Robert J. Sawyer
I never watched the eponymous ABC series, but I was from the start intrigued by the central premise of Flashforward: that, for two minutes or so, humanity suffers a mass blackout and a vision of the future. With such an interesting premise, and especially with a pair of well-esteemed CERN physicists as the story's central characters, there are many interesting problems to explore about the Meaning of It All. Robert J. Sawyer, however, misses most of these opportunities despite admirable attempts at channeling metaphysical problems through the lens of, well, physics. Using scientists as protagonists allows Sawyer to place the bulk of the story around the scientific core of the events of the novel, but it results in some stilted prose and unrealistic dialog. Coupled with some overdone scientific explanation in the novel's second act, the primacy of science hampers the novel and prevents it from addressing the great philosophical concerns that should be its driving force. Instead, the roles of fate and choice in human life are relegated to condescension and unrealistic scientific debate by people who would be significantly more aware of the debates they are engaging in than their over-justified prose shows.
Strangely, though, for its stilted cardboard characters and its over-reliance on science in a particularly human drama, Flashforward is continually compelling. Neither Theo nor Lloyd, the book's leading players, may be especially unique or even compelling, but the murder-mystery aspect fits in well with the book's central premise and successfully drives the plot until Sawyer begins grasping for straws in the third act, where the book loses almost all of its momentum. This is almost criminal given that the final act explores the future seen at book's beginning and should resolve most of the plot; unfortunately, however, the flow of time in Flashforward is as stilted as some of its prose and much of its interpersonal reactions and any impact Sawyer's take on fate and choice may have had is dulled by excessive explanations, rendering the book's resolution moot by the time it arrives. Added to Sawyer's occasionally hilarious missteps in reading 2009 (surely it is reasonable to expect that futurists of 1999 would foresee DVDs supplanting VHS tapes?), the floundering plot makes Flashforward an initially intriguing foray into the nature vs. nurture that turns stale because the author just doesn't have the writing chops to carry his ideas to enjoyable fruition. Flashforward is, despite its flaws, oddly compelling, but ultimately fails to deliver on its excellent ideas.
Grade: C
Strangely, though, for its stilted cardboard characters and its over-reliance on science in a particularly human drama, Flashforward is continually compelling. Neither Theo nor Lloyd, the book's leading players, may be especially unique or even compelling, but the murder-mystery aspect fits in well with the book's central premise and successfully drives the plot until Sawyer begins grasping for straws in the third act, where the book loses almost all of its momentum. This is almost criminal given that the final act explores the future seen at book's beginning and should resolve most of the plot; unfortunately, however, the flow of time in Flashforward is as stilted as some of its prose and much of its interpersonal reactions and any impact Sawyer's take on fate and choice may have had is dulled by excessive explanations, rendering the book's resolution moot by the time it arrives. Added to Sawyer's occasionally hilarious missteps in reading 2009 (surely it is reasonable to expect that futurists of 1999 would foresee DVDs supplanting VHS tapes?), the floundering plot makes Flashforward an initially intriguing foray into the nature vs. nurture that turns stale because the author just doesn't have the writing chops to carry his ideas to enjoyable fruition. Flashforward is, despite its flaws, oddly compelling, but ultimately fails to deliver on its excellent ideas.
Grade: C
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