Recursion: A Novel

(8.5/10) Highly entertaining, intelligent sci-fi thriller with great momentum, action, and dialogue, and an ending that mostly sticks the landing. The timeline mechanics aren't airtight, but the story establishes its own rules well enough that the inconsistencies don't matter much. Great pace throughout, but the biggest weakness is the implausible transformation of the former lab assistant into the original mastermind, which requires an enormous intellectual leap that the story doesn't adequately justify. Happy Reading!! 📚

This book put me through the wringer! I was leery of it because I had been turned off by the Wayward Pines series, but, no worries. This book is so different from that series and so different from any book I’ve read. Simplistically, it’s about the lengths some will go to to save humanity from itself. It’s a much more complicated novel than that. Read it!

"We have made it far too easy to destroy ourselves."

This one was quite the ride and had me up late and reading well into the morning. Loved it.

Wowwwww this book messed with my mind!! I really enjoyed it and liked the ending. Felt a bit redundant towards the middle but such a great read.

It's like the movie Primer. Time travel so complex it's not fun to explore as it makes no sense. Yet clearly the intellectual achievement is impressive.

It's like a mediocre Agatha Christie book. They tend to be dull, repetitive, with predictable characters. Yet you admire the overall concept.

Blake Crouch seems to understand humans and suffering. Mental suffering and striving for love and your place in the universe. Yet the overall story is messy. We jump from timeline to timeline following different people. Back and forth in time with events happening, then they un-happen, then someone else somewhere creates new events. Am I supposed to write plotlines down to recall them?

Characters were also boring. Middle-class losers with no personality. Overly described settings. Storylines about love or losing a loved one ... that's it.

I want to love it. I adore science fiction movies. I'm obsessed with time travel. Adore smart stories and mysteries. It's like it's written for me yet I couldn't get into it. It's not terrible and the concept is extremely cool. Yet it feels like a cool concept that can be done much better.