Set between 2007 and 2018, Recursion gives déjà vu a new meaning. In fact, you’ll probably have déjà vu from reading the book, since concepts are similar to the movie Inception, Avengers Endgame (sans the superheroes), Interstellar and even the Netflix series Dark. The commonality between all of them- time travel. However, instead of warped narratives that boggle your mind, Recursion has a smooth flow, even with multiple narrators, storylines and timelines.
In fact, I read it on a beach vacation (just before the pandemic) and easily managed to finish it (albeit the last chapter on the flight back home seconds before we landed).
The author, Blake Crouch has confidently combined the concepts of time travel, apocalypses and memories of yourself in an alternate timeline. Bonus one: a scientist à la Elon Musk who has various shades of grey. Bonus two: a love story moving across timelines.
The sci-fi thriller starts with a noble aim to create technology to preserve memories of Alzheimer patients but quickly moves to a world dealing with a suicide epidemic and False Memory Syndrome-a disease where people have memories of living a different life altogether.
The only caveat I’d suggest while reading the novel- don’t scrutinise it too much, as you may find writing styles and formats akin to something you’ve read before, especially if you read sci-fi a lot. You’ll also find the attempts to explain the science behind some concepts described in the book- half-hearted or absent altogether.
Those ‘hows’ to me weren’t glaring and could easily be excused to enable you to go with the author’s narrative. Which is why, I’ve rated the book 4/5, and I am looking forward to reading the author’s first standalone novel- Dark Matter.
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