{"id":2112,"date":"2019-06-11T09:58:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T23:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/?p=2112"},"modified":"2019-06-11T09:58:32","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T23:58:32","slug":"recursion-by-blake-crouch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2019\/recursion-by-blake-crouch\/","title":{"rendered":"Recursion by Blake Crouch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Recursion<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A couple of years ago Blake Crouch delivered the multiworlds mind bender Dark Matter<\/a><\/em>. In that book, the discovery of a portal technology allowed people to visit alternate versions of our world. At one point the main characters go on an odyssey deep into the bizarreness of the multiverse. In Dark Matter<\/em> time moved inexorably forward. In Recursion<\/em>, Crouch tries something similar but this time the alterative realities are laid over each other in the same time period. In tying the technology that drives his plot to memory, he manages to create more emotional resonance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recursion<\/em> starts with a suicide. New York cop Barry Sutton is called to try\nand talk down a potential jumper. When he reaches her she claims to be\nsuffering from False Memory Syndrome (FMS). She claims to remember a completely\ndifferent life, but when she went to confront the man who she was married to in\nthat life, he was living with the woman who she though had committed suicide\nfifteen years before. Barry fails to stop her taking her own life but in\ninvestigating the case he finds himself going down the rabbit hole of FMS. Soon\nstrapped into the technology that causes it and sent back into his own memories\nto stop his daughter dying in a hit and run ten years before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time Crouch charts the story of\nHelena, the ultimate inventor of a machine that allows people to go back into\ntheir own past and change the outcome of events. All she wants is to find a way\nto map memories to save her mother from Alzheimers but she is encouraged to\npush her research into this new direction finding out too late that every time\nsomeone goes back into the past they wipe away the current reality and create a\nnew one. Soon characters are bouncing back and forth through time to try and\neither put things right or prevent that outcome and then the whole exercise\ngets completely out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiworld theory and the ethics of time\ntravel give Crouch a broad canvas to play with. What happens in a world where\npeople do not have to live with the consequences of their actions? If you could\ngo back and prevent a massacre, would you? Would it matter if the survivors\nstill remember an event that did not happen and may still be traumatised as a\nresult? If people are meant to be together does it matter how many times they\nrelive their lives? How would the international community react if someone\ntried to weaponise time (not so spoilery hint: badly)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not new territory for science\nfiction and many of the greats have played with the idea\u2013 from HG Wells throughAsimov,\nHeinlein, Vonnegut and Clarke. Recently we\u2019ve had Claire North\u2019s breakout The Fifteen Lives of Harry August <\/em>and Neal\nStephenson and Nicole Garland\u2019s The Rise\nand Fall of D.O.D.O<\/em>. Crouch\u2019s approach is a little more frenetic in that\nanyone can access the technology and so create new timelines for the whole\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much like Dark Matter<\/em>, Recursion<\/em> is a book you have to strap yourself in for and try not to think too hard about paradoxes and multiple overlapping timelines and multi-universe theories. Crouch successfully points readers to focus more on his characters, and their personal trials as they try to deal with living the same lives over and over but differently. Among all of the action and personal quandaries there are plenty of ethical issues to chew on making this an altogether a complete mind-bending science fiction package. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pile by the Bed reviews Recursion the new mind-bending science fiction thriller by Blake Crouch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,17],"tags":[188,65,4,299],"class_list":["post-2112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","category-science-fiction","tag-blake-crouch","tag-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-us"],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"Yes","cwp_rev_product_name":"Recursion by Blake Crouch","_wppr_review_template":"default","cwp_rev_product_image":"http:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Recursion-Cover.jpg","cwp_image_link":"link","wppr_links":{"Pan MAcmillan":"https:\/\/www.panmacmillan.com.au\/9781509866663\/"},"cwp_rev_price":"$29.99 AUD","wppr_pros":[""],"wppr_cons":[""],"wppr_rating":"0.00","wppr_options":[]},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Recursion-Cover.jpg?fit=325%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6OvC3-y4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6158,"url":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2022\/upgrade-by-blake-crouch\/","url_meta":{"origin":2112,"position":0},"title":"Upgrade by Blake Crouch","author":"robertgoodman","date":"27\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Pile by the Bed reviews Upgrade by Blake Crouch a fast paced thriller that takes on issues of genetic engineering, the responsibities of power and climate change.","rel":"","context":"In "Review"","block_context":{"text":"Review","link":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Buy from Booktopia","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7542,"url":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2023\/abandon-by-blake-crouch\/","url_meta":{"origin":2112,"position":1},"title":"Abandon by Blake Crouch","author":"robertgoodman","date":"23\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Pile by the Bed reviews Abandon by Blake Crouch, a thriller revolving around a hundred year old mystery involving the disappearance of the population of a mining town.","rel":"","context":"In "Historical"","block_context":{"text":"Historical","link":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/category\/review\/historical\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Buy from Booktopia","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/301066-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":464,"url":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2016\/dark-matter-by-blake-crouch\/","url_meta":{"origin":2112,"position":2},"title":"Dark Matter by Blake Crouch","author":"robertgoodman","date":"09\/11\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Blake Crouch, author of the Wayward Pines series, goes all Sliding Doors in his latest mind-bending thriller Dark Matter.\u00a0 Jason Dessen is a science teacher at a local college, he and his artist wife Daniella having given up promising careers to raise a child. Then everything goes a little haywire.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Review"","block_context":{"text":"Review","link":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dark Matter by Blake Crouch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pilebythebed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Dark-Matter-cover-195x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4089,"url":"https:\/\/pilebythebed.com\/index.php\/2020\/hideout-by-jack-heath\/","url_meta":{"origin":2112,"position":3},"title":"Hideout by Jack Heath","author":"robertgoodman","date":"17\/12\/2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Pile by the Bed reviews Hideout, the third book in Jack Heath's Timothy Blake series. 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