Pentapod reviewed The Fold by Peter Clines (Threshold, #2)
Review of 'The Fold' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Picked up the audiobook in an Audible sale and was pleasantly surprised. Don't think I've read anything by this author before, but I generally like science fiction and I definitely enjoyed the frequent twists and turns of the plot of this one.
Briefly, high school English teacher Mike is finally persuaded to help out his DARPA buddy Reggie by investigating some scientists who are trying to build an instant-travel gate (step in here, step out miles away... or on the other side of the world). And they've actually got it working! But Reggie doesn't know any of the details of why or how, and the scientists aren't talking, just insisting it needs more testing, and Reggie has a hunch something feels weird. So in goes his trusted buddy Mike, with a massively high IQ and an eidetic memory, to try and pinpoint what feels "off" and figure out what - …
Picked up the audiobook in an Audible sale and was pleasantly surprised. Don't think I've read anything by this author before, but I generally like science fiction and I definitely enjoyed the frequent twists and turns of the plot of this one.
Briefly, high school English teacher Mike is finally persuaded to help out his DARPA buddy Reggie by investigating some scientists who are trying to build an instant-travel gate (step in here, step out miles away... or on the other side of the world). And they've actually got it working! But Reggie doesn't know any of the details of why or how, and the scientists aren't talking, just insisting it needs more testing, and Reggie has a hunch something feels weird. So in goes his trusted buddy Mike, with a massively high IQ and an eidetic memory, to try and pinpoint what feels "off" and figure out what - if anything - they're hiding.
Mike is, needless to say, not welcomed warmly by the scientists, but does his best to figure out what's going on and whether there's a problem or whether it's all legit. And the tech really is very puzzling. Clearly it works, but nobody can give him a clear answer why or now ... and then he starts to notice strange things happening also. And, due to his eidetic memory, he actually does notice them, unlike most people who'd just shrug and assume they misremembered. Soon Mike is on the track of a bigger problem and eventually, without going into spoilery details, it seems the fate of the world hangs in his hands...
I really liked the teleportal tech (the "Albuquerque Door"), and the fact that Mike himself is slowly trying to figure out exactly what it is and why, allows the reader to be introduced to concepts at a slower pace without turning into a science exposition dump. I also liked that the plot took several unexpected turns that I didn't see coming, and turned into quite a suspenseful mystery which I wasn't expecting from what I thought was a sci fi tech story. I wasn't quite so keen on the characters themselves; Mike was a bit of a deus ex machina, a flawless hero who can know everything and solve everything due to his magic memory. The other characters were all pretty shallowly drawn. It was nice there were 2 tech-oriented women among the scientists, but everyone was pretty two-dimensional so you didn't really get much acquainted with any of them.
Overall though it definitely kept my attention and I enjoyed the twists and turns of the plot. I particularly liked the implication at the end that multiple sequels could possibly follow... but don't have to, for this book to end satisfactorily.
