Another winner from Blake Crouch. I was a huge fan of the Pines trilogy and Dark Matter, so anxiously anticipated Recursion. As usual, his writing style is excellent. He’s the master of keeping you guessing, and a little bit confused, but in a good way. Recursion explores altering memories, changing the future, and coming to terms with the consequences of those actions.

Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for an advanced copy for my honest opinion.

First, thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the Advance Readers Copy of RECURSION. This is Blake Crouch's follow-up to DARK MATTER, one of my favorites in the past 5 years. I didn't think it was possible, but this story was as good or better. Barry Sutton is a policeman investigating an unusual suicide by someone with False Memory Syndrome, and Helena Smith a neuroscientist who finds funding for her dream project, a chair that allows her to record and play back memories. From that beginning, Crouch weaves an intricate and complex story involving memories, alternate timelines, and true love. Another home run from one of my new favorite authors.

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. —SØREN KIERKEGAARD

Blake Crouch is one of my favorite authors and has been since I read DESERT PLACES years ago. Since that time, I believe I've read all his novels and short stories/novellas including ones he's co-written. I've always said that RUN was my favorite book of his, one of the reasons being that it takes place in Colorado, my favorite state. But this book is mind boggling. And Crouch has a very real talent in explaining heavy-duty subjects in a way that most people will understand them.

RECURSION deals with the concepts of time and memory (which brings the Mandela Effect to mind to me). Barry Sutton and Helena Smith play integral roles in this story. Helena is a brilliant physicist trying to create a way to capture her mother's fading memories before they all disappear because of Alzheimer's Disease. But she ends up creating something different. Barry is a detective who lost his teen daughter to an accident that he regrets every minute of every day.

Wormholes, quantum physics, and all kinds of weighty subjects are discussed in this sci fi thriller but I felt challenged rather than overwhelmed when reading it. There are also a good portion of non-sciencey portions of the book.

I'm going off to re-read RUN now just to see where it stacks up in my favorites list of Crouch's now, many years after I first read it.

I received this book from Crown Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

Wow. Blake Crouch consistently blows my mind with the complexity and ingenuity of his plots! I could not stop reading this book! I finished it in an afternoon. It’s been a long time since a book grabbed me and didn’t let go!! I love that this book started with a kernel of truth at its heart and then went insanely off the rails in the best way possible. The book is meticulously plotted and thought out. I found myself explaining to my husband that time isn’t linear and then we debated physics and Einstein. If that isn’t the sign of a good science fiction book, I’m not sure what is!

4.5 stars. Blake Crouch can melt my brain like no one else. I didn't love this one quite as much as Dark Matter, but it was excellent. Completely mind-blowing and hard to wrap my head around. I won't say much about the plot, because I think this is a good one to go in blind, but it's a brilliant combination of science fiction, thrills, and a lot of heart, and I'd highly recommend it to just about everyone.

I'm looking forward to reading more books by Blake Crouch because I enjoyed Recursion so much. We follow NYPD Barry Sutton and neuroscientist Helena Smith through decades and decades and decades of memories. They know the world is being destroyed due to Helena's invention and they try over and over to stop the destruction, with heartbreaking results, each time.

Helena invented a "memory" chair that was intended to allow a person to save memories for later when they might be suffering from dementia or Alzheimer disease. But Helena is running out of time and funding, to complete the project, until she is contacted by a secret benefactor, who is willing to give her everything she needs to finish her project. At the same time, Barry is encountering suicides due to False Memory Syndrome and his investigations set him on a path that collides with Helena's invention.

I didn't let the technical and scientific talk hold me back from enjoying this book. I trusted the scientists and the characters, who studied the phenomena that was taking place, to provide the details I needed to carry the plot forward. What I really liked about the book were the characters of Helena, a woman so focused on her work that she rarely looked up, and Barry, father of a dead girl, who was never going to get over the heartache of losing his daughter. As these two characters come together, more than once, their concern for the welfare of others and their relationship with each other, kept me reading to the very end.

Thank you to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Holy crap, y'all. I really enjoyed Blake Crouch's last book, [book:Dark Matter|27833670], and this takes the way that plays with parallel universes and applies it to time travel, flipping it on its head over and over again in the process. I couldn't tell where the plot was going to head on this one, but I needed to keep finding out, staying up until 2 AM in the process. This is sharp sci-fi that retains a human heart.

The other reviewers were right. "Unputdownable" I could not stop reading this book until it was done. Wow. I am blown away. What an amazing ride. This is a must read. Outstanding in every way.

I have so many thoughts and yet, I can't seem to express them. I loved it!!

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

When you start a Blake Crouch novel, you know you’re in for a wild ride that will alter the way you think about time, space, memory, etc. Recursion is no exception. I read the synopsis and requested it immediately.

Recursion follows Helena and Barry as they embark on a life altering mission that will change time and memory. Readers should go into Crouch’s book with little to no information to feel the full effects of Crouch’s writing.

What makes Recursion work as a novel rooted in science is that the science featured is believable. Crouch’s writing leads readers to believe what is being said without question. There wasn’t a moment I questioned the validity of what was being presented or felt the need to fact check.

Recursion’s pace for the beginning of the novel is on the slower side as Crouch sets up the various pieces that will come into play later in the novel. Though the pace is slower, the story doesn’t suffer. It’s interesting and intriguing as it starts to prod your understanding of memory and time. The second half of the novel is explosive in its revelations and action sequences.

And, one final note, I cannot wait to see the Netflix adaptation of this by Shonda Rhimes and others!

Overall, Recursion is another incredible Crouch novel that I’d recommend to anyone. With great characters and a mind-bending plot, Recursion should shoot to the top of your TBR.

“We are homesick most for the places we have never known.”
-Carson McCullers

Review: Recursion by Blake Crouch

I wish to thank Crown Publishing (via NetGalley) for this ARC of Recursion.

I am so happy that Recursion is scheduled for general release June 11, 2019 (just four days from the date of this review). You are in for a treat! This novel has been classified as both Mystery & Thrillers and SciFi & Fantasy. It is all four of these genres, and I loved every word of it. I enjoyed every character. It is fun at the end of the book to read the list provided by Mr. Crouch in the Acknowledgments of who each character was based on irl (in real life). This was like dessert after a very satisfying meal.

Recursion is a word taken from the disciplines of mathematics and computers meaning (according to dictionary.com) the process of defining a function or calculating a number by the repeated application of an algorithm. This title is spot on. As a retired mathematics professor, I was intrigued from the get-go. Wait! Math-phobes and science-phobes...do not let this scare you away. Recursion is a wonderful combination of science fiction and a love story for the ages (literally). I won’t lie. There are bits of mind-boggling physics narratives. I know math. I do not know physics, so I read the words, took in what I could, and did not let this distract me from the story.

Honestly, there was a point in the story that I desperately wanted the ideas in this book to be true. I would love to choose a memory from my past, go back in time to that point, and live life over again hopefully doing a better job of it the next time around. I think you will feel that way, too. After all, whose life is perfect? Doesn’t everyone want a redo at some point? But...be careful what you ask for. By the end, fair points are made and many many lessons are learned.

Be patient and enjoy the separate stories of Blake and Helena throughout Book One (out of five). By the time you reach Book Two, you will understand how these lives are on a collision course. I read Recursion in two days. There aren’t many books that could make me forget to watch the release of one of my favorite streaming shows, forget to eat, read while eating (not all that unusual actually), lose sleep...basically, ignoring life until finishing this book. Recursion is one of only a handful of books that I have felt this way about. I hope you do, too.

I am excited that another of Mr. Crouch’s books (Dark Matter) is sitting beside me on the lamp table just waiting for me to post this review. I have huuuuuge expectations! 😁

Blake Crouch, what have you done to my mind?!

I want to say so much about this book, but my chatter would bring unwanted spoilers. Instead I sit here, staring wide-eyed, wondering if my memories are real, if reality has shifted, if I'm even here at all.

Crouch is a master at posing these ridiculously complex, mind-bending questions, and then immersing us in the resulting chaos. While this story takes us into the realm of science fiction, it's never too much of a stretch to believe. In fact, I'm kind of terrified at how plausible this story is, and how easily it could become our future.

Now I have to go to bed, pull the covers over my head, and recover from this madness.

Recursion
by Blake Crouch 

Hardcover, 336 pages
Expected publication: June 11th 2019 by Crown Publishing Group (NY)



Goodreads synopsis:
Memory makes reality. That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

Neuroscientist Helena Smith already understands the power of memory. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent. 

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them? 


***

5 Stars

Wow, that is one mind-bending book! It’s kinda screwed up but definitely amazing.

Time travel books are always tedious and convoluted just due to the basic nature of the quantum theories alone. But this book puts a spin on the whole time travel thing. The people in aren’t physically going back in time. They are going back to a specific memory on a specific time line of one person’s life.

Is this book confusing? Heck yeah. I mean, consider the topic and just know that going in. I have read other books by Crouch (the Wayward Pines series) and you know just based on his past titles that this one is going to be mega and over the top.

We follow Helena Smith, a neuroscientist who has found a way to save memories and jump back into them. She trusts a not so reliable man who offers her the moon funding-wise and ends up screwing her over. Result? The whole world goes to hell in a hand basket.

We also follow Barry, a NYPD detective who had lost his daughter eleven years earlier. He is one of the first guinea pigs and they send him back to minutes before his daughter’s death.

This is a book you are just going to have to experience. If I tried to explain it all, this review would be ten pages long. Take my word for it. This book is excellent. I am fascinated by the memory chair and how it had such rippling effects in not only the main character’s lives but in society and the world as a whole. This is like the memory version of the Butterfly Effect. Once you cause those ripples, it is gonna take an act of God to set it right again.

I am excited to read another Crouch book. I think I have another in my Kindle Library and I will definitely be picking that up sometime soon. Even though this book is convoluted, don’t think it is a hard read. It isn’t. It is very smooth. It flows. Crouch does an amazing job of explaining all the complex problems they come across. And believe me, like I said in the beginning, this is a mind-bender. My mind is blown!

My highest rating.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.

I need someone I know to read this so we can discuss the ending!!

I loved Dark Matter by the same author. This one wasn't quite as good, but I still enjoyed it for it's creativity (Crouch really has some unique ideas floating around in his brain), and it's general plot. It's a page-turner, but not because of non-stop action. It's more like you want to keep reading to understand what the heck is going on. In the same way that Dark Matter was an original take on the classic "alternate universe" plot in sci-fi, I found Recursion to be a totally original take on the oft-written topic of time travel. I had to go back and reread parts explaining false memories and timelines and all that stuff, but that was to be expected - it's never easy to wrap your mind around time travel-y things. Barry and Helena are easy to root for, and through Crouch's writing you feel their pain and exhaustion as they fight to save the world while also hanging on to their own lives and memories.

As frustrated as I am by this reading experience, this probably just wasn’t the book for me. I love character driven stories and I hate repetitive time loops. This book lacked the former and indulged in the latter.

I also feel like I don’t know Helena and Barry, the two main characters, despite having spent hundreds of pages with them through a multitude of their many lifetimes. Most of the more personal things we learn about them are just quick summaries of their memories. I also didn’t understand their romantic relationship. There’s no chemistry. No building of feelings. One chapter, we’re just told that they’ve previously spent timelines together trying to save the world and are supposed to root for their relationship.

All-in-all, this was a book that was very plot-driven, and it wasn’t a plot that I could enjoy—though I think it has the potential to be an excellent movie. Initially, the premise sounded amazing. I was very hooked in the beginning chapters, but I just felt that the execution wasn’t what I would have liked it to be. The time travel element became so repetitive at times, and I found myself very bored after the first fourth of the book. I’m the type of person that can’t stand the Groundhog Day trope and had I known this was the type of book where the protagonists are stuck inside a suffocating, desperate time loop, I probably would've opted to not read it. That’s just me, though. Other readers will probably have a very different experience.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2820673918?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Recursion is a bit out of my normal genre preferences, but the idea behind the novel really intrigued me, so I thought I would give it a chance. This book was pretty interesting and very thought provoking. Recursion is one of those books that changes the way you look at after reading it. It is a mind bending science fiction novel and I'm glad I had the opportunity to read it.

I did have a few issues with this book while reading. The beginning was amazing and really got me thinking about memory and just how vivid my memories actually are. I found the beginning well paced and fascinating, but then I hit a point where I felt like I no longer cared what happened. I didn't love the characters and I found the middle of the book to be a bit dull. I set it aside for a little bit, but picked it back up and towards the end it got really good and thought provoking again. This book really made me think about memory, the concept of time and just the importance of appreciating life and moments while you're in them.

I think my issue with this book came from the fact that I didn't really connect with the characters. I found Helena and Barry to be a bit vanilla and bland with no real personality to them. I thought the plot was pretty interesting and completely mind bending. There was a lot of action in this book, but I still found it really easy to set down in the middle, At times I got bored of the repetitive plot and just wanted this book to end. I almost did not finish this book, but it picked back up right before I gave up on it. The ending was pretty cool, so I am glad that I actually finished it.

Even with all of the issues that I had with this book I am glad that I read it. Recursion was a book that made me think and sparked many conversations after reading. It was the concepts behind this book that made it enjoyable, not necessarily the writing or the characters.

This book is wild. Straight up science fiction, which is not necessarily in my wheelhouse. It’s very science-y and complex, and I thought it dragged a bit towards the end. Nonetheless it was really interesting and I enjoyed it. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance copy!

This is the best book I've read this year. A mix of some of the concepts of the film Inception and Edge of Tomorrow, it also brings some unique ideas about time travel and the after effects of changing the past.

Really, really good.

Neuroscientist Helena Smith is working on a project that she hopes will recover the memory of her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer. Barry Sutton is a New York detective who is investigating cases of False Memory Syndrome - a mysterious affliction that makes people go crazy from the false memories they are experiencing. This story is about how Barry and Helena's lives intersect over and over, as technology proves that in the right hands much good can be created, but in the wrong hands it can wreak chaos and destruction.

This book was mind-blowing. It was scary realizing the possibilities and consequences of time travel in order to alter memories. I could not put this book down. It kept me riveted until the very last page. If you like fantasy/science fiction/suspense, then this is the perfect book for you!

A fast-paced thriller involving a well-imagined ground-breaking technology that creates false memories of lives and makes time an illusion. Involving such things as a memory chair, electromagnetic stimulaters and synaptic regenerations, Crouch’s imagination and writing skills shine as he creates a complicated world of the future in which technology can right a wrong or alternatively wreak havoc on the world, a world in which life is no longer linear. Put that into the wrong hands and you’ve got some trouble! GREAT storyline involving strong passionate characters

*will post in additional online venues once published.

{My Thoughts}
How best to categorize Recursion, the widely touted new book from Blake Crouch? Reading his story is a little like going to a tapas bar when you’re not really sure what you feel like eating. There, you can get a little bit of everything and leave feeling satisfied. The same can be said of Recursion. It’s definitely a whole lot of sci-fi, but also much more. Crouch skillfully wove in a little adventure, a big load of thriller, and even some romance into his sophomore effort.

I appreciated the variety Crouch offered up in his story, but we simply must begin with the memory/time travel at its core. Neuroscientist Helena Smith put her life into creating a machine through which people with Alzheimer’s (like her own mother) might be able to relive some of the memories they’d so tragically lost. As we might expect, her breakthrough doesn’t stay quietly within the scientific community, but is co-opted for money and power by a multitude of groups.

From there Recursion really takes off, growing and splitting as Helena’s machine is used over and over, layering on timeline after timeline. Without any sort of dynamic road map, I wasn’t always positive I was on the path Crouch intended. And yet, time after time I found that I really was. Even better, I enjoyed the adventure and sense of disequilibrium created as timelines lapped and overlapped each other. I know some might find this confusing, but honestly, this is a story where every piece doesn’t need to fit together perfectly to realize the bigger picture. The fracturing works because the idea of time being a construct that may not be static became both fascinating and scary.

If you’re unsure what you’re hungering for this summer, but are ready for something a little bit different and a whole lot of fun, you need to pick up Recursion. You’ll get a taste of a future we may never want to reach.

Note: I received a copy of this book from Crown (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.