Dark Matter: A Study of the Many Multiverse Versions a Single Man
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
I read the first book on the Wayward Pines trilogy a while back and when I read it I realized Black Crouch was a pretty good writer when it came to action and suspenseful Twilight Zones like stories. So I wanted to read more of his stuff. Because I watched the Wayward Pines miniseries and know how it ends, I decided to read something else by him called Dark Matter. So here is my review.
Dark Matter starts with family night with Jason, his wife Daniela, and his on Charlie. All seems well. Jason does think about what if he did continue his research into quantum physics, or what would happen if Daniela continued her art career. But they are happy with family life and are content with the choices they made. When Jason steps out for a few minutes to say hello to a friend, he is kidnapped and injected with a drug. Jason wakes up in a lab and soon learns he is a parallel world. In this world he never married Daniela and continued his research to eventually create multi universe travel. He learns this and the employees of the research facility think he is their Jason. And Jason soon realizes that the Jason from this other world has taken his place in his own world to live with Daniela and his son. So Jason plays along and tries to get home.
The good. The story plays out like a Twilight Zone episode. It also explores the themes of what could have happened if he made different choices in his life. And it’s fascinating seeing how these choices create such a ripple effect. As he sees other worlds he see so many other versions of himself. Version where he never met Daniella, or where he was a drunk, or where they fought all the time. It’s really intriguing seeing so many versions of these people lives and finding out where it went wrong. Also the third act has such an amazing twist that ties directly into the string theory on such a literal level.
The bad? Unlike Wayward Pines, this book is all written in present tense. And present tense does lead to a lack of detail with a lot authors for some reason. This also is a bit of a disappointment because I like his writing style in Wayward Pines and I wanted to continue reading that sort of style. The book for the most part is a bit generic for science fiction up until the last act that is. If you read or watch a lot of science fiction, then this is average at best for the majority of the novel.
Overall, this is basically a three act, three hundred page twilight zone episode. If you are an avid scifi reader, this is very run of mill, until the very creative last third kicks the story into something very unique. Is it worth the read? What I say is yes, if you find this discounted somewhere. But by no means is it a must read.
2 1/2 smoothies out of four.
Overall Rating: A Study of The Many Multiverse Versions a Single Man.
