It was a pleasant Thursday family night, seemingly like
any other: Jason Dessen, physics professor at a small
college; his wife Daniela, a part-time artist; and their
14 year-old son, Charlie. A friend of Daniela's just held
a very successful art show, Jason's old college buddy
Ryan is celebrating his winning a prestigious science
award, that might have well been Jason's, had he pursued
his research, if Daniela hadn't gotten pregnant, and his
life hadn't taken an unexpected detour. Dinner will be
ready in 45 minutes, and Daniela tells Jason to pop over
and congratulate Ryan who is having a small party at a
local bar; Jason would make it in time for dinner. Jason
should have made it in time for dinner.
What if. Everybody has at some point in their life
wondered "what if". Personally, I cannot resist a book on
that subject, and Blake Crouch has done the impossible
with DARK MATTER. Extremely fast-paced, and beautifully
written, DARK MATTER is one of the most astounding scifi
books ever written. I felt I was experiencing Jason's
situation: his confusion, his anger, his fears, his
helplessness, and his love for his family. Mr. Crouch's
grasp of quantum mechanics, psychology, cosmology is
staggering, as well as his understanding of self-identity
and existentialism. DARK MATTER is superlatively
imaginative, and the author made the concept of parallel
universes entirely credible, gripping, and terrifying as
well.
This was a difficult review for me to write, because DARK
MATTER is a masterpiece of suspense, as well as a science
fiction tour de force. As far as I'm concerned, DARK
MATTER already belongs with such ground breaking authors
such as Aldous Huxley and Philip K. Dick. But most of
all, DARK MATTER is about what love consists of,
establishing your priorities, and behaving ethically. I
wonder if there will be sequels, because there is one
character, which shall remain nameless, whose destiny I
would like to know. At least, one other. DARK MATTER is a
book that I will re-read over and over because, what if,
indeed...
Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the
masked abductor knocks him unconscious.
Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney,
surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.
Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says,
“Welcome back, my friend.”
In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one
he knows. Hiswife is not his wife. His son was never
born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics
professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved
something remarkable. Something impossible.
Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if
the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make
it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey
more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve
imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest
parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly
unbeatable foe.
Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at
once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and
profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction
thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll
go to claim the lives we dream of.
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