Hunted by those who want to study his gravity powers, Jes makes his way to the best place for a mixed-species fugitive to blend in: the pleasure moon where everyone just wants to be lost in the party. It doesn’t take long for him to catch the attention of the crime boss who owns the resort-casino where he lands a circus job, and when the boss gets wind of the bounty on Jes’ head, he makes an offer: do anything and everything asked of him or face vivisection.
 
With no other options, Jes fulfills the requests: espionage, torture, demolition. But when the boss sets the circus up to take the fall for his about-to-get-busted narcotics operation, Jes and his friends decide to bring the mobster down. And if Jes can also avoid going back to being the prize subject of a scientist who can’t wait to dissect him? Even better.

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

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The Circus Infinite drew me in with its caper-like thriller on a pleasure moon—the mix of a circus setting with superpowers set in space. There’s a lot to unpack in the synopsis, and the question i: did the book manage to deliver? Read on to find out!

The Circus Infinite was one of those books that I have mixed feelings about. Fleeing from The Paragenetic Institute of the 9-Stars, Jes heads to the one place he figures they will never look for him: the infamous pleasure moon of Persephone-9. The universe Wong has created is magnificent, an open-world sandbox that has taken present-day issues and ideas and run forward thousands of years. Earth is long gone, humans spread across space and migrated to two different planets: Indra and Loran. Both of them are vastly different from each other.

Despite their difference, they have kept the human need to colonise, with humans retaining their perceived superiority over alien species despite mating with them. As one character refers to humans being responsible for the most cross-species breeding in the universe. Of course, they also remain among the first to show their disdain for the mixed-race offspring of such unions. Thousands of years have not removed prejudice from the universe, and Wong deftly shows it at play in society throughout the novel.

One of the main ways is the sexuality of the protagonist, Jes, and that is what makes The Circus Infinite an interesting and important read, regardless of its flaws. Jes is asexual and also an empath. Wong uses Jes’s empath abilities to help describe asexuality to the reader. In a book with a romantic relationship, most readers will be familiar with the language the author uses to describe romantic feelings.

In The Circus Infinite, Wong has to walk the reader through how emotions feel to Jes, how they appear as physical manifestations. For example, during a house party, Jes refers to all the feelings of need as a type of monster trying to batter down the walls. Drawing on these vivid descriptions, Wong develops a sense of how it feels to be asexual in situations where romance and sexual desire are rampant or expected. While Jes obviously feels these in a heightened way as an empath, it still enables the reader to draw a parallel to uncomfortable experiences that they have had.

While the house party was a good example, as were other moments in the novel, one scene struck me as unnecessary. It felt out of place and felt almost like the author was torturing the main character. The pleasure moon is described multiple times throughout The Circus Infinite; it is no secret that there are pleasure houses and the like on it.

Apparently, it was completely necessary to include a scene in one, and since the book is only from Jes’s perspective, you can see where this is going. It was an extremely painful scene to read as someone who is not asexual, and it felt completely unneeded in terms of saying “see this is how asexuals feel”. Instead, it just felt like it was playing to the crowd a bit too much for my liking. The book’s set on a pleasure moon, so by golly, we will have a scene in a sex club! It was just overkill.

Sadly, that was a bit of a theme in The Circus Infinite. The world-building was solid; however, there was too much crammed into the plot, and the book was trying to be too many things at once. Was it trying to be a space opera or science fiction pulp novel? Or a crime caper about found family and becoming your true self? Maybe it’s a superpower book set in a circus?

On top of all this there are numerous side plots with the theme of changing perceptions, and while they were solid plots involving interesting characters, they were again, they just felt like too much being pressed into one book. There’s no information regarding whether this is a standalone or part of a series; The Circus Infinite ends in a way that is either plausible. I think this would have been better suited as a duology or a trilogy.

Despite having so many moving parts, the plot is actually quite simplistic; a fugitive runs away from an evil scientific organisation, hides where he doesn’t think anyone will look, but, surprise, gets found out anyway and then gets blackmailed. Simple doesn’t always mean a bad thing if there are twists and turns, and the way the synopsis is written, I was expecting those. Unfortunately, The Circus Infinite wasn’t quite the thriller or the mystery that I expected. Instead, it’s more of a novel about parties and raves.

“Pleasure” moon is a bit of a misnomer, and at least to me, means something entirely different to the atmosphere of Persephone-9. While there are pleasure houses, as mentioned, the emphasis is on hedonism and, more specifically, the consumption of copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. I’m not a fan of either of these, and in real life, intoxicated people are a source of great anxiety to me (re: previous trauma), so reading a book that is frequently filled with scenes of people doing just that is not a fun read for me.

I was also a teen during the “shock” drug adverts era, and I remember a particular article about Leah Betts, complete with a disturbing photo of her in a coma, who died after taking one ecstasy tablet. A copy was pinned to the youth board in my church, right in the hall where my Guide pack met every Friday. It’s imprinted on my brain for eternity, and it did its job. It scared me straight (not that I needed it). There is a news article here if you want to know more, but I warn you, the photo is disturbing.

The author’s biography refers to becoming involved in the Burning Man culture and underground circus, so this may very well be from his own experiences, which is fair enough. That being said, if the synopsis had said “party moon”, I would not have picked this book up because I would have identified it as not being my type of read.

There is a chilling contrast between the party scenes and those of found family and the stark reality of what happened to Jes at the Institute. While this is a novel about a party lifestyle, it would be remiss to say that is all it is. These scenes are explicit, they are cold, scientific and terrifying. Wong does an excellent job of separating them from the joy of finding a home, of finding family. These moments will have you holding your breath, feeling your heart beat in your chest, and only then will you remember they are flashbacks, that Jes has already escaped.

Another of Wong’s strengths is his world-building. The universe he has created is wonderful and interesting, the cultures of the alien races incredibly thought out, especially the Asuna. Their physical description is stunning, and I’m not going to say any more because it’s something you need to enjoy for yourself. I did feel that, compared to the other alien races, the Asuna and the Mantodean were more developed compared to some of the others.

Likewise, some physical descriptions were a bit confusing. Mantodean culture was described well, however, their physical appearance was confusing to me, and it was only after I noted the mantis on the book cover that I realised that what I had imagined was completely different to what had apparently been described. I also have no idea what a Bezan looks like.

I was a little put off by how familiar some of the alien names felt; many either came from other fandoms, Hydraxian is a faction in World of Warcraft, Asuna is quite similar to Asura, a race in Guild Wars 2, and Mantodean has been used in Doctor Who and a few other fandoms. However, it is most likely just from the name of the order of insects that mantises belong to, “Mantodea”. This one just feels a little lazy, if I’m being honest.

The Circus Infinite is a fun novel about found family with a caper twist, and more importantly, it has an asexual protagonist and all-around diversity. The problem for me was that, despite these good qualities, it was a bit too hit-and-miss in other areas, and overall it just didn’t make a huge impression on me. I felt that the emphasis on a hedonistic lifestyle overwhelmed everything else that was taking place in the novel, and it was hard to take things seriously when everyone was more interested in partying than anything else. 

Thank you for reading my review for The Circus Infinite. As noted, I’m well aware that this was not the book for me for multiple reasons, and I make the point of being honest in reviews like this so that people can find the books that work for them.

If you were an empath, what would you do with your abilities?

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my reviews if you’re looking for some more book recommendations 🙂 You can also now sign up for my newsletter to get an email each month with a list of my new reviews!

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