Recently, the series “Dark Matter” was released on Apple TV+ streaming, and we have already published a review about it. This TV series is an adaptation of the science fiction novel of the same name by the famous American writer Blake Crouch. Of course, a book is always better than a TV series or film based on it, but there are rare exceptions. In this case, the project from Apple TV+ turned out to be adequate, so the book, as you can imagine, was at least good. Of course, if you like individual fantasy novels. Or rather, science fiction thrillers. This book was published in Ukrainian by “KM-Books” in 2017. On the occasion of the release of the series, they re-released the novel with a cool film cover. This is the version I read, and now, as always, I share my impressions.
“Topic Matter”
Plus points:
cool and unexpected main idea; an interesting combination of science fiction, action and thriller; despite its mass appeal, the book raises important questions about life choices and paths; the author skillfully immerses the reader in his well-built world; updated and bright film cover; good quality of publication
Disadvantages:
Crouch sometimes gets carried away with exaggerated psychologizing and fails; as in most of the author’s books, his characters are the weakest part of it
«Dark Matter»
author Blake Crouch
translator Olga Zakharchenko
editor KM Books
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 416
cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 130×200mm
website kmbooks.com.ua
Jason Dessen lives in Chicago with his wife Danielle and son Charlie. He teaches physics at a local university, she paints and teaches others to do the same. They both once had big plans for their careers, but decided to have a son, a family and a quiet middle-class life.
One evening, Jason goes to a party hosted by his friend Ryan, who won a prestigious science award in physics. The party was held at their favorite bar and the hero promised his wife not to be late and to be on time for dinner. But it didn’t work out.
After the party, he is kidnapped by a stranger. He threatens Jason with a gun, drags him to the outskirts of town and into a strange room, where he loses consciousness. When the hero wakes up, he finds himself a famous scientist with a large team and an incredible project under his leadership. But now he has neither wife nor son. What kind of world is this? Where is Jason and how did he get home?
Ukrainian readers are probably more familiar with Blake Crouch’s trilogy “Deceptive Pines”, which was also made into a TV series, but was clearly inferior to the books and definitely worse than “Dark Matter” from Apple TV+. But the author also has a lot of cool individual fantasy novels in his repertoire. “Dark Matter” is just one of them.
This is a popular science thriller with elements of mystery and action. The book is written in a light-hearted and interesting way. There are many events, unexpected twists and unusual plot developments that the reader almost never comes up with on his own. Crouch always surprises, and that is one of the best aspects of his books.
His writing style isn’t super cool either, but it’s good enough to keep the reader on the edge of their seats. “Dark Matter” basically provides a formula for success for the author’s novels. He takes an interesting scientific thesis, twists it, adds surprises, applies the whole thing to modern, familiar realities, and twists the situation as much as possible so that the characters are always acting and don’t stop until the end.
His characters are the worst. They are just normal and can drive the plot forward appropriately. Because the story and its scientific basis are the main elements and make the characters act. The author also tries his hand at psychological thrillers, but in my opinion he is not very good at it.
Despite all its entertainment and the classic features of a bestseller, Dark Matter also makes you think about your own life. This novel is primarily about the paths we didn’t take but could have taken. It is also about how often we take the close and important people in our lives for granted. And they can simply disappear or not exist at all. So the novel seems to teach us to treat our family with maximum attention and love, but it does this carefully and without being intrusive.
“Dark Matter” – a book that says that we are our choices and our decisions are pure coincidence. Every decision or small event we make can literally change everything and take our lives in a completely different direction.
I want to mention the new cover and the overall updated edition. No matter how negative some people are about movie covers for books (this is especially true for diehard book lovers, and I understand them), I mostly like them. Everything worked out well with Dark Matter too. We have a stylish shot from the series with my favorite Jennifer Connelly on the cover. That’s pretty cool.
It’s also definitely much cooler than the old cover. It was very plain to say the least and also followed the earlier tendency of many Ukrainian publishers to disguise fantasy books as something universal because it somehow increased their chances of being bought.
