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Created page with '{{infobox |title=Infinity |sort=Infinity |author=Sherrilyn Kenyon |reviewer=Robert James |genre=Teens |summary=Crazy but extremely entertaining urban fantasy sees zombies attack …'
{{infobox
|title=Infinity
|sort=Infinity
|author=Sherrilyn Kenyon
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=Teens
|summary=Crazy but extremely entertaining urban fantasy sees zombies attack New Orleans and youngster Nick Gautier team up with a variety of weird and wonderful allies to stop them.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|paperback=190741021X
|hardback=0312599072
|audiobook=142720909X
|ebook=
|pages=320
|publisher=Atom
|date=May 2010
|isbn=978-1907410215
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190741021X</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>190741021X</amazonus>
}}

Nick Gautier, scholarship kid teased for his poverty and his mother's job as a stripper, finds life hard enough even before three of his friends try to kill him when he stops them from mugging an elderly couple. But when the man who rescues him turns out to mix in seriously weird circles, things get really bizarre. If anything, really bizarre is a massive understatement. Nick goes on to meet demons, zombies, shape changers, and a host of other mysterious beings, many of whom he already knew in human form as his schoolmates. He ends up on the frontline of a battle against zombies who are running riot in his home of New Orleans.

As a book, this novel has some flaws. It seems to rely on a huge amount of coincidences, it's got a massive cast, most of whom aren't too well developed, and it's incredibly confusing. In fairness, part of the confusion on my part might be down to the fact that this is a prequel to Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters series – I hadn't realised that, and was assuming that the Chronicles of Nick was a completely new venture from the author. I haven't read any of her other work and it might well be the case that long-term fans will find this book far easier to follow than I did.

Having made a few criticisms, I have to balance them out with this comment – it's incredibly good fun! I was glued to the page with no idea what was coming as Nick met one new ally and enemy after another, and learned some of the powers he had at his disposal, and while most of the action had me at least slightly lost, it all entertained me a lot. The dialogue is sharp and witty, and the writing style, while making no claims to being great literature, is very readable and incredibly fast-paced. The best characters - Nick himself, his mother, and Kody, the girl he has a crush on - are really likeable and I definitely want to read the next in this sequence to find out what happens to them. In fact, I'm tempted to go seek out the Dark Hunter series now to see whether I enjoy the adult books as much – I'm just not sure my sanity can cope with them!

I'm filing this firmly under guilty pleasures, but it is a real pleasure to read, and fans of fantasy are extremely unlikely to be disappointed by this one.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

Further reading suggestion: For more urban fantasy, the excellent Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong is a great read, and [[No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong|No Humans Involved]] is a really good starting point.

{{amazontext|amazon=190741021X}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=7447790}}

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[[Category:Fantasy]]

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