Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not My World

The key to a first class suspense thriller is the hint that something important is about to happen. If what happens then suggests something even more important already has happened, the reader is cornered, dead meat. Mix in a little quasi-science and it’s human fly-paper. The compulsion to stay until events are explained is almost overpowering. Crouch knows the drill and sets a man-trap with the best of them.

The thing is that everyone knows the science is bunk. The characters are cut-outs from bodice-rippers supplied with minimal intellect to pass for upper middle class strivers. The narrative is packed with coy denials of relief. And the real mystery is how the author is going to resolve an entirely impossible story line in anything like a satisfactory way (spoiler: he doesn’t). The central idea is intriguing. But it’s a film script that depends on mood music and fast-action cuts not a novel. Mind-porn.

I’m sure the contracts have already been signed. Watch for the ‘Coming Soon’ adverts. For all I know it’s been and gone in the theatres already.

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