Category: Science Fiction / Fantasy

We’ve been rearranging our guest room in preparation for some lovely visitors coming over the holidays. Found some some nice bedside tables and got rid of a bookcase that was much too large for the small room.

In clearing out the books from that bookcase, I found this lovely little volume, which I kept near the bed for guests. It’s from the Everyman’s Library Pocket Classics Series which was founded in 1906 by the famous Joseph Dent, a visionary publisher. He promised ‘infinite riches in a little room’. Lovely to hold, these little books have sewn bindings (quite rare), come with attached bookmark ribbons (love those) and beautiful covers. And each comes with the famous archaic quote

Everyman,

I will go with thee,

and be thy guide,

In thy most need, to go by thy side

But enough about the printing publication, what about the book itself?

Well full admission, I picked it up at my library book sale years ago and never read it — languishing as it did in the guest room. The other evening, I decided to dip in and out of Bedtime Stories and found it to be a totally unique surprise. Not only an excellent collection of fiction for — yes just before bed — but also short enough to be read in one go. This collection does not sacrifice quality for brevity.

Washington Irving’s comical “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was a fun re-read, but I found most of the stories and some authors were new to me. Lord Dunsany, whose “Where the Tides Ebb and Flow” was just exquisite. Also included:

• “The Dancing Dwarf” by Haruki Marakami
• “The Bottle Imp” by Robert Louis Stevenson
• A. S. Byatt’s “The Thing in the Forest,”
• “Troll Bridge” by Neil Gaiman

This is no sugary, innocuous, collection of stories — the settings are magical, foreboding, and set in near reality and far away fantasy. The best part is that they are unpredictable and surprisingly engrossing..

Quite a few in this collection I would label as creepy fantasy and were reminiscent of mildly frightening stories told around a campfire. Nothing too scary, as to cause nightmares, but grown up tales that weave in and out of dreams, the real, the unreal and the surreal. Somewhat like peeking into someone else’s dreams.

Again, I have to rave about the physicality of Bedtime Stories — just perfect for reading in bed: small, light and easy to hold in the hand.

Sweet dreams!

The Everyman’s Library has a whole series of these little books. I own this one which I get out every holiday and have (again) just dipped into.

And this one which I treated myself a few years ago and (shame shame) have never even opened.

There’s many, many more to this series – I selected just a few from the Everyman’s website. Well worth browsing.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

 

I would never have expected this to be my first read of the new year.  In truth, I never would have opened this sci-fi thriller, except for a favorite bookstore customer.

He’s an older gentleman (OK, not that much older) who brings in his once read, bestseller hardbacks to donate — we love patrons like this.  Often, he’ll press one into my hands and recommend I read it before donating. His reading tastes run to spy thrillers and political intrigue, so I usually take a look but then put them in the donation box after he’s left.

This time, however, I opened Dark Matter and sat down at the register to give it a try — half an hour later, customers were clearing their throats and uttering plaintive “excuse me”s to get my attention.

I took it home, read very late into the night and then finished it the next (luckily, rainy) morning.

It’s going to be tough to tell you about Dark Matter without spoiling it.

Suffice it to say ….

This is the story of Jason who has a pretty great life, a wife, a son, a comfortable home. He has regrets, a lackluster career, missed opportunities, but overall, he’s content. Walking home, after meeting a friend at a bar, he is abducted and, just before he is injected with a serum, is asked;  “Are you happy with your life?”.  

He wakes to find his family gone. Not dead, not abducted, but gone — they never existed.  His home isn’t where it should be, his life as he knew it, never was.  Dark Matter is the tale of Jason trying to get back to the life he so loves.

Like most of us, only after this loss does Jason fully realize that he has (whoops had) everything he could ever want.  The power of this love, the anguish of the loss, and his journey to find his (now) lost life is the premise of Dark Matter.

But, that makes the story sound simple and it’s anything but.  There’s quantum physics (there’s even a reference to Schrödinger’s cat, which my scientist sister had to explain to me). There are parallel universes (yes that’s plural). And there’s dark matter:

Most astrophysicists believe that the force holding stars and galaxies together—the thing that makes our whole universe work—comes from a theoretical substance we can’t measure or observe directly. Something they call dark matter.

Mr. Crouch writes for television* and his style reflects that medium.  The writing simple but powerful.

He also writes in very short sentences.

And fragments.

Like this.

So, you see.

Why it is a quick read.

The other reason Dark Matter is a quick read is that it is ruthlessly compelling.  Just when you think you got it, and you know where the book is going –  Mr. Crouch hurdles you in whole new direction.  I found myself empathizing with poor Jason throughout his quest to get his life back, imagining his turmoil, his loss as my own.

No one tells you it’s all about to change, to be taken away. There’s no proximity alert, no indication that you’re standing on the precipice. And maybe that’s what makes tragedy so tragic. Not just what happens, but how it happens: a sucker punch that comes at you out of nowhere, when you’re least expecting. No time to flinch or brace.

I’m sure you can tell that Dark Matter surprised me.  At first appearance this is a sci-fi thriller — in the style of Patterson or Koonz.  But the story line is insightful, human and will cause the reader to contemplate their own life and their choices.  It’s the Road Not Taken – on a whole new level.

It’s terrifying when you consider that every thought we have, every choice we could possibly make, creates a new world.

Yes, Dark Matter is an adrenaline-fueled thriller, a keep you up all night page turner, but what keeps it from being a cliche is Jason  — an authentic, faithful and heart-warming hero, or should I say heroes? – (whoops enough said).

Well, I didn’t see that coming, my first book of the new year – way — way outside of my reading comfort zone and, much to my surprise I fell hard for this book.  It’s high entertainment with a heart.

 

*Mr. Crouch is the creator/writer behind one of my favorite TV series Good Behavior, as well as Wayward Pines (which I don’t know)

 

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