FlashForward RJ Sawyer - reading_fox's review
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1reading_fox
FlashForward I've reviewed this HERE
Its an interesting, book and I'm happy to discuss my thoughts on it which I've pasted below:
Interesting concept, mostly well carried out. The bending of real physics, slightly stretched physics for narrative purposes, and completely made-up stuff, probably won't bother most readers, however it is likely to irritate anyone who knows anything even superficial about particle physics. At times the science may be sufficiently dense to put off those unfamiliar with it. Most impressively, given that is was originally published in 1999, Sawyer has done a remarkably good job of one of Sci-Fi's hardest challenges - predicting the near future.
The book opens in April 2009 with the first of CERN's LHC high energy experiments to find the Higgs Boson. Everyone now, can remember the internet hysteria about the potential End of the World, and that the earth might (for almost zero values of might) be sucked into an LHC generated black hole. Sawyer takes another tack. For the two minute of the experiment, everyone on earth experiences two minutes of their future consciousness in 2030, before returning to their own bodies. The consequences of this are dramatic - planes and cars crash, hospitals are overloaded, and society seems on the verge of chaos. Instead of concentrating on this, we follow the personal lives of a few of the scientists involved. Those that saw a vision, and how they choose to respond to it, and one who didn't - with the implication that they aren't alive in 2030. Once the situation has stabilised and people have come to terms with the future, the book jumps forward to 2030 to explore how well people's visions - and their efforts to avoid or achieve them - correlated with reality.
The biggest problem I had with this book is in Sawyer's attempt to use the Copenhagen Interpretation of QM, as a solid physical law. It isn't. It was never intended to be, and there is nowhere within QM where any requirement for a conscious observer - let alone a human one - is required. The mere existence of a universe prior to humanity negates this possibility. Unfortunately this renders a lot of Sawyers plot non-sensible. Although Sawyer obviously has decided whether or not the future is malleable or pre-determined, in truth physics isn't yet so sure - and this book does provide an interesting insight into the dilemmas either option provokes in modern understanding of the universe.
If you can put that - and a few other bits of more obviously made-up physics - to one side, then there is also a technical writing issue with the plot, in that far too long is spent in an obvious attempt to insert an action scene in, where it otherwise doesn't exist. Everything else works quite well. The characters aren't the worlds most sympathetic, and there is some UScentric bias - but they also aren't that dissimilar from people I have met for real working in labs.
The near future - ie 2009 - is well done in very many respects. The obvious one - mobile phones - is an excusable error, that so many other authors have made. Sawyer does well to have integrated them into his 2030 vision, we're about 20 years ahead of him in that. Everything else seems very believable. Which is a significant achievement.
Enjoyably readable for any scientifically literate person. Nothing gets too technical, but some prior understanding of the basics of particles, does make this much more readable. The near and medium term futures are worth putting up with any errors in the physics, and the conclusions leave much to think and discuss.
Its an interesting, book and I'm happy to discuss my thoughts on it which I've pasted below:
Interesting concept, mostly well carried out. The bending of real physics, slightly stretched physics for narrative purposes, and completely made-up stuff, probably won't bother most readers, however it is likely to irritate anyone who knows anything even superficial about particle physics. At times the science may be sufficiently dense to put off those unfamiliar with it. Most impressively, given that is was originally published in 1999, Sawyer has done a remarkably good job of one of Sci-Fi's hardest challenges - predicting the near future.
The book opens in April 2009 with the first of CERN's LHC high energy experiments to find the Higgs Boson. Everyone now, can remember the internet hysteria about the potential End of the World, and that the earth might (for almost zero values of might) be sucked into an LHC generated black hole. Sawyer takes another tack. For the two minute of the experiment, everyone on earth experiences two minutes of their future consciousness in 2030, before returning to their own bodies. The consequences of this are dramatic - planes and cars crash, hospitals are overloaded, and society seems on the verge of chaos. Instead of concentrating on this, we follow the personal lives of a few of the scientists involved. Those that saw a vision, and how they choose to respond to it, and one who didn't - with the implication that they aren't alive in 2030. Once the situation has stabilised and people have come to terms with the future, the book jumps forward to 2030 to explore how well people's visions - and their efforts to avoid or achieve them - correlated with reality.
The biggest problem I had with this book is in Sawyer's attempt to use the Copenhagen Interpretation of QM, as a solid physical law. It isn't. It was never intended to be, and there is nowhere within QM where any requirement for a conscious observer - let alone a human one - is required. The mere existence of a universe prior to humanity negates this possibility. Unfortunately this renders a lot of Sawyers plot non-sensible. Although Sawyer obviously has decided whether or not the future is malleable or pre-determined, in truth physics isn't yet so sure - and this book does provide an interesting insight into the dilemmas either option provokes in modern understanding of the universe.
If you can put that - and a few other bits of more obviously made-up physics - to one side, then there is also a technical writing issue with the plot, in that far too long is spent in an obvious attempt to insert an action scene in, where it otherwise doesn't exist. Everything else works quite well. The characters aren't the worlds most sympathetic, and there is some UScentric bias - but they also aren't that dissimilar from people I have met for real working in labs.
The near future - ie 2009 - is well done in very many respects. The obvious one - mobile phones - is an excusable error, that so many other authors have made. Sawyer does well to have integrated them into his 2030 vision, we're about 20 years ahead of him in that. Everything else seems very believable. Which is a significant achievement.
Enjoyably readable for any scientifically literate person. Nothing gets too technical, but some prior understanding of the basics of particles, does make this much more readable. The near and medium term futures are worth putting up with any errors in the physics, and the conclusions leave much to think and discuss.
