DARK MATTER by BLAKE CROUCH

"The premise of the book is, of course, that every decision made in one world means that a world is created where the opposite decision was made. In "All the Myriad Ways," Larry Niven explored what this idea might mean to people who have the knowledge that a poker hand won in this world meant a poker hand lost in another. Can you take satisfaction in knowing that you just happened to be the inevitable "lucky" one that had to win in an infinity of universes..." "『Dark Matter』の主人公Jasonは、輝かしい将来を期待されていた物理学者だったが、若い時にある選択をし、その結果として、現在はぱっとしない大学教授になっている。才能あふれるアーティストだった妻も、キャリアより母としての人生を選んだ。一人息子との穏やかな幸せにほぼ満足しているふたりだが、昔の知り合いの成功を見るたび ..." "I've never read a book quite like this one. I've never experienced something so fantastically real or mind-bendingly normal. This book balances precisely between two extremes: It can be viewed through the lens of science fiction just as easily as realistic fiction ..." ".. I found Mr. Crouch's writing to be clear and easy to consume quickly. My biggest problem is that the resolution to the issues felt rushed - I felt as though there was a clear and interesting problem and it was solved in the least interesting, most blunt way possible..."

베스트 셀러라는 이름이 붙은 책이다. 하지만 독자들의 반응이 좋은 것만 있는 건 아닌거 같다. 읽어보면 알겠지만 큰 감동은 없어도 읽어 볼만한 책이라는 것을 알 수 있을 것이다. 'multiverse' 'the quantum mechanics' 'doppelganger' 'string theory' 등 좀 어려운 물리학적 이론들과 작가의 상상력이 결합된 SF 계열의 작품이라고 말할 수 있다. 사실 어려운 물리학이론이 등장하지만 이 책을 이해하는데 큰 문제는 없다. 이야기를 따라가다보면 누구나 이해하는데 어려움이 없을 것이다. 다행인것은 문장이나 표현이 비교적 평이해서 독자들이 내용을 이해하는데 큰 무리는 없을거 같다.

- The older I get, the less I understand ...

- F. Scott Fitzgerald line ; Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

- MARK TWAIN ; Nothing exists. All is a dream. God - man - the world - the sun, the moon, the wilderness of stars - a dream, all a dream ; they have no existence. Nothing exists save empty space - and you .. And you are not you - you have no body, no blood, no bones, you are but a thought.

- Einstein ; The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.

- Until everything topples, we have no idea what we actually have .....

- I can't help thinking that we're more than the sum total of our choices, that all the paths we might have taken factor somehow into the math of our identity.

 .... 등 좋은 문장들이 있어서 읽는데 즐거웠다.