Let me begin with the spoiler alert. A serialised television adaptation of this novel has recently been aired in the United States and is currently airing in the United Kingdom (and possibly other locations). However, I do not think fans of the series will find it spoiled for them either by reading this review or the book itself. Many of the details and several of the characters have been radically changed for the TV series and that story diverges greatly from the original novel.

Robert J. Sawyer poses a very simple question at the beginning of his novel: what would happen if the entirety of humanity were able to briefly glimpse their world in the future? The answer, on the other hand, is as complex as humanity itself. Some will welcome this chance to have a peek at days to come and it will change their lives, others will reflect deeply on the course their lives will take and either try to change the future or prevent it from happening.

Written in 1999 and aptly set in the then future of 2009 – the TV series having been brought to our screens this year – the novel begins with Lloyd Simcoe, a scientist at CERN (The European Organisation for Nuclear Research), performing an experiment on the Large Hadron Collider. When he hits the button to begin the experiment he suddenly finds himself having an out-of-body experience, although, it is probably more accurate to describe it as an inner-body experience as he can see through his own eyes twenty one years in the future.

When he comes to he begins to realise that he has not been the only one to have experienced this phenomenon. In fact, it seems that all of his colleagues at CERN have also experienced the same ‘flash forward’ with few exceptions. They soon discover that this was not a localised event and it quickly becomes clear that no one on earth has been spared except those who were killed during the event or those who saw nothing and only blacked out. It is hypothesised that such people will not be alive in the future that everyone else has witnessed.

One such unlucky person is Theo Procopides who works with Lloyd. Spurred by the the need to know what the future holds for him Theo creates the Mosaic project to collect the stories of anyone who is willing to share their visions, hoping that someone else has had a vision of him in the future. He is soon contacted by more than one source who reveal in the future of 2030 they were reading about his death by gunshot which apparently occurred only days before the date that everyone witnessed in the ‘flash forwards’. This sends him on a quest to solve the mystery of his own murder.

At the same time Lloyd is searching for the cause of the ‘flash forward’ episode and convinces the UN to allow him to try the experiment again in the hopes of recreating the incident. Amazingly the ‘world’ agrees and the experiment is tried again. This time, however, nothing happens and Lloyd and his colleagues turn elsewhere for the answer.

Eventually the story moves to the inevitable twenty ones years later. Theo is closer to solving the riddle of his death and hopefully preventing it. Lloyd, along with the rest of the world, armed with answers to the original ‘flash forward’ prepares for yet another attempt at the recreation of the original event. This time it works and Lloyd experiences another ‘flash forward’ even farther into the future to the very edges of time itself.

Beyond the scientific explanation for the cause of the ‘flash forward’, Sawyer has his characters explore the philosophical question that such an experience is sure to bring up. Is the future mutable or immutable? With fore knowledge can one alter the path of the future? Do we have a fixed fate or are we the architects of our own destiny?

Despite these big ideas, however, I did feel that neither the characters nor the story really lived up to their full potential. The characters seem very flat and almost two dimensional. There is great cultural diversity represented by the core group of characters at CERN, yet I did not feel that those cultures were reflected naturally, only superficially. I did not understand the motives and values of the individual characters on a deeper level nor did I care what happened to them. I was interested to find out who would ultimately try to kill Theo Procopides but I was not entirely concerned whether or not he survived the encounter. That is until a very exciting sequence in which Theo is pursued by his would-be assassin in the tunnel of the defunct Large Hadron Collider. In this scene Sawyer uses the layout and machinery of the tunnel and it’s antechambers to full cinematic effect, making for a very heart pounding episode in an otherwise uninspiring read.

There is one other exception which gives this novel merit. There is a brief moment when Lloyd is given the option to live the far flung future he saw in his second vision or choose to forget what he has learned and go back to his normal life nary the wiser, presumably to enjoy what he has now and forsake the possibilities that lie ahead. This little twist made it worth reading the book to the end even though I did not feel entirely impressed with the ability of the writing to capture my imagination or intrigue me in a significant way. So, at the very least, even though I would not say this is one of the best novels I have ever read, Sawyer does show his own potential for understanding some of the elements that can make a really good science fiction story. In addition to that the science is interwoven into the story in such a way that it is accessible both to those who seek plausibility in their science fiction and to those who are less concerned with the hard facts. His questions are clear, his answers succinct and somewhere deep inside there waits an impish spirit hoping to surprise and captivate. I was disappointed by this particular offering but I will read further Robert J. Sawyer novels to see how his writing may have progressed now that the future, at least in part, has arrived and is no longer a supposition but a reality.

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