Maybe it is a yen to go back to simpler times but time travel books seem to be making a comeback at the moment. Last year we had Kaliane Bradley’s The Ministry of Time, before that was Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s How You Lose the Time War and more recently Philip Fracassi’s The Third Rule of Time Travel. Nicholas Binge’s new novel Dissolution does not at first seem like a time travel book – its focus is on memory and memory loss. But then it turns out that memory can be an anchor to an actual time and place - readers’ minds will start to be blown.
Dissolution starts, and much of it is delivered, as a dialogue and a countdown clock. 83 year-old Maggie is in the bottom of an empty swimming pool, hooked up to an IV drip and being questioned by a man called Hassan. Hassan wants to know everything that has happened to her since they first met, seemingly unaware of any of it even though he was there. He has given her a drug that helps her to access her memories of the events sequentially. That story starts with Hassan approaching her to "rescue” her husband Stanley from an old age home which he says is actually a front for an organisation that is stealing his memories. Maggie does not trust Hassan but goes along with him, particularly when his own technology, a machine called the Memory Spade, allows her to revisit the memories of the two of them that Stanley is losing.
Interspersed with this narrative is the story of Stanley himself. Who got himself a scholarship to a posh school only to find himself on the outer. He is adopted by Professor Waldman, who trains a group of misfit students in improving their memory. The professor’s belief is that by unlocking memory, they can unlock the true power of the mind and make people “more human”.
This is all before the time travel shenanigans kick in. Because it turns out if you can calibrate two people’s memories to the same moment in time through the memory spade you can change the past. But something is lurking, a universal check on this sort of thing. And Maggie is literally running out of time to stop it.
Dissolution is a high-paced, high-concept thriller that is securely anchored around a really engaging protagonist. Octogenarian Maggie takes being an action hero in her stride – mucking through memories, jumping out of windows, playing a deep game against her adversaries – but who also demonstrates deep love for her husband and her estranged daughter. With echoes of less intense time-travel books like The Time Travellers Wife, Dissolution basis itself around a relationship that seems to transcend time.
As with any time travel story, a fair amount of suspension of disbelief is required to make this whole enterprise work. The plot is riddled with bootstrap paradoxes (as in: you will come to me at this time in the past and tell me this important piece of information, or: I did this thing which you told me to do which you already know about because you found out about it in the future). But the whole thing barrels along at a fast enough pace and with enough verve to make it work. And Binge makes sure that all of his timey-wimey bits line up and all of the loops are closed. And while Binge tries to say things about deep time, and the power (and to some extent sanctity?) of memory, it is always better when the action pushes the philosophy aside.
Overall, Dissolution is a fun, mind bending, techno-thriller powered by the conflict between a delightful protagonist and a moustache-twirling villain who underestimates her.

Nicholas Binge is an author who is very good at creating a creepy, unsettling atmosphere. In 'Dissolution' he tackles topics that are more scary than any number of tentacled monsters from another dimension - the idea that reality itself may not be as real as I think, and the concept of losing your mind and sense of self. At the centre of the novel are an elderly couple, Maggie and Stanley. Maggie finds herself in the midst of an unexpected adventure when a man appears on her doorstep claiming that Stanley's dementia is a result of his involvement in a shady research project, and that he is being kept a prisoner in his care home. Chapters from Maggie's perspective alternate with those from a young Stanley's, giving the backstory that he never shared with his wife.

It is one of the most plausible and least confusing time travel novels I have ever read, although even that doesn't mean it's entirely plausible or unconfusing. There are a couple of plot holes, particularly relating to the ending, which I found annoying but can't explain without spoilers. However those became more apparent and bothered me more only when I'd finished reading and had to think back in order to review. If you are just going to read and enjoy the book, you may not notice in the same way. Because whilst I was reading, I was enjoying myself too much to quibble about the details. It's exciting from the very start, with a compelling narrative that sweeps you along. I was counting down the hours until I finished work and read the last few chapters.

Maggie and Stanley are both sympathetic and likeable central characters. Maggie particularly seemed very ordinary and believable, and her story demonstrates the courage and resourcefulness of an ordinary person protecting the things she loves. I liked that she was a plausible older person, but not defined by her age alone. The villain of the piece is also an interesting character, and there are other good supporting characters particularly in the chapters from Stanley's perspective.

If you enjoy science fiction and/or dark academia, then this is definitely a novel worth reading. I've knocked off a star for the plot holes (as I see them) but the quality of the reading experience is very good. My recommendation is not to think too hard about it afterwards, just enjoy it for what it is!

An elderly woman must dive into her husband's deteriorating memories to find a potential cure in Nicholas Binge's new novel. This book is hard to describe without giving things away, but readers should know it's clever, creative and beautiful with a unique take on memory, ambition and love. This will be his breakout - an incredible read.

We start pretty much at the end. In a rather interesting way. Maggie is recounting her story to Hassan, who is also part of said story. It tells how they met and what happened next. As she details caring for her devoted husband, Stanley, how together they try to "save" him, his memories, which are being stolen from him. Erased.
As well as this, we also go back in time to follow Stanley's childhood. How he attended a boarding school and found solace in an exclusive club headed by a rather eccentric teacher. We also follow the early days of his relationship with a young Maggie...
And that's all you need to know. In fact, the less you know, the better the book will be for you. Yes you will probably spend a while in confusion, and yes, it does start off a wee bit slow. But like the chess games in the book, there are openings, there are pieces to set up, before we can start the endgame. But once all the groundwork has been covered, it really does get on with itself very nicely indeed, culminating in a wholly satisfying conclusion.
One of the things that really stood out for me was the relationship between Stanley and Maggie. It added an emotional level to what could have been too cerebral a story. Meaning that the whole was balanced.
And the concept surrounding memory and what it can be used for really did intrigue me and, for me anyway, was a wholly new thing. Which did keep me thinking long after I turned the final page.
This is my first book by this author but, on the back of what I just read, I have added his previous books to my ever bulging TBR. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Dissolution is a mind-bending science fiction thriller, largely told through interviews and flashback, that's ultimately about love and memory.

It begins with Maggie Webb, an elderly woman whose ailing husband Stanley is struggling with memory loss. She's trapped in a room with a man called Hassan, who gives her a drug to remember specific moments of her own life - and then her husband's memory's too.

Because it turns out that Stanley isn't suffering from Alzheimer's - but rather, someone has been removing his memories on purpose. We dive into flashbacks from the past, unveiling Stanley's youth, the friends he made, the experiments they started...

This is a fun, twisty SF thriller that I think Blake Crouch fans would enjoy. The flashbacks of Stanley's school days vs Maggie being forced to cooperate with Hassan are doled out in a way that keep you rapidly turning the pages to find out more. It's a complex plot, with lots of different threads to keep in mind at once, but that's half the fun of it. And there's a lovely romance that emerges as the story unfolds.

If I could wish for any changes, I struggled a bit with hearing about Stanley's super complex early life, then trying to understand he must've had quite a calm couple of decades - or did he? Maybe I need to reread!

Would certainly read this author again.

Dissolution is a slick, high-concept thriller that grabs you from the first page and doesn’t let up. With a heart-wrenching emotional core (Maggie’s desperation to save her husband from a fate worse than mere memory loss) the novel keeps the stakes sky-high, blending sci-fi mystery with breakneck pacing. The premise is wildly fun: mind heists! Reality glitches! A global conspiracy stretching across time! It’s the kind of book that reads like a big-budget film playing in your head.

And that, perhaps, is where it stumbles a little. Binge writes with cinematic efficiency, every twist landing like it’s been storyboarded in a Hollywood pitch meeting. While that makes for an undeniably fun ride, it also feels, at times, a little too calculated. The emotional weight occasionally takes a backseat to spectacle, and the deeper philosophical questions about memory, identity, and truth never quite get the space to breathe. Still, if you’re in the mood for a smart, entertaining page-turner with just enough existential dread to keep things spicy, Dissolution delivers. Just don’t be surprised when the inevitable movie adaptation drops.

2.5? Maybe? I don't know, I struggled with this one.

There's a running joke in sci-fi that many stories have either a good plot or good writing, but rarely both. Dissolution's plot is wonderful, and the ideas are actually fresh, but the execution fell flat for me. I'll go through a few without spoiling:

1. The interview format: For most of the book, the protagonist is recalling her own memories to someone else. Because of this, the action feels twice removed: it's quite literally being told rather than shown. There's also an element of time pressure in these interviews, yet we get these long, rambling asides that just feel out of place and jarring.

2. The characters: One dimensional. Give me villains with clear goals, give me old ladies who are more than "spunky," give me something deeper than a gifted uni student.

3. The science: Look, I'm not necessarily asking for hard sci-fi, but if your story constantly has to navigate with phrases like "there's rudimentary measures" and "you wouldn't understand the science," something in the story is broken.

4. And more: I won't go into details here because spoilers, but there's a conflict between a mother and daughter that feels incredibly manufactured and ridiculous. Had me fuming.

Whew. Okay, negative review, yeah. But I picked this up because I really enjoyed Binge's "Ascension," and I'll heavily recommend that one. This one just had too many misses for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

After absolutely loving Ascension, I was stoked to receive an ARC of Dissolution through NetGalley. Nicholas Binge has a way of crafting thought-provoking, mind-bending sci-fi that lingers long after the final page, and I was eager to see where he would take things next.

The plotline of Dissolution completely hooked me. It’s the kind of high-concept sci-fi that explores profound philosophical ideas while keeping the tension and intrigue alive. Binge excels at weaving complex narratives with emotional depth, and this book is no exception. The questions it raises about humanity, technology, and the nature of existence are precisely the themes I love in sci-fi.

However, the method of storytelling didn’t entirely work for me. While I appreciated what Binge was trying to do, the execution occasionally pulled me out of the story rather than immersing me in it. That being said, I still found it fascinating, and his ability to create compelling, cerebral sci-fi remains impressive.

One of the standout aspects of the book for me was the relationship between Stanley and Maggie. Their dynamic added an emotional core to the story that balanced out the more cerebral elements. Their connection felt authentic, filled with love, regret, and the weight of past choices. It was one of those relationships that felt raw and real, and I found myself deeply invested in how their story unfolded.

Interestingly, in the same month, I also read Make It Stick, which delves into memory and learning theory—two themes that Dissolution explores uniquely. The overlap between the two books made for an even more intriguing reading experience, as both examine how we retain and process knowledge, though from very different angles.

This book is perfect for fans of Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, with its fast-paced thrills and mind-bending scientific concepts. It also has strong similarities with another of my favorite books (and its movie adaptation), but saying the title would be a massive spoiler, so I’ll leave that for readers to discover for themselves.

Even though Dissolution didn’t quite hit the same highs as Ascension for me, it’s still a book I’d recommend to fans of thought-provoking sci-fi. Nicholas Binge continues to be an author whose work I eagerly anticipate.

Overall, from start to finish this book had me guessing and rethinking, never quite sure if want i thought was right or if i even remembered earlier pages correctly (something very meta in that).

From the start this book has you asking a lot of questions, not only of the characters but also questioning what you would do for the one you loved to keep them.

As the story progresses we see glimpses of a life lived to create greatness, and the rest of the book spent fighting (or so we are led to believe) what was unleashed. The major dark academia vibes are exactly what i and this book needed, to both shy away from the intensity but also dhow us where it all stemmed from.

The way in which the story is told keeps the pacing and plot interesting and exciting, as you are often cut away from momemts that have relevance, but you aren't sure yet of the motive for telling us this.

And the characters, each one flawed, some much more than others, but all intriguing in their own right. I maybe would have liked slighty more backstory for Maggie, as she started to feel more like a plot device during the last 50 pages, but, in the end, this book managed to keep me reading way past a good time to sleep, and thats the biggest compliment I can give it.

I once heard someone describe Ascension as Doctor Who ramped up, and i think the same applies here.

Dark Matter meets Vitra Nostra.
This was mind-bending and I would recommend going in blind knowing this is about memory and the power of the mind.

2021 - Maggie is 83 years old and is told her husband doesn’t have dementia but a corporation is removing them to hide a long-buried secret from his past. If Maggie does what she's told, she can reverse it.
1950 - We are also treated to her husband’s life through flashbacks and we follow a young Stanley as a student (major dark academia vibes), to experimenting and discovering something crazy, and meeting young Maggie.

It is weird to say that a slow-moving story can be tense and heart-pounding, but that’s what this manages to be.

<b>When people depict loneliness, they tend to show the isolation, the claustrophobia of it—someone curled up in a dark room, stuck in bed, unable to move. But real loneliness is repetition: doing the same routines day in and day out with nothing new to reflect on or look forwards to.
</b>
At the heart of this is relationships we make between people and what we are willing to do to keep them.

It is extremely accessible - there are no hard-to-grasp or understand concepts. Rather, a stretching of our current understanding that uses a speculative lens to make it sci fi.

One final note - this is told through transcripts from Maggie and uses the second person which created an eerie tension and unique narrative.

Don’t go in expecting a fast paced thriller - this is a deep character study with intimate moments, emotional highs and lows, and secrets hidden from everyone.

Arc gifted by Harper Voyager.

A brilliant speculative science fiction novel that I devoured!

Maggie and Stanley have shared a wonderful life together and it breaks Maggie’s heart to see Stanley’s dementia taking him from her, bit by bit.

When Maggie is approached by Hassan, a scientist, who claims that it isn’t dementia taking Stanley’s memories, but the care home he is living in, she agrees to break him out and work with Hassan to bring him back to her.

As Maggie digs into Stanley’s past memories, using them as a platform for time travel, she finds herself embroiled in a deadly game of chess, against a seemingly unbeatable opponent.

Maggie is a great character, and I loved travelling with her through the past and out of toilet block windows! The writing is immersive and the fast paced plot had me hooked. Fabulous!

5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley , Nicholas Binge and Harper Collins for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This book didn’t just grip me—it tore through me. From the first page, I was hooked, unraveling a story as intricate and fragile as memory itself. This isn’t just sci-fi … it’s a psychological labyrinth, a haunting exploration of identity, love, and the terrifying consequences of losing what makes us us.

“Because our identities are defined by our experiences, and our experiences are just a collection of our memories. In that sense, our memories—both conscious and subconscious—are what make us human. Without memory, we would be blank slates. We would be empty.”

That’s the terrifying heart of Dissolution. What happens when those memories—our very sense of self—are no longer ours?

The atmosphere? Absolutely electric. There’s this constant tension—a creeping, skin-prickling unease that builds with every page. Like Ascension, Binge masterfully blends cosmic horror with something deeply human, making every revelation feel like a punch to the gut. The pacing is relentless, twisting and turning in ways I never saw coming.

And Maggie. She’s unlike any protagonist I’ve read before—an octogenarian fighting for her husband, for her past, for the truth buried deep in his (and hers) fragmented memories. Her strength, her love, her sheer determination wrecked me. She’s the kind of character who lingers, whose pain feels real, whose story matters. Watching her piece together the impossible was exhilarating and heartbreaking all at once.

But what truly broke me was Stanley and Maggie’s relationship. Their love—the kind that endures beyond time, beyond memory—felt like the beating heart of this book. It was almost a love letter to love itself. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, even when I wasn’t reading. It’s rare to find a book that makes your mind reel while also making your heart ache, but Dissolution did both. It brought tears to my eyes and left me feeling utterly hollowed out in the best way.

“Stanley stared at her—this crazy, wonderful, fantastic woman—and could think of only one more question to ask. ‘Is it worth it?’
‘Oh, Stan, there’s never been anything more worth it in the entire world.’” 😭

I’ve always been obsessed with time travel stories, and while this isn’t traditional time travel, it plays with time in ways that felt just as exhilarating. The way memory fractures and shifts, the nonlinear unraveling of truth—it gave me that same thrill I love in time-bending narratives. The past isn’t just something remembered here; it’s something fought for, manipulated, and slipping through grasping fingers. And at the heart of it all, there’s love—enduring, aching, refusing to be erased.

Binge’s writing is razor-sharp, immersive, and deeply unsettling. He doesn’t just craft a story—he burrows into your mind, forcing you to question everything. About memory. About truth. About the terrifying fragility of our own existence.

Dissolution isn’t just a book you read—it’s a book that reads you. Brutal, breathtaking, romantic, and utterly unforgettable.

This book was interesting, creepy, and sentimental all bundled up together to give me the perfect book to have my heart racing. The characters were incredibly well described. The plot was amazing. And I cannot believe a human being is capable of thinking of a novel like this. The only thing that kept me away from giving it a full rating was the long chapters.

An elderly woman, Margaret, wakes up in a bizarre situation. She’s in an abandoned swimming pool, getting interrogated by a menacing yet oddly charismatic guy, Hassan, who’s desperate for her to recount the events of the last few days in perfect detail. Why? Because her husband, Stanley, apparently discovered something that could change the course of human history. And since Stanley now has Alzheimer’s, Hassan needs Margaret to literally enter his memories and retrieve whatever it was. Quickly, too – powerful people are willing to kill for this secret (they might even have engineered Stanley’s memory loss in the first place). If this all sounds overly convoluted on paper, Binge makes it pleasingly easy to fall into.

The best parts, by far, are the chapters that explore Stanley’s perspective – his miserable childhood, his strained friendships, his introduction to the theory and science of memory via an eccentric mentor. Margaret’s sections, though? Trickier. The whole thing is framed as a transcript of everything she tells Hassan, and it takes intense suspension of disbelief to buy into that. There are some MacGuffins to explain Margaret’s improbably perfect and novelistic recall: Hassan gives her a memory-enhancing drug that supposedly ‘encourages verbalisation of your inner monologue’. But, needless to say, one’s inner monologue doesn’t generally involve describing dialogue the same way it’s written in a book.

I kept bouncing between ‘this is way too polished’ and ‘ooh, that was actually a really good twist’. Dissolution is one of the most obvious examples I’ve read recently of something that feels like it’s written with the express aim of being adapted into a film or TV series. Whether or not that’s an issue is a matter of taste. I think it’s fair to say that although I enjoyed the book – because it’s slick and compelling and all those things you’d expect from a story like this – I wished the style had been pared back a bit. I wanted more ambiguity, more restraint, something with a little less of a relentless drive towards the next big action sequence.

This is Binge’s third novel; I’ve read them all, liking each a little less than its predecessor. I think this is because his writing is moving in a more commercial direction, which, fair enough, good for him, that’s its own kind of skill; it’s just not for me. Dissolution might appeal to those who have enjoyed books by the likes of Blake Crouch, Claire North and Stuart Turton. Personally, this action-packed, kinetic style just doesn’t represent what I want to get out of, or find most rewarding about, speculative fiction in general. Nevertheless, it’s undeniably gripping and fun – and look, if that big-budget adaptation does happen, I’ll definitely be watching.

This was an incredible book! I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so that you to the author and the publisher.

This was such a fascinating and high stakes exploration of memory. I was utterly gripped. We meet our octogenarian MC Maggie when she’s being interviewed in what seems to be an empty swimming pool, feeing completely disoriented and having very little understanding of what’s happening. Maggie will be forced to delve into the memories held by her and her husband to save them from a menacing threat.

I absolutely am loving the recent trend of older female main characters. I’ve read many of these lately and it’s fantastic. The characters have so much life experience and a different perspective, their choices informed by their wisdom. Indeed, this book could never have worked so well with a younger protagonist because it’s the richness of Maggie’s history with her husband that create so many breadcrumbs for her to follow, and so much motivation to rescue him.

This was such a clever book. I loved how it unfurled with the memories timeline and the recollecting timeline intertwining, with things building and making more sense as you uncover how they connect. Throughout all of the story there is a real sense of a race against time and an incredible tension as Maggie learns more about what’s happening, who the players are and how she and her husband fit into what’s at stake.

This was a tense, fascinating, intelligently written book which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Nicholas Binge is an auto buy author for me now. After his first book I had high hopes and was not disappointed. Dissolution is mind bending in the best way, absolutely absorbing and brilliant. I loved that the main character is older and her personality really defined. All the characters are amazing in their own ways but she shone throughout. Definitely a woman to be reckoned with.
The whole sci-fi element is cool and refreshing to read. The way the novel is written creates tension and mystery as we go between interrogation sessions and the past. The plot slowly unravels, going through some twists and turns along the way.
Despite the sci-fi backdrop there is such a human connection and emotion throughout the whole book, this really is a love letter to love and those enduring relationships. Loneliness and grief are also at the forefront, hard emotions to write about with energy but this book had that through its pacing and intrigue.
I basically couldn’t put this down and if anyone likes thrillers/sci-fi then I cannot see them not enjoying this.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

Really very good. I started off doubting I would finish the book but I soon found I couldn't put it down. It's definitely a mind bender - if you change someones memory do you also change reality? A combination of 'genius is next to madness' and 'the end justifies the means'. I would class the story as intelligent sci-fi. It is due to the skill of Binge that he makes it into an enjoyable read. Looking forward to the next one.

I really loved this authors debut book Ascension, but Dissolution absolutely blew my mind.

There’s a lot of excellent well written fast paced tech thrillers out there but Binge just adds so many layers to his stories with depth and emotion. That combination is one of my absolute favourite forms of storytelling and Binge is up there with Blake Crouch and Justin Cronin for me.

This is very much a puzzle box book. You’re thrown in blind and need to slowly figure out the clues along with the characters to try and build up a picture of what’s happening. The journey is the destination and the reading experience is incredibly satisfying.

I absolutely adored Maggie and Stanley. They were every elderly family member I’ve ever loved and lost. Maggie especially was such a refreshing and unique protagonist, I felt such a strong connection to her all the way through.

This story manages to be disturbing, heart wrenching, violent and romantic. Every moment I wasn’t reading I was thinking about it and every time I picked it up I made sure I was paying attention to every word, not wanting to miss a thing.

Cannot wait to see what Binge does next.

This was not a book for me, I really struggled to get me head round it being a technical horror, and get used to the world again after the fantastic Ascension. As a life long Trekkie I thought I would be used to techno-babble but this went over my head and it really took away from my enjoyment of the story

This is an imaginative technical thriller that is bound together by love and loss, with an old school ‘bad quy’ in the mix. It should have been great.

"When a mysterious stranger named Hassan appears at her door, he reveals a shocking truth: Stanley isn’t losing his memories. Someone is actively removing them to hide a long-buried secret from coming to light. If Maggie does what she’s told, she can reverse it. She can get her husband back. Led by Hassan and his technological marvels, Maggie breaks into her husband’s mind, probing the depths of his memories in an effort to save him."

This story has a intriguing premise, and I always enjoy plots that play with time and memory, so this should have been perfect for me. There is technology that allows other people’s memories to be explored, and there are implications for the fabric of reality itself, and there is a ‘bad guy’ and a malevolent force that need to be dealt with - this is exciting stuff! The plot is well paced, and the author does a great job of guiding us skillfully through multiple timelines, often intertwined.

But while the plot was intricate and engaging, I think I was hoping for something more profound. The bad guy is an archetypal old school villain - if he had a moustache, he would have twirled it menacingly. The malevolent force is, well… just malevolent:

“I do not know what its purpose is. Maybe it has no purpose. Maybe it’s just a force of nature. It is, perhaps, beyond our comprehension.”

And the mechanism by which memories of others can be explored is similarly well explained:

“We would run out of time before you even began to understand the science of it”

Well, that’s all very convenient. But not very satisfying.

There is a lovely relationship between the two main characters, Maggie and Stanley, and this does form a solid foundation. But the plot has difficulty providing substance to the jeopardy that they’re in, given the two-dimensional villain and the unknowable malevolent force. So, while I did care what ultimately happened to Maggie and Stanley, I found it somewhat of a trudge to work my way through the muddy shallows of their struggle - and I found myself not always wanting to pick up the book and carry on.

Thank you #NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for the free review copy of Dissolution in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.