Recursion by Blake Crouch - Restarting September 1st 2022

[Shannara]

Summary

Memory makes reality. That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

Neuroscientist Helena Smith already understands the power of memory. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

[Sarah]

Hoping to get this soon and join in!

[Shannara]

Yay!!! The more the merrier!!

[Jammin Jenny]

23% (view spoiler)[ I like the premise of the FMS (failing memory syndrome) and the scientific aspect of the story. I especially liked when they talked about the Berenstein bears, and that it was really spelled Berenstain bears (maybe it is - spell check is telling me it is). Hmm, maybe I have FMS :) (hide spoiler)]

[Jammin Jenny]

66% (view spoiler)[ I loved that the FMS is somehow breaking down reality. When Dale had his memory of his daughter dying, and then his daughter and his wife had their memories come back, and she actually felt herself die, that was weird. Also I love that DARPA is the government agency that finds the chair and starts trying to harness it for less evil purposes. We'll see how that turns out.

DARPA is definitely the right agency for it though. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. (hide spoiler)]

[Jill]

Started today and I'm already liking it so far!!

[Katie]

Up through Page 66

(view spoiler)[ I'm enjoying this so far, and I have forgotten how much I enjoy Blake Crouch's writing...he gets right into the story with the reader not knowing anything. I remember in his other books having guesses of what was going on, but not knowing until much closer to the end. I get the same feeling with this one. I kind of know what's going on, but not 100% so it leaves so gray area for me to make guesses and my own connections.

Barry has just been strapped into the chair at the Memory Hotel!! (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jammin Jenny]

I just read this book last month and I loved it. It will be interesting to see your reaction to the book.

[Jill]

(view spoiler)[Very interesting premise, I'm so sucked in. It seems as though Helena's experiment is how the whole FMS disease started. I'm still trying to understand how it works. It's false memories but also time travel. So it's real memories but a parallel life? Wonder what Joe Behrman is hiding and the real story with Ann. Barry got sucked into the experiment. Kinda confused but sooooo into it! (hide spoiler)]
Book One

[Katie]

Up to part 3

(view spoiler)[ I’m not sure I quite understand everything quite yet... lol but I’m enjoying this very much!! Barry just met Helena after his daughter committed suicide. (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

Up to part 5

(view spoiler)[ Helena went back to when she was 16! Left a note to herself to destroy the chair! I can’t wait to see how this ends, and honestly, I don’t have any predictions! Ha! Loving this...don’t want to put this down! (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Jill]

(view spoiler)[Megan died..again. Is fate somehow involved in these memories? Helena came back from the future to prevent all this. IDK what her plan is or if she will pull it off. Some of this is going over my head but its so good.. (hide spoiler)]
Book Two

[Katie]

Finished!

(view spoiler)[ THAT ENDING?!?!?!? LOL!!! I honestly kind of loved it!! :) I know some people don't like open ended endings, but I loved this! I thought the last 100 pages just flew by, and I couldn't put the book down! It broke my heart hearing how Helana had to keep reliving her past...I couldn't imagine going back to the end of high school (gross) and waiting to meet the love of my life over and over again. I really enjoyed this book (maybe not quite as much Dark Matter) but still very unique reading experience! (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Shannara]

Started this one a few days late!!

Page 92

(view spoiler)[ seriously, I cannot believe how deeply they are messing with people’s heads!! This is crazy stuff and I can totally see the government trying to figure out how to do this stuff. How would we really be able to trust anyone with that sort of technology? They could change whatever they want. It’s a frightening thought. (hide spoiler)]

[Shannara]

Finished book two

(view spoiler)[ Blake Crouch is an absolute genius!! This book has twisting all around in my brain and I’m loving it!! Slade is one bad dude! So what was the point of letting Barry relive his life with his daughter?! I’ve got to know what’s going on!!! (hide spoiler)]

[Linaria]

Shannara wrote: "Finished book two

[spoilers removed]"

Yeah, the dude certainly writes as twisty hard-science book. Love it!

[Linaria]

Katie wrote: "Up to part 3

[spoilers removed]"

I'm not sure anyone understands everything!

[Linaria]

Jammin Jenny wrote: "23% [spoilers removed]"

Yeah, I SWEAR it's BearenSTEIN Bears. ;(

[Jill]

(view spoiler)[ Helena’s definitely got some plan under her sleeve. Not sure how all this is working. She’s creating all this different timelines and then killing them. Her ultimate goal is to destroy the chair? (hide spoiler)]
Book Three

[Jill]

(view spoiler)[ Helena has traveled all the way back to her childhood. I think she is finding a way to make sure the chair is never made. I wonder if she will be able to save Barry..

Crazy how the chair got leaked and became a weapon of mass destruction. (hide spoiler)]
Book Four

[Shannara]

Finished book 3

(view spoiler)[ this is seriously blowing my mind!!! It’s a little hard to follow at times, but I’m totally sucked in now. I feel so bad for Barry!!! So does that mean anyone who is saved will feel like his daughter did?! (hide spoiler)]

[Jill]

(view spoiler)[They couldn't do it but Barry found a way to fix everything. I think he took Slade's advice and will be able to stop the end of the world. Glad Barry and Helena were able to have their ending. Kinda figured that was coming (hide spoiler)]
End

[Linaria]

Jill wrote: "[spoilers removed]
End"
yeah, the ending was pretty perfect. And I loved the ambiguity.

[Shannara]

Finished

(view spoiler)[ That. Was. Awesome. Barry saves the day!!! I really liked the ending. Holy cow was this book intense though... I was getting worried for a minute there that this was going to be one of those books that doesn’t have a good ending. (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah Elizabeth]

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Date changed. Restarting February 10th 2020. Happy Reading ☺

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[Gillian]

Chapter 1: (view spoiler)[FMS: The thought of such a disease is frightening no wonder she jumped :( (hide spoiler)]

[Gillian]

Chapter 7: (view spoiler)[ zzztt just like that, no way there has to be something going on here, and what was with the dude with the gun he has to had something to do with this. >/spoiler> (hide spoiler)]

[Gillian]

Chapter 8: (view spoiler)[ Slade is right they are not ready yet but his ideas about what to do next are a bit extreme. hmmm Slade is not who or what he seems I am sure. (hide spoiler)]

[Gillian]

Chapter 13: (view spoiler)[ Can you really get a do over? I wonder if the stories are on 2 different time lines. (hide spoiler)]

[Raghad]

I'm starting this now :)

[Gillian]

End of Book 2: (view spoiler)[ Now the shit hits the fan they have caught up on time this is not looking good (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

10%
(view spoiler)[This is already reminding me a lot of Dark Matter. FMS sounds terrifying, I'm not a family-oriented person, but the idea of a family member that you have so many memories with suddenly not existing any more is so messed up! (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Do you guys have chapters in your copies? Mine doesn't have any except the 'Books'.

43% (Edit: I was using the wrong edition's pagecount, actually 32%)
(view spoiler)[Ok, I think I'm finally starting to get a grip on how this memory chair thingy works.

I have a slight issue though, so, according to the rules we've been told, doesn't that mean that when time reaches the present day again for Barry, his wife and daughter are going to get the memories of their previous life (and death)? And in addition to that, wouldn't like thousands+ other people in the world also receive new memories because they also existed in a timeline where the daughter died and therefore through the butterfly effect or whatever they their lives could have been significantly different and it's going to be a huge crisis? Maybe this is the issue that they'll explore in the ending or something.

I dunno if I'm misinterpreting how the mind/time travel thing works but I think that's right? (hide spoiler)]

[Gillian]

Claire wrote: "Do you guys have chapters in your copies? Mine doesn't have any except the 'Books'.

mine is on audio so it has chapters even though it only mentions books

[Gillian]

Claire wrote: "
43%
(view spoiler)[Your theory is correct anyone who has been affected by someone going back in time should get to experience more than one life they have lead. So the more time is tampered with the worse it will get. I can't see how this can be fixed unless they can stop everyone from experiencing FMS. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Gillian wrote: "Claire wrote: "Do you guys have chapters in your copies? Mine doesn't have any except the 'Books'.

mine is on audio so it has chapters even though it only mentions books"

Ah, that makes sense!

End of Book 3
(view spoiler)[Aha! So I was on the right track about that memory thing becoming a problem. I really love the way the story is progressing, it's engaging and action packed but the internal logic still makes a lot of sense and the time travel concept feels like it's been well thought out.

Now I'm curious about these 'dead timelines', I reckon there has to be some big revelation about them eventually too, it can't just be as simple as 'they're dead now'. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Finished!
(view spoiler)[Huh, okay. Did I miss something or was the solution to all the buildup just "Oh yeah you can totally go back into a dead memory and stop this nuclear winter, you just gotta think really hard!" Like that's it? No clever trick other than having to go back to the first timeline? Just find a really vivid memory?

I really liked the rest of the story and the epilogue was cute but I'm not a big fan of how the big problem was solved, a bit anticlimactic tbh, I was hoping for there to be some clever trick involved. (hide spoiler)]

[Claire]

Gillian wrote: "Chapter 8: [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I didn't trust Slade immediately after he was introduced because that name is just so... Villain-y 😂 (hide spoiler)]

[Maddie]

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Date changed. Restarting September 1st 2022. Happy Reading ☺

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[Elena]

Chapter 1
It's been only a couple of pages and I already like the book. (view spoiler)[Oh that mysterious call the librarian got. (hide spoiler)]

[Maddie]

Oh good! I'm getting into this in a few days!

[Elena]

Ooops, so sorry, the previous comment was for the other book. I messed up the BRs :)

[Elena]

About 50% into the book
Though I've read 50% of the book pretty fast, I didn't enjoy as much as I enjoyed Dark Matter by the same author. The books are somewhat similar and tell us about scientific paradoxes (both are quite interesting to learn more about), I won't spoil the other book, just point out that it was more intense and realistic, not to mention captivating.
(view spoiler)[Actually I've expected more from the book when I learned it's about memory tricks and time traveling.
The beginning was very good with all those suicide cases and strange illnesses. The potential was great but when it came to next chapters, they turned out pretty weak.
Some parts are very predictable and even cliche, like when we have this crooked person, former drug addict who wants to change his life and when he succeed he thinks he could make the world better and as usual, something always goes wrong. (hide spoiler)]

[Elena]

Finished the book a couple of days ago and have some mixed feelings.
(view spoiler)[
I still think that Dark Matter is stronger, deeper and more interesting. All the thing with data leaking and recreation of the chair were so predictable and so cliche... I was disappointed, as the expectation was really high.
And the part with global nuclear wars were somehow out of place. What? Why is it even there? I thought there will be some mystery, conspiracy theory, at least something unpredictable... Even the ending was pathetic, like really? Just go back to the real thread and end it there? I've guessed it in the middle of the book and just confirmed reading all the way through till the end.
(hide spoiler)]
Though my review might sound a bit angry and emotional, the book is not bad compared to many other books in the same genre but I expected much more from this particular author.