Dark Matter

Really good book to end the year on. Definitely my favorite Blake Crouch so far.

Its got the same issues I've had with all of his other novels though. He can't seem to write a conflict that doesn't devolve into boring pewpew gunfights, and his protagonists all fetishize violence in a way that really turns me off. Their reactions to anything upsetting them is always to throw tantrums and stomp around and break shit or fantasize about hurting people. They revel in violence in a way that is gleeful and masturbatory and toxic in that absusive boomer-dad sort of way that makes my eyes roll so far back into my skull that I'm afraid I'm gonna give myself permanent damage.

The pathos in this one though is fucking outstanding. Crouch is so good at taking a mind-bending sci-fi concept and wrapping it around a tight relatable emotional core. Recursion did a great job of this too, but I think Dark Matter is where he crushes it. Still pretty awful at writing female characters though...

Blake Crouch really is just the Christopher Nolan of books and I'm here for it. As many issues as I have, he's the only author that'll keep me up til 3am finishing one of his books.

I almost never go into spoilers or plot details, but there ARE two things about this book I really need to talk about that I think were HUGE missed opportunities. I'm almost certain that in an earlier version of the manuscript that these were the original ideas and they didn't test well with beta-readers or something? (too nihilistic?)

#1 (minor spoilers)There is a scene at around the midpoint with Jason1 and Amanda where the box they've been using to travel between parallel universes is buried by a snowstorm. Their tracks are gone, they have no food, and will freeze to death if they don't find the box. They mention that if they go out without a plan their chances to find the box are miniscule. In a scene directly before, they have a discussion about Jason2 and the creation of the box. Their conversation centers on the fact that even if the odds were desparately miniscule, Jason2's creation of the box was 100% certain because alongside infinite parallel universes where he failed there would inevitably be a universe where he succeeded. This is obvious mirroring right?? Jason2 sacrificed unknowable billions of alternate versions of himself to failure at the tiny chance that one of them would be able to remedy his ultimate regret. The set-up is RIGHT THERE. The solution is for Jason1 and Amanda to go digging randomly right? Jason1 sacrificing unknowably huge numbers of his parallel selves to freeze to death in the cold because random chance dictates that one of them (obviously the protagonist version) walks to the exact right spot and digs straight down to the box. It reinforces the themes perfectly and sets up mirror characterizations between Jason1 and Jason2.Instead they just deus ex machina themselves to the box because they remember it's super magnetic and they have a compass. Dumb.#2 (MAJOR SPOILERS)At the end of the book, the big twist is that universe has obviously kept on branching and that dozens of Jasons have shown up to the original reality. Each one is a version of Jason who made a slightly different choice since the novel began and each one wants his life back. Then they start fighting and fucking shit up for each other in increasingly dumb ways. Protag Jason eventually steals Daniela away and convinces other Jasons to let him escape with her into another universe. This doesn't really work for me, and I think the original ending planned was set-up and is actually the one I'm about to describe. Right before the final showdown, protagonist Jason gets in contact with the parallel Jasons and suggests a lottery. He suggests they all meet up, use random chance to decide which Jason can have his old life back and then destroy the box and go their separate ways. Earlier in the book Crouch makes a big point to talk about Schrodinger's cat and how Jason's box is Schrodinger's box where a person can be the cat. Can you see where I'm going with this? I see a super philosophically interesting and tidy way to tie up all these loose ends without resorting to a pewpew gun violence action scene. One that uses his established characterization as a brilliant quantum physicist to solve the problem and also tie it together with all of the overarching themes set up. Meet up for the lottery. Use the box to set up some sort of quantum random number generator. Hook all the Jasons up to it ala Schrodinger's cat. When the box opens, the random number is read and the suicide machine they built kills every Jason except one. The thing is though, we're running on multiverse rules. When the box opens, the universe splits into every possible outcome. So every single Jason dies and every single Jason lives. Schrodinger's Jason. Every Jason lives on in their own splinter universe where they were the only surviving Jason. That Jason (obviously our protagonist version) destroys the box so no other Jasons can show up (shit, or maybe he even leaves it undestroyed so he can give any stragglers their own happy endings??) and goes out into the world and reclaims his old life. I like my ending better.


I found out they're turning this one into a TV series and I would be kind of surprised if this isn't the direction they take it... It's right there right? I'm not missing something?