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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 January 2017
Dark Matter is a book about a guy called Jason Dessen who lives a pretty ordinary life; married, a teenage son, a job as a college professor teaching physics. Like most of us, he sometimes thinks about the "what if this had happened instead and my life turned out differently". For Jason the "what if" actually happens. One day he's taken by surprise, and the next thing he's aware of is gaining consciousness on a gurney, with people in hazmat gear peering down at him. He didn't marry his wife, his son wasn't born and instead of being an everyday college professor, he's an acclaimed physicist who has made a startling discovery.
This book started out with so much promise. A mix of sci-fi, thriller and even some romance and drama thrown into the bag. Quantum mechanics, multiverse/many worlds theory, the Schrodingers Cat thought experiment. Theories touched upon by the book which are highly thought provoking and gave the book so much potential. We think we know so much about the universe and our reality, when its entirely conceivable, that in another few hundred years, humankind will probably look back and view us in the same vein we do with the beliefs of the ancient Greeks/Mayans etc. They had a limited understanding of the earth and the parts of the galaxy they could view with the naked eye in the night sky. Our comprehension of the universe and reality isn't much more sophisticated. Once we come to understand things science cannot explain right now - black holes, black matter - our entire view of ourselves and the universe will undoubtedly shift.
I went into this book with high expectations but towards the last quarter of the book was where I surmised it started to lose it slightly - in my opinion. I won't say too much about why, because this would give away huge chunks of the plot. Some of the science ideas touched upon were excellent, but I felt Crouch could have gone deeper into them and explored them more thoroughly. Instead the book seemed to morph into a drama about the human side and Jason's feelings and desperation to somehow get back to his family. While it is nice to add a human touch to the science, it did end up taking over the entire book, when I would have preferred the science aspect to have remained the central theme. This may have been Crouch's intention. I can easily see this book being swooped upon by Hollywood, and to appeal to mass audiences, the story would need that human side so as not deter people from buying a ticket to a too deep sci-fi film.
It's plausible that as a film it would also need to appeal to a wider audience, because the whole premise of the book seems to imply that being average - with an average job/family/life - is the optimum of happiness and satisfaction. If you are successful, the book seems to insinuate you can't be entirely fulfilled and something must be missing from your life. Once you read the book you'll understand what I mean, but I'm not sure I wholly agree with the authors angle as to who the only truly happy Jason appears to be. Although this makes sense if the book is being made into a film. I personally would have liked the book to touch more on the science side, rather than teetering off with Jason seemingly forgetting he's a physicist.
All in all I'm glad I read Dark Matter. It touched on some big science ideas and mixed this up into a fast paced thriller, which at its heart is also a love story. I'm certainly not averse to romance in my reading, but this side of the book may be off-putting to people who aren't fans of this genre.
This book started out with so much promise. A mix of sci-fi, thriller and even some romance and drama thrown into the bag. Quantum mechanics, multiverse/many worlds theory, the Schrodingers Cat thought experiment. Theories touched upon by the book which are highly thought provoking and gave the book so much potential. We think we know so much about the universe and our reality, when its entirely conceivable, that in another few hundred years, humankind will probably look back and view us in the same vein we do with the beliefs of the ancient Greeks/Mayans etc. They had a limited understanding of the earth and the parts of the galaxy they could view with the naked eye in the night sky. Our comprehension of the universe and reality isn't much more sophisticated. Once we come to understand things science cannot explain right now - black holes, black matter - our entire view of ourselves and the universe will undoubtedly shift.
I went into this book with high expectations but towards the last quarter of the book was where I surmised it started to lose it slightly - in my opinion. I won't say too much about why, because this would give away huge chunks of the plot. Some of the science ideas touched upon were excellent, but I felt Crouch could have gone deeper into them and explored them more thoroughly. Instead the book seemed to morph into a drama about the human side and Jason's feelings and desperation to somehow get back to his family. While it is nice to add a human touch to the science, it did end up taking over the entire book, when I would have preferred the science aspect to have remained the central theme. This may have been Crouch's intention. I can easily see this book being swooped upon by Hollywood, and to appeal to mass audiences, the story would need that human side so as not deter people from buying a ticket to a too deep sci-fi film.
It's plausible that as a film it would also need to appeal to a wider audience, because the whole premise of the book seems to imply that being average - with an average job/family/life - is the optimum of happiness and satisfaction. If you are successful, the book seems to insinuate you can't be entirely fulfilled and something must be missing from your life. Once you read the book you'll understand what I mean, but I'm not sure I wholly agree with the authors angle as to who the only truly happy Jason appears to be. Although this makes sense if the book is being made into a film. I personally would have liked the book to touch more on the science side, rather than teetering off with Jason seemingly forgetting he's a physicist.
All in all I'm glad I read Dark Matter. It touched on some big science ideas and mixed this up into a fast paced thriller, which at its heart is also a love story. I'm certainly not averse to romance in my reading, but this side of the book may be off-putting to people who aren't fans of this genre.
