Review – Recursion by Blake Crouch

Netgalley chucked a copy of this my way, and I am, as ever, grateful for their ARCs.

I’ve never read any Blake Crouch, but I did watch Wayward Pines on TV, and liked the cvut of its gib. Figuring I was going to get more of the same, I happily dove into the novel. I was right. What starts out as an attempt to cure Alzheimer’s turns into a critique on the dangers of time travel, and it’s darn good.

Helena Smith, saddened by watching Alzheimer’s take her mother’s memories, invents a machine that not only maps memories, but restores them to their host. When a mysterious man, Mark Slade, offers to fund her research to take it to the next level, she jumps at the chance. It turns out that Slade is after a bigger prize, the ability to travel back to the point in time of the memory. This is not without dangers, and when people start killing themselves after reporting a thing they call “False Memory Syndrome” (FMS). Helena tries to get rid of her device.

Barry Sutton is a detective, and a good one. But he has had a tough personal life. His marriage disintegrated soon after the death of his teenage daughter, and all he has now is his job. When he gets a call to talk down a suicide, she claims to suffer from FMS. This sends Barry on an investigation that leads him to the last place he expected to be.

Sound good? And a little messed up? Here’s my thoughts:

• The two lead characters are terrific. Noble Helena takes the weight of the world on her shoulders as she tries to save the world from her greatest achievement and mistake. Having thrown her life into saving her mother with her creation, she now faces the odds to save the earth from its misuse. Barry is no mere sidekick. He deals with his own problems, yet often provides the support Helena needs to stop her from giving up
• I’m not sure if this one for the hard science fiction fans, but it’s definitely fun for the most part, and works pretty hard to justify its story
• The writing is mostly great. Each description conveys striking imagery, and some of the emotional moments can really hit home. As a parent, I struggle with the whole “loss of a child” scenario, and Crouch certainly makes me suffer at times in this book
• After a thrilling and somewhat messed up,beginning, the story begins to tail off in the latter half of the book. The fact that we’re traveling back in time to the same memories requires this, but I was wishing it would pick up a bit at times after an impressive start
• As I said earlier, it’s essentially a treatise on the dangers of time travel (and a lot more). It covers this well enough, despite the obvious holes and “but wouldn’t this happen?” moments, but it’s good enough to keep you from throwing the book in the fire
• It was, as expected, mind-bending and fun. I will definitely check out more of the author’s work, probably sooner rather than later.

I notice the book has gotten some rave reviews. Personally,I liked it a lot, but didn’t love it, so I’ll give it a decent 3¾ stars out of 5.  .