Dark Matter Is Bad🤦‍♂️(Rant:View) 

So it wasn’t for me. I want to reiterate, one last time I think this was written by a very talented author. That author, though has just had adaptations before, and I feel like they wrote this to be adapted without thinking it through.

The part of the book where Jason was freely interacting with the plague infected version of his wife had me almost tearing my hair out. I for sure thought the twist was going to be that he ended up spreading the plague to his own world due to his stupidity and (ironically) ends up killing his own family. But nope. Apparently this highly infectious super virus that makes you bleeds from your eyes just didn't infect him for some reason?

You said Jason so many times I couldn't help but think of Heavy Rain, which made this video even funnier. The plot is so unhinged.

My book club read this book a few years back and I distinctly remember being more interested in the book about the cops who have to investigate the murder scene where all the victims appear to be the same guy.

I was a 1/3 of the way into this video before I realised "Oh I've read this book!" Thats how memorable this book! 😂

The goblin put on 5 years of age with one haircut, impressive manipulation of time

The not sleeping with Amanda to be faithful to his wife bit was stupid, he already was unfaithful. Sleeping with a different version of your wife, is still cheating on your wife.

A someone who also dislikes this book a whole lot- I'm ready for this.

Dumb characters that the author doesn't realize are dumb and just has them succeed doing dumb things with no consequences is one of the most irritating things in books.

The chatroom is where i cap out 🤣

I had serious issues with this book, but what's really interesting to me is that they're mostly different. When we discovered the twist of the Jasons showing up, that was the first time I thought, "well this is cool! I haven't seen this before!" I could rant but I think all my issues boil down to the book treating Jason's wife as a McGuffin. Everyone wants her; we never really get to know her. And the book doesn't care really about her either, as long as Jason wants her.

I’m on episode eight of the Apple + show, and I’m impressed by the changes that have been made so far. Amanda stays in the utopian world, the pandemic is explained as a non-airborne virus (Jason hands his wife the morphine instead of injecting her himself) evil Jason makes some more intelligent decisions, essentially Blake Crouch made improvements to the show to clarify or rewrite elements that were questionable in the book. As for multiple Jasons, they went from hundreds to maybe a dozen. Plus there’s a follow up on some of the other travelers as well.

I had the exact same experience reading this book - good concept, interested at the beginning... then hating the main character by the end. I vividly remember finishing the book and immediately telling my husband "well that sucked."

I’m glad you mentioned the insanity thing because that also drives me crazy. That is absolutely not the definition of insanity lol.

12:52 "The definition of insanity" being repeated again and again is hilariously ironic

Parts of the plot you described reminded me a lot of the tv show Sliders, but worse. They had an episode where they end up on a planet with its own "super" pandemic, but I think it worked better because: the main characters didn't chose the destination, and they didn't immediately understand what was going on... so naturally they all started getting sick. Then; they were forced to come up with a cure before they were forced to Slide into a different universe and potentially infect & destroy that world. If you're not going to properly deal with the ramifications of your character visiting a world with a pandemic / plague or whatever... then just don't. Sounds like it could have just been a world where Jason's wife was suffering from a incurable illness that took that universes Jason. Just force Prime Jason to observe from the other side the glass at a hospital... and you got all the main-character-suffering ya want without any dumb decisions being made.

I was not a fan. It started with the hero spending way too many pages being confused about what was happening. Midway, I thought we were going to go on a Sliders type adventure exploring different possibilities, but that lasted only 3 pages. And the ending seemed like a random thought that was amusing, but not how that should have played out.

0:00 You know it's gonna be a Holy Moly review when it starts off like this XD

I appreciate your opinion and your eloquence BUT I LOVED the book. Good hearing other people's opinions about it ;)

does jason 1 not understand that sleeping with universe 2 version of his wife is also not his wife and functionally the same as sleeping with someone else like amanda

I'm glad you mentioned Fitz. I think writing dumbasses is a particular skill of Robin Hobbs'. 😀

I was also baffled by the pandemic world scene not having consequences. The whole book was a 'meh' for me. An incoherent but entertaining thriller.

It would have been an interesting story beat if he had skipped to a few universes before realizing he was infected and he has to deal with the guilt of wiping out billions of people in each place he had been.

It was so outrageous and I understand how ridiculous it was but I bought it in an airport and read basically the whole thing on my flight so it did it’s job 😂

Read this book a couple of years and absolutely loved it, and will continue to love it. However... You aren't... Wrong 😂

I just remember thinking, "What kind of magic hoo-hah does Jason's wife have?" Dude barely even thought about his kid.

Didn't mention the weird Hell tortured Jason that randomly walks through

Daniella: “You’re going to raffle me off like a fucking fruit basket!?” Jason: "That's the plan! And no, you don't get a say in any of this, because the author sees you as a sexy little plot device" Thank you for this review. I feel so validated. This book had so many positive reviews, and it is a genuinely interesting concept, but I couldn't get past how much of an insufferable wife guy the main character is

"I'm always jealous of people who like things that I dislike, because I had to spend time reading it" I relate to this so hard having just finished Atlas Complex yesterday.

I gave it 2 stars on Goodreads when I read it back in 2019. I agree fully with this review. In my review: "This book is like one long episode of the 90's TV show Sliders. It was clearly written with adaptation in mind--the protagonist is a cookie-cutter hero archetype (he's a genius! But also a great dad/family man!). The entire first half of the book is simply waiting for the protagonist to realize something you figured out in Chapter 1. And again, a lot of the plot of this book seems to be waiting for the protagonist to make inevitable decisions."

Thank you for reviewing this one! I've been sitting on it for so long because everyone I know loves this book, and I felt so icky when reading it. The obsession of Jason and all his alter egos with that poor woman was repulsive, and I could barely finish the book. I assume that my expression while reading it seesawed between bemusement and disgust.

Ranting Daniel is fun. Even though I was there as this video was edited, I had to listen to this all again.

So I gotta admit, I was excited about this because I assumed you were talking about Syfy's "Dark Matter", the show, which was a cool Scifi show based on a somewhat original concept, but I just learned that this is a book, and the Apple series is completely unrelated and based on Blake's book, not the comic book that Syfy's Dark Matter was based on. That's REALLY confusing.

The multiverse schtick became so old so fast imo

I liked the face-off premise and I liked the idea that multiple slightly different dimensions would lead to a confederacy of Jasons all trying for the same goal. But the execution of those and all the things in between were done poorly enough to cause frustration. Wayward Pines was similar.

Totally with you on the plague universe. Generally though I am pretty good about just turning my brain off when reading/watching this kind story so I had a lot of fun with it. The chat room actually made me laugh when it happened, but it just added to the fun for me.

I definitely didn't understand the hype of this book, it felt very disjointed, and the main character as you said made some bizarre choices. I found myself saying many times "why would you do that?"...I didn't get it. To those that like it great...it was just "ok" for me.

I really want a book to be like "you know what the definition of insanity is?" and just follow up with an actual definition

5:00 “it’s a don’t read it out of ten for me”. Harsh. I wish you told us how you really felt. 😅

I was just like how we even know this Jason we’ve been with this whole time The One Jason To Rule Them All by the time we got to that point.

A good plot twist would be that Jason couldn't kill his alternate self because if he did then he and the other versions of himself would also disappear. Make it a rule that he could only die by natural means and that becomes a huge delima for 1st Jason who was displaced. Also, there should have been rules for interaction at some point - like what could he not do because it would upset the balance of the space-time continuum.

I have been waiting to hear from someone who disliked this book as much as I did (and I usually love sci-fi). Thank you.

Preach! There were some interesting bits which got me to finishing but I did NOT like the book and I was begrudgingly going on reading it… plot really didn’t do it for me and getting to the crazy destruction worlds was just annoying

It sounds like a novel plotted and written by an author smokin' pot while watchin' "Rick and Morty"! lol

I thought I was the only person who hated this book, so good to know that’s not true 😂

I love this book. It touched on some relatable topics for me and multiverse/time travel stories are my favorite. But that really had to be worst ending in anything I've ever read ever. When I say I love this book I'm really just talking about the first 75%, the other 25% does not exist and cannot hurt me

I DNF'd this book in January so I'm glad to know both how it ends and be validated in my choice to move on to something better 🤣

Listening to your review of this book reminds me of the movie called “The One” with Jet Lee, but we are seeing what happens between the multiverses. So interesting also I love your vids!

Dark Matter is good for those who are completely new to reading and to sci fi as a genre. It's much too dumbed down if you are already familiar with the genre. I personally found it a pale imitation of And Then There Were N-1 by Sarah Pinsker, which has the advantage of being shorter, not dumbing things down, and also free on Escape Pod.

This is awesome 😂. I couldn’t put this book out of sight/mind quick enough after finishing it (although the plethora of Jason’s is hard to forget 😭).

FINALLY! I read this authors Book "Pines" and it might have been the worst thing I've seen ever read and I don't see why so many people love it. I tried to give this one a shot and couldn't make it past chapter 2

I felt the same way! I really don’t know why this book is recommended so much by booktube.

I personally love this book but I understand where you're coming from here and it's nice to hear a different perspective, great video dude

I just had a breakup when I read this book, so I really loved the obsessiveness and love for his wife; and I think these dumb decisions were overlooked for that reason because I was rooting for Jason too much. But NOWWW, that you have pointed it out, I am laughing so loud in my room. XD Stupid Stupid Jason.

Thank you for this. There are good things to be said about this book, just not enough.

I literally just put this book on hold at my library yesterday 😂, oh well, I'll read it and then come back for this with my cup of tea 😅😅.

Not much, what’s the Dark Matter with you? Heheh, got em.

Thrillers like this book have a timer on them for how much I'll like them. Unless I finish the book in 2-3 days and I don't really take time to think about the weaknesses of the book, I tend to enjoy them like I did with this book.

Dark Matter is a book that's more about the concepts and characters, but don't look too close at the details.

I'd love to see you have a conversation with Mike's book reviews over this book..... 😂

I, a learned author who spent years to get my degree in English literature with a creative writing concentration, feels dumb for loving this book now XD but I did! I usually need a deeper answer and think deep into books but sci-fi has never been my thing so maybe that's why I wasn't so bothered 🤔That being said I did read this in 1016 and do not remember it, namely the ending lol

Great video, laughed out loud a few times. Unrelated, but have you though of reading The Second Apocalypse series by Scott Bakker? Cheers!

Daniel's facial expressions in this are *chefs kiss* fantastic

I gave it a decent rating cause it was quick and made me nostalgic for Sliders (I'm old!), so I brushed off a lot of dumb stuff. But you're 100% right on every point.

Amanda not staying on the paradise world was the worst.

Appreciate your reviews, helps me a lot 🙂 Good work Daniel!

DANIEL I Have been vindicated! My friend recommended me this book and I read and didn't care for it at all. Too many lost plot threads and it was plot heavy and lacked personality for Jason. He has no attributes except FAMILY, and that got old real fast. I didn't mind the multiple Jason finale but the resolution was contrived. Prime Jason was really not special at all

I agree! Liked the start and by the end was like "ok, no more Crouch for me".. Huge parts didn´t work for me.

I like the Blake Crouch books I’ve read, but it does seem very much like they are all written to be adapted into movies / shows. It’s a different type of read for me.

I'm thankful for this review because now I can guilt free take it off my TBR, I would have hated it!

Damn, when Daniel reveal the confederacy of Jasons, I went to buy the book

This sounds like Rick and Morty fanfiction. ... "Pig latin". That's a term I haven't heard in a couple decades. I can barely even remember what it is.

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in thinking this book wasn't really worth the hype.

This might be my favorite video of yours and I’ve been watching for years. The part where you reveal the army of Jason’s fighting to be the “One Jason to Rule Them All” I was dying laughing. I can’t believe I read this entire book.

I got a weird shot of dopamine every time you said Skience

As someone who just finished the show, but hasn't read the book, it sounds like the show addressed a lot of your complaints. There's still some infuriating stuff (like that one pandemic verse), but overall the show is a significant improvement over the source material.

Personally, alternate Daniela frustrated the heck out of me. WHY would you sleep with Jason while he's in that state? Let's put aside the cheating... like he's a wreck whose sanity you'd definitely be questioning??? And there's no exploration of her (or Amanda's) character. It felt very much like, "how to write WOMAN."

Ive missed these rant videos

You know the definition of insanity...? Hearing this line over and over again. Are you insane yet Daniel? xD

Searched up the title because the trailer came out. Glad I found your video. A lot of time saved

16:40 so the plot of "The One" with Jet Li?

12:36 its worth noting is AMANDA who pulls the definition of insanity bit ... you know, the presumably-trained-in-psychology-or-psychiatry therapist

I haven't read Dark Matter yet, but I read Recursion which I believe was his next book after this. I found the setup so interesting, but the execution was SO bad. It was an extremely frustrating read for me.

The thumbnail is literally Dan dodging internet tomatoes

Saw the title, ignored the thumbnail, thought this was going to be a video about the new Pearl Jam single.

I now need you to read and review Recursion because I loved that book and I want to hear your thoughts 😅

Totally agree. I’m surprised Apple is adapting this. While reading it, I remember thinking “this feels like a straight to Redbox movie starring Liam Neeson”.

I listened to the audio book so maybe that changed how I felt but I really enjoyed the book. It’s not anything new but I think the characters are great. The plot kinda went a little haywire towards the end. Maybe I’m crazy for it but I like that it was all over the place lol. Definitely understand the criticism though

Are you sure this wasn't a comedy? The scenes you described were hilarious 😂

So this writer saw the show "sliders" in the 90's.....

isn't this the exact premise of a few rick and morty episodes 💀

Listening to this, I'm glad I did the right decision to close the book during the early car scene 😂I would have had the exact same issues with it and luckily I saw it coming early enough to not waste my time 🙈

Disappointed rant book summaries isn't something I didn't know I wanted. Really entertaining.

Thank you! I thought I was the only one to feel that way. The decision making and ‘science’ stuff drove me bonkers.

Never read Dark Matter but when I saw it was from the same guy who wrote Wayward Pines I knew it'd be bad. Wayward Pines was the worst written published novel I've ever seen and the entire plot behind it made no sense. Every other "sentence" is a sentence fragment, making it the most frustrating thing to read in the world, and the author has no understanding of the science he uses to explain how the world got the way it is. He claims it was inspired by Twin Peaks but clearly doesn't understand what makes Twin Peaks good. Instead it feels like a Shyamalan movie wannabe. And I cannot stress enough how the plot makes no sense even IF you ignore the fact that the setting depends on a complete misunderstanding of how biology and evolution work.

U chould do rants more often. That was so funny😂

I hated recursion by the same author, and I’m always amazed by how much other people love it. The thin veneer of “science” he uses right the beginning of his story, just to throw it all out and make it all basically nonsense by the end, is incredibly frustrating. It sounds like it’s the same with Dark Matter. Completely agree on the “tonal clash” between the nonsense, cartoonish science and the plot being played up as “serious” or “realistic”. How are we supposed to take the science seriously when the author clearly didn’t care enough to worry about its internal consistency?

I like it when a BookTuber doesn't like a book. So many just love everything. Seeing someone not like something is refreshing.

This just sounds like a dumber version of that Jet Li movie.

So there's a moment where it becomes that Jet Li movie, with one evil Jet Li killing all other multiverse's Jet Lis to get stronger?