About 90 pages in. His house is different, he’s not married anymore, son doesn’t exist. He somehow has a career life he’s completely unfamiliar with.
Also he’s a top of the line scientist.
He can’t just deduce that he’s obviously in an alternate dimension? Doesn’t cross his mind at all? He already went to the doctor to check for brain damage. Like yeah amnesia is a possibility. But he didn’t suffer any major head trauma.
Like I get that at this point he may doubt his sanity. But he can’t even entertain the idea he’s in an alternate reality? Also why is this a common trope in stories? They completely rule out the seemingly impossible even though it’s blatantly obvious that it’s now possible.
I mean shit, if I go home and my apartment isn’t mine, job isn’t mine, and my gf doesn’t even know me then obviously I’m gonna say I definitely fucked something up.
I had a problem like this in one of my stories, where the main character kept jumping between their reality and a reality where they’d died. I had them recognize what was going on right away, because I thought it would be obvious, but when I showed it to anyone who wasn’t an avid reader of science fiction, they were bothered by how quickly the main character jumped to this conclusion, or just plain confused by it. It’s was the opposite problem you have, so I think it just depends on your perspective.