
Recursion: A Novel
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New York Times best seller
From the best-selling author of Dark Matter and the Wayward Pines trilogy comes a relentless thriller about time, identity, and memory - his most mind-boggling, irresistible work to date, and the inspiration for Shondaland’s upcoming Netflix film.
"Gloriously twisting...a heady campfire tale of a novel." (The New York Times Book Review)
Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Time NPR BookRiot
Reality is broken.
At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery - and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself.
In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth - and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery...and the tools for fighting back.
Together, Barry and Helena will have to confront their enemy - before they, and the world, are trapped in a loop of ever-growing chaos.
Praise for Recursion
"An action-packed, brilliantly unique ride that had me up late and shirking responsibilities until I had devoured the last page...a fantastic read." (Andy Weir, number one New York Times best-selling author of The Martian)
"Another profound science-fiction thriller. Crouch masterfully blends science and intrigue into the experience of what it means to be deeply human." (Newsweek)
"Definitely not one to forget when you’re packing for vacation...[Crouch] breathes fresh life into matters with a mix of heart, intelligence, and philosophical musings." (Entertainment Weekly)
"A trippy journey down memory lane...[Crouch’s] intelligence is an able match for the challenge he’s set of overcoming the structure of time itself." (Time)
"Wildly entertaining...another winning novel from an author at the top of his game." (AV Club)
- Listening Length10 hours and 47 minutes
- Audible release dateJune 11, 2019
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB07N2Y1T8G
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
Listening Length | 10 hours and 47 minutes |
---|---|
Author | Blake Crouch |
Narrator | Jon Lindstrom, Abby Craden |
Whispersync for Voice | Ready |
Audible.com Release Date | June 11, 2019 |
Publisher | Random House Audio |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B07N2Y1T8G |
Best Sellers Rank | #1,688 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #12 in Technothrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #40 in Technothrillers (Books) #95 in Adventure Science Fiction |
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Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2019
Top reviews from the United States
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If you read Crouch’s previous outing, Dark Matter, then you have a fair idea of what to expect with Recursion. While the former dealt with alternate realities, the latter tackles the issue of False Memory Syndrome…or at least that’s where things begin. As Crouch plumbs the fallibility and flexibility of memories and a startlingly bright premise of how and where such false memories could originate from, this sucker takes on more wrinkles than Einstein’s brain.
The bulk of Recursion is told through the perspective of two central characters, Detective Barry Sutton and Dr. Helena Smith. Smith is a neuroscientist seeking a cure for Alzheimer’s in the hope of curing her’s mother terminal descent into dementia. Her plan is construct a machine that can record a person’s most valued memories for posterity. Sutton, meanwhile, is investigating the devastating rise of False Memory reports following his failure to prevent a woman’s suicide. The woman, Ann Voss Peters, couldn’t handle the mental rewiring of her memories as she was forced to reconcile the life she thought she knew with the radically different life she suddenly remembers. The deeper Sutton’s investigation goes, the more he learns…and the more questions he uncovers. It potent, heady stuff, and then Crouch, as he’s wont to do, turns it all sideways, upside down, and shakes the ever-loving hell out of it.
Now, I have to tell you, flat-out, that discussing anything more about Recursion would have me wading up to my neck in spoiler territory so I’m going to avoid discussing any of the plot’s specifics. I will say, though, that what Sutton and Smith get up to and the forces they confront are every bit as twisty and turny as the cover image’s infinite loop and the maze etched inside that figure-eight.
Crouch is a master at delivering a bonkers, high-concept story that’s easily accessible, but which also mocks the entire idea of being simple. Tackling a subject like False Memory Syndrome is a storytelling mine filled with diamond-encrusted potential, but Crouch takes it into next-gen territory, leveling up his premise with each successive chapter. There’s a heavy load of physics at play here, and the author utilizes Newton’s third law regarding action/reaction magnificently. Consequences build and build and build before erupting with glorious devastation in a climax that cranks things up to eleven. And then twelve. And then thirteen. And then, amidst so much rich, chewy brain-candy, he delivers a tear-jerker denouement that goes straight for the heart.
Recursion is high on action and moves along with the speed of a bullet train, but all its most potent brawn comes straight from the brain. I don’t know what Crouch’s background is, but having read several of his prior novels I’m now pretty damn well convinced the dude is a diabolical genius. Crouch is smart, damn smart, and he knows how to leverage all those hugely cerebral ideas into rapid-fire page-turners of science fiction gold. His are the types of books I don’t just read, but devour and am immediately left hungry for more. Whatever he’s cooking up next, I am more than ready for it.
[Note: I received an ARC of this from the publisher via NetGalley. I immediately ordered the hardcover from Amazon.]
I’ve been reading Crouch for a long while. His earlier works were masterpieces of horror, often with no little or supernatural aspects (try ABANDON, for example). RECURSION is solid sci-fi dealing with such heady topics (heh heh) as the nature of memory, neuroscience, time, physics, philosophy and more. It starts with a plague of FMS, “False Memory Syndrome”, as one of the main protagonists, NYPD cop Barry Sutton is called to the scene of an impending suicide who suddenly remembers a totally different life than the one she is living. This FMS seems to be becoming something of a plague, and the number of suicides is rapidly rising. The novel explodes forwards from there. The other principal, Helena Smith, is a neuroscientist working on the neurophysiology of memory, in large part to try and build a device that could record her mid-stage Alzheimer's Disease mother's memories before they disappear forever. The sequela of her invention has implications that question our concepts of time, reality, the multiverse and more.
I could not put the novel down, and read the whole thing in about 24 hours with 8 or so hours of sleep intercalated.
Most Highly Recommended.
JM
ps. In response to a really mean-spirited one star review that destroyed that science in the novel, I’d like to admit that I am a Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience at Rutgers and I thought ALL of the science and philosophy was spot on and very timely.
Top reviews from other countries

The novel opens with Barry Sutton, an NYPD officer, trying to coax a distraught woman away from the edge of a Manhattan rooftop as she tells him of her pain at remembering a life she never lived. "My son has been erased," are the final words she says to Barry before throwing herself off the building. This event is the catalyst that leads Barry to further investigation into a bizarre, unexplained condition called False Memory Syndrome (FMS) which causes people to develop memories of things that never actually happened.
His investigation takes him down a path of shocking discovery with implications that could change the world forever.
Sound vague? Well, this is a story you'll want to dive into without knowing a lot. It makes the many revelations and twists better - the same with DM.
With a narrative built around questions of memory and consciousness, I found the descriptions of the characters' memories particularly vivid and convincingly tangible. I also liked that the story was told completely in the present tense as it made the scenes feel as though they were happening in the present moment and helped bring them to life.
Recursion is perhaps more relevant to today than DM was, as there are references to things like the Mandela Effect, deja vu, and a recent real-life experiment where scientists successfully manipulated the memories of mice. Because these are things that have recently circulated pop culture, things people are familiar with, these references add a layer of realism to the story.
The stakes are colossal, the characters are the perfect propelling forces of the story, and the big reveals are placed at exactly the right moments. Crouch is talented at putting super complicated ideas - involving things like quantum particle physics - into words in such a way that they are digestible to readers who aren't scientifically inclined. Recursion does get a tad convoluted and confusing towards the middle of the book, but this is probably inevitable with the scale and complexity of the ideas within it.
I hope Crouch continues to write more books in this goldmine-of-a-niche he seems to have struck. They are gripping and unlike any other books I have read.


How in hell such a colossal yet effortlessly evolving plot manifested from anyone’s brain I guess I’ll never know. But I am convinced their house is wallpapered in trillions of Post-It notes and they can’t have slept for at least five years.
The timeline is never-ending loop that is over-written with almost every page turn. As a result it contains a bounty of memories forged by characters whose intentions form the tip of a ruddy great iceberg of unforeseeable consequences.
Interfering with the natural order of events will certainly raise moral eyebrows everywhere, particularly as the ordinary folk featured in this tale are carried along by events but are unable to process the overlapping confusion that ensues.
In short, this book is a crisscrossing, mind-melting imagining of mammoth proportions and I’m delighted to have stumbled across it by happy accident, as its concept commanded my full attention throughout. Would seek out this author again for sure.

His Dark Matter was based on solid science concepts and was a pretty unique idea well thought out. But this book just feels like he was high while thinking out the plot. And pages and pages of unnecessarily timelines. I am still surprised how so many people loved this book and is rated higher than Dark Matter on goodreads .
Some of the misgivings I have apart from the laughable way he tries a lot to connect memory and time just randomly quoting famous people is that how does doing something to tour brain/memories affect a different persons memories though they are in your social circle? He talks about merging memories from different timelines but how is your memory affecting time itself? He tries to address this after 70% book is over probably when someone familiar with actual science raised the same point after reading a draft and the way he tries to explain away is also very pathetic. He just randomly throws away words like blackhole wormhole and Hope's people dont notice.
After reading 5 Blake Crouch books back to back, I think Wayward Pines trilogy is his best work and then Dark Matter. Dark Matter has a very unique and believable concept though poorly written and which badly needed an editor. This book doesn't have either of them. I am surprised because the books I liked most were the ones he wrote first and he quality (atleast according to me) is just degrading with every book.
I would say, read Dark Matter again instead of reading this book. You can give this a miss.
