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A review by powerpuffgoat
Recursion by Blake Crouch
1.0
I don't know why I gave Blake Crouch another chance. It baffled me that Dark Matter has such great reviews. To me, it felt like a very cheap, half-baked attempt at science fiction that was neither original nor well-executed.
And Recursion follows a similar path. It starts off with a vaguely curious concept, because science (apparently).
Except the science bit is completely handwaved. A chair that records memories and plays them back to treat Alzheimer's? Suddenly, it's also a time machine when you attach it to a deprivation tank that pumps you full of poison? Suuuuure. How does that work, I hear you ask? Don't worry about it, says Blake Crouch.
So then, I'm supposed to care about something else, right? Like the plot, or the characters. Right? Right?
Like these two main characters who have no personality outside of meaning well and being in love. Wait, how did they come to be in love? Don't worry about it, says Blake Crouch.
The plot... I don't even know what to say. The first half of the book felt like a set-up, and the second part of the book was just regurgitation of itself. Annoyingly, it also backtracked on the "science" it established in the set up.
"Oh no, you can't travel into your memories when you were young, a teenage mind couldn't possible handle this!" LOL JK GO AHEAD HELENA
"Once you travel back in time and change the timeline, the previous timeline becomes obsolete, you cannot map and use dead memories!" LOL JK IT'S THE END OF THE BOOK SO NOW YOU CAN
What. The fuck.
Oh, and one of the funniest aspects of this book is that our friendly neighborhood cop comes to this profound realization, after experiencing lifetimes and lifetimes of memories... That in life, you gotta feel the good and the bad. Barry, my guy, I could have told you that for free!
And Recursion follows a similar path. It starts off with a vaguely curious concept, because science (apparently).
Except the science bit is completely handwaved. A chair that records memories and plays them back to treat Alzheimer's? Suddenly, it's also a time machine when you attach it to a deprivation tank that pumps you full of poison? Suuuuure. How does that work, I hear you ask? Don't worry about it, says Blake Crouch.
So then, I'm supposed to care about something else, right? Like the plot, or the characters. Right? Right?
Like these two main characters who have no personality outside of meaning well and being in love. Wait, how did they come to be in love? Don't worry about it, says Blake Crouch.
The plot... I don't even know what to say. The first half of the book felt like a set-up, and the second part of the book was just regurgitation of itself. Annoyingly, it also backtracked on the "science" it established in the set up.
"Oh no, you can't travel into your memories when you were young, a teenage mind couldn't possible handle this!" LOL JK GO AHEAD HELENA
"Once you travel back in time and change the timeline, the previous timeline becomes obsolete, you cannot map and use dead memories!" LOL JK IT'S THE END OF THE BOOK SO NOW YOU CAN
What. The fuck.
Oh, and one of the funniest aspects of this book is that our friendly neighborhood cop comes to this profound realization, after experiencing lifetimes and lifetimes of memories... That in life, you gotta feel the good and the bad. Barry, my guy, I could have told you that for free!