Recursion is about memory, time, and how the human brain processes and perceives both.
New York City detective Barry Sutton is investigating False Memory Syndrome, a terrifying condition spreading across the US. Victims have memories of a life they never lived. Sometimes the false life feels more real than their actual life, causing heartbreak and occasionally suicide.
Helena Smith is a neuroscientist trying to find a way to record memories and reimplant them in the brain in order to help Alzheimer’s patients remember their lives. When a billionaire offers her unlimited funding for her research, she thinks it’s her dream come true.
I don’t want to spoil any of the story, but stuff happens, Barry and Helena meet and join forces, and try to save the world.
The more I read Recursion the less I liked it. I found the first third spellbinding and couldn’t put it down. I could barely finish the last 50 pages. I have so many issues with this book. I’m just going to have to do a list so this doesn’t become a ninety page paragraph.
- I was really disappointed by the big reveal of what is causing False Memory Syndrome. It’s been done a million times before.
- The author would alternate between really detailed, difficult science to what was basically hand waving and saying “tada”. This isn’t a real example from the book, but imagine reading four pages on the physics of death and then having a character say, “And that’s why ghosts are real,” when absolutely nothing in those four pages supported the concept of ghosts.
- Evil billionaire.
- The last part of the book dragged horribly.
- The more the book went on, the more the author became philosophical and poetic, which would have been fine if there had been some emotional punch to it.
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