A scientific experiment begins, and as the button is pressed, the unexpected occurs: everyone in the world goes to sleep for a few moments while everyone's consciousness is catapulted more than twenty years into the future. At the end of those moments, when the world reawakens, all human life is transformed by foreknowledge.

Amazon.com Review
What would you do if you got a glimpse of your own personal future and it looked bleak? Try to change things, or accept that the future is unchangeable and make the best of it? In Flashforward, Nobel-hungry physicists conducting an unimaginably high-energy experiment accidentally induce a global consciousness shift. In an instant, everyone on Earth is "flashed forward" 21 years, experiencing several minutes of the future. But while everyone is, literally, out of their minds, their bodies drop unconscious; when the world reawakens, car wrecks, botched surgeries, falls, and other mishaps add up to massive death and destruction.

Slowly, as recovery efforts continue, people realize that during the Flashforward (as it comes to be called) they experienced a vision of the future. The range of visions is astounding--those who would be asleep in the future saw psychedelic dream landscapes, while others saw nothing at all (presumably they'd be dead). But those who saw everyday life 20 years hence have to come to grips with evidence of dreams forsaken (or realized). Soon, the physicists who caused the Flashforward are struggling to help the world decide whether the future is changeable--and whether the experiment is worth repeating. Robert J. Sawyer has captured a truly compelling idea with Flashforward, and he fully explores what such an event might mean to humanity. Fans will find this to be his best work to date, although the ending seems rushed after a detailed buildup. --Therese Littleton

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 70 reviews)

Riveting concept

Flash Forward is an engaging story with a very cool concept we all wish we could experience. The philosophical questions a peek into the future raise will rack your brain. Can we change our future? Would you want to? Sawyer brings these and many more issues to the surface for us to ponder. Well written, fast paced, characters with depth, riveting plot: a recipe for a good read.
November 07, 2008

A Great Read

Having read a number of other reviews here, I cannot lend any weight to any of the criticisms written. I just finished this book a couple of days ago and I found it very satisfying in every way. The story is clever and interesting, the science is top-notch and well delivered, the characters are compelling and reasonably well fleshed-out [its only 300 pages, after all] and it all builds rather nicely to a double-climax [one for Theo and one for Lloyd].
I found it to be a brilliant blend that was easy to read and built nicely throughout. It was hard to put down most nights and I finished it an about half the time it would normally have taken me to read a book this size, which is really about the best thing I can say about any book.
September 22, 2008

Quantum Physics 101

That's I felt like I was reading at certain parts of this book. But putting that aside, it did make for a very interesting novel. I was a little annoyed when this (French Canadian) writer took pot shots at Americans; making us look like the root of all evil or a bunch of bafoons, but still, I managed to get over that also. Like any other "time travel" book, this novel seemed to say that what happened during the "flash forward" was all do to the knowledge everyone had that resulted from the flashforward which people remembered in the future when it actually took place 21 years earlier .....confused yet? You won't be once you read this book. A fine piece of writing setting aside all the quirks I mentioned previously in this review. The ending was kind of disappointing but still an enjoyable book for any SF fan.
August 26, 2008

Perfect Science Fiction

Robert Sawyer's books to me are perfect science fiction. He takes a simple premise, peoples it with wonderfully human characters, gets you emotionally involved with them, and then takes you on a wonderful adventure that challenges your beliefs and expands your mind. Again, I must repeat, I think his books are perfect, all of them, and this one, "Flash Forward," is my absolute favorite. Thank you Robert Sawyer for being such a brilliant author. I eagerly await each new book you produce.
Arzani Burman, author of "The Legacy of Violetta Rose: An Inter-Dimensional Journey Through the Lincoln Tunnel and Beyond"The Legacy of Violetta Rose: An Inter-Dimensional Journey Through the Lincoln Tunnel and Beyond
August 16, 2008

New Favorite Author

My habit as a reader is to track down everything written by an author I find I enjoy--the problem being, I run out of authors and books. That is why finding someone I've never encountered before, who already has been writing for years, is such a treat. Robert J. Sawyer fills this need for me. He does wonderful characters, using intriguing premises which he explores fully, in ways that make sense when read, but which I (for one) would never think of in advance. That's what happens here--given the opportunity to look ahead, would you take the opportunity? What would be the ramifications? Sawyer writes books not only for hard-core SF fans, but also, as I've learned by passing his stuff on to others, he also writes SF for people who profess to hate the stuff. I've chosen this title at random to comment upon; all of his work is well worthwhile.
August 09, 2008

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Rollback
by Robert J. Sawyer

Calculating God
by Robert J. Sawyer

Mindscan
by Robert J. Sawyer

Humans (Volume Two of The Neanderthal Parallax)
by Robert J. Sawyer

Hominids (Neanderthal Parallax)
by Robert J. Sawyer