Recursion

I've heard good things about Blake Crouch, this is the first novel I've read by this author, and I am impressed. I recognized this name from thriller shelves, but I have to say his Sci-Fi is fantastic. This is a time travel loop story, always a favorite with me. It's very specific about what kind of time travel it is, which I always appreciate. What really impressed me was just how much story is crammed into 326 pages, I think there are longer books with less plot development than this book has by its halfway point.The premise of this book is really cool to me, part of it is how unique the science aspect of this book is. Most time travel stories have physics come up with the time portal/chair/chamber, but in Recursion time travel is a function of memory. This is a dual perspective narrative: The story follows a New York detective who gets sucked into some time travel shenanigans while investigating the outbreak of FMS in NYC. False Memory Syndrome is afflicting people seemingly at random, with the victims waking up to find complete sets of alternative memories from a different life. Our second MC is Helen, the scientist who's misused Alzheimer research into memory is twisted to create an invention that is wreaking havoc across the timeline. I don't want to give away any more of the time travel stuff As far as logically sound time travel goes, I think this qualifies, as for its level of complexity: this is a better thought out Tenet (2020). Not only that, but I wasn't super focused on figuring out the minutiae of the time traveling in this book, the way the time travel works enables the narrative to jump tracks without confusing the reader. This quirk of the story reminded me of old fix up novels. I will note that unlike fix up novels, there is a distinct plan that the narrative is following. Reading through this felt like being attached to a rope at the bottom of a well, and with each leap the story takes it tugs you towards its ending. Very Nice. A+This is totally spoiler territory, but I did not like the romance that develops between Barry and Helena. I understand that given the time loop in the story, there needed to be a second person to break the loop. I can also see that it's super convent if they're married and soul bonded. That kind of sucks, fine; they're soul bonded, that's got to be pretty cool and intense and beautiful, right? It really wasn't, it sounded excruciating and didn't at all focus on the romance as a factor in what is effectively a hundred-year time skip. Just one smooch in all that time, that's all we get. Maybe I'm just a little freak but like if you're going to have your characters spend like 133 years married to each other, maybe let us know how that sex life is going. I think that instinctively I know that what would have made this story perfect was a more intense connection between Helena and Barry. This is a great time travel story, someone should sell this to Nolan. The science/sci-fi speculation is also top-notch; it's cool to know that even as we learn more about the surrounding universe, that we are still able to find fields of study where much is unknown and imagine the possibilities. I am giving it monster bonus points for being a good time travel story and having a type of speculation that's unique. This came out the same year as [b:This is How You Lose the Time War 43352954 This is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1653185078l/43352954.SX50.jpg 58237743] and it surprised me that of the two time travel stories that year, this isn't the one getting the buzz because this book is a much more entertaining and interesting read.This is on the border between 4 and 5. A little romance would have gone a long way, so I'm going to be a conservative on this one just as a matter of personal taste.