Dark Matter in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Dec 03, 2016 Lyn rated it really liked it

A steaming hot cup of whatthef***???

Like Crouch’s 2012 mega hit Pines, it’s hard to say much without fatal spoilers, but trust me and 90% of the readers who’ve read and enjoyed this – it’s a wild ride.

Scientist and professor Jason Dessen is abducted in a back alley in Chicago and his life is changed irrevocably. Crouch explores the concepts of the multiverse and also about identity, relationships, and existentialism.

I read a Heinlein short story years ago (and have forgotten the title) where peo ...more

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Jun 19, 2016 Emma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, thriller

Literally AWE some. Blake Crouch has done an amazing job of making even some one like me have an understanding , however limited, of quantum physics. I don't envy him all the messed up conversations he must have had in researching and putting together this book.

I don't want to ruin this book for anyone else by saying anything spoiler-ish. We've all had those moments in our lives where we know if we'd taken another road, things would have been very different. I remember 2 major ones in my own lif ...more

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Jul 01, 2016 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, 2016-shelf

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was a very tight SF action adventure that was full of twists and turns and wonderful imaginings and much better characters. A thriller? You bet. Perfect pacing and surprises. All of it is based in modern day Chicago. Or should I say Chicagos?

So what makes it SF? Oh, it's an old concept, but since it's written well and it's focused on making a wild ride that is pure popcorn fiction, I can enthusiastically give it two thumbs up. But what is it, you ask?

Many Wor ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the second book by Blake Crouch for me, although he published this before the other one. Maybe I should have read them in order (though they are completely independent from one another).

We meet a physicist who gave up a career when his then-girlfriend got pregnant. Now he's a school teacher, husband and father and quite happy. His wife gave up on being an artist for the child and him and is equally happy.
But one night, a stranger takes our scientist, drugs him and ... he wakes up in a la This is the second book by Blake Crouch for me, although he published this before the other one. Maybe I should have read them in order (though they are completely independent from one another).

We meet a physicist who gave up a career when his then-girlfriend got pregnant. Now he's a school teacher, husband and father and quite happy. His wife gave up on being an artist for the child and him and is equally happy.
But one night, a stranger takes our scientist, drugs him and ... he wakes up in a lab where people think they know who he is.
A groundbreaking but potentially catastrophic experiment gone right that has our protagonist trying desperately to find his way back to his family.

The question(s) at the heart of this story? What if you could live a different life? What if you could take that road not taken?

I like how Blake Crouch takes hard science and plays with the concepts, shows us what could happen if we did find a way to prove certain scientific theories, maybe even capitalize on them. His writing is always crisp and his characters fleshed-out. The book, once again, was also intelligently written and the science - as far as we have delved into this specific topic thus far - is sound and well-researched.

I was never bored or disappointed, far from it. I shared in the characters' excitement and rooted for the protagonist and his family ((view spoiler)).

Nevertheless, I didn't like this as much as Recursion. At the level this author is, it doesn't really influence the rating much because he's much better than so many other scifi authors, but there were still significant differences.
Like there not happening too much in the first half or even 60% of the book (except for getting to know the character and seeing endless possibilities, exploring them). Or that there weren't any really big twists (I had actually thought I'd get disappointed about him leaving out a very important aspect of the multiverse theory until he finally (view spoiler)).
It simply lacked the breathtaking je ne sais quoi of his later book. The blow so to speak.

Since we only have a 5-star-rating system and therefore a lack of nuance, this still gets full marks from me though (in a 10-star rating system, the other book would have gotten 10 out of 10 and this "only" 8).
Luckily, no cats were harmed in the making of this story. ...more

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Dec 01, 2016 Lindsay rated it really liked it

A well-written science fictional thriller that explores an old concept and takes it in a clever direction.

Jason Dessun is a physics professor who lives a quiet, happy life with his wife and son in Chicago. One night he's kidnapped at gunpoint by a masked stranger and drugged. When he wakes up he's in a strange facility filled with people who seem to know him and are thrilled to see him, but he has no memory of this place or these people. From there it's a story of him trying to get back to his f ...more

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Dec 06, 2016 Veronique rated it really liked it

Shelves: read2016, favourites

4.5

"We're more than the sum total of our choices, that all the paths we might have taken factor somehow into the math of our identity.”

First thing that caught my eyes was that cover. I did try to resist its pull but in vain, and after the first chapter, I was well and truly grabbed by the narrative. To say that this is a page-turner sounds cliched, and yet, it is. Dark Matter is a very compelling thriller with a good dose of science fiction.

Jason Dessen, physics professor, lives a quiet and ha 4.5

"We're more than the sum total of our choices, that all the paths we might have taken factor somehow into the math of our identity.”

First thing that caught my eyes was that cover. I did try to resist its pull but in vain, and after the first chapter, I was well and truly grabbed by the narrative. To say that this is a page-turner sounds cliched, and yet, it is. Dark Matter is a very compelling thriller with a good dose of science fiction.

Jason Dessen, physics professor, lives a quiet and happy life with his wife and teenager son. That is until he is kidnapped and drugged one evening by a masked man who tells him "You can have everything you never had". Upon awakening, he finds himself in strange settings, surrounded by people he doesn't know who treat him with deference, while asking him questions on a scientific experiment he supposedly survived. Bewildered, and feeling the undercurrent of threat, he escapes only to find out that his home is not the same and that his wife and son don't exist.

Crouch creates a tense and suspenseful story, full of action sequences as well as character-building moments. As captivating as it was, there were a couple of elements that frustrated me. Jason, although a likeable protagonist that I couldn't help but rooting for, did annoy me several times. This was mainly due to his slowness in realising what was happening and making appropriate decisions. For a physicist, he was particularly obtuse. Yes, I know, people can behave that way after physical and emotional trauma, but still! The author uses concepts that appear often in scifi novels and films/TV after all. His treatment was rather simplistic, but then he redeemed himself by extrapolating the situation into a result that makes total sense and yet one I haven't seen before. I would guess a reason that would explain these choices is that this is a thriller first rather than a scifi novel, aimed at a public not used to these tropes but in a fashion that will appeal to scifi enthusiasts too.

P.S. I listened to the audiobook, which was excellent. ...more

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Mar 10, 2018 Carrie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, ammp-fairytale, 2018-s-l-scifi

What a ride....

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Dec 14, 2016 Viv JM marked it as dnf · review of another edition

DNF @ 32%

Nah, not for me!

Lots of action, action, action but I can't find anything in the characters to care about and I'm not keen on the writing style either.

I know lots of people love it but, for me, it just feels too much like a book that's written to be made into a movie. And it's not a movie I would pay to watch. ...more

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Dec 21, 2016 Linda rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016

3.5 stars, rounded up because I couldn't read through quickly enough! Definitely a page-turner with twists that I did not see coming. Characters were a bit flat, though I think it would make for a great movie. ...more

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Dec 16, 2015 Cobwebs-Iced-Across-SpaceTime rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: all-sci-fi-my-challenge, 2016_netgalley-edelweiss_chall, a1-netgalley, a1-i-own-books, 2019_reads_, 2019_a-z_ha-challenge, apocalyptic-dystopian-futuristic, 2019_horror, 2019_net-galley_reads, cold_marathon

DARK MATTER is every bit as enthralling as the author's newer novel RECURSION, and is just as intellectually stretching and stimulating, as our hero works his way through multiple probabilities, or worlds, trying to return to his own from which he had been abducted. I think one of the most glorious aspects of DARK MATTER is the many incredibly detailed environments which the author so giftedly paints, in fine and exquisite detail. ...more

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Jul 23, 2019 DivaDiane SM rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, buddy-read-book-club-read

It’s the wee hours of the morning and I just finished this wild ride of a book. Once the action starts, on like page 10, it just doesn’t let up. Fascinating subject and interesting realization of what it might look like in real life. Scary actually. I like the idea that you would know the people closest to you. But I’m sure I never want to experience something like that. Ever.

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Jun 20, 2016 Denise rated it liked it

Maybe 3.5. A quick, fun read. Not super original in ideas but the author ably expressed some complex emotions that carried the story.

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Mar 25, 2016 Christina Pilkington rated it really liked it

Seeing as how I almost finished this book in one sitting, I can say that this book is definitely an addictively, fast-paced, thrilling read. It does a great job of pacing and raises just enough questions that keeping you flipping the pages as fast as you can. The questions raised in the book: are you the same person inside regardless of the choices that you make in life or do your choices mold and shape the person you will be in the future? still has me thinking about this story weeks after I fi ...more

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Jun 09, 2019 Vavita rated it liked it

Entertaining. Expected more.

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Sep 13, 2016 Lata rated it it was ok

Shelves: sf-f-h, x2016-read

This book is a good page turner, and that's where my praise ends.
1) Though I felt initially sympathetic to the main character, I found myself getting progressively annoyed with Jason and with the other characters surrounding him. The persistent refrain from all the surrounding characters of "You're such a massive genius, I'll do anything to help you and keep telling you that you're such a massive genius!" was super irritating.
2) I found neither Daniela nor Charlie felt like people.
3) And the i ...more

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Mar 06, 2020 Cindy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobooks, sci-fi

Haven’t we all wondered about the road not taken? All the choices we make to arrive at our specific here and now. Yet if every choice split off a different, alternate reality then space-time would contain an infinite multiverse. Those are the technical underpinnings of this sci-fi thriller that is, at its heart, about love and family.

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Jul 16, 2018 Suzanne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This was a really fun idea, and I enjoyed thinking about (and wondering) what was going on. A few plot holes (at least to me they felt like plot holes) bugged me a bit, but it was a pretty fast moving, exciting book.

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Aug 25, 2016 Joanne rated it it was amazing

This book is presents many thoughts both about quantum mechanics and family. There were times in the story where I was very caught up in the plot and didn't want to put it down. I really wanted to see what happened next because I cared about the characters so much. The sense of suspense was terrific. At the same time, as I watched Jason desperately try over and over again to get his family and life back, I got an appreciation for my own life. ...more

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Dec 29, 2017 hazey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Absolutely amazing. The storyline was very interesting, but I found the verbiage used by the author was what hit me the most. The underlying philosophical input struck me; I needed to read this book during this time in my life.

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