The Fold: A Novel Paperback – March 1, 2016

It's strange. This book ("The Fold") is the second book in the (four book) Threshold series but neither Amazon nor Goodreads mention this fact.There are some similarities between this book and the first book in the series ("14"). The similarities are not lazy overlaps but careful tie-ins. I expect more continuity in the third and fourth books.The main character is Leland "Mike" Erikson who has some super-hero skillz especially when it comes to information: an IQ somewhere north of 180 and an eidetic memory. These might be a blessing to some people (if they had these skills) but to Mike they're a burden. It's really hard to write a character like this (or act like this in a movie or TV show) but Peter skillfully never makes a false step. Mike is plausible and consistent. He's also generally a nice guy. We never find out whether he prefers the red or black ants.The story is well written slowly peeling back the layers of the ogre, I mean, plot to show that not all is as it seems. Mike goes back and fills in the details that the Albuquerque Door project missed. Like in the novel "14" where a faux-religious cult seeks to turn off the building that keeps a doorway between parallel universes closed, the Albuquerque Door team keeps opening that door to the point where it won't close. Guess who wants to come to dinner? Guess who's on the menu?I wish that the Marines had brought a bit more fire power to the battle of the "bugman" and the "seraphs".Seven-legged green cockroaches. Just saying.All and all, except for the horror elements, a pleasant read. Now I'm onto his next novel in the series "Terminus"!

The basic premise is that the main character is one of the smartest guys ever, and he has a photographic memory that he can easily access.The main guy has a friend who works for DARPA, and the friend has been trying for years to get the main guy to help him on some projects. The main guy says no because because he’s happy being a single high school history in the northeast. Clines tries to explain this in that the main guy is like Sherlock Holmes’s less ambitious brother, Mycroft. It feels like a hand-wave, but the framing device is used through the book, it is in fact why the main guy is called “Mike” in the book.So though he keeps saying “No,” in the book the friend has a project so cool that it cannot be refused. The project is that one of the world’s most famous scientist is working on a teleportation project. Actually the thought is that they are folding reality so that different parts of space time are close and allows someone just to walk through these gates. MIke is signed up to observe and see if these people should continue receiving funds from DARPA.Cool premise, and needless to say, there are complications. It becomes a well-told, nicely paced thriller thing after 150 pages of exposition. Then it wraps up.Then there’s one more section that takes what had previously happened and sets it up for a sequel, and it is really annoying because the add-on at the end cheapens everything that came before it. It looked like the book would be a self-contained arc, then these new mysterious characters are introduced and Mike has to make a choice (along with his unrealistically portrayed lover interest - why is that necessary?) to join this mysterious group and you know that there’s going to be more to this story. Why can’t authors keep a world in one book?Couple of things. This is the first book of Clines I have read, and it is well done enough I will seek out others. I stayed up too late reading it more than once, so he can tell a story. But he does lean on some devices and descriptors too much. The main guy gets hurt at the end of the book, and his pain is described as “hooks” in his body an infinity too many times. There’s also how he describes his main character’s photographic or “eidetic” memory. He uses the imagery of ants carrying photos for him to review. It gets to be too much and a distraction from the story itself. The device of the photographic memory is well done for the most part. Though I’m skeptical of the actual existence of memory working as Clines described it, it does not make the character too robotic. There are also places where it is used to humanize the character, so it works. It was basically background like if someone was in a book that has a mech suit with cameras and a powerful computer. Same thing basically. I wish I had marked the page, but I like that they lampshaded the whole thing in a conversation. Mike is explaining his mind, and another character says something to the effect of “I thought that was only in science fiction stories”.

This book has what I call a series ending, it doesn’t end in the traditional sense, there is real closure but more like a tea up to another book, which from what I know, doesn’t exist.So that’s pretty annoying. Also, I feel like the phase, Say less, certainly applies to this novel. Do I need 10 pages for people to see something scary and leave the area? Not really, this writer tends to over write and then over complicate endings/conclusions. Everything doesn’t need to go wrong in the last 5 minutes of action, like we don’t need 5 new points of drama to get the characters to destroy the flex capacitor (not a thing but trying to avoid spoilers).I will say he isn’t a terrible science fiction writer in that he has a decent grasp of theory which can make the book more interesting since there is a small basis in real.As for recommendations, I liked the concept and would read the series of it continues. Which is doesn’t, as terminus isn’t really a continuation with these main characters, but a story in the same universe. That’s annoying and a bummer as I really want to know the rest of Nate, Mikes, Jamie, & Veets story. Let do that instead of just random snippets or this anthology model that he has going on.It is what it is. Fun read, annoying ending, entertaining enough that I can’t quit it.-

I enjoyed this book, but not quite as much as Paradox Bound by the same author.

This one flew by and had more laughs than expected.Essentially a multiverse story, and though not a fan of the concept, the story itself was well crafted. A bit light on hard sci-fi or real dimensional stuff but a good read nonetheless.

I read it in less than a day. It starts so slowly and so normally that it’s almost, just almost, boring. Then all of a sudden, it catches speed and you can’t put it down: you “want” to know. At some point, you even stop breathing and can’t catch a breath until the end. So you’d better be a fast reader if you don’t want to die before knowing!That being said, I liked the 80 first percents of the book better than the last 20%. But that’s a question of personal preferences. It goes from some sort of cool sci-fi science to some kind of fantasy/gore kind of atmosphere and that’s not my cup of tea.Regardless, I still enjoyed the book (I really wanted to know !) and read it avidly till the very end.Note to the author : one small mistake, though…Frankenstein is the scientist, the monster doesn’t have a name… ;)

I never thought that, for me, anyone could ever come even remotely close to Blake Crouch when it comes to Science Fiction. That kept me from buying The Fold by Peter Clines for months, as it was costly on Amazon!I still took a chance since after reading Recursion and Dark Matter, nothing I was reading seemed good enough.The Fold is about a team of DARPA scientists who have invented a device which has made teleportation a reality. However, it seems like something isn't right since the team is still not ready to make the technology public or share the details with the government who are funding the project - despite the device being operational for last three years and more than 180 successful runs. Enters our protagonist, Mike Erikson, who will remind you of Sherlock Holmes, with his utterly impressive memory and analysing abilities.I couldn't stop turning the pages till about 270 page mark - it was a five star read when things started going downhill. The initial 270 pages are science fiction thriller and the last 100 pages introduced a supernatural element to it - so those were a 3 star read. Overall, I would recommend The Fold, it's definitely worth a read (or maybe two).Final Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5 stars)

Leland ‘Mike’ Erikson is a school teacher (one who happens to look like Severus Snape) in New England. It’s an undemanding but easy life for a man who could easily be one of the most intelligent human beings on the planet. With an immeasurable IQ, Mike has the unfailing ability to remember and recall every single thing that he sees, in the most minute detail and clarity. Mike feels as if his brain is alive with ants that he can control to a greater or lesser extent – when they escape, or he opens the hatch, they capture every little piece of information, just waiting for the moment when they can re-release it into Mike’s consciousness. Mike can never forget a childhood tragedy, his feelings return as raw as they were the first time, and nothing ever escapes him. It’s far better that he dulls his mind in a 9 to 5 teaching job.But one day Mike’s closest friend Reggie, a government agent with influence, invites Mike to head to San Diego to join a team of DARPA scientists, led by Arthur Cross, who are working on a mysterious secret project they have named the Albuquerque Door. More precisely, Reggie wants Mike to investigate the project and find out exactly what it is that Arthur and his team have found and whether it is worth the investment. All Reggie knows is that the Door is a device that folds dimensions. A person can walk through one door and exit another in an instant, with just one step, however far apart the doors might be. Mike doesn’t have to be a genius to work out what a leap for mankind teleportation would represent.Reggie suspects, though, that Arthur is hiding something from him, that he is reluctant either to explain the technology or to release its benefits into the world despite its great successes. Mike can’t resist the challenge and soon finds himself observing the team as they send each other to and fro between the doors placed on either side of the facility.I’m no expert on quantum physics (or if I am, I keep it hidden) but that didn’t matter at all with The Fold. Mike might be a genius but he too has to learn what’s going on and, as he observes, he becomes our eyes, explaining what has happened in an unobtrusive but fascinating way. Mike falls for the Star Trekkingly fabulous wonder of it all and his enthusiasm for it is catching. But he’s also suspicious of how it works, particularly as he realises that Arthur and the others may actually be as much in the dark as he is. Something is going on, the behaviour of the team, likeable though they may be, is inconsistent, and, as he digs, Mike discovers that not all of the experiments were quite as successful as he’d been led to believe.I gobbled The Fold up. I loved the writing, I loved the fun of it, full of references to pop culture, and yet so brilliantly fascinating and, as we headed into the second half, utterly thrilling, horrifying, jawdropping and marvellous! Peter Clines has the most amazing imagination and he made me want to believe it could all happen. The first half is sciencey while the second half delves deep into horror and I surprised myself to discover that I enjoyed the two equally. One reason for this is the unifying figure of Mike – I really, really liked this man. I loved the way his brain works and he manages to be both human and superhuman at the same time. The other scientists all have their unique personalities and the setting itself is so well depicted – it’s like some strange science camp in the middle of nowhere for people who don’t quite fit in elsewhere.I’d been longing to read The Fold for such a long time. It came out in the US ages before it was released over here and I suffered with my impatience. With all that anticipation going on, I’m so happy to report that it didn’t just match my expectations, it far exceeded them and gave me one of the best times I’ve had reading a science fiction thriller in such a long time. It’s one of those rare books that I wish I hadn’t read just so I could have the pleasure of reading it for the first time again. All the stars to this one.

I'm not easily pleased, but I loved this book. An original idea, written well, sucked me into The Fold universe, and I didn't want to leave. Praise indeed from me, Mrs Sci-Fi Fusspot!