Book Review 142
"Recursion" by Blake Crouch
Blake Crouch is relatively popular modern US Sci-Fi writer. His most popular writing so far was the trilogy "Pines", made into a television series (I've never seen it).
I've picked this book because I've heard that it is a wonderful hard Sci-Fi, standing on the same level as the books by Peter Watts. Though Peter Watts is not my favorite writer, I estimate his books very high, and I like to discover new names.
Well, it is a Sci-Fi but not a hard one. Foundations of its plot lay rather on philosophy than science. It is ok for the fiction book, but if you wanted to read about some original scientific ideas (or unusual effects of common ones), you'll be disappointed.
By its composition, it is more of a thriller. Characters are running, shooting and, of course, suffering a lot. It is well paced. This book is divided by several chapters and each one is adding some twist to an overall plot.
In this book we see a genius scientist who is trying hard to develop an innovative approach to cure an Alzheimer disease. While in this direction her success is more than modest, she discovered something totally unexpected, what will catastrophically change the life of whole humanity.
The main idea of this book (which I don't want to spoil) is not new by far. I know not just several books, but even anime series with the same exploit. However, this book is well written and I can recommend it to kill some time.
The only thing which spoils it, is the ending. I think, the final resolution is very weak, a typical "Deus ex Machina". Even considering that, I am admitting that this book is very well crafted and worth reading still.