Recursion by Blake Crouch broke my brain, and (most of it, anyway) is absurdly brilliant

Recursion by Blake Crouch is a very interesting type of sci-fi novel.

It's a thunderingly fast-paced thriller (in a good way) that almost forces me to keep reading, keep wanting to find out more, with a bunch of unanswered questions (e.g., why does Slade know so much, what's his deal with Helena, how will our two different protagonists meet each other if at all, what even is FMS, can it even be cured) and answers them all in a very satisfyingly done but equally mind-blowing way.

My understanding of time in this novel is that the past, present and future exist simultaneously (like the beginning, middle and end of a book), as Slade says. It's another dimension that, like the 3 spatial dimensions, can be moved through in both directions forward and backwards BUT our brains are not developed or evolved enough to do that, and can only experience time in "slices" or cross-sections of time, which is what the present "now" is.

Helena's chair, combined with dying in the sensory deprivation chamber (to release DMT) is a way to advance our brain's past this mysterious blocker, and allow our conscioussness to travel back in time into a strong memory we have of the past. This allows someone to change the timeline and causes a flood of false memories (when they reach the point in time that the chair was originally used) from the original timeline on all the people affected by the different choices that the consciousness makes when sent back in time, and THAT is what false memory syndrome is.

One of my favourite parts of the book is when the reader gets a chance to figure this out for themselves, before Marcus tells Helena. When Reed first uses the chair, Helena throws a chair at a window to stop him killing himself, but we're told that "the chair never reached it" or something. Iirc, the next Helena chapter starts EXACTLY THE SAME as a previous one, and the first few pages have the exact same words, paragraphs and lines of dialogue. This is a great way imo of giving the reader hints as to what might be going on (e.g., the chair somehow made Reed time travel), but not to give too much away too quickly.

I loved how it then evolved into Helena trying to prevent the chair from being made in the first place, as she rightfully believes that nobody deserves the power of rewriting entire timelines just for their own benefit. Even then, the dead memories of the chair allows Slade to build it again and a new problem has to be solved.

I like how it then changes to her using the chair in a top secret government organization only for noble causes, like saving the vicitms of a school shooting, or preventing terrorist attack. However, the new problem is that information of the chair leaks and despite the good that the chair has brought, the consequences are too devastating to justify use of it further. (e.g., influxes of dead memories making people go insane and kill themselves, terrorists using blueprints and knowledge of the chair to committ mass atrocities every timeline, and eventually causing international tension and distrust between governments, leading to the doomsday scenarios that Helena tries her hardest to avoid).

I do think the ending was a bit rushed, although I really loved the emotional highs of Helena's 33 year loop. I don't like how the final page was left up to interpretation. I mean, the author just cut a line of dialogue and called it a day, it felt like he couldn't think of a solid ending to what had been a fantastic novel so far. And Barry somehow being able to enter a dead memory didn't really make sense, I thought that was impossible lol.

8.5/10