Flashforward

Two minutes and seventeen seconds that changed the world

A scientific experiment begins, and as the button is pressed, the unexpected occurs: all seven billion people on Earth black out for more than two minutes. Millions die as planes fall from the sky, people tumble down staircases, and cars plow into each other. During that time, 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.

Was that shocking revelation a peek at the real, unalterable future, or was it only one of many possible futures? What happens when a man tries to change it, like the doctor who has twenty years to try to prevent his own murder? How will the foreknowledge of a part of “then” affect the experience of the “now”?

1018792082
Flashforward

Two minutes and seventeen seconds that changed the world

A scientific experiment begins, and as the button is pressed, the unexpected occurs: all seven billion people on Earth black out for more than two minutes. Millions die as planes fall from the sky, people tumble down staircases, and cars plow into each other. During that time, 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.

Was that shocking revelation a peek at the real, unalterable future, or was it only one of many possible futures? What happens when a man tries to change it, like the doctor who has twenty years to try to prevent his own murder? How will the foreknowledge of a part of “then” affect the experience of the “now”?

19.95 In Stock
Flashforward

Flashforward

by Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by Mark Deakins

Unabridged — 10 hours, 28 minutes

Flashforward

Flashforward

by Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by Mark Deakins

Unabridged — 10 hours, 28 minutes

Audiobook (Digital)

$19.95
(Not eligible for purchase using B&N Audiobooks Subscription credits)

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Overview

Two minutes and seventeen seconds that changed the world

A scientific experiment begins, and as the button is pressed, the unexpected occurs: all seven billion people on Earth black out for more than two minutes. Millions die as planes fall from the sky, people tumble down staircases, and cars plow into each other. During that time, 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.

Was that shocking revelation a peek at the real, unalterable future, or was it only one of many possible futures? What happens when a man tries to change it, like the doctor who has twenty years to try to prevent his own murder? How will the foreknowledge of a part of “then” affect the experience of the “now”?


Editorial Reviews

Imagine for just a moment that everyone on earth is "flashed forward," simultaneously thrust into his or her future 21 years hence. Then, just as suddenly, this insane scientific experiment snaps off, hurtling all the world's inhabitants back into the present. Now, as you're brushing yourself off from this shattering experience, introduce yourself to Robert J. Sawyer's bristling sci-fi novel on just that topic. A mass market revival of a 1999 cult favorite.

bn.com editor

The Barnes & Noble Review
At the CERN research facility near Geneva, Switzerland, in the spring of 2009, the countdown for a groundbreaking experiment ticks toward a completely unexpected, unprecedented event. A team of the world's brightest physicists is attempting to capture the ever-elusive Higgs Boson subatomic particle, and the coveted Nobel Prize in the process. But suddenly, something goes horribly awry. At the exact second that the experiment begins, every man, woman, and child on earth is privleged to a shocking, two-minute glimpse of themselves some 20 years in the future. For two minutes the world stops, as people everywhere experience their own remarkable visions. After the initial confusion in the wake of this catastrophe, the world is abuzz with speculation: Was this the real future, or one of many possible futures? In Fastforward, find out if uncovering a portion of the "then" will destroy what remains of the "now." Sawyer's a joy to read -- he's for intelligent readers, but doesn't bog you down with too much scientific mumbo jumbo. Although the science here is prevalent, it doesn't take an astrophysicist to understand what's going on. With efficient, easy-flowing prose, great characters, and a staggering premise, Flashforward is great stuff. It's a fascinating, hard sf thriller that is very much accessible to the mainstream reader.

--Andrew LeCount

Analog Science Fiction & Fact

...[A] novel full of very human pain and confusion on several levels, from the emotional ones of grief and love to the intellectual ones of theoretical physics and philosophy. If you've enjoyed Sawyer's novels before, you'll have fun with this one.

Kirkus Reviews

Science fiction involving particle physics, time travel, murder mystery, and relationships, from the author of Factoring Humanity (1998), etc. In 2009, at CERN, Geneva's Large Hadron Collider, physicists Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procopides attempt to find the elusive Higgs boson by smashing particles together at colossal energies. But at the instant the experiment begins, the entire world blanks out for about two minutes. When consciousness is restored, millions have died in accidents. Nearly everyone else experienced a hallucination or vision. This was, it emerges, a genuine glimpse of the year 2030. Lloyd is very disturbed; he's due to wed the beautiful Michiko—her daughter died in the Flashforward—but his vision showed him happily married to another woman. Others foresaw sexual encounters and so seek out the partners revealed in their visions; still others have foreknowledge of investments or lottery numbers. But poor Theo had no vision; he'll be dead and must solve the problem of his own murder! Lloyd, still reluctant to commit to Michiko, believes the future to be as immutable as the past. He's proved wrong, however. An attempt to replicate the Flashforward fails, but Lloyd and Theo do detect the Higgs particle. They discover that the Flashforward was caused by their experiment's interaction with a neutrino shower from a distant supernova. So, the third attempt is timed to coincide with another neutrino shower. Theo finally learns how and why he was murdered. But this Flashforward is a disappointment, leaping far into a future when only a handful of immortals still survive. Intriguing ideas, but not satisfyingly dramatized, with explicative passages clumsily inserted into ascattershot narrative.

Product Details

BN ID: 2940169804065
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date: 06/23/2008
Edition description: Unabridged
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