SPOILER ALERT: Like almost all of Crouch's books, if you're going to read this, it's more satisfying if you come into it fresh. I really liked it, and if you like thought-provoking science fiction, I'd definitely recommend you read it.

In Recursion, a scientific discovery is made to allow people to travel back into past memories and live new lives in alternate realities based on different choices made. This one is about a scientific discovery being made that allows people to travel to parallel universes in the multiverse (the "Many Worlds Theory" in quantum mechanics, which posits that every decision you make creates a different parallel reality that branches off. Kind of like the movie SLIDING DOORS, but instead of two branches, the branches keep branching off themselves into infinity.

Anyway, this book starts with a brilliant physicist (Jason) who gave up a promising career when his girlfriend got pregnant, and instead decided to settle down and start a family. As a mediocre college professor (with an otherwise very happy life), he always wondered what would have happened if he had chosen to focus more on his career. One night, he's abducted and taken to a remote warehouse. He's injected with something and knocked unconscious, and when he wakes up he slowly discovers that he's in a different reality where he did achieve all of his professional success... but in that reality his wife was just a short fling years ago and they never had a son together.

Jason (Prime) eventually realizes that the person who abducted him is the Jason (2) from this world (who achieved their life's professional goal of inventing a way to travel to parallel dimensions/worlds), and then used it to take the place of family-man Jason Prime. In that way, Jason Prime can live out his days knowing what it's like to have achieved his every professional aspiration, and Jason2 can have the family he regretted never starting.

Of course, Jason Prime chose family over career earlier in his life for a reason, and isn't going to give them up without a fight. So he has to teach himself how to use the machine Jason2 invented... and then figure out how to find his way back to his own universe among the infinite options out there. And then has to deal with Jason2 who has no intention of going back.

It's honestly a pretty interesting story, and Crouch is great with characters and pacing (and explaining technical details in a relatable way). This book was written several years before Upgrade and Recursion, and I think that shows in the fact that some of the twists and reveals are predictable and it's not as tight as his other stories (there are a lot of loose ends and moments where, after finishing the book, I was kind of like, "Hey, whatever happened with that thing?" or "That character just disappeared and we never found out what happened to them." But it was still a really enjoyable story all the same. I'm definitely hooked on Crouch's books. I'll read anything he publishes at this point because I know it's going to be intelligent, compelling science fiction... grounded in reality but still make compelling even for someone like me who doesn't understand all the nuances of the complex underlying science.

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Created Mar 14, 2024 at 11:37am • Submit your own review...