Flashforward

For such a short book, it took me a really long time to read it. The concept was interesting enough as were some of the theories about time, the future, and free will, but honestly I never felt any real connection with the story or the characters, and that kept me from finding much enjoyment in the book.

I doubt I ever would have picked it up if it weren't on the Sword and Laser list. Time-bending stories always leave my head hurting a little bit, so they aren't my favorite thing to read. The conceit of this book is that the consciousness of humanity offers them a brief glimpse of their future at a precise moment in time 21 years and change in the future. The characters spend most of the book dealing with these visions while trying to decide whether or not they can be changed. It's an interesting idea, but the characters don't drive it for me.

I had no interest at all in Lloyd and Michiko's relationship. I had no evidence of their love other than Lloyd saying it so often, and can't think of many details about either character. Theo's storyline is a little more interesting, but still if you asked me to describe him as a person and not as a scientist... I couldn't do it. Without investing in him, I didn't really care if he lived or died at the end.

Much of the book is spent giving us Sawyer's interpretation of the future (where no one wears blue jeans anymore). These details generally threw me out of the story because they didn't seem to have a logical fit. Big fingers kept pointing at all the differences in a way that made them almost annoying, like the author was trying to show how clever he is by these wacky little flavor details of the future.

The ending, too, went way off center. It was so different from the rest of the book as to feel out of place. Since most of it centers on Lloyd, my interest was pretty minimal. I just couldn't make myself care.

If you're into time travel and procedural stuff, you might enjoy this more. Likewise if you have a rudimentary grasp on physics which I really don't. I'm sure that there's plenty of in-jokes for people more versed in both the genre and the science. For me, though, the book just didn't gel.