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riggycat OP t1_ja711u8 wrote

Replying to raresaturn (#2,050,303)

Oh, yeah, Dark Matter. It was better than Upgrade, I guess, but it was the same formula as Upgrade, was it not?

>!There's a guy with unrealized ambitions working in a tech field. The guy gets injected with a subtance. Through a series of mistaken identity/circumstance, the guy is forced to run away from shadowy organization. Sci-fi fuckery happens. "Who am I?" "I miss <Wife> and <Child>."!<

I'm only halfway through Upgrade and I swear to god the twist going to be like >!"the evil lady worked for my employer the whole time 😲"!< or something.

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austingriffis t1_ja73kfo wrote

Dark Matter and Recursion are the Blake Crouch novels to try.

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Specialist-Excuse356 t1_ja748mx wrote

You’re correct that Crouch is no Tchaikovsky. Have you read the other two books in the Children of Time series?

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KiwiTheKitty t1_ja7hq11 wrote

People are suggesting Dark Matter, but I hated that book. Imo you should not expect his stuff to come anywhere close to Adrian Tchaikovsky's stuff.

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munkie15 t1_ja7kfhj wrote

I’ve only read “Dark Matter” and it was very ‘meh’. The premise was interesting, but the execution was closer to terrible than it was good. I don’t know if his other works are similar.

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SnowdriftsOnLakes t1_ja7l6yx wrote

IMO, Recursion is his best work instead of Dark Matter. But yeah, he writes good page-turners. If you go in expecting groundbreaking stuff, you'll be disappointed.

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loneacer t1_ja7ldox wrote

I think you summed him up pretty well. The only book of his I thought was above average was Recursion. The rest were adequate, but just left me feeling empty at the end.

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_ja7li9q wrote

R/printsf or r/suggestmeabook or r/booksuggestions should be able to help

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JediBurrell t1_ja7o7a3 wrote

I enjoyed Dark Matter and Recursion, but really disliked Upgrade.

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aar0wes t1_ja7ynt8 wrote

Dark Matter was complete meh. Recursion was better though, not life changing, but better.

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ferrous_second_vowel t1_ja7yut6 wrote

I haven't read Children of Time (thanks for the rec), but personally, Blake Crouch fills the Michael Crichton-shaped hole in my heart - i.e. smart, page-turning thrillers, based on high-concept (but digestible) premises. I loved both Dark Matter and Recursion (the latter a bit more than the former), but confess I was underwhelmed/disappointed by Upgrade.

What I love about those aforementioned novels is that they root their sci-fi high concepts squarely in the human experience - to the degree that the science working is actually dependent on human experience. I mean, the premise of Recursion is essentially >!time travel based on human memory!<. It can feel a little hand-waivey, but Crouch makes it just plausible enough to accept, and it keeps the reader engaged.

All of this to say, if you're looking for a particularly cerebral read that explores the far-reaching social/economic/cultural repercussions of technology, and holds a dark mirror to our current society, you're looking in the wrong place.

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SpiritedCabinet2 t1_ja821p8 wrote

I've only read Dark Matter, but I really enjoyed it for what it is: the book equivalent of a well made, fast-paced, turn your brain off, popcorn film.

I read it after reading Tolstoy, and as such, it was a fun, fast and easy read. If you don't go into it expecting something it's not, you'll enjoy his work.

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KiwiTheKitty t1_ja82zja wrote

Replying to TAMiiNATOR (#2,058,166)

Wait what? I love Children of Time.

If you're asking about Dark Matter, just about everything. The main character was annoying and his actions didn't make any sense, the other characters were completely flat, and the writing was really bad (enough to make me laugh at it). It's been a year since I read it, so I don't have a lot of specifics anymore.

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ferrous_second_vowel t1_ja832ya wrote

Replying to riggycat (#2,050,387)

You're free to dislike the book, but this isn't a particularly accurate summation of Dark Matter. It feels forcibly reductive, like squinting hard enough to make two kind of similar things appear identical. Did you read the book, or just read a summary?

>!"working in a tech field" He's a college professor?!<

>!"mistaken identity/circumstance" Yeah, but when does this happen in Upgrade?!<

>!"injected with a substance" He's drugged? Just a regular old knock-out cocktail, not super sci-fi brain juice!<

>!"run away from shadowy organization" ??? He escapes a lab at one point, if that's what you mean?!<

>!"who am I?" I mean, kind of? The way the book questions "what makes a person who they are, their choices, or their experiences?" Again, though, pretty reductive.!<

>!"Sci-fi fuckery happens." "I miss <Wife> and <Child.>" These are accurate.!<

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allday_owl4 t1_ja85592 wrote

Great concepts, mediocre writing at best

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mthomas768 t1_ja8kdmm wrote

Not a personal favorite. I think forgettable sums him up for me.

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CrazyCatLady108 t1_ja8ochw wrote

Hi there. Per rule 3.3, please post book recommendation requests in /r/SuggestMeABook or in our Weekly Recommendation Thread. Thank you!

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UUDDLRLRBAstard t1_ja8wbbf wrote

Replying to ferrous_second_vowel (#2,058,622)

Mmm I read Recursion and Dark Matter within weeks of each other and I have to say I agree with the broad strokes as presented.

Some authors use the same hammer on multiple books, and it shows.

The [science concept + psychedelic] formula was there for both books, enough to the point that I’d considered it to be his “thing”.

I haven’t read the one that is the subject of the OP yet but if the pieces are there then we may have a pattern.

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