"Are you happy with your life?" 
 Jason and his wife Daniela are extraordinary minds living what they feel is an ordinary life. The turning point that brought them here? Their 14 year old son Charlie. But are they happy? That is one of the themes explored throughout Dark Matter. 
 With quick, often single sentence paragraphs and no frills dialogue, it is a fast paced journey. The action grows exponentially as do the "characters" as the book reaches its end. At times I was reminded of It's a Wonderful Life, The Time Machine, The Twilight Zone and Choose Your Own Adventure. 
 While I appreciated the conundrum at hand, my recent foray into hard sci-fi had me asking questions behind the "science" and plausibility of what was happening. (view spoiler)[Can anyone else see the cube after Jason leaves it? Can Amanda and Jason use the cube independent of each other? Wouldn't the new world Charlie leads them to also have a different version of them and possibly more Jason versions? (hide spoiler)] Perhaps asking those questions is part of the fun and why the book has hooked so many readers. 
 My major issue with the story is that I just never got emotionally hooked, so the stakes weren't as high for me, the reader. And it would have been great to have had an epilogue (view spoiler)[to let us know what happened to Amanda and how Jason, Daniela and Charlie fared in their "new world". (hide spoiler)] 
 Overall, a fast paced and original story that (view spoiler)[confirms that what might have been is nothing to get hung up on. (hide spoiler)]