Dark Matter by Blake Crouch came out in 2016 and I am a bit late to the party on this one.  Now that I have made it to the party, I realize what a good time it is and want to invite all my nerd friends.  Blake Crouch, the author of the famed Wayward Pines trilogy which was adapted to a Fox TV show that ran two seasons.  Did anyone watch season 2? Doesn’t matter.

Dark Matter follows Jason Dessen, a physicist who put aside a promising professional career to marry his artistic wife Daniela and to raise his 15-year-old son.  Jason finds himself to be a professionally unfulfilled professor who is jealous of his old roommate’s scientific success. Following a quick celebration for his old roommate, Jason is attacked and knocked unconscious.  Once he comes to he finds himself in his hometown of Chicago, just not his Chicago. This is where the story really picks up and holds your attention all the way to the finish. Jason is found in an alternate version of the multi-verse faced with a decision to accept his new life as an esteemed atomic physicist who never married or to fight his way back to his reality and rejoin his family.  It wouldn’t be much of a story if he accepted the new reality, so the struggle through the multi-verse begins.

Jason’s travels take him through many alternate versions of his city and life.  Once you buy into the concept behind the alternate timelines, it is hard not to think through what versions of your own life are out there.  I found myself wondering how many quantum forks in the road would have resulted in profound changes in my life. Of all those versions, is this the best version of my existence, how hard would I fight to get back to this life?  I got real deep into existential thought on this one.

Back to the book.  The story keeps a great pace and locks you in to find out which of an infinite number of timelines he winds up in.  This is a story full of many roads not taken and what if scenarios from one man’s life. I found the entire book entertaining and well worth the read/listen.  At less than 350 pages it is an easy and fast read. If you are like me and are barely literate, it is a quick 10-hour audiobook narrated by Jon Lindstrom. Sony bought the movie rights to this book before it was even published.  If they ever get around to making the movie adaptation, you will want to be the person who can say that you read the book and it was way better.

You can support the author and our site by purchasing the book with the links below. Leave your comments here or on the voicemail (815-905-1414) and let us know what you think.

·         Dark Matter Paperback: https://amzn.to/2KPCFlc

·         Dark Matter Audiobook: https://amzn.to/2UMZCu4

·         Or just get an audible subscription: https://amzn.to/2VVhZJH

·         We will also be picking up Blake Crouch’s most recent book Recursion at https://amzn.to/2KMpNMK