Recursion

Dark Matter was excellent: yes, it was light & fun, a thriller, but it was also a truly clever story in a multiverse setting that didn't short circuit logically. Blake Crouch tried to emulate that succesful formula again in his latest book, this time using time travel as a way to conjure up multiple versions of reality.

Just to get things out of the way: while Recursion starts promising, halfway the book it becomes clear this really is pulp of the worst sort. Blake pulls the quantum card casually - using just a few sentences - trying to justify nonsense: generally a good tell to spot bluffing.

Sadly, it only gets worse after that, utterly failing at inner consistency - even though Blake flashes "Clifford Johnson, Ph.D., professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Southern California" in the acknowledgments. Clifford "provided valuable insight in the final stages of the manuscript." Blake talked to some professor: the hallmark of serious science fiction! But obviously, "all mistakes, assumptions, and crazy theories are mine alone". You see: even the acknowledgments are riddled with cliché. When Blake near the end of the novel suddenly jerks "micro black holes", wormholes and muons out of his hat, it becomes clear Clifford didn't save the novel from being preposterous.

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Maybe he could have done better, but - like Hollywood blockbusters - Crouch clearly values tension & spectacle over logic. My guess is he doesn't care about plot holes - and neither does his editor: shit like this sells, man! I wouldn't have held that against Crouch - it's everybody's prerogative to aim for entertainment first - were it not for the fact that at the onset of the book he explicitly sneaks in some meta bits about solving puzzles, two times even. If you portray your story as a puzzle to solve, make sure the pieces fit.

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Rather than write a lentghy analysis about the mess that is the plot, I will end this review with a few questions. Maybe I didn't think things through. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there is an explanation for what I perceive to be inconsistencies. So this next section is mainly for those of you who have read the book. Any answers in the comments would be appreciated.

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