Product Description

Suddenly everyone in the world loses consciousness for two minutes. Planes fall from the sky, there are millions of car crashes, millions die. And when everyone comes round they have had a glimpse of their life in the future.



When it awakes the world must live with the knowledge of what is to come.



Some saw themselves in new relationships, some saw exciting new technologies, some saw the stuff of nightmares. Some, young and old alike, saw nothing at all . . .



A desperate search to find out what has happened begins. Does the mosaic of visions offer a clue?



What did you see?



Now the basis for the Channel 5 hit series FLASHFORWARD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1161 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"This is the novel that inspired the TV series. The book's cast indulges in more leisurely discussion of theories about free will, multiple universes and the like. It works rather well. There are some intriguing predictions for the year 2030, by the way: hover cars and an African-American president in the White House." THE DAILY MAIL "Although it was turned for TV into a race-against-time thriller, the novel is an intellectual puzzle, drawing on theoretical physics to raise questions about time and space and the existence of free will, and proves once again that good science fiction does not need visual effects to thrill." -- Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES "The novel, now published for the first time in this country, is... decent sci-fi." THE EVENING STANDARD Sawyer focuses on the efforts of a small group of people to cope with their new found knowledge, showing what's going on for the rest of the world via news headlines. This gives the reader the opportunity to really get inside people's heads and experience the phenomenon at first hand... a thoughtful and exploratory piece that examines the nature of destiny and free will." GRAEME'S FANTASY BOOK REVIEW

Review
"This is the novel that inspired the TV series. The book's cast indulges in more leisurely discussion of theories about free will, multiple universes and the like. It works rather well. There are some intriguing predictions for the year 2030, by the way: hover cars and an African-American president in the White House." (THE DAILY MAIL )

"Although it was turned for TV into a race-against-time thriller, the novel is an intellectual puzzle, drawing on theoretical physics to raise questions about time and space and the existence of free will, and proves once again that good science fiction does not need visual effects to thrill." (Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES )

"The novel, now published for the first time in this country, is... decent sci-fi." (THE EVENING STANDARD )

Sawyer focuses on the efforts of a small group of people to cope with their new found knowledge, showing what's going on for the rest of the world via news headlines. This gives the reader the opportunity to really get inside people's heads and experience the phenomenon at first hand... a thoughtful and exploratory piece that examines the nature of destiny and free will." (GRAEME'S FANTASY BOOK REVIEW )

About the Author
Robert J. Sawyer has been described as Canada's answer to Michael Crichton. Critically acclaimed in the US he is regarded as one of SF's most significant writers and his novels are regularly voted as fan's favourites. He lives in Canada.

Customer Reviews

Characters always come alive for Robert Sawyer.
This book is not just about the human consciousness leaping 21 years into the future. It's about the people to whom this happened. How do people who have been given a taste of their own future react to that knowledge? Humanity just had the "Fruit of Knowledge" thrust down its throat. Can we be the same after we gain that knowledge? Did that knowledge come at too high a price? Does freewill exist or is it just an illusion humanity concocted? Is the future immutable or can we make our own future? Sawyer deals with not only complex ideas, like these, but also complex emotions. He breathes life into his characters, then lets them take flight. Once I picked this book up, I could not put it down.

The excellent source material for the tv series
This inevitable release to tie in with the new tv series is sure to have people rushing to read it in the hope of finding answers to the numerous conundrums and Lost-style red herrings that have already been provided. So a word of caution: this book was written ten years ago and the series is only based on the book's central idea. There are already massive changes of direction and focus from the book, and it's likely the direction may go further apart, especially if the series runs for a while. That's not a bad thing though as the central idea is one of Sawyer's best and can be explored in many ways.

What would you do if you knew what the future had in store for you? This is the intriguing question that some scientific technobabble involving quantum mechanics throws up. Free will versus apparent predestination is a fascinating concept. The predicament of the characters, some of whom learn how they'll die and when, and some of whom learn how their lives will turn out for better or worse, is an idea that grabs the attention. Some people give up and accept the inevitable, some people just give up and kill themselves, some people try to change the future, and some people even try to ensure the future they saw does happen.

These attitudes build up a picture of the various views of fate we probably all have and as such it represents the very best that science fiction can provide. Sf always works best when it takes a single idea and asks how the world will change because of it. What I found less successful was the science aspects. I've enjoyed a few Sawyer novels and for me they usually get bogged down with trying too hard to make the science believable, when it rarely is. Sawyer's writing style is also prone to being pedestrian, but on the other hand it's well within the norm for the modern bestseller style.

Some minor reservations aside, this is a fascinating novel of ideas and how we might react to knowing our fates. Whether or not the tv series takes the same direction, both are well worth exploring.

A fantastic read, thorougly engaging
I am a big fan of the sci-fi genre. Whether it be in games, movies, TV or books. So after watching the first two episodes of the TV adaptation of 'Flash Forward', I decided to place an order for this book and have received it today. Let's put it this way, I am already 100 pages in. It's utterly brilliant.

R.J. Sawyer seems to have a very creative imagination and this book is brimming with excellent ideas. The idea that every single human being on the planet blacks out at the exact same time. What kind of disaster would such an event cause? Not only that, each person also receives a vision of what their future holds. Some people see themselves with another spouse, in another job, with other kids etc. Some don't see anything at all for various reasons.

The good thing about this book is that it doesn't just focus on the phenomenon that occured. It focuses on the after shock of the event, how people adjust to their lives knowing what they know about their lives 21 years in the future. How can somebody look at their spouse the same way, knowing full well that in the future, they will be apart? The consequences of the event are just as important as finding out what actually caused it, which makes a very good mix of intrigue and suspense.

There is only one bad thing about this book. It is written in such a way that you are constantly wanting to find out more, which is amplified with the use of cliffhangars at the end of the chapters. It is like a treadmill that runs constantly. You keep going and going and have to physically drag yourself away in order to stop. A very exciting, invigorating, suspenseful and imaginative read. I wholeheartedly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of science fiction, because it will be one of the best reads you have for a long time.