Dark Matter (Crouch)

Dark Matter 
Blake Crouch, 2016
Crown/Archetype
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781101904220


Summary
A brilliantly plotted, relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

“Are you happy with your life?”
 
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. His wife 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. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—1978
• Where—Statesville, North Carolina, USA
• Education—B.A., Univerfsity of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• Currently—lives in Durango, Colorado


Blake Crouch is an American author, known for his 2012-14 Wayward Pines Trilogy, which was adapted into the 2015 television series Wayward Pines. In 2016, he published Dark Matter and in 2019, Recursion, both science fiction thrillers, both achieving wide acclaim.

Early life and career
Crouch was born near the piedmont town of Statesville, North Carolina in 1978. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated in 2000 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. He published his first two novels, Desert Places and Locked Doors, in 2004 and 2005.

In addition to his novels, his short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Thriller 2 and other anthologies.

Crouch lives in Durango, Colorado. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/29/2016.)

Book Reviews
What is "identity?" In the words of physics professor Jason Dessen, "If you strip away all the trappings of personality and lifestyle, what are the core components that make me me?" Conventional wisdom asserts that the choices we make shape our destiny and, perhaps, our identity. The surreal, "multi-verse" context of Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter presents a far more complex concept of identity: one not just comprised of multiple destinies but multiple selves across quantum states, each living in "alternate realities at the same point in space and time."  READ MORE.
John Michael De Marco, author, Book Club Widower - LitLovers


In the technical sense of the term, Blake Crouch's Dark Matter is definitely a book…But rather like the mysterious cubelike chamber invented by the physicist Jason Dessen in Crouch's novel—well, let's say by at least one version of Jason and perhaps by several; indeed, perhaps by an infinite or incalculable number of Jasons—Dark Matter is a portal into other dimensions of reality…as you read it on paper it inhabits a state of quantum transubstantiation, or "superposition," to use Jason Dessen's lingo. It's a novel right now, one that barely qualifies as beach reading because you'll gulp it down in one afternoon, or more likely one night. But the next time you look, it will have metamorphosed into some other form.
Andrew O'Hehir - New York Times Book Review


A dazzling book for summer [with] a mind-bending premise, a head-spinning plot that’s dialogue-driven and adrenaline-fueled, and a gut-wrenching climax that gave me goose bumps.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune


A mind-blowing sci-fi/suspense/love-story mash-up.
Entertainment Weekly


Excellent characterization and well-crafted tension do much to redeem the outlandish plot of this SF thriller from Crouch.... Crouch makes little attempt to justify the underlying science fiction MacGuffin, but a rousing and heartfelt ending will leave readers cheering.
Publishers Weekly


[A]n irresistible read. Despite a few small missteps...it is not hard to see why this title was preempted by Sony in a big bid for the movie rights. Verdict: While stories of the multiverse are not new, Crouch brings a welcome intensity to the trope. —MM
Library Journal


Crouch keeps the pace swift and the twists exciting. Readers who liked his Wayward Pines trilogy will probably devour this speculative thriller in one sitting [as will] those who enjoy roller-coaster reads in the vein of Harlan Coben.
Booklist


[E]ncounters sometimes strain credibility.... Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
(We'll add the publisher's questions if and when they're made available; in the meantime, use these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Dark Matter...than take off on your own:

1. In what way is Jason like the Box, the mysterious cube-ish chamber?

2. What does "superposition" mean? Can you explain it?

3. Talk about the various universes Jason inhabits. Which do you find most disturbing or frightening? Consider this question, which has been posed by ethical philosophers regarding multiple universes: if a murder takes place in one universe, would we find it as horrifying if there were other universes in which the murder doesn't take place? What about the Holocaust in World War II or, say, slavery before the U.S. Civil War?

4. This book explores the nature of identity. Who is the real Jason? Is there a real Jason—could a case be made that he is not the Jason with a wife and son who narrates the story? Out of all the versions of Jason, what makes him...him?

5. What would your alternate universes look like? What dreams, in your own life, did you choose not to pursue which, if events in Dark Matter happened to you, would return as alternate universes? Ever wish that were possible? How different a person might you be had you chosen one of those different paths?

6. During his search for "home" what does Jason come to learn about himself, flaws and all? What does he come to value?

7. Have you read or watched other works of speculative fiction about the nature of identity? Consider Ursula K. Le Guin, Neil Gaiman, or Peter F. Hamilton. What about the movie Sliding Doors or The Man in the High Castle, either the 2015 film series or the book by Philip K. Dick? How does Blake Crouch's Dark Matter compare with any of them—how does it stack up?

8. What about the science? For those with little scientific knowledge: were the book's scientific passages a detraction, something you had to plow your way through, or maybe just skim over? For those strong in the sciences: was the writing too boiled down, merely "popscience"? Or was it a fairly legitimate description of today's scientific theories?

9. What is the theoretical underpinning of multiple universes? Do you believe they exist?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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