With June being Pride month in Winnipeg we wanted to choose a book by both an LGBTQ+ author and featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists. While I’ve read a number of suitable books for this I decided I wanted to read something new and settled on Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender. Kacen Callender is black, queer, trans and uses they/them and he/him pronouns and Infinity Alchemist features trans masc and genderfluid main characters. Exactly what we were looking to uplift with our choice this month and especially exciting as I’ve often found it harder to find BIPOC trans characters or trans masc characters.
Unfortunately I ended up a lot busier this month than I expected and since we decided on the book halfway through I ended up biting off more than I could chew and have only made it about two thirds of the way through the first novel so far so I can’t talk about the novel as thoroughly as I would have liked. I can talk about a lot of the things I have liked so far and the basic premise.
Ash Woods is an illegal alchemist practicing and learning without state acceptance into an alchemy college. As the illegitimate child of a prominent Alchemist he wants nothing more than to become an official alchemist and confront his father for abandoning his pregnant mother. Ramsay meanwhile is the sole surviving child of a former great house that fell to ruin when their parents, two infamous alchemists, commit mass murder, wiping out an entire town in pursuit of knowledge. Ramsay discovers Ash’s talents and recruits him in helping them discover the location of the mythical Book of Source, the book that their parents threw everything trying to obtain. Along the way they get tangled up in people from Ramsay’s past including a boy named Callum, son of a great house that leads the anti-alchemy faction of politics.
The story so far has played heavily with themes of identity and lineage with each character coming from a different background that haunts and manipulates them, always asking if they are better than their parents. It’s an interesting theme that ties the characters together and is used to build their political affiliations and flesh out the world. I am as of two thirds through the book looking forward to seeing how it ties together and how the characters grow, whether they break away from their past or follow in their parents footsteps.
Worldbuilding seems solid, with a complex political system of houses all with varying views on alchemy and seeking to gain the upper hand over each other to push their views into law. One could easily say that it’s an allegory for science denial and the current politicization of gender identities. Especially since alchemy is used by some characters as a sort of gender affirming care to transform the body.
All in all outside a few a frustrations with characters actions at times(I’m old and it’s a young adult novel so I understand that I struggle to identify with the characters because I’ve grown past that stage in my life) I’ve been enjoying the book so far and will hopefully find the time to sit down and finish it over the next few days.
