Summary of Infinity

                Nick Gautier is an average teenager living in the taboo city of New Orleans.  His family is an odd one; a mom as a ‘show girl’ at a club downtown, his aunt a psychic, and his dad in jail for longer than he can remember.  All of this is normal, as far as Nick can tell.  However, when Nick saves two tourists from being beaten and robbed by his so-called friends, his life is turned upside down.  A rich man by the name of Kyrian decides to take Nick under his wing, paying him to do small errands for him and to keep the young teenager out of trouble.  Nick soon learns however, that Kyrian is not the average man.  In fact, he is a god, with powers.  Through Kyrian, Nick meets new contacts throughout town and receives nearly everything he could want.  However, the next day after meeting with Kyrian, the entire city erupts in chaos.

                Throughout the city of New Orleans, zombies are running around wild, chomping on anyone they can find.  Despite the fact that zombies need to be dead, these creatures are not; they are in living.  No one understands where they could have come from, until Nick discovers that it is all from a video game his friend Madaug created.  The game was invented to prevent jocks from picking on nerds like Madaug, not to create zombies!  However, something had gone haywire.  Through the help of his friends Madaug, Bubba, Mark, and Caleb, it is Nick’s job to round up the zombies and destroy them in order to save his mom and the rest of New Orleans.

New Orleans. (http://www.quimbysrestaurant.com/retreat-NewOrleans2011-retreat.php)

Discussion Questions for the Novel

Throughout much of the novel, Nick reveals some of his inner thoughts to readers; however, they are never very deep or well thought out.  Why do you believe this is?

If Nick had never saved the tourists in the alley and had never met Kyrian, how do you believe his life would have been affected?  Would the outcome have been positive or negative?  Explain.

Nick realizes that people believed to be his enemies turn out to be his friends; protecting him from the odd occurrences in New Orleans.  Could this also hold true in real life?

Critique of the Novel

                Infinity, written by Sherrilyn Kenyon, is a novel that is a part of the Chronicles of Nick series.  Published in 2010 by St. Martin’s Griffin publishing company, the novel outlines the life of a teenager named Nick Gautier living in New Orleans, during a massive zombie attack on the city.

                One of the major positive things about the novel is that the storyline moves quickly; it never lingers in a spot too long, not allowing the reader to become bored with a situation.  Though situations move quickly, there is always enough explanation of events to prevent the reader from becoming lost.  Another positive point towards the book is the fact that Sherrilyn Kenyon’s writing style is very short and to the point, without drowning the reader with unneeded details.  This allows the novel to be a quick read, without having to skim the novel and miss something important.  For these reasons, I quite enjoyed the novel.  However, there could be a few things that could be viewed as negatives towards the novel.

                The first thing that could be noticed as a reader is the fact that the vocabulary is very basic; a twelve year old would have no problem reading this novel.  For some individuals this may be fine, however, at times I felt as though the novel was a little too easy.  I definitely could have chosen another novel that was directed more towards my reading level.  Another thing that I disliked about the novel was at times I would become confused when reading about dark hunters, something in another of Kenyon’s series.  Prior to this novel I had not read any of the Dark Hunter series, making certain situations in the novel hard to understand.  Due to the fact that Chronicles of Nick and Dark Hunter are two different series, I did not expect to see that connection within Infinity; I believed the series would be completely separate and different.  However, I still enjoyed the novel.

                Despite the few cons of reading Infinity, I would still recommend it to anyone that enjoys mystery or fantasy novels.  Anyone that has interest in mythical creatures or suspense novels I believe would also enjoy Infinity.

The Novel, Infinity.  (http://bryonnanobles.blogspot.com/2011/04/book-review-infinity-by-sherrilyn.html)

Biography of Sherrilyn Kenyon

The Author, Sherrilyn Kenyon (http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/see-a-bad-moon-rising-head-to-borders/)

                Sherrilyn Kenyon was born on December 11, 1965 in Columbus, Georgia.  Kenyon had three siblings; two brothers and an older sister.  Despite the family being whole when she was born, Sherrilyn’s father later left the family when she was eight years old.  Due to money problems, Sherrilyn and her brothers were forced to live with other family in Atlanta; her mother and sister later reunited with them.  Though life was not easy, Sherrilyn enjoyed and excelled in writing.  As far back as kindergarten, she remembers wanting to become a writer.  At age fourteen she made her first professional sale in writing and continued writing for magazines, local newspapers, school newspapers, and yearbooks throughout high school.

                After high school, Sherrilyn was accepted to the Savannah College of Art and Design.  Though she had the desire to have a career in writing, she originally decided to major in art, but later decided to major in history due to the cost of art supplies.  Kenyon looked into over 12 majors during her college career, but finally graduated with an interdisciplinary major combining history, language, and Classical Studies.  After graduating from college, Sherillyn wrote her first manuscript, and was ready to send it to publishers and start a career in writing.

                Since her college days, Kenyon has had many literary successes.  Kenyon has written non-fiction such as in magazines and newspapers, fiction, horror, and even romance novels.  Her most famous series to date are:  Dark Hunter, Dream Hunter, The League, and Chronicles of Nick; all of which are fiction.  Nearly all of the novels Kenyon writes become a part of her existing series.  She has won multiple awards, such as: the Holt Medallion, the MARA award, Best Novella, Best Fantasy Novel, Best Romantic Anthology, and multiple best seller awards.  As she continues writing for her various series, there is no doubt that there will be more awards to come.

                Sherrilyn’s writing style, unlike most authors, is very ‘short and sweet’; to the point instead of giving unneeded information.  Instead of describing every thought a character has within their mind or overly describing a scene, she gives you the basics to understand the situation.  Along with that, the vocabulary is very basic, making it unnecessary to ever look a word up in the dictionary.  Due to this, her novels are very easy to read, requiring very little thought.  They are the perfect way to pass time.  Hopefully, her writing style will continue to remain the same throughout her upcoming books.

                As always, Sherrilyn Kenyon has new and upcoming novels, as displayed on her fansite.  Beginning in August of this year, Retribution will be released, a part of the Dark Hunters series.  Next to be released are: Alternant, The Guardian (part of the Dark Hunter series), Infamous (part of the Chronicles of Nick), Darkness Within, Daemon’s Angel, and finally, Alpha (Daria).  The next two years prove to be busy for Kenyon, however, she enjoys writing and says, “I don't suffer from my insanity -- I enjoy every minute of it” (http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/991924).