I picked this book up at a signing at New York Comic-Con a couple of years ago but hadn’t had a chance to read it until now. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch is the first book I’ve read by this author and is a blend of science fiction, thriller, and romance.
Here is the blurb:
Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.
– – –
‘Are you happy in your life?’
Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakes to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before the man he’s never met smiles down at him and says, ‘Welcome back.’
In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
Is it this world or the other that’s the dream?
And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.
I enjoyed this book a lot and finished it in less than a week, which is pretty fast for me. Despite the theoretical physics behind the science fiction premise, the concept is explained just enough to be understandable for the purposes of the plot.
Jason Dessen is quite a sympathetic protagonist, and we see him go through some horrific experiences as he struggles to find his way home. By the end, everything is resolved in a satisfactory although not completely happy way. This was a fun stand-alone novel and I’ll look out for more books by this author in the future.
Have you read Dark Matter or anything else by Blake Crouch? Let me know in the comments above.
Selection Error – a flash fiction story podcast by Utopia Science Fiction Magazine in December 2022
Apr 04, 2022 @ 09:05:35
Glad you liked it. I read it a while back — I enjoyed it too. Haven’t read anything else by Crouch. Have you read Sea of Rust? Completely unrelated to Dark Matter, but it just popped into my head.
Apr 04, 2022 @ 09:07:51
Glad you liked it. I read it a while back, also enjoyed it. Haven’t read anything else by Crouch.
Have you read Sea of Rust? Completely unrelated to Dark Matter — it just popped into my head.
Apr 05, 2022 @ 11:58:14
I haven’t read Sea of Rust but thank you for adding to my way too long book list. 😉
Apr 04, 2022 @ 09:08:21
Sorry for the double comment, some kind glitch!
Oct 03, 2022 @ 10:57:09
The story was fun to read! The science stuff got this whipped into a frenzy! I enjoyed the idea of hitting insurmountable barriers due to psychological thinking. Yet, they were able to overcome the complex puzzle. While I wished there were more pages to this maybe make it to 500 pages. Plus, I felt by 1/3 at the ending could have taken in more adrenaline fun in chasing. It seems like the author wanted to wrap it up quickly enough that the question of ending can be unanswered to many.
Dec 15, 2022 @ 06:29:13
Amazing story, it’s everything Blake Crouch does well:
improbable science/technology,
characters you feel for,
adrenaline adventure,
a message.
Our life is the life we make.
Dec 23, 2022 @ 08:41:03
I must say, I am not a fast reader typically, but I have read this book so fast. The language is nice, approachable, easy to read and mainly the story nicely built, not predictable. I am personally interested in quantum theory and even from that perspective the author included, from my point of view, very well our current knowledge so it is not a totally farfetched.
Jan 10, 2023 @ 10:48:19
Yes! I found this book very approachable and fast to read. 🙂