2025 #17 The Last Town (Crouch) - Wayward Pines #3

 

The Last Town by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This really swings back and forth between 3.75 and 4 stars for me.
No real spoilers here unless you haven't read the other two books in the trilogy, in which case you really shouldn't be reading reviews (any reviews) of this one.

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Surprisingly, I liked the ending. I even liked the epilogue---I never like epilogues. But, I have questions.

What happened to the solitaire-playing lady and the abbie? Maybe I missed it. I really thought we were going to go somewhere with that--maybe connect it back to Margaret. That was a welcome respite to the relentless violence. I would have rather than have been developed than the saccharine conversation between Ethan and Ben about an idealized future where they'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.

The first quarter of the book was rough --- much like the endless fugitive scene in the first book (or was it the second?) this one spent way too long with the gory details--and they are truly that, gory.

Teresa gets to join Mae Holland (Dave Eggers's The Circle) in my winner's circle of obnoxious protagonists. The only time I liked her in this book was when she found the chutzpah to tell Ethan the truth and then told him to shut it when he started going all entitled macho man on her. But absolutely cringeworthy was the discussion with Hassler in the jail cell with Ben sitting right there. Have some self-respect, people. I guess maybe some people find that language romantic (Teresa's note, that we learned of in the previous book), but I don't (it isn't that I find it offensive...just doesn't make me feel a strong bond of love between two people...not sure what I was supposed to feel). Also, big UGH on her reasons for staying with Ethan.

I rather loved Kate and Hassler meeting up on the cliff, even if it did feel a bit cliché. David Pilcher's god-complex wore me down a bit, but I have to say that Max Meyers created such a picture in my mind--fantastic voicing.

This was a fun series -- it doesn't have the depth and sophistication of Dark Matter, Recursion, or Upgrade (admittedly, I didn't love the latter)--but it has a pretty good sense of beginning, middle, and end and enough moving parts to hold interest when the story gets too wrapped up in being an action movie.

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2025 #4 Wayward (Crouch) - Wayward Pines #2

 

Wayward by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really a 3.5 - 3.75 for me.
The second installment of the Wayward Pines trilogy is better than the first, as it is has more dimensions and sub-plots. While it is possible to read the second without the first, I don't advise it. The story is terrific, full stop. What isn't terrific is the weird amount of kink whenever it comes to most of the female characters (and their interaction with Ethan). The big "reveal" scene between Ethan and Teresa almost made me stop listening. Teresa's characterization is inconsistent, and Pam is WAY overwritten (the audiobook probably exacerbates this, but to no fault of Max Meyers, who does a great job).

The insertion of Adam Hassler as a character provides a lot of intrigue and tension, and Crouch deftly interwove that element into the book. I do have to say that I approach the third installment with some trepidation as I enjoyed the not-knowing when it came to Hassler, and I'm hoping that the third book does not rely on tired tropes.

The ending is an excellent cliffhanger and has the intended impact -- I will absolutely finish the series.

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Serious About Series Challenge 2025 - January

2024 #52 Pines (Crouch) - Wayward Pines #1

 

Pines by Blake Crouch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The premise is great, typical of Blake Crouch. However, the chapters upon chapters of Ethan running and rock climbing I could have done without. I almost gave up, but luckily all is revealed and I'm in for the trilogy.

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2023 #30 Recursion (Crouch)

 

Recursion by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Memory. Dreams. Reality. All are questioned in Recursion. If you had the opportunity to unmake a reality by entering a memory, would you?

As with Crouch's other books in the genre (Dark Matter, Upgrade), Recursion tests the limits of science and imagination as measured against our understanding of reality (and for some of us, science itself). In the background is always the suggestion of a truth--perhaps metaphorical--that drives our decisions as humans.

One might see this as a love story, as the focus is on two characters: Barry and Helena, and this becomes increasingly the case as the book progresses. There's a bit of a Twilight Zone phenomenon here, and fans of time loops will enjoy (note: the "time loop" here is more complex than your average, run-of-the-mill time loop, which saves the narrative). Even with the inventiveness in the narrative, the "recursion" aspect did start to wear thin, but there was no question of finishing the book. Readers who need/enjoy everything wrapped up in a bow at the end may be disappointed, but to answer all the questions would have undermined the major premise of the book.

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2022 #24: Upgrade (Crouch)

Upgrade by Blake Crouch
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read Crouch's Dark Matter four years ago and very much admired how the author seems to negotiate that oh-so-fine line between the "sci" and the "fi" of the genre. This was my first time listening to his work and it was a very different experience than that of reading.

I appreciate the "realistic" dystopias like this one--those that remind us this is probably NOT a far off distant future, at least in some respects. Gene modification is certainly a growing aspect of our lives, and the ravages of climate change are inevitable. Crouch digs in to the moral questions connected to our survival of a species, and not in the same old clichéd ways. As with in Dark Matter, the book is threaded with a tale of decision making, and how one person's "save humanity" is another's "lose our humanity." Everyone has their own justifications, and I think Crouch really brings that forward with his protagonist, Logan Ramsay.

Where I didn't enjoy the experience of the audiobook is the lists....there were a lot. I think reading through lists of gene names (HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee symbols) would have been less irritating than hearing them read to me. I longed for a genetic upgrade to speed up time during those passages. Perhaps those who really dig details like that feel differently, but it did nothing for me except make me feel impatient.

Still, the story shares with good spy novels the sense of never knowing who you can trust -- even the protagonist. A lot of the characters operate at Anakin-as-older-padawan level (sorry for the Star Wars reference, which is a first for me). But that's good character writing--and it turns out that messing around with our genetics doesn't really change the human capacity to straddle good and evil...well, until the Epilogue. I would have preferred just the letter of the epilogue, but Crouch spares us a totally clichéd reunion (e.g. overwrought with emotion), at least.

The book spends too much time with cat and mouse/fugitive scenarios, and then seems to remember its raison d'être in fits and starts, so the rhythm of the book in that sense is my biggest issue. I also didn't really care for Henry Levya's reading. His voice is fabulously comforting as Logan--but a bit too much. Even in scenes that warranted the character having a strong emotional response, everything felt a bit too even-keeled -- playing chess was about the same experience as coming under gunfire. Levya is a great choice, in some respects, because he does really help us understand Logan as a sort of "everyman" character--but it all starts to blend a bit a couple hours in.

All in all a worthwhile experience, and it teases out some larger questions with which we should be grappling now, not "in the future."


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2018 #7: Dark Matter (Crouch)

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One of the joys of not being a scientist is that I can read a book like this without getting wrapped up in the reality of the science. Quantum physics as a field is something I can barely wrap my mind around, so I am not too concerned with plausibility when it comes to reading this kind of sci-fi. Besides, the take away here isn't really about the sci, or the fi, but instead the fact that we walk the earth as a million possibilities. We've all said "yes" or "no" at those forks in the road, and we live our lives, often in memory of the road not taken.

(Very mild abstract spoiler ahead....)

The narrative wore me down after a bit--I got tired of the multiverse, haha. However, just when I had no "ampules" left (that's about as much of a spoiler as I'll give), Crouch managed to reignite the story and illuminate his point. Sometimes we need to create a whole new world when our present one is too full of regrets and paths we did not choose.