A multilayered look at the infinite possibilities of one’s actions, In Universes gives the reader much more than the usual sci-fi multiverse scenario shenanigans we’ve come to associate with Star Trek or the MCU. Emet North’s debut is, in fact, quite stunning. There is no way it can be autobiographical, with alternate realities that sometimes border on Black Mirror territory, but their own life has many parallels with In Universes protagonist Raffi.

Both the author and character worked in an observational cosmology lab and it is this scenario that gives way to a fracturing of the plot that takes the reader cleverly, subtly and with great ingenuity, across multiple worlds where Raffi’s actions, or inactions, lead us down more and more moral and metaphysical rabbit holes.

There are times when the eternal soul-searching, etched with doubt, becomes a little repetitive. But North is cleverly making the point that even though the world of each sub-story may be new the person within it is still subject to the same old hangups. What starts as an essay on possibilities leads to a treatise on permanence and – most beautifully of all – in a startlingly spiritual ending, we finally move from guilt to redemption. As North writes, “Come for the sin, stay for the stars.”