Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

RECURSION is an outstanding hard sci-fi novel from Blake Crouch. I decided to re-read Crouch's penultimate novel, DARK MATTER (2016), before RECURSION because I had a hunch that there might be some relation between the two. I’m glad I did. I raised my rating from 4 to 5 stars upon the re-read and realized that Crouch is right up there with the very best of the current generation of hard sci-fi authors. I’ve been reading Crouch for a long while. His earlier works were masterpieces of horror, often with no little or supernatural aspects (try ABANDON, for example). RECURSION is solid sci-fi dealing with such heady topics (heh heh) as the nature of memory, neuroscience, time, physics, philosophy and more. It starts with a plague of FMS, “False Memory Syndrome”, as one of the main protagonists, NYPD cop Barry Sutton is called to the scene of an impending suicide who suddenly remembers a totally different life than the one she is living. This FMS seems to be becoming something of a plague, and the number of suicides is rapidly rising. The novel explodes forwards from there. The other principal, Helena Smith, is a neuroscientist working on the neurophysiology of memory, in large part to try and build a device that could record her mid-stage Alzheimer's Disease mother's memories before they disappear forever. The sequela of her invention has implications that question our concepts of time, reality, the multiverse and more. I could not put the novel down, and read the whole thing in about 24 hours with 8 or so hours of sleep intercalated. Most Highly Recommended. JM ps. In response to a really mean-spirited one star review that destroyed that science in the novel, I’d like to admit that I am a Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience at Rutgers and I thought ALL of the science and philosophy was spot on and very timely.