I didn’t have terribly high hopes going into this one. The summary immediately namedrops his previous book, Dark Matter, which I read and came away from utterly bored but the things we do for CBR Bingo, yeah? So consider me pleasantly surprised here! It even feels like a genuinely new take on [redacted for spoiler].
Sorry, I’m censoring myself. I went back to that same summary and realized they don’t actually give away the matter at the heart of this book so you know, I won’t either. Once it clicks it’s kind of awesome. It also weirdly relates back to part of the spoiler section on the most recent episode of Storm: A Lost Rewatch Podcast, basically all of my consumed entertainment is revolving around similar themes this week. I ain’t mad.
The characters are a little stock – they really seem to exist to drive the plot forward but it’s a good plot so I’m not mad! It’s an interesting, new explanation of old ideas mainly on how memory does or does not define reality. There’s the Smart Scientist, the Evil Entrepreneur, and the Competent Cop (sorry, I went all in on the alliteration there). There’s a lot of race against the clock and a lot of false starts and a lot of like really awful shit but the book is nicely fast paced and given its own logic, everything seems to mostly make sense. Read it!
Bingo Square: Science!
BINGO: Reading the TBR, Science!, History Schmistory, Award Winner, Summer Read