveniently, Wong has wisely left room for a sequel, and readers will eagerly wait for the next chapter in Jes' life.

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Starred review from February 1, 2022

DEBUT On the run from the mysterious Institute that has held him prisoner and used him as a lab rat, Jes heads out of the spaceport in a direction he hopes his pursuers won't expect. The pleasure moon Persephone-9--a place where beings of all species in the 9-Star Congress of Conscious Worlds go to have their desires gratified--would normally repel asexual, empathic Jes. But Jes needs to hide, and Persephone-9 is perfect for that. When Jes's talents lead him to the Cirque Kosmiqa, he falls into a place to call home, among a found family who provide protection, purpose, and love. To protect his family and himself, Jes will be forced to work for a murderous political boss who wants to exploit his dangerous talents. VERDICT A three-ring extravaganza, combining a coming-of-age with Jes's desperate race to save his new family from a corrupt mastermind. Readers will get caught up in Wong's debut novel and find themselves wanting to run away to the circus with Jes. Highly recommended.--Marlene Harris

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