Who will live forever and who will die trying?
Infinity Cycle is a 2020 Urban Fantasy YA series of books by Adam Silvera.
Twin brothers Emil and Brighton are fans of a vigilante group of Celestials (people born with special powers connected to the stars) called Spell Walkers. Emil is a shy and sweet boy with a love for phoenixes and a work at a museum, and just wants a peaceful life. Brighton is a fame hungry youtuber interested in spreading the stories about Celestials of New York. When young, they both dreamed of being Celestials and becoming heroes, but at 18, Emil has given up on that dream though Brighton still holds on to it.
Their normal lives get uprooted when Emil turns out to have powers and is asked to join the Spell Walkers, believing he is to be massively involved in a big upcoming fight against the Blood Casters, a villainous group of specters that has soiled the public image of magical humans.
The series is composed of the following books:
- Infinity Son (2020)
- Infinity Reaper (2021)
- Infinity Kings (Set for a 2024 release)
Tropes
- Anti-Hero: Deconstructed. Maribelle becomes obsessed with proving her mother innocent, which leads to her becoming very ruthless and cruel in battle in her pursuit for the girl she believes to be connected to her parent's death. When she catches the girl, a video of her beating her with the intention to kill is used to paint her as a crazed, violent murderer to the public instead.
- Arch-Nemesis: June to Maribelle. Maribelle is certain that June is directly involved in the Blackout, which caused the death of her parents, which causes her to be her main focus in fights. This is furthered when June possesses her and makes her shoot Atlas dead with a wand, making taking revenge on June Maribelle's sole goal moving on and quitting the Spell Walkers so she can hunt and kill her.
- Bittersweet Ending: Infinity Son ends with barely any sweet on it: Maribelle and Brighton quit the Spell Walkers, the former deciding to fully dedicate herself to vengeance against June after she killed Atlas, and the latter trying to prove his worth by himself after he is forbidden to accompany the Spell Walkers on the field. Ness is kidnapped by The Senator who wants him to impersonate his political opponents for his campaign or throw him into a Celestial Prison. The Spell Walkers, Maribelle, and Brighton, manage to finish Luna before she can drink the finished Reaper's Blood potion, but wanting to be powerful too, Brighton snatches the potion and drinks it himself.
- Blood Magic: A key point of the setting is that alchemists can turn the blood of magical creatures into a source of power or a remedy. Specters are normal people that got Celestial-like powers by making a solution with the blood of creatures like hydras and phoenixes.
- Both Sides Have a Point:
- Maribelle wants to kill June, the girl who killed her parents and framed them for the breakout. Her point is legit that June is not a good person and will cause the deaths of others. Emil argues against this because beating a girl to death is not only bad press for the Spell Casters, as shown when the footage gets online, but also makes Maribelle no better than the Blood Casters. The end of the book has Emil wondering if maybe Maribelle had a point, that it was better June died rather than Atlas.
- Likewise, Maribelle's reasons for quitting are brimming with this. Iris argues that the reason for lying about Maribelle's true origins were to protect her, and she made a promise. On the other hand, even Nice Girl Eva believes that it was a cold thing for Iris to hide such a big secret, and Maribelle shouts that for all she knows, Iris kept it secret to be the leader of the Spell Casters and not to honor a promise. She could have saved their parents if she had learned about her powers sooner.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: The reason why Senator Irons doesn't kill Ness after recapturing him. Ness even fully expected he would be shot in private, with his body disposed of to further his father's goals. Senator Irons knows that Ness's powers can help him win the presidency if he impersonates the senator's opponents and smears their names. If Ness refuses, he'll be tossed into a Celestial prison where the inmates will know his father is the one who incarcerated them.
- Chekhov's Gun: The gala event at museum mentioned at the beginning of Infinity Son, serves as its battle climax when Luna invades it to steal Gravesend.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- Eduardo Irons, the son Senator Irons that went missing and was considered dead during the Blackout at first seems to be just a background character that is part of Irons's background. He turns out to be Ness's real identity.
- Brighton briefly mentions his annoyance at a far-right youtuber that positions himself against him on the internet, Silver Star Slayer, that posts conspiracy theories and anti-Celestial rhetoric. He turns out to have gotten his hands on a controversial video of Maribelle seemingly torturing June during their fight, which turns the public against the Spell Walkers.
- Corrupt Politician: Senator Irons only has in mind the goal of getting to the White House, and doesn't care what he has to do to get to it. He orchestrated The Blackout together with Luna to smear the name and popularity of the Spell Walkers, propel his career by killing his son, and agrees to make the enforcers not go after her in return.
- Foreshadowing: The tagline "Who will live forever and who will die trying?" of Infinity Son hints at the plot of Infinity Reaper as Brighton's attempt to drink the immortality potion Luna made makes him deathly sick, and Emil strives to find a cure.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Emil is shocked when Ness reveals that his father set him up to die as part of a political ploy, and would likely kill him if he got wind of his son being alive. He asks what kind of person would do that. Ness says bitterly and wistfully that if Emil is asking, then he was really lucky to have good parents.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: At first, when the team captures Ness, he's only willing to talk to Emil since Emil is the newest recruit and most unlikely threat. Yet when he claims he knows that the Spell Walkers are less likely to kill him than the specters are, he knocks out Emil during the prisoner exchange for Brighton and hands him over, complete with slashing him with an Anti-Magic blade. Yet later, when Emil is barely conscious or able to walk, Ness helps him escape. When Ness is placed in an art room after Atlas dies, Emil hesitates on letting him clean up the wounds, since Ness is the one who slashed him and not even Eva can heal the cuts. Ness coaxes him and apologizes, saying he did it because the other Blood Casters would have killed Emil. He also says he would understand if Emil didn't forgive him, since the scars will be with him forever. His father then uses the enforcers to recapture him and blackmails him to perform his dirty work or he'll spend a spell in the worst prison. Even worse, Emil had agreed that it was better for everyone if Ness left, something that Ness wants to do by finding his mother's roots in the Dominican Republic, and Ness only got captured trying to save Emil from the enforces.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: It's unknown why June is allied with Luna, and what her incentive was for framing Maribelle's mother for the Blackout. Not that Maribelle cares about the reason, but June is hinted to have done it more than for any money or loyalty to Luna's cause.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: As Emil puts it, imagining being a celestial is different from it happening. He just wishes that he had never developed powers and gone to work at the museum gala after seeing Brighton off to college.
- Love Across Battlelines: Emil starts falling for the Blood Caster elite member Ness.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Infinity Reaper confirms that Ness didn't have a choice but to do his father's dirty work when Senator Irons captures him. It's because the other option was being tossed into a Celestial Prison where the inmates would torture him for being the Senator's son. He also hopes that he can get a message to Emil.
- Properly Paranoid: Ness is terrified about what would happen if his father knew he was alive, considering Senator Irons set him up to die. Luna relegated the news of Ness's defection and rescue of Emil to the senator, leading to him sending enforcers to recapture Ness for a new mission.
- The Reveal:
- Emil is adopted, and the reincarnation of both Keon and Bautiste, who, as phoenix specters, inherited the power to reincarnate as different people.
- Ness's real identity is Eduardo Irons.
- June's real involvement with the Blackout: As a specter with ghost powers, she possessed Maribelle's mother into causing the Blackout.
- Maribelle is adopted as well. She's the daughter of Bautiste and Sera, which makes her the only half-specter/half-celestial known. Her powers aren't just flight, but phoenix powers which also include control of dark-yellow fire.
- Self-Made Orphan: Luna had killed her own parents when she was just 17, in a way that Ness explains to be very, very violent, meant to turn them into ghosts.
- This Is Reality: This is eventually why the Spell Casters don't want Brighton filming their battles. They acknowledge it's noble and brave of him if Secretly Selfish that it boosted his social media, but life isn't a superhero movie. He got captured and used as a bargaining chip, with Emil nearly dying in the bargain and Atlas being killed. By virtue of not having powers and being the sibling to the Living MacGuffin that Luna needs to complete her ritual, Brighton is a distraction at best and a liability at worst. Brighton doesn't appreciate that Iris and Emil want to keep him alive, complaining that he ought to have been the one with powers.
- Two Aliases, One Character: Ness and Eduardo Irons.
