Nicholas Binge's thought-provoking sci-fi thriller Dissolution begins as 83-year-old Maggie sits at the bottom of an empty swimming pool, hooked up to an IV, with no idea how she got there. She's being interviewed by a stranger who says his name is Hassan and that Maggie's husband, Stanley, is in danger and they have only 11 hours to save him. When Maggie says she doesn't remember anything, Hassan gives her a pill that enables her to have perfect recall.
Thanks to the drug, Maggie remembers Stanley is in a care home called Sunrise. His mental condition has been deteriorating and he sometimes doesn't recognize her. Hassan makes a startling claim: Sunrise has been removing some of Stanley's memories and he's actually a prisoner there. Hassan then asks Maggie to help him break Stanley out of Sunrise so Hassan can restore Maggie's husband to his former self.
The novel alternates between transcripts of Maggie's continuing interview and chapters covering Stanley's past. In the 1950s, he is a brilliant university student with a perfect memory. He and his favorite professor conduct secret memory experiments that lead to the release of something terrifying. Something possibly connected to Sunrise. Something that could still destroy the world.
Despite its impressive world-building and science-speak, Dissolution's standout is the love story between Maggie and Stanley. Their love transcends time and memory, remaining the one fact they know to be true. A recurring theme is the theory posed in Plato's Phaedrus that the invention of writing weakened the need for memory, resulting in the decline of true understanding and intelligence. But Dissolution does the opposite--it expands the mind and comprehension of reality. --Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, reviewer and freelance editor at The Edit Ninja