Dark Matter is a book that seemed right up my street and Blake Crouch has quite a few books that I knew I wanted to start getting my teeth into at some point. So when Martin who follows me on Tik Tok very kindly surprised me by buying me a copy from my Amazon wish list, I knew I wanted to prioritise it as a read.
Shortly after I received it, I was going on holiday so there was no better time to pick it up and read it than when I’d just be laying around on a beach or by a pool for the majority of the day!
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I was kindly sent Dark Matter by a follower on Tik Tok to support my book-reading addiction. The sender didn’t ask for a review.
Dark Matter tells the story of Jason Dessen who is abducted into an alternative version of his own life where nothing is the way that he wants it. He must essentially work to find out how to get back to his own reality and take his own life back.
Dark Matter plot – 4.25/5
I really enjoyed the early pacing of Dark Matter. As I said, I read this whilst on holiday and was also juggling another book I’d brought with me, but I found myself continuously going to pick this one up rather than the other as its pace and subject were just so engrossing.
Without spoiling too much of the story, a lot of this book is about theoretical astrophysics – I think much of the science in the book is theoretical in that scientists believe it could work this way but we have no way of knowing for now and so you’ll just have to go along with it. It covers alternate timelines and the never-gets-old story of “what would have happened if I’d changed this one small thing in my life”.
The pacing slows down a little in the middle as the book begins to focus on the relationship between the different characters which is to no detriment to the book but was a slight detriment to my keenness to keep picking it up with such regularity.
The ending is then where I found myself nodding my head as I began to wonder how Crouch would wrap everything up in a satisfactory way.
Dark Matter characters – 4.25/5
To make me care about characters in a science fiction book where the whole focus is on the science is quite the feat but Crouch did it. Jason is essentially trying to get back to his timeline because, despite its imperfections is the perfect world for him and the love he has there is the exact perfect love for him.
The attachment this then forces you to build to Jason and his desire to get back to his wife is admirable. I really found myself vouching for him to get back to be able to see his wife in the reality where everything should be.
There is a villain and there is an accompanying character but neither of these were particularly outstanding and I was hoping for a bit of a twist towards the end but nothing came to fruition.
Dark Matter final rating – 4.25/5
Dark Matter is a science fiction that takes theoretical science about a very complicated topic and makes it fun and engaging. Strong characters that make you vouch for them and a plot that constantly races along has made Dark Matter one of my favourite science fiction novels I’ve ever read (I’ve not read a vast amount at this stage though mind). If you love the idea of alternative timelines or just a bit of a sucker for a science fiction romance, then I think you’ll find a lot to love here.
