Rating: 
Summary: Gripping tale of science, mystery, mankind
Review: I could not put this book down. The gripping plot, combined with an easy narration that avoids complicated and awkward explanations of scientific details, kept me up until the book was finished in a single night. This book combines science fiction with some mystery, while touching on the future of mankind, and follows the success of some good, smart, hard-working characters. Great read that was highly entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and well worth the effort
Review: I commend Robert J. Saywer on his breath-taking ability to combine intricate scientific detail with remarkable moments of insight into humanity. I absolutely loved this book. I will probably read it several more times just to be able to experience it again. It is so easy to become emotionally involved in the events and there were times when I was literally on edge waiting for something to happen. I highly reccommend this book to anyone who loves science fiction. In some ways, it even transcends that genre and becomes a story about humanity and the preciousness of life above all else.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating book, Insane Ending
Review: This book is one of the most fascinating books I've ever come across in the science fiction aisle. The book is absolutely amazing in its use of physics throughout the storyline. I've always been interested in the work of CERN and was very pleased that someone released a book telling of its inner workings. The only problem was the wierd outside the body from the current day till the end of time thing. It just came out of no where and had no pertenence to the story. Not to mention its impossible. Overall, this book deserves praise for the majority, and the last 20 pages need ripped out and burnt so you don't have to become more stupid by reading them.
Rating: 
Summary: Could Be Better
Review: Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer is overall a pretty interesting book, and it might have been great, except for a couple of flaws.First off, there's way too much physics in this book. I had two physics classes in college and had no interest to take more, so after a while all of the physics and quantum mechanics, and whatever else, really got tiresome. It distracted me from the story, that classic story of whether a person's fate can be avoided. Secondly, the ending was weird, it totally threw me. Out of nowhere the main character gets offered the immortality syrum, it just didn't make any sense with the rest of the story. Other than those flaws, this book is good enough. Maybe not a "thriller", but it's interesting.
Rating:
Summary: A Fresh Concept Excellently Executed
Review: I'd like to add my own two-cents to the very positive reviews of FLASHFORWARD. Science fiction has been undergoing a crisis in imagination even while its writers are getting better at their prose styles. Mr. Sawyer has produced in FLASHFORWARD an delightfully original concept and a gathering of characters, flawed though they are, and we watch them as their lives are changed by a glimpse they receive of the future. Sawyer has restored my faith that Campbellian science fiction can still be written with panache and verve. FLASHFORWARD is a delightful book that surprised me almost with every turn of the page. I very much recommend this book to you.
Rating:
Summary: Free Will vs. Destiny vs. Space-Time Continuum
Review: Although set in the near future with a wee bit of hard science trappings, this book is really more interested in examining the ramifications of what might happen if everyone in the world was given a two minute glimpse at their lives some 30 years in the future. What happens is that a big particle accelerator experiment in Switzerland somehow coincides with some particles coming from a brown hole in outer space to cause a "flashforward" in which everyone blacks out and has "visions." At this point, part of the plot diverges into a mystery as one of the scientists tries to figure who is going to murder him in the future and why. The other scientist ties to figure what happened and reconcile his vision of being in bed with a woman who is not the woman he's about to marry. Naturally this all gets into a lot of free will vs. destiny stuff mixed up with space-time continuum stuff. I found the science bits are kind of beat, and some of the international political reactions kind of simplistic, but when the story focuses on individuals, it's interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Better than your average time travel...
Review: Robert Sawyer succeeds in an genre fraught with bad premise and even worse science. In "FlashForward", we are given a glimpse into the future and only a glimpse and are then introducted to intelligent thinkers and scientist who get to answer the really difficult question: "Can we change/impact the future?", "Do we have free will or are we merely puppets of destiny?". Most important, Sawyer is able to broach both quantum scientific issues as well as the philosophy of knowing the future in a way that isn't preachy, overly technical or too Captain Kirk-esque. A fast,fun read. Readers of Carl Sagan and Asimov will like this.
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read in quite awhile.
Review: This is only the second novel of Sawyer's that I've read, but it was the best book I've read in about 3 years. I haven't been this mesmerized by a book since I read Reaper by Ben Mezrich. I usually only read for about an hour a day, but I read this book in 3 days(and I'm sort of a slow reader). I was hooked and didn't want to put it down. The premise was fascinating. I've always liked time travel stories and although this wasn't time travel per se, it was still excellent. The only part I didn't like was the next to the last two chapters where the main character(Simcoe) went through another Flashforward. Excellent book, I highly recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Scientific Lead but Psychological Exploration
Review: Very thought-provoking and intriguing intellectually, but there is not a driving pace to this. The science fiction aspect is the actual "flashforward": a view that the world gets of its own future twenty years in advance due to a science experiment gone awry under very particular circumstances. Of course, once the rats realize that they are in a maze, things happen... I really liked this book, but even though it has "hard" sci-fi at its heart, the author spends much of the story exploring individual reactions to the "flash" and how they live their lives after the fateful glimpse. This is a very engaging premise but is not for riveting action sequence-lovers.
Rating:
Summary: I'd give this book 3.5 stars..
Review: This book has a very unique twist on the 'knowledge from the future' genre.. Imagine, everybody in the world "living" for 2 minutes their lives 20 years from now. This can have a huge effect on people, as can be expected. This is the premise of this book! I think it is overall a good book, however, it is not written in an "exciting" way, I didn't find myself eager to continue every day, and it's sad, because the premise is just *so* good. Also, the author seems to focus on the technology of this occurence, which is kind of silly, since he's "inventing" a future technology and really expanding on it.. this really isn't very interesting, and too much time is being spent on it. Other than that, I guess it's worth it after all, although it should be a priority reading if you know what I mean..
|
