One night after an evening out, Jason Dessen, forty-year-old physics professor living with his wife and son in Chicago, is kidnapped at gunpoint by a masked man, driven to an abandoned industrial site and injected with a powerful drug. As he wakes, a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend." But this life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife; his son was never born; and he's not an ordinary college professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something impossible. Is it this world or the other that's the dream? How can he possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could have imagined--one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe. …
One night after an evening out, Jason Dessen, forty-year-old physics professor living with his wife and son in Chicago, is kidnapped at gunpoint by a masked man, driven to an abandoned industrial site and injected with a powerful drug. As he wakes, a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend." But this life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife; his son was never born; and he's not an ordinary college professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something impossible. Is it this world or the other that's the dream? How can he possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could have imagined--one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe. --
The Macguffin at the heart of the book is pretty much the only thing that kept me going as it's an interesting take on multiverse hopping.
Unfortunately, the story that's wrapped around it is a pretty miserable middle age crisis melodrama, where a mediocre white guy gets to justify doing a bunch of crimes. Of the two named women in the book one is raped and the other just written out of the story. I don't recall a single non-white character being established.
It feels like a wasted opportunity as there is some interesting philosophy of identity and morality to be explored in this space but this is swept aside so that the supposedly super genius protagonist can take forever to work out what is made obvious to the reader from the start.
Thrilling! I haven't read a good sci-fi thriller in a long time, and this was a good one to get me back into the genre. Fascinating story and great pacing. I wish the characters were a bit more distinct, but still a great read.
Well written, entertaining. There's many plot twists, with the twists in the 'WTF' category outnumbering those in the 'saw that coming' one.
Nice about this: (1) It puts on new glasses to our own reality (small choices have big consequences) (2) Spins out what infinite versions of the same universe might mean in a way that I can relate with the concept.
First of all, I kind of liked this novel, it generated some thinking. Second of all, I have an issue.
If every choice Jason makes creates a new timeline with a new Jason that works to get back to his "original timeline", why doesn't every choice Daniela (or Jason 2, or any single one of their close friends, family, pets or house bugs) make create a "new original timeline", why is there only one of those, and why do all the Jasons end up in exactly the same one
I also kind of want to know what happens in that timeline after protagonist-Jason escapes. I pity the police department tasked with making sense of that crime scene, and the myriads of dejected Jasons moping about.
What if, there is not 1 universe, but a multiverse of worlds, each one a branch of a tree with a different outcome. Like, one world where I write this review, and one where I don't. And what if, there is a way to travel between these worlds. What would happen?
Pretty hard stuff to wrap your head around, right?
Dark Matter is a trilling read, it explores this weird part of quantum mechanics theory that explains that this multiverse could actually be real.
I'm glad I stuck with this one. The first half dragged, but it picked up. Not a bad thriller, and the sci fi elements were fun. Ultimately it was pretty average.
I think I'd have liked this better as a Harrison Ford movie in the late 90s.
This has a good Sci fi beginning about the middle I thought it was A typical ( and guessed at the ending ) but some twist and turns The ending was quite good.
Emotional, suspenseful, and wrapped in some intriguing ideas about quantum physics, identity, and the multiverse. The author says he was inspired by Crichton, and I think it shows—in a good way.
So...this is someone's book. Obviously. But it's not mine. I had not-so-high hopes going in, because I'm not usually one for super hyped anyway, but it seemed perfect for an airplane and the bookstore clerk said he reads a lot of scifi and this kept him guessing and was like nothing he's ever read.
Let me count my issues: 1. It's derivative. So, so, so derivative. If you've ever read a speculative fiction book based on quantum mechanics, you have read this book. I anticipated every twist. His abductor? himself from a different multiverse OF COURSE!, the surprise ending? there are more than two of him from the many multiverses. 2. It does quantum mechanics shallowly and I care. I read this interweaved with [b:The End of Mr. Y|93436|The End of Mr. Y|Scarlett Thomas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389137862s/93436.jpg|1535663], which does such a more nuanced job. 3. I can't turn off my feminism (sometimes I …
So...this is someone's book. Obviously. But it's not mine. I had not-so-high hopes going in, because I'm not usually one for super hyped anyway, but it seemed perfect for an airplane and the bookstore clerk said he reads a lot of scifi and this kept him guessing and was like nothing he's ever read.
Let me count my issues: 1. It's derivative. So, so, so derivative. If you've ever read a speculative fiction book based on quantum mechanics, you have read this book. I anticipated every twist. His abductor? himself from a different multiverse OF COURSE!, the surprise ending? there are more than two of him from the many multiverses. 2. It does quantum mechanics shallowly and I care. I read this interweaved with [b:The End of Mr. Y|93436|The End of Mr. Y|Scarlett Thomas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389137862s/93436.jpg|1535663], which does such a more nuanced job. 3. I can't turn off my feminism (sometimes I wish I could.) And the female characters had no agency. And/or were MacGuffins. And also, I read this mid-[a:Alison Bechdel|21982|Alison Bechdel|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1245100306p2/21982.jpg] marathon, and wow does it fail the Bechdel test. 4. The family v. success dichotomy is overwrought, unfair and honestly a problematic cultural narrative.
What is the second star even for? It was readable enough that I didn't ragequit and I wasn't really hate-reading it. The story was kind of vaguely entertaining.
This is a tale of how the choices along the way can change the way one experiences a story. This was on my reading list for a while, tagged SF. I never read the blurb. Maybe I should have. I might have had more realistic expectations.
First off, the the title was misleading - at least for me. I expected much more physics and way less of a human/mystery story than this was. The SF appeared mostly as a device to set up a dramatic story because the story takes place in Chicago (mostly) roughly in the present. The protagonists are ordinary people, just a physics professor, an art instructor and their son. There are no aliens, space-ships, AIs or cyber action, just a single device that changes not even the world just the lives of one family. A metaphor about choices made and regrets...
That story was—after the initial …
This is a tale of how the choices along the way can change the way one experiences a story. This was on my reading list for a while, tagged SF. I never read the blurb. Maybe I should have. I might have had more realistic expectations.
First off, the the title was misleading - at least for me. I expected much more physics and way less of a human/mystery story than this was. The SF appeared mostly as a device to set up a dramatic story because the story takes place in Chicago (mostly) roughly in the present. The protagonists are ordinary people, just a physics professor, an art instructor and their son. There are no aliens, space-ships, AIs or cyber action, just a single device that changes not even the world just the lives of one family. A metaphor about choices made and regrets...
That story was—after the initial setup which took way too long for this impatient reader—well-told, fast-paced and unputdownable. The first quarter of the book took me two days to read and then I finished the rest in one long afternoovening.
Towards the finish there were several interesting turns and I got more and more curious how each of these would resolve or if they could be resolved at all. I should have expected that more than one Jason would make it back to his original world. I really enjoyed the police station stunt. Then again the return to the cube should also have been obvious but somehow it wasn‘t
If I the initial pacing had been a little faster and I had not expected so much more SF, this might have been a 5* read. Overall this was a well-told plot that could have derailed in its own complications at a number of points but didn’t as the author’s choices along the way led to an enjoyable story, so I‘ll likely recommend it to friends. Maybe even friends who normally do not read SF.
If you liked this multiverse themed novel, try [b: And then there were N-One|36696441|And Then There Were (N-One)|Sarah Pinsker|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|58496528] a short story I discovered the other day accidentally.
This was a very good book. It's hard to talk about without giving anything away. But in very vague terms it's a book that is always interesting, always surprising and original. It definitely keeps you reading to find out what happens next. It's just the tiniest bit cornball (well and asks you to utterly suspend disbelief) so not 5 star worthy. In simplistic terms it's about the choices we make and how that shapes who we are. We are always being altered based upon the present experience. We are not the same person we were 5 minutes ago. Plus it was based in Chicago which I always enjoy.
I did like Dark Matter. It is not a must-read, but very entertaining nonetheless. The first 100 pages are possibly the most exciting I have ever read. The pacing is very strong later on as well. I am looking forward to the movie adaptation, it cannot be anything less than awesome!
A bit more detail. The plot is exactly like an SMBC comic ([a:Zach Weinersmith|4094380|Zach Weinersmith|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png]). A fairly good one! The basic setup is evident from the first pages: In an alternative timeline Jason has invented a machine to go into parallel timelines. He came to this timeline, kidnapped our Jason and took his place! (Very minor spoiler.) This much is evident to the reader. It is fairly common fare for web comics.
But the twist is that Dark Matter presents this 100% seriously. The core of the plot goes further, and I would say even gets sillier over time. …
I did like Dark Matter. It is not a must-read, but very entertaining nonetheless. The first 100 pages are possibly the most exciting I have ever read. The pacing is very strong later on as well. I am looking forward to the movie adaptation, it cannot be anything less than awesome!
A bit more detail. The plot is exactly like an SMBC comic ([a:Zach Weinersmith|4094380|Zach Weinersmith|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png]). A fairly good one! The basic setup is evident from the first pages: In an alternative timeline Jason has invented a machine to go into parallel timelines. He came to this timeline, kidnapped our Jason and took his place! (Very minor spoiler.) This much is evident to the reader. It is fairly common fare for web comics.
But the twist is that Dark Matter presents this 100% seriously. The core of the plot goes further, and I would say even gets sillier over time. But the comic-like events are padded with well detailed action sequences. And most importantly, these action sequences are overlaid with a close examination of the protagonist's emotions and thoughts.
It is this emotional roller coaster that really takes you on a great ride, while the underpinnings of constant action and fairy-tale physics do a great job of supporting it.
Regarding the physics:
How does the box pop into existence in all timelines?
There is no singular world that all the Jasons would land in. Their home-world has also split into an infinite number of worlds while they were away: in one Jason2 was hit by a bus, in another he won a second Pavia award, in a third one he became an alcoholic. (Wait, my bad. Strangely, all the characters except Charlie are already alcoholics from the start of the book.)
The book seems to confuse "infinite" with "about a hundred". A Jason arrives who went to hell, another who left Amanda to freeze, another who did who knows what. But what about the Jason who stopped to scratch his ear at the last second and should have arrived a second later? What about the one who only considered scratching his ear, and should have arrived between these two? There should be a firehose of Jasons exploding out of the box, destroying Chicago and doubling the mass of the Earth by the end of the story.
I recognize that my last two complaints sort of balance each other out. In one I say the Jasons should be distributed across an infinite number of home-worlds. In the other I say there should be infinitely more of them. Maybe. I am not sold.
Anyway, it is great fun thinking about such weird things!
