Blake Crouch is the famed author of the Wayward Pines series and Dark Matter. Recursion follows a very similar theme to Dark Matter in that it deals with existential questions about reality and answers tough questions bundled up in an action packed narrative. In Recursion the question is, “What would you do if you could go back into your most cherished (or hated) memories? What would you change?”. Similar to Dark Matter, the book starts off with these small questions posed to industry moguls and scientists and as the story progresses you get caught up in all of the potential answers played out by characters Barry Sutton and Helena Smith. One thing I really appreciate about this is instead of just telling you what the outcomes could be you are forced to discover them with the main characters as their lives are torn apart and put back together before your eyes. Although an abstract question its answer bleeds with the red blood of humanity. While the scenes unfold and the answers uncover more questions all of the decisions made by the characters are exactly what most people would do. The crazier the issue the simpler the conclusion. Blake Crouch does a masterful job of outlining the absurdity of the situation while reminding us that along the path to a resolution we’ll always take the human path to get there. Whether that’s good or bad.