Blake Crouch presents ideas in mysterious ways, so we don’t know what’s happening. He throws us into worlds where we’re not sure what’s happening, and part of the fun of the books is figuring out what is happening. I also love his books because they have big emotions, mainly running. Dark Matter is, for sure, his best book yet. I love everything he did in other books and take them to the next level.
Dark Matter is the story of this guy, Jason Dessen. He is a physics teacher at a small college. He’s got a wife and child, the wife and son he loves. This book reveals many secrets and cool things to you later on. It’s a love story, as well as a science fiction thriller.
Most readers love this story and plot, and a massive fan exists. Books like Dark Matter contain scientific concepts related to physics, quantum mechanics, and alternate realities. They also include some technical jargon that may be challenging for readers without prior knowledge.
10 Books Like Dark Matter (Sci-fi Thriller)
Dark Matter is a gripping, thought-provoking science fiction thriller exploring an alternate reality. After reading Dark Matter, we have some imagination and scientific knowledge to use in another book. You are here because you want to read this suspense and thriller book. Don’t worry! I have made a list of your demand. I will discuss ten books similar to Dark Matter. So let’s start!
1. Project Hail Mary
Interstellar, A Rival, and The Martian are blockbuster sci-fi films. Project Hail Mary blends all three of those movies into one brilliant book, and it is such a fun ride. This book is about discovery, adventure, and mystery; the suspense is built. The premise of Project Hail Mary is that scientists have discovered that the Earth’s sun has started to deteriorate or dim.
It’s losing its strength, light, and heat, which can be detrimental. They’re expecting extinction across many species, including humankind. So what do they do? They collect as much data as possible and try to assemble a team to solve the problem, except for one glaring issue.
Our main character wakes up on page one and doesn’t know who he is, where he is, or what he’s there for. The only people in the room with him are two dead people attached to the decayed medical machines. He doesn’t even know who he is or where he is. So effectively, the best scientists in the world have assembled a team, and we’ve only got one person remaining. Also, he doesn’t even know why he’s dead and doesn’t remember the situation. It’s the same character as the book Dark Matter belongs to.
The book plays out when we go back and forth between the present tense, trying to determine what he needs to do and how he can do it. It also goes back to the past, where we’re going through his memories, and he’s relearning why he’s on this mission.
He’s learning that there’s a big problem on Earth that he has been chosen to resolve. It almost felt like nonfiction. It felt like this could happen or that will happen, even though it’s fictional. Some parts didn’t feel entirely realistic. But for the most part, it did feel real to me, and I did find myself thinking about what happened next.
Author: Andy Weir
Average Rating: 4.7/5
Category: Adventure Science Fiction (Best Seller)
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
2. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a standalone novel that is a modern story. It is very much the time traveler’s wife meets. The story is about Addie LaRue. She is a girl who was born in France in the nineties. She grows up and is a dreamer like she wants more for herself. When it comes time for her to get married, her parents sell her off. She panics and learns about the old gods, like the witch of her village. Also, she was told, ‘Don’t pray to the gods that answer after dark.’ She wants to be free and live this life to be whatever she wants.
In a fairy tale, any wish is that all wishes come with a price, and ease price is that she will be free. She will live this long life and never age or anything like that, but she will always be forgotten. She is erased from the memories of her parents.
Everybody in the village, and the second she meets somebody, will instantly forget her if they turn away from her, leave the room, and close the door. It makes you think about how she will live this long life like she lives three hundred years by meeting her in this book. Can you relate her to Jason Dessen, the same forgotten man in Dark Matter?
It’s beautiful the way she is so determined to keep going. A lot of that determination does come from the fact that she’s trying to spite this dark god. He is constantly showing back up and trying to say, are you tired yet? Can I have your soul now? She always says, No, I’m going to keep going. Early in the book, she meets somebody, and it’s the first person ever that can remember her. The story takes on this beautiful life of its own from then on. Laura’s story could be honest, and it needs to be experienced.
Author: V. E. Schwab
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Category: Historical Fantasy (Best Seller)
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
3. The Midnight Library
The Midnight Library follows a woman named Nora. It starts at the time that Nora has decided to end her life. She’s feeling very hopeless. Throughout the book, we understand why she’s determined to make this decision. Once she has made that decision, she wakes up in this place. That is a library. She sees her elementary school librarian teacher. Librarian explains to her that Nora is now in the midnight library. Time is frozen as she looks at her watch, and it is exactly midnight, and she is surrounded by books all around her and the librarian.
Like Dark Matter, the author explains that this library contains versions of her life. Every possible version of her life could have existed from her making certain decisions that would have led to alternate realities. They’re all housed in this library. Every book is a different version of her life. Miss Elam explains to her that. She gets to pick these different versions and see what her life would have been like. If she finds the version she likes, she can insert herself into that life and continue to live.
At first, Nora doesn’t want to participate, but Miss Elm convinces her. She shows her this book in the library called The Book of Regrets. She starts going through all the things in her life that she has regretted, like choices that she wishes she would have made. Nora is thirty-five, so she’s not old but very much like an adult. She’s at that age where people are married, have kids, and have accomplished things like a decent career spot.
Many things have happened throughout her life, so many chances that she felt landed her where she is now. Throughout this book, she goes through this midnight library, undoing all those decisions. What makes you happy, and what defines success all of those things? So I would recommend this book.
Author: The Midnight Library
Average Rating: 4.4/5
Category: Time Travel Science Fiction (Top 3 position)
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
4. Before I Go to Sleep
The protagonist of this book is Christine. She is a middle-aged woman living in England. She essentially has amnesia and the same form as Adam Sandler’s character did in 50 First Dates, where she sleeps at night and forgets everything that occurred that day—the same character as Jason Dessen in The Dark Matter. The main character is unreliable because they can’t simply recall new information.
Before I Go to Sleep is entirely journal-style, which makes sense given the subject matter. It begins with Christine waking up beside a man she does not recognize. It turns out that this is her husband. Naturally, she freaks out, looks in the mirror, and sees a much older woman than she expects. This book is a psychological thriller, not a drama because her psychiatrist and husband tell her that an accident occurred. The book is about her trying to figure out if that is true.
Author: S. J. Watson
Average Rating: 4.1/5
Category: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Psychological Fiction
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
5. Middlegame
Seanan McGuire is well known for her Wayward Children series. She wrote this trilogy about Feed zombies, and those were so entertaining. The Middlegame is one that I was intrigued by because it’s sci-fi fantasy. The story follows two main characters, Roger and Dodger, essentially twins.
They were created by a character named Reed, and Reed is an alchemist. His goal overall is to become a God-like character entity. In doing so, he plans to do that by unlocking all the world’s secrets and whatnot. His main plan is through Roger and Dodger because he creates them as two halves of a whole.
Roger is super intelligent and almost a genius in English and language. Dodger, on the flip side, is a genius in math. When they were created, they were supposed to be separated for most of their lives up until a certain point when they merged and created this tremendous power that Reed could use later on.
So when their younger Roger and Dodger are separated, living in different parts of the world, they are around eight years old and start hearing each other in their head. They can communicate in a telekinetic way, and they’re not supposed to do this.
No one knows what they’re talking to each other. Everyone thinks they have imaginary friends, but they know each other is real. Then things happen where they have separated again, and they are no longer in contact. They talk to each other again. They split again when they’re in college, and the cycle continues, and it’s an exciting story like Dark Matter.
Author: Seanan McGuire
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Category: Adventure Science Fiction (Editor’s pick)
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
6. Recursion by Blake Crouch
In this thrilling novel, a scientist creates a technology that allows people to revisit and relive their memories. When technology is hijacked, it makes a devastating plague of false memories that threatens to unravel reality. The story is suspenseful and full of mind-bending concepts.
7. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Harry August is a man who lives his life repeatedly—each time retaining all of his memories from his previous life. He uses his knowledge and experience to save humanity when he discovers that the world is ending. The book is an inventive and fascinating exploration of time travel and the human condition.
8. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This romantic novel follows the story of a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel uncontrollably. His wife, Clare, faces the challenges of their unconventional relationship. The story is a poignant and emotional exploration of love, loss, and the nature of time.
9. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
In this murder mystery, a man wakes up in the body of one of the guests at a country estate and solves the murder of the house’s daughter to escape. He must start over in a different guest’s body each time he fails. Like Dark Matter, this book is a clever and intricate puzzle that will keep readers guessing until the end.
10. The Fold by Peter Clines
A team of scientists creates a teleportation device that allows them to travel instantly across great distances. They uncover a sinister secret that threatens to destroy everything they hold dear. The book is a tense and thrilling exploration of the dangers of playing with technology beyond our understanding. Fans of Dark Matter should read it.
These books all share similarities with “Dark Matter” in their exploration of mind-bending concepts and the consequences of our actions. They can stimulate your thinking, encourages critical analysis, opens up new perspectives, and sparks curiosity about scientific and philosophical topics. All of them are worth a read for science fiction fans and are thrilling, thought-provoking stories.
Read More Similar:
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Sci-Fi Fantasy Books Like Cradle
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