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. --
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.
Tremendous. Intelligent, fantastical yet believable sci-fi. Read in a couple of sessions.
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.
A fun book in the Crichton tradition. A pretty quick read.
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.
Give it a go!
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!
Part multiverse sci-fi, part thriller. Neither part quite fleshed out enough to be satisfying. Not bad, but not great either.
Good pacing at the start, but the writing got repetitive after a while, which allowed me to blaze through. A fun read.
The premise of the story seemed obvious almost from the get-go, yet the pace of the reveals suggested that the author didn't think so. I'll admit that the complications at the end were a surprise, and I enjoyed the journey to the resolution, I just... I dunno. It didn't grab me like I hoped it would.
My mom took me to the bookstore to buy a book for my birthday - which, I guess, is the adult equivalent of going to the toy store and being told to pick out any toy you want. I was excited when I saw this book because I had just read somewhere what a great book it was, and then I spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out where I read that it was such a great book (which I never did). I have always loved the idea of the multiverse where the various choices we make create multiple universes where we live different lives.
I read the book in a week, which is embarrassing for a librarian to admit, but for me that is quite the accomplishment. I was excited to go to bed each night because I knew I would have a few minutes to read …
My mom took me to the bookstore to buy a book for my birthday - which, I guess, is the adult equivalent of going to the toy store and being told to pick out any toy you want. I was excited when I saw this book because I had just read somewhere what a great book it was, and then I spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out where I read that it was such a great book (which I never did). I have always loved the idea of the multiverse where the various choices we make create multiple universes where we live different lives.
I read the book in a week, which is embarrassing for a librarian to admit, but for me that is quite the accomplishment. I was excited to go to bed each night because I knew I would have a few minutes to read before I passed out (10 minutes if I'm lucky, but usually 5 minutes tops). It's not that the writing was so great. I love beautiful writing - those lines that are so perfect in their simplicity and the way they capture the emotion (although I do love the line in this book, "There is something so lonely about a place that is almost home". I thought that was beautiful.) But the writing was definitely engaging and I think the author did a wonderful job of setting a tone of desperation as the protagonist fights to find his way home. I could not put it down, but I also didn't want it to end. The struggle, as they say, is very real.
Just when I thought I had an idea where this story was going it would twist. Really loved this. One of those books where I know the ideas and concepts will stay with me and make me ask lots of what if questions.
Could not put this down. Fantastic premise well-executed. I'm very pleased that I received this advance review copy from Netgalley in exchange for my review. Time travel and multiverse fiction can be hard to pull off effectively but I think this one gets it right. It spends more time on how our protagonist is affected than on complicated worldbuilding, and that approach works very well. I very much enjoyed that the perspective was mostly from a reliable observer, but sometimes the observer was not perceptive enough to tell the whole story. The big reveals were well-paced and plausibly based on the underlying premise.
It's been a disappointing run of sci-fi on TV lately with little character development and poorly developed premises. Refreshing to go back to books and especially this one. Jason is a compelling protagonist and I actually cared whether or not he'd find his way back to his …
Could not put this down. Fantastic premise well-executed. I'm very pleased that I received this advance review copy from Netgalley in exchange for my review. Time travel and multiverse fiction can be hard to pull off effectively but I think this one gets it right. It spends more time on how our protagonist is affected than on complicated worldbuilding, and that approach works very well. I very much enjoyed that the perspective was mostly from a reliable observer, but sometimes the observer was not perceptive enough to tell the whole story. The big reveals were well-paced and plausibly based on the underlying premise.
It's been a disappointing run of sci-fi on TV lately with little character development and poorly developed premises. Refreshing to go back to books and especially this one. Jason is a compelling protagonist and I actually cared whether or not he'd find his way back to his regular everyday life.
It frustrates me that good reads doesn’t have a way to uncheck “want to read”. I was stuck with this book on a trans-Atlantic flight and DNF’ed it with extreme prejudice at page 100. Right around when both alternate-world Jasons have slept with both alternate world Danielas and then successful artist Daniela gets shot in the head and fuck. This. Extremely predictable and boring book.
Some folks seem to really love it, but I just couldn’t see any possible ending that made all the super heavy handed heterosexual male fantasy bullshit worth putting up with. Sorry everyone.
Dark Matter is a fast paced, edge of your seat, SciFi/thriller. "All your life you're told you're unique. An individual. That no one on the planet is just like you."
What if this was not the only plane of existence? What if there were not just a universe but a multiverse where other bizarro versions of ourselves were at this very minute going on with their bizarro versions of our lives.. Sounds a bit crazy and yet somehow Blake Crouch has made it seem quite plausible, and terrifying
I received an advance copy for review
