And the spheres of planets, even more than high-wire artists, don’t teeter safely on a hair so fine.Īt a modest 336 pages, it’s astonishing the amount of intriguing, adventurous, terrifying, emotional, philosophical, and even inspirational ground this book manages to cover. When Helena’s research draws the attention of a visionary billionaire, his plan to develop her life’s work beyond anything she’d considered puts the fate of the world balancing on a string. Helena Smith, who has pointed her powerful brain at the hope of using technology to help Alzheimer’s patients retain their memories, and Barry Sutton, a cop whose life is defined by memories of his daughter’s terrible death and the subsequent dissolution of his marriage. (Warning: This book is so good, I’m about to do that thing where the fizzy drink overflows its glass.) In speculative fiction, there is almost every way to get it wrong and so very narrow a thread to cross to get it right.īlake Crouch carves out his own pedestal by getting it absolutely right with Recursion.

Not so for the writers who strain what if? to the limits of suspending disbelief. Not so with the authors of stories that bend our recognizable world out of any shape we know. But it’s even worse than that: No matter how high, windy, or impossible a circus stunt might be, a tightrope walker at least has terra firma anchoring the beginning and end of their journey. Every speculative-fiction author is a high-wire artist.

Recursion by blake crouch review