Becoming The Muse

Of Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter and Recursion

I was looking for a book to read and took to twitter, for recommendations

Current Reading Status: Bookless

I am open to suggestions preferably fantasy ideally but not limited to afrofuturism… @obukiko @curatereads @afrobloggers

— ~B 🇿🇼 (@Beatonm5) September 16, 2019

Muller_Social recommended I read Recursion by Blake Crouch and if I liked the book I would have to base a character and granting him god-like status.

While looking up the book on the internet I discovered that Recursion was a follow up novel to Blake Crouch’s smash hit thriller novel Dark Matter. I decided to read Dark Matter first although the books are stand-alone stories and in no way connected just so I could get a feel for Crouch’s writing style.

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Dark Matter

Dark Matter is a science fiction tale about the road not taken and how far you would go to get your life to back…

Jason Dessen is a seemingly ordinary family man whose life takes a mind-boggling turn one day when his everyday reality takes a turn that has him questioning his sanity and the very fabric of life itself. This sci-fi thriller will have you trying to wrap your head around what’s actually going and how the end game will  play out in a book full of some unexpected twists to conclude in an equally unexpected way that has asking what did I just read?

The book tackled complex science concept in a way that would not overwhelm one leaving  you free to enjoy the dizzying ride through the consequences of the choices we make.

Most astrophysicists believe that the force holding stars and galaxies together—the thing that makes our whole universe work—comes from a theoretical substance we can’t measure or observe directly. Something they call dark matter. And this dark matter makes up most of the known universe. –Dark Matter

I read Recursion back to back with Dark Matter and was glad I had read the latter first because this time I was prepared for the Blake’s penchant for taking you on mind-boggling reality shift that has you going:

What.
Did.
 I.
Just.
Read?

Recursion is a 2019 mystery science fiction thriller by Blake Crouch. This is thought provoking, emotionally charged science fiction read explores how our memories define and manipulate our reality.

 But what do you cling to, moment to moment, if memories can simply change. What, then, is real? -Recursion

NYC cop Barry Sutton starts investigating a suicide case, which takes him on a whirlwind ride where people have alternate memories of whole lives that they have never lived and from there even the concept of time past and present takes a different meaning in what seems to be Blake’s signature move to scramble our brains and have us questioning things we have always accepted as standard.

You do not need to read either book to read the other they are stand-alone novels and totally mind-blowing amidst all the chaos Blake always manages to sneak in a love story that’s against all the odds in a read that appeals across genres and not just the scifi crowd.

Small surprise that Blake Crouch’s novels might be adapted into movies, coming soon to big screen near you….

~B

PS The Wayward Pines TV series were adapted from a Blake Crouch Trilogy Wayward Pines

PPS Looks like I owe someone a starring role in my next flash fiction (the things I get myself into)

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Update:
Dark Matter adapted into a scifi TV series for Apple+