The Circus Infinite
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
**FINALIST for the Lambda LGBTQ+ Speculative Fiction Award 2023**
A circus takes down a crime-boss on the galaxy’s infamous pleasure moon.
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.
File Under: Science Fiction [ Misfit Fits In | Crime Never Pays | Loop The Loops | Balancing Act ]
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
