Recursion

What It's About

Recursion by Blake Crouch is a sci-fi thriller that explores the nature of memory, time, and reality through two intertwining storylines.

The first follows NYPD detective Barry Sutton investigating a phenomenon called False Memory Syndrome, where people suddenly remember entire lives they never lived. The second follows neuroscientist Helena Smith, who's developing technology to preserve memories for Alzheimer's patients.

As their stories converge, they discover that Helena's memory technology has far more dangerous implications than anyone imagined - the ability to not just recall memories, but to actually travel back to them and change the past, creating recursive timelines that threaten to unravel reality itself.

Similar Books and Movies

If you enjoyed Dark Matter (also by Blake Crouch), this is in a similar vein but arguably more ambitious in scope. It shares DNA with films like Inception and Tenet in its mind-bending approach to time and memory. It reminded me a lot of a bigger vision for the movie Primer, too.

If you liked Husk, you'll also like Recursion!

What I Liked

Crouch noticeably improved his writing from Dark Matter to Recursion. The pace is still break neck but the writing doesn't have the same overly stacatto cadence.

The time-looping is very well done in a fresh way.

The story expands its scope very well too, starting with small character dramas and growing to a worldwide conflict.

What I Didn't Like

The way the ending resolves is a little hand-wavy. It didn't feel like a resolution I could have guessed at which left me a bit dissatisfied.

Should You Read It

I'd say yes unless you didn't like Dark Matter. Or if you're looking for hard science fiction with rigorous scientific accuracy, this might not scratch that itch.

Or if you're looking for a BIG sci-fi space opera epic this isn't that either.

But for anyone who enjoyed Dark Matter, Inception, or any story that plays with perception and reality, Recursion is a must-read.