麻豆传媒

Nathan Tavares (Titan Books)

IT SEEMS like the multiverse is everywhere right now, if you鈥檒l pardon the pun. From its origins as a groundbreaking head-exploder of a scientific theory, it seems to have achieved the dubious honour of being the go-to lazy plot twist. But it can also elevate other potentially tired genres. This is the trick Nathan Tavares pulls off in A Fractured Infinity, using it to provide new facets for the humble coming-of-age novel.

If you tip the idea on its side and squint, what is the multiverse but the infinite sea of possible future selves that cast their inverted shadow over terrified teens and 20-somethings? Will you unlock your best self when you become an adult? Be dragged to hell by your worst? Or, even more horribly, end up stuck as some mediocrity between the two extremes?

This is how Tavares鈥檚 protagonist, Hayes Figueiredo, starts the story, dubbed 鈥渘ondescript鈥� by the leader of a secretive lab that recruits him, despite his unimpressive r茅sum茅, to work on a world-changing project. That is also when he first becomes aware of the existence of an alternate version of himself, a towering genius who seems to have unlocked inter-universe communication and whose extraordinary accomplishments cast our relatively uninspiring protagonist鈥檚 shortcomings into glaring relief.

That other Hayes is the 鈥渇inal draft鈥�. When we are young, we are in constant battle against our imaginary 鈥渇inal draft鈥�. It relentlessly wags its finger at us, alongside the well-meaning people in our lives who are trying to help us avoid becoming our own worst-case scenarios.

In some ways, this is the hardest part of being young, the one we forget as we age out of this roiling state of constant possibility, waveforms collapsing into the settled selves that, for better or worse, become a stable identity.

But, in fact, the 鈥渇inal draft鈥� Hayes aims for isn鈥檛 the increasingly suspect mega-genius. The version he yearns to become is a good husband to the man he loves, a good citizen amplifying other people鈥檚 struggles; a person who doesn鈥檛 let other people down by being 鈥渁 mess鈥�. But that is hard.

From studies in behavioural economics, we already know that your future self is a stranger. It is why we don鈥檛 save for retirement or eat our allotted vegetables and all that dreadfully boring stuff.

It is only when that future self make itself a bit more keenly felt 鈥� with the aches and pains of impending middle age, or broken relationships you can no longer mend 鈥� that we stop treating that self like a person in a different universe. So it is with Hayes, who begins to internalise that his actions really have consequences.

The multiverse is a wonderful twist on these strands, tying them together into something that fizzes. A Fractured Infinity is populated by some of the best sci-fi has to offer: a sardonic best friend who is a robot in human drag; living deepfakes; a drowned future city whose streets are lit by passing bioluminescent jellyfish; a Native American state in a post-civil war de-United States. And that is just Hayes鈥檚 home universe (it gets weirder from there).

The multiverse trope here provides an easy, entertaining vehicle for very deep philosophical lessons about what it takes to grow up at any age. A Fractured Infinity will be a great choice for young people and will remind older readers why our earlier years are often so excruciating.