Flashforward
Tor, New York, 2000
ISBN 0-812-58034-6
Monika says:
In the year 2009 physicists Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procopides prepare an
experiment at the European Nuclear Research Center (CERN) that is to prove
the existence of the Higgs boson. But then something happens that nobody
could have foreseen: for almost two minutes all people around the globe
lose consciousness and are allowed to look 21 years into the future. This
has disastrous consequences all over the world. There are several deaths,
depending on what people where doing when the vision occurred. Lloyd is
among those who suffer a painful loss. Besides, it seems that in 21 years
he won’t be with the woman he is about to marry. Theo is one of the
people who had no vision, which means that he won’t be alive in 21
years, although he is only 27 in 2009.
Robert Sawyer chose a rather unusual setting for his 11th
book considering that most of his other books take place in his home
country of Canada – if they are set on Earth, that is. At the CERN
(Centre Européen de Recherche Nucléaire) efforts long since have turned
away from nuclear research as we know it to the search for subatomic
particles. The accident happens during an experiment with a new kind of
particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that is in reality
just in planning stage and is supposed to be completed by the middle of
the decade.
As usual Sawyer works hard to make his characters credible. His
scientists are no stereotyped puppets but real people with small or big
faults. They are just as vulnerable as the rest of the world and are not
above the effects of the Flashforward. An important part falls to young
physicist Theo Procopides, who discovers all too soon why he other than
his friends does not get a glimpse of his future. With the help of the
World Wide Web – that incidentally was developed at the CERN – he
tries to get information about his impending death. He is shocked to find
out that he will be murdered.
Just as in FRAMESHIFT and ILLEGAL
ALIEN Sawyer deftly works a mystery into his science fiction plot. The
idea to hunt a killer who will commit his crime 21 years from the present
makes the line between the genres vanish as we read on. The main question
of the book is, however, whether the future is written in stone or can it
be changed? The visions during Flashforward seem to imply a predetermined
future, but what about free will?
Sawyer once more proves that he lacks neither imagination nor the
ability to capture the readers attention from the first to the last page.
I will certainly read his next books. |
Any comments? Write us:
Monika Hübner
Christina Gross
|
