Dark Matter

 

Blake Crouch

2016

342 Pages.

(No image of book available)

 Jasson Dessen, a professor in Chicago, goes out to celebrate with a friend who has just won a prestigious award. Walking home, he wonders how his life would have been if he’d pursued an active career in physics instead of the family life he now has. Suddenly he is attacked by an unknown assailant, injected with a serum, and cast into a multi universe. Assaulted by a stranger he knows not at all, yet knows better than anyone else but himself. Will he ever get back to the family he loves, or will he assume the role of another Jason in another life; perhaps a successful and rich Jason who’s lived another existence in a different world?

I found this a fast-moving novel littered with sci-fi elements with questions of extensionist manner as to what it means to be happy in life, versus what it means to be successful. The last quarter of the book contains several surprising developments: what Jason will do to conquer his dilemmas. Will he return to what may or may not be most satisfactory continuation of his existence, or pursue an alternative reality?

posted by Mark Roper