'The Gone World' by Tom Sweterlitsch is a mind-bending sci-fi thriller that follows NCIS agent Shannon Moss as she investigates crimes related to time travel and the impending doomsday event known as the Terminus. Moss travels through alternate futures, unraveling mysteries and trying to prevent the end of humanity. The book seamlessly blends elements of science fiction, mystery, and horror, keeping readers on the edge of their seats with its intricate plot and compelling protagonist.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The book contains graphic violence, depictions of murder, and body horror elements that may be disturbing to some readers.
From The Publisher:
Inception meets True Detective in this science fiction thriller of spellbinding tension and staggering scope that follows a special agent into a savage murder case with grave implications for the fate of mankind….
"I promise you have never read a story like this."-Blake Crouch, New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter
Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family-and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship U.S.S. Libra-a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows first-hand the mental trauma of time-travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.
Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection from her own past, Moss travels ahead in time to explore possible versions of the future, seeking evidence to crack the present-day case. To her horror, the future reveals that it's not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work, for what she witnesses rising over time's horizon and hurtling toward the present is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself.
Luminous and unsettling, The Gone World bristles with world-shattering ideas yet remains at its heart an intensely human story.
Ratings (39)
Incredible (10) | |
Loved It (13) | |
Liked It (10) | |
It Was OK (2) | |
Did Not Like (4) |
Reader Stats (139):
Read It (39) | |
Currently Reading (1) | |
Want To Read (82) | |
Not Interested (17) |
4 comment(s)
Phew. Finally finished. I gotta say, that was rough. Parts, very few unfortunately, were well done and held the intensity I imagine the author wanted. However, for most of the book it droned on, zigging and zagging through time and space. The idea is an interesting one but the execution lacked for us.
(2.5-3 stars)
Listened to audiobook w/hubby
Interesting premise and story
"If Dark and True Detective had a baby" sums up this book perfectly. If you like either or both of those shows, you will definitely like this. Rich assortment of nightmare fuel. Fucked my mind so good that it's weak in the knees and needs a cigarette.
DNF @41%.
This was sold to me as "
Annihilation meets
Interstellar" (or was it
Inception? I love them both), which are some of my favorite books and movies.
It's nothing like any of them. What it
is is incredibly graphic (in terms of violence and sexual content), with characters who are competently drawn but not especially interesting. The writing is fine, but not great. The central sci-fi conceit could make for a good story (and presents fascinating questions about the nature of reality and the meaning of life, which Sweterlitsch seems completely uninterested in), but the main thrust of the plot is the main character spending months in a dive bar as part of the "investigation," which isn't exactly the kind of atmosphere I want to spend my time in.
Very dark, and very not for me.
Edit: I've since found a summary of the rest of the book....and boy did I make the right decision in DNFing. Needlessly complicated with twists that are completely uninteresting.
What can you read after
The Gone World?
About the Author:
Tom Sweterlitsch is the author of The Gone World and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. He has a Master's Degree in Literary and Cultural Theory from Carnegie Mellon and worked for twelve years at the Carnegie Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. He lives in…
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