Gosh, I'm slightly shocked that I didn't love Recursion. I've been looking forward to this ever since I read Dark Matter, so to say I'm a bit disappointed is an understatement.
(Note: As usual, this is a 100% spoiler-free review. However, I couldn't talk about the book without referencing some events in it. But I haven't figured out how to do spoiler tags on my blog yet, so where it says "(view spoiler)," the actual spoilers can be viewed on my Goodreads review, here.
The premise is certainly intriguing enough. Detective Sutton is investigating False Memory Syndrome, where the victims suddenly come into possession of vivid, intense memories of lives they've never lived. Ten years prior to that, we also follow scientist Helena Smith as she works on creating technology that will allow dementia patients to store memories and access them at a later date.
That all sounds good, but then we get to the crux of the science for this book: (view spoiler) This is explained by some odd interpretations of quantum mechanics, but the explanation doesn't actually work for me. Obviously, being that this science fiction, there's a lot of leeway on what could be real. But unfortunately, the way it's explained in the book can't ever be real. (view spoiler) Also, the science doesn't make sense, even within the book's universe. (view spoiler)
The story is very ambitious, maybe a little too much so. Along with the scientific impossibility, there's also a lot of scientific jargon and philosophical musings meant to sell the reader on this idea. But it just comes across as a lot of mumbo jumbo, at least to me.
However, I'm willing to stop being a wet blanket and suspend my scientific disbelief, if only the rest of the story was great. But the rest was over-the-top too. The thrills felt artificially amped up, with lots of random craziness thrown in just to keep it all going. It soon became exhausting. (view spoiler) This happened multiple times. My eyes rolled so hard, I might've bruised them.
No doubt following up Dark Matter is a tough task. And I wonder how much of my feelings of this book is tangled up in my love for Dark Matter and my high expectations going into this. Also, writing about (view spoiler) is extremely challenging, and this just didn't gel together into a cohesive story for me.
Still, even for all my complaints, I guess I did find it to be decently entertaining, if a bit silly, for the most part.
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