Would you change your choices?

Dark Matter

by Blake Crouch

 

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the X-Files and Fringe had a crossover episode? That’s this book.

I read the Kindle edition in English. I’ve read several of Blake Crouch’s books, including the Wayward Pines trilogy and Recursion. This book reads like a dry run for Recursion, which was published immediately after.

The protagonist is Jason Dessen, a college physics instructor who lives in Chicago. His wife is the lovely Daniela, who gave up her budding art career to be a wife to Jason and mother to Charlie, now 15. Jason and Daniela are happy, but not deliriously so because each wonders what would have happened had they pursued the path they were on before marriage.

This book is a great example of a sci-fi thriller. Bizarrely complicated concepts, such as quantum physics, are explained in relatively simple language. The events of the book play out in unexpected ways but are always consistent with the genre.

The characters in the book are top-notch. As the book continues, we get to know Jason in all of his permutations. We learn that he was once a top scientist on the verge of a major breakthrough. He wonders what life would have been like had he pursued his scientific career instead of settling down with his family. Similarly, Daniela was once a promising artist; she also wonders what might have been.

The plot was propulsive and gripping. Jason enters a quantum state, where he has access to infinite worlds at the present time. The book is careful to explain that he is not time-traveling; he is exploring different parallel worlds in the multiverse.

The theme of the book can best be described as “choices.” Some of Jason’s choices are good, some are terrible. He gradually learns that his place in the multiverse – his “homeworld” – is determined by the emotions and motivations that lead to his choices at pivotal and not-so-pivotal moments in his life.

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.

The pacing of the book is propulsive. It does drag a bit when Jason first enters the multiverse but picks up again as he learns how to navigate it. It’s the kind of book that is hard to put down.

The writing style is straightforward. Most of the book is written from Jason’s point of view in the first person. Occasional chapters switch to Daniela’s POV. The changing POV is easy to follow and appropriate considering the narrative.

The book is unusually affecting to the reader. Most sci-fi thrillers are just roller-coaster rides but this one caused genuine self-reflection. How would my life have been different if I had made different choices? Would I have taken the opportunity to do this had it been presented to me?

I rated this book four stars out of five. The rating lost a star because of the simple language; I like a book with rather erudite prose. I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes thrilling books.