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This is the discussion thread for the Summer 2018 Group Read Dark Matter. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

For you kindle readers out there, Dark Matter is in the Amazon Monthly Deal for June

So strange - I started reading this book the day before the new season started! Had no idea it was a group read. Anyway, my husband and I breezed through this book. It has the perfect amount of sci-fi, thriller, and romance to keep anybody interested. I didn't care too much for the writing style, but the actual story perplexed and intrigued me to a point that I was able to finish it in about 24 hours - a rarity for me.

Diane Whitney wrote: "I enjoyed this book, it’s like a sci-fi version of “It’s a Wonderful Life�� exploring the ideas and regrets of the path not taken or what our life would be like if we made other choices. "All you ca..."

So true. My husband makes fun of me sometimes when we're watching something that touches on the concept of time travel or parallel dimensions because I honestly can't begin to conceptualize it. In this book, I was like "But how did all these Jasons come about?" "Why is it a box?" "Why a corridor?" "What does this have to do with a multiverse?" "How is this possible?!"

Michelle wrote: "So strange - I started reading this book the day before the new season started! Had no idea it was a group read. Anyway, my husband and I breezed through this book. It has the perfect amount of sci..."

What do you mean by new season?

I absolutely LOVED this book! I finished it in a week, which I know isn't much compared to some of you readers out there but this was FAST for me! I had a hard time putting this book down and can't wait to read more by this author.

My husband said if I like this book that I will enjoy the movie The One with Jet Li.

Sarah wrote: "What do you mean by new season?
..."

The summer season, for which this is a group read, started June 1. To be claimed in the summer season, including the group reads task, the book must have been completely read (not just finished) since that date. The only exception is for partial pre-reading of books over 500 pages. See the Rules of the Challenge.

I really liked this one. I was getting a bit bogged down in trying to figure out exactly how this all worked - then reminded myself that this is science fiction and I'm not a science person anyway! So, I just decided to accept it and enjoy the plot.

I particularly enjoyed the later part of the book, when all the many Jasons started showing up - the idea that every time a decision was made, there was another branching and another Jason. What was fascinating to me was that the Jasons were not all the same, even those who were recent branches - watching the different ways they reacted to the situation and the methods they saw as acceptable to get what they wanted.

There were a lot of ideas to think about here, especially in terms of choices made and how they change not only your life, but also who you then become as a person.

The premise of Dark Matter was very interesting and I was looking forward to reading this book, but in the end I didn't enjoy reading it. The beginning was pretty decent, but after a few first chapters it started to be boring and flat. The characters were one dimensional and in the end I didn't care, what happenes next and (view spoiler)[which Jason will get the family (hide spoiler)].
Maybe my expectations were too high, but I am very disappointed with this book.

I thought Dark Matter was just okay. I liked the plot and it was a fast-paced read, but I didn't really get into it until after Jason and Amanda started exploring alternate universes. In fact, I would have loved to follow Amanda around for a few more chapters.

Just finished reading this book. I love the idea and find it a quite fascinating thought so many different parallel universes exist.

At the same time, the author could have done much more with the ideas he had. Half of the book isn’t worth the read as it is repetition after repetition:-(
What allways gets me when read8ng a book is the way authors feel the need to explain each and every thought they have. A bit like I am not capable to think for myself. It usually irritates me when reading YA, but the same mistake is made by Blake Crouch

I’m not saying it is a bad book, but it is not a very good one neither. Sadly for me it is one to forget. I hope I can there are better ones regarding this subject.

I have only read the first few chapters so far (usually I do audio but need either ebook or hardcopy while at work) and I must say, it really grabbed my attention and I was hooked! I can't wait to see what else happens and purposely scrolled down to avoid some spoilers as I really don't know too much about Dark Matter besides of what is on the dust jacket. I hope it continues to entertain me.

Since beginning the Challenge a year and half ago I have read more science fiction than I have my entire life. I have read other books by Blake Crouch and really enjoyed them and thought I would probably like this one too. Dark Matter had me very confused for a little while. As Michele above stated "My husband makes fun of me sometimes when we're watching something that touches on the concept of time travel or parallel dimensions because I honestly can't begin to conceptualize it." I also have a hard time with that. I cannot begin to imagine that there is a parallel me out there. What am I doing? Who am I? Am I a mother, single, worker, etc? It boggles my mind. SPOILER: I do like how it ended with the true Jason. I would give it 3 stars.

I started out enjoying this but I thought the middle and ending got bogged down a bit. I would have liked to see Jason and Amanda spend some more time in a few worlds than a short amount of time in many worlds. I also thought that so many Jason's at the end confused the story. I thought the premise was interesting and like others we should think of the choices we make and the consequences. I will probably give this author one more try.

I really liked the premise of this book, but the author's repetitiveness and short paragraphs really threw me off. I typically love science and science fiction, but this book was just okay for me. Quantum physics and multiverse theory is hard to wrap my head around, but I think the author did pretty well with explaining it within the confines of the novel. I gave it 3 stars.

Sandy wrote: "I really liked this one. I was getting a bit bogged down in trying to figure out exactly how this all worked - then reminded myself that this is science fiction and I'm not a science person anyway!..."

I personally struggled with the "multiple Jasons all act differently, unless it is convenient for them to act the same". I was able to put it together a couple of days after I finished the book, like this: remember, the narrator Jason ("Jason-N") had the epiphany in the bedroom of another-dimension, not-quite-home, Jason. It changed him, made him realize what he was and was not capable of. Presumably, the other Jasons that returned had not had this moment of clarity, and were the worse for it.
So, what else? It took Jason-N long enough, to figure out what was going on, and long enough to get his head on straight, that the book lost my interest in the middle. And there were way to many lucky breaks, in a world where anything could happen. I wound up giving it four stars, but I may downgrade it in the future to 3-stars.

I vacillated between giving this one three stars or two. On the one hand, the novel was propulsive, fast-paced, tightly plotted. On the other hand, I had not an ounce of feeling for the characters, who for the most part seemed like cardboard cutouts—and up until the Battle Royale between the Jason’s, I found the twists fairly easily predicted. I settled on two stars in the end. I had a hard time accepting the novel’s belief in the exceptionalism of its protagonist. The book spent most of its pages explaining why Jason’s various selves were all equally “real,�� only to decide at the end that no, actually, *this* one is realer and more correct than the others—abandoning its scientific grounding in favor of a contrived moral about not taking things for granted. If a book’s going to bring theoretical physics into the mix, I’d hope it’d have something a little more complicated to say than “stop and smell the roses, once in a while.��

This was a 3-star read for me. It was definitely entertaining, but there were some plot holes that take it down a star for me.

I found the multiple Jasons fighting over Dani to be a bit silly. I get that all but Jason2 were really just a version of the "real" Jason, but how could all of them get to his world so quickly, all within a handful of days of each other? Especially the Jasons that were from some of his earlier universes. And all of them were now aggressive and/or angry?

The science of quantum physics and the multiverse was a little hard to follow, so I skimmed over some of that. And it was a little slow in the middle when Jason was going from one universe to another.

I did like the character Amanda. She stood up for what she believed when she left the lab. And she was strong enough to leave Jason and explore on her own.

I agree with others: there's a HUGE suspension of disbelief needed to accept the premise that Jason2 was able to pitch Jason1 into his world on the first try when Jason1 took nearly 50 goes to get to his world. But, ignoring that, I enjoyed it as a fun romp with some interesting thoughts chucked in.

One thing that others noticed (I read in a buddy read in NBRC) that I thought was interesting: the difference between deaths of men v deaths of Dani (who was killed off an alarming number of times if we are assuming that the world setup is driven by the mindset of Jason2 - what does that say about him, really??). Anyway, they pointed out that men generally got offed in a quick no-nonsense way, but that there was lingering detail on the gruesome was that the women died...

I disagree about the speed with which Jason2 got into Jason-N's world. He was gone from world2 for 14 months and not all of that will have been stalking Jason-N

Ooh interesting about the different deaths of the male Vs female. I hadn't picked up on that.

I chatted about this with my husband after I'd finished. He studied physics at university and started explaining quantum superpositions to me - made this book look straightforward!

I love this book! I don't usually read sci-fi, though I love physics and quantum theory, and found this really a stimulating read. I also loved the humanity intertwined in all the science. The love story of a man trying to get back to his ordinary existence with his wife and child is beautiful and resonated with me for all sorts of reasons. I cried at least twice while reading this (unusual for me) and was mentally engaged at the same time. I can't remember that EVER happening previously (emotional and mental engagement at the same time)! This leads me to give this book a big thumbs way up!

Did anyone else suspect Amanda and Jason might get together some time during their search for his world or conclude it was impossible to return to his world and make a life with each other? I thought the author might be hinting that Amanda had been involved with Jason2 and this was why she was willing to risk her life and go with Jason1.

An interesting premise, really, though I didn't know what I was getting into when I first started listening to the audiobook. I had to go back & check the blurb right after the kidnapping. I enjoyed the thriller part of it but found the travelling to multiple worlds while trying to find his home world stalled the plot a little. And the multiple Jasons at the end was also a tad weird... esp. since some of them seem to be soooo different.

Btw, I might've missed this in the audiobook but how did Jason2 get Jason-N to go into world2? Did Jason2 open the door?

I've only recently started to get into science fiction, and so I'm still wrapping my head around Dark Matter after finishing it about a week ago. I thought the premise was interesting, and I didn't have trouble suspending reality to get into his worlds. But, I also didn't need the dry explanations behind the "science" of it all. And, I just didn't really think the explanation behind ALL the Jasons made that much sense or why they sometimes acted in similar ways and why they sometimes didn't at all. Finally, I thought the ending tied everything up a little too neatly for my task. So, I give it a "meh". It hasn't ruined the genre for me, yet.

Wow! I thought this was quite good! I'm a little bit familiar with the science, so it was fun to see how Crouch used it to further his storyline. There were a number of twists I didn't see coming, and the ending was quite good. I had a hard time putting this one down to get to work! I've been recommending it quite a bit. I think this is a fun book for people who don't necessarily like sci-fi, since it does bring up some important philosophical questions about the choices we make in life and "the road less traveled." Great book!

I had fun reading this, and the idea of versions of the same person being either the hero or the villain (or the helper character, for that matter) was cool. A physical manifestation of the ways we all spend time fighting versions of ourselves and our paths taken/not taken.

I did NOT like the dichotomy of "abandon personal connections/family and become a SuperBrainSuccess (if monstrous in ways) or instead, become a husband/father and have the most mediocre of professional lives", though I know Crouch tried to set it up as very time-urgent w the research Jason was doing at the time of the pregnancy & of the baby's illness.
But then everyone settled into stability as a family, yet that family was an albatross around both parents' lives - in other worlds, Dani is a lauded artist, and Jason is a science star.
Where was the life where Jason & Dani marry, become parents, and find that their career paths are delayed by a few years but they still can reach for their dreams? Maybe it was that we were only exploring the Jason who developed the box, and the Jason who abandoned that research, and not any multiverse Jasons along a timeline when, like, Charlie (?son's name?) was four and Dani was offered a residency she chose not to take, or Jason didn't want to move everyone to take a job offer at a research institute in another city.

I just felt like it was all unnecessarily harsh to pair choosing a young family with the death of all ambition.

Although this book started well and the first half was exciting, I was pretty disappointed overall. First of all, it was barely science fiction. There was hardly any science in it and the were so many gaps. For example, why was there a box in every universe? The box hadn't been invented in most worlds. And the whole idea that this was the one true universe was stupid. In the month Jason was gone, an infinite number of worlds would have been created in which Jason2 stole his life, each of which would have been a true universe.
I found the way the 'family values' concept was written very grating. It all just felt false and superficial, not to mention repetitive. The characters were very one dimensional. And did anyone else find it weird that he almost never thought about his son? It was all about Dani Dani Dani.

I am a time travel book junkie, so the premise of a multiverse really intrigued me. This book did not disappoint! Full of action, it explores the premise of what would your life been like if you had chosen this path verses another one, and how our life could split into a multitude of directions with decision we make in life.

I listened to the audio book, and it worked quite well, I never got confused as to where the characters were, or which versions of the main character the story was referencing.

The ending leaves the reader hanging a bit, but there really was no other possible way to end it.

There's a couple twists in here I didn't see coming. The middle section got a little slow for me though.

Once Jason got back to his actual world things got tangled and crazy. I really didn't see that one coming. I felt for all those guys and I did think it was interesting to see how they had changed by the different paths they took to get there. I hated to see Jason have to result to violence himself, but even more so for Charlie to have to see it. The ending was a little too ambiguous for me, but I generally don't like those types of endings anyway.

Overall this book was just ok for me. There were a few too many plot holes for me to really love it.

I found this to be extremely interesting, albeit perhaps not as compelling at the beginning as I was hoping for. While this wasn't as brain-bending for me as it seems to have been for others, the entire concept was fascinating and utilized scientific principles in a unique way. This is one of those books where you come out with more questions than you started with. In this case that worked for me.

In response to the question about why it seemed like family life was the death of ambition, there was a passage in there that explained it for me: the ambitious guy was looking for the ideal opposite to himself, he wasn't looking for the ambitious, successful but delayed slightly by family version of himself. I don't think the author was trying to suggest that ambition and family can't coexist.

On the other hand I am with those who wonder why he didn't think about Charlie much. I almost forgot he had a son in the middle parts.

Dark Matter reminded me of an old TV show called Sliders that I really enjoyed. For me, more world travelling and less Jason vs Jason violence would have been good.

I do wonder what will be made of multiple murders with the same DNA, as well as what happened to all those other poor Jasons.

The only reason that the Jason that we followed was the true Jason is because he got the girl (and he was the one that we followed the whole way through.) I feel bad for those other poor non-violent Jasons who made the ultimate sacrifice of giving up the girl so she'd be happy and safe.

honestly I struggled with all the choices for group reads this season - none of them really appealed to me, but with only a couple of days to go and the end in sight for the first time in several seasons - I knew I needed to buckle down and get one read and since I had Dark Matter sitting on my bedside table - that was the one I went with...

i'm ambivalent at best about it, now that I finished it - I enjoyed the beginning and the different physics ideas that were used - but about halfway through it just started losing its way and got too teenage girl drama-tastic (if I had to describe it). The end was ok, I kind of figured out that was what was going to happen...but yeah...ummm��.2.5 stars I think

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I really loved the premise of it- "the path not taken" has always been one of my favorite themes and I thought the author pulled off some great Sci Fi mental gymnastics. I think what put me off a little bit was the main character- he fell flat for me and I didn't find myself sympathizing with him. I'm not a person who needs their characters to be likeable, but I do think that the way this books was written needs a sympathetic MC and I was pretty ambivalent. That being said, I think I would recommend this for anyone who likes a mind trip.

Oh my gosh I liked this book way more than I expected to! What a cool concept.

I really liked this book. I never felt lost or confused. I was very surprised, but satisfied with the ending. I don't know how else it could have ended that wouldn't have been a tragedy .