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Blake Crouch

Recursion Paperback – 11 June 2019

by Blake Crouch (Author)

6,236 ratings

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A breath-taking exploration of memory and what it means to be human, Recursion is the follow-up novel to the smash-hit thriller, Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch.

What if someone could rewrite your entire life?

'My son has been erased.'

Those are the last words the woman tells Barry Sutton, before she leaps from the Manhattan rooftop. Deeply unnerved, Barry begins to investigate her death, only to learn that this wasn't an isolated case. All across the country, people are waking up to lives different than the ones they fell asleep to. Are they suffering from False Memory Syndrome, a mysterious, new disease that afflicts people with vivid memories of a life they never lived? Or is something far more sinister behind the fracturing of reality all around him?

Miles away, neuroscientist Helena Smith is developing a technology that allows us to preserve our most intense memories, and relive them. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

Barry's search for the truth leads him on an impossible, astonishing journey, as he discovers that Helena's work has yielded a terrifying gift - the ability not just to preserve memories, but to remake them . . . at the risk of destroying what it means to be human.

PRAISE FOR RECURSION

'It's not often I plough through a book in two days. But Blake Crouch's action-packed, brilliantly unique Recursion had me up late and shirking responsibilities until I had devoured the last page. A fantastic read' Andy Weir, author of The Martian

'Recursion takes mind-twisting premises and embeds them in a deeply emotional story about time and loss and grief and most of all, the glory of the human heart' Gregg Hurwitz, author of the Orphan X series

'Blake Crouch has invented his own brand of page-turner--fearlessly genre-bending, consistently surprising, and determined to explode the boundaries of what a thriller can be' Karin Slaughter, author of the Grant County series

'Blake Crouch's fantastic, mind-blowing philosophical thriller' Yahoo News

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Macmillan
Publication date

11 June 2019
Reading age

18 years and up
Dimensions

15.2 x 2.7 x 23.3 cm
ISBN-10

1509866663
ISBN-13

978-1509866663
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Product description

Review

Crouch isn’t just a world-class thriller writer, he’s a Philip K. Dick for the modern age. Recursion takes mind-twisting premises and embeds them in a deeply emotional story about time and loss and grief and most of all, the glory of the human heart -- Gregg Hurwitz, international bestselling author of Orphan X

It's not often I plough through a book in two days. But Blake Crouch’s action-packed, brilliantly unique Recursion had me up late and shirking responsibilities until I had devoured the last page. A fantastic read -- Andy Weir, Number one New York Times bestselling author of The Martian

Blake Crouch has invented his own brand of page-turner--fearlessly genre-bending, consistently surprising, and determined to explode the boundaries of what a thriller can be -- Karin Slaughter

Blake Crouch is brilliant. His innovative novels never fail to grip! -- Sarah Pekkanen, best-selling co-author of The Wife Between Us

This is a mind-twisting exploration of memory and what it means to be human. If you’re into thoughtful, fluidly written science fiction, this one will hit the mark ― ES Magazine

Blake Crouch's fantastic, mind-blowing philosophical thriller ― Yahoo News

Smart and twisty, Recursion will make you rethink everything you thought you know, not just about time travel, but about time itself ― SciFiNow

Praise for Dark Matter: Brilliant . . . I think Blake Crouch just invented something new -- Lee Child

Praise for Dark Matter: It also might be the most helter-skelter, race-to-the-finish-line thriller you'll read all year ― Guardian

Review

A mind-bending thriller filled with twists and turns from Blake Crouch, author of the bestselling Dark Matter and The Wayward Pines.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Macmillan (11 June 2019)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1509866663

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1509866663

Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.2 x 2.7 x 23.3 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 38,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

325 in Time Travel Romance (Books)

331 in Alternate History Science Fiction

417 in Technothrillers (Books)

Customer Reviews:
6,236 ratings

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About the author
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Blake Crouch
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Blake Crouch is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. His novels include the New York Times bestseller Dark Matter, and the internationally bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, which was adapted into a television series for FOX. Crouch also created the TNT show Good Behavior, based on his Letty Dobesh novellas. His latest book is Recursion, a sci-fi thriller about memory, and will be published in June 2019. He lives in Colorado.
To learn more about what he is doing, check out his website, www.blakecrouch.com, follow him on Twitter - @blakecrouch1 - or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/blakecrouchauthor
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Customer reviews
4.4 out of 5
6,236 global ratings

5 star
61%

4 star
26%

3 star
9%

2 star
2%

1 star
1%

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Travelmel
Well written time travel story
Reviewed in Australia on 16 September 2019
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I ended up enjoying this time travel story the more i read. At first it seemed to be a couple of almost unrelated stories but as they unfolded, and their connection started to develop, i got more and more into it. I’ll have to reread it as some concepts were pretty complicated but i think i would anyway - it’s a bit gut wrenching at times but the ending was quite beautiful. I found Crouch’s writing professional, reminded me of Michael Crichton and a pleasure to read.
I read Dark Matter before this and found it quite bleak so I almost didn’t read this one. I’m glad I persevered.
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Roger
Immensely powerful with feather gentle touch
Reviewed in Australia on 4 January 2020
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It’s a story so big that’s it’s hard to breathe, with a delicate gentleness that illuminates the most beautiful curves of our perennial, mundane humanity.
The quantum mechanical branching leaves every other time based sci fi story looking monochrome and pathetic. No fish bones of absurdity to catch in your throat, it’s fiction Feynman could enjoy. But it’s so much more than the science which it turns as a mirror to reflect our timeless stupidity, vulnerability, love and genius.
Well done Mr Crouch.
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Kindle Customer
Vanilla Sky does Inception
Reviewed in Australia on 18 September 2019
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Blake Crouch is back, with another thought provoking mind bending novel that takes time, to travel through time and realise the full butterfly effect, or is that Mandela effect of what it means to remember.

The story is well paced but longer than expected and broken into 5 "books". This services a timeline of events and makes it easier to read in order.

That said what starts out as two distinct stories destined to converge - The send half of Recursion is more sci fi futuristic and all together linear changing up the reflections and mystery for straight up action.

The last arc of the narrative is suitably repetitive while also stretching the credibility of its own ideas. There are points towards the end where it.just.doesnt.end. And then very easily it does and yet the final ending feels unfulfilled, it felt like so many threads had been retconned and left unresolved.

If there is one issue with Blake's story is that he seems intent on telling a story of two destined lovers, and yet then totally ignores that poor wife and daughter of one of the main characters. The daughter especially is ignored in the backhalf dead twice and relegated to never being born, the wife an afterthought. I was expecting some resolution here but alas, at least the 2 main characters found each other again .

Not the Notebook, or the Butterfly Effect or Looper this book does what Blake Crouch does best.

Well worth reading!
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Ross D.
The horror of science
Reviewed in Australia on 18 March 2021
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This will mess with your head. You can't stop reading but everything keeps getting worse. The poor characters are tortured but still trying so hard to fix things. This book really grabbed me.
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Kindle Customer
Amazing concept...
Reviewed in Australia on 5 February 2021
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This, like many of his earlier works was an amazing concept. There was a point at which it got a bit boring in the middle but still enjoyable.
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Fractal
Unique concept brilliantly executed and a great thriller
Reviewed in Australia on 26 March 2020
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Based on a unique concept which was brilliantly explored resulting in a real page-turner. The characters were believable and the thrilling plot had plenty of surprises along the way. Thoroughly recommended!
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Kindle Customer
Good take on time paradoxes
Reviewed in Australia on 25 August 2019
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Draws on familiar time travel mechanisms (linked to consciousness) but then develops a pretty good thriller. Characters are believable. Also, good to have a female hero and a male lead that cries.
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David
A real page-turner .
Reviewed in Australia on 3 September 2020
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Just as good if not better than the first.Compelled buying more of Blake Crouch novels.Pines and Wayward here we come.
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Harry
A vivid, immense and gripping sci-fi thriller.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 July 2019
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With the release of his phenomenal hard sci-fi novel, Dark Matter, Blake Crouch engraved himself in the minds of many readers as a master of psychological suspense. Now, three years later, it seems Crouch has found a niche and is, to the delight of his ensnared fans, mining it. Recursion is every bit as phenomenal as DM and is sure to satisfy anyone who loved that book.

The novel opens with Barry Sutton, an NYPD officer, trying to coax a distraught woman away from the edge of a Manhattan rooftop as she tells him of her pain at remembering a life she never lived. "My son has been erased," are the final words she says to Barry before throwing herself off the building. This event is the catalyst that leads Barry to further investigation into a bizarre, unexplained condition called False Memory Syndrome (FMS) which causes people to develop memories of things that never actually happened.

His investigation takes him down a path of shocking discovery with implications that could change the world forever.

Sound vague? Well, this is a story you'll want to dive into without knowing a lot. It makes the many revelations and twists better - the same with DM.

With a narrative built around questions of memory and consciousness, I found the descriptions of the characters' memories particularly vivid and convincingly tangible. I also liked that the story was told completely in the present tense as it made the scenes feel as though they were happening in the present moment and helped bring them to life.

Recursion is perhaps more relevant to today than DM was, as there are references to things like the Mandela Effect, deja vu, and a recent real-life experiment where scientists successfully manipulated the memories of mice. Because these are things that have recently circulated pop culture, things people are familiar with, these references add a layer of realism to the story.

The stakes are colossal, the characters are the perfect propelling forces of the story, and the big reveals are placed at exactly the right moments. Crouch is talented at putting super complicated ideas - involving things like quantum particle physics - into words in such a way that they are digestible to readers who aren't scientifically inclined. Recursion does get a tad convoluted and confusing towards the middle of the book, but this is probably inevitable with the scale and complexity of the ideas within it.

I hope Crouch continues to write more books in this goldmine-of-a-niche he seems to have struck. They are gripping and unlike any other books I have read.
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Louise
Masterful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 July 2019
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Wowzer! What a story, Blake Crouch is a king of story writers, creating fine details that draw you in and snare you as if you're really there.
Fantastic characters, thrilling, complex plot line and compelling story that leaves you racing to the end and then sorry that you did because then it's all over!
Besides all that amazingness Mr Crouch explores fascinating science and physics and leaves you questioning and thoughtful about our place in the Universe, and about the passage of time itself, in fact does time even exist?
Like many science fiction novels they pave the way for new and exciting steps forward in science development and Recusion is no different, already there are similar experiments on memory capture being made! Who knows what the future holds, but let's hope its not the downfall of mankind!
Highly recommended read.
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7 people found this helpful
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Mark Brown
A Philip K Dick for the 21st Century
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 January 2020
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What if you could re-live your life to fix something that went wrong? What if that fix could only, inevitably, lead to only one horrifying conclusion that cannot be fixed? This is the nightmare of “Recursion”. I read this off the back of the reputation of Crouch’s “Dark Matter” (2016) which is the only example of his work that I am familiar with. “Dark Matter” was stunning and “Recursion” is very much in the same mould. Both share a mind-bending premise that deals with how our perception of reality makes our reality. This was a concept so beloved of Philip K Dick that it is of no surprise that the parallels have been drawn. Think "Minority Report" meets "Total Recall" with a whole bunch a brain-bending conundrums that PKD could never have dreamt of. Crouch’s stories have an impact at an emotional level. His characters are place into torturous personal situations where it looks like there is no hope of them ever being reunited with the people they love. When that moment of re-connection is delivered Crouch’s writing becomes dense and heart wrought. He delivers an intensity and agony revealing the inner landscape of the human experience in a fashion you seldom see in any kind of fiction today. This extends to something beyond mere sci fi. It is a sub-genre apart. A kind of emo-sci-fi. The two books have a scientific basis for the technology that are ingenious and original. Yet they are also so important to the resulting narrative. This is not the sort of fiction that throws in a time machine or inter-dimensional travel device as a gimmick then spins an all-too-familiar yarn. In Crouches books the device is central to the plot yet the technology only works inside a framework of the irrationality of the human mind. This is not a universe of simple cause and effect. The characters have not got a piece of cool tech where they punch in some code to do something predictable. The outcomes are as wildly unpredictable, difficult and complicated as tech’s operators are. It is our humanity – how we think - that is key to how the technology screws up the world. This goes beyond simple story telling about money, power, greed or jealousy. The story-magic revolves around characters suffering loss, over-reaching ambition or simply love. This book is tight, fast moving and gripping. You will not want to put it down. An utter adrenaline-rush-joy-ride.
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5 people found this helpful
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Little Bookness Lane
A criss-crossing, mind-melting imagining of mammoth proportions.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 January 2020
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Kudos to the creator of a beast with more lives than a cat sanctuary. Reading this felt like I’d fallen down a thousand rabbit holes, which I was compelled to leap into again, and again.

How in hell such a colossal yet effortlessly evolving plot manifested from anyone’s brain I guess I’ll never know. But I am convinced their house is wallpapered in trillions of Post-It notes and they can’t have slept for at least five years.

The timeline is never-ending loop that is over-written with almost every page turn. As a result it contains a bounty of memories forged by characters whose intentions form the tip of a ruddy great iceberg of unforeseeable consequences.

Interfering with the natural order of events will certainly raise moral eyebrows everywhere, particularly as the ordinary folk featured in this tale are carried along by events but are unable to process the overlapping confusion that ensues.

In short, this book is a crisscrossing, mind-melting imagining of mammoth proportions and I’m delighted to have stumbled across it by happy accident, as its concept commanded my full attention throughout. Would seek out this author again for sure.
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5 people found this helpful
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Victoria@CartonManetteDarnay
Pleasantly Surprised!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2020
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Recursion is a sci-fi thriller that revolves around a memory chair, a device with which it is possible to go back in time to relive your life from a certain point. However, once you reach the anniversary of using the chair everyone begins to remember their past lives, which causes chaos and confusion. After reading Blake Crouch's previous book, Dark Matter I was a bit worried that I would not love Recursion as much. As it turns out I don't love it as much, but it is still a pretty enjoyable sci-fi thriller. As people remember their past lives, in what the characters dub 'dead memories' the book seems to have echoes of Dark Matter which, while an interesting concept, if not conducive to being able to review this book fairly. Regardless of the actual plot this book just did not feel as well written as Dark Matter and if I didn't know any better I would have said that this had been written first. Overall it is a strange little book and definitely not as bad as some reviews make it out to be.
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