Monday 25 January 2010

SCIENCE FICTION REVIEW: Flash Forward & Wake - Robert J Sawyer

BOOK BLURB:

Suddenly everyone in the world loses consciousness for two minutes. Planes fall from the sky, there are millions of car crashes, millions die. And when everyone comes round they have had a glimpse of their life in the future.

When it awakes the world must live with the knowledge of what is to come.

Some saw themselves in new relationships, some saw exciting new technologies, some saw the stuff of nightmares. Some, young and old alike, saw nothing at all . . .

A desperate search to find out what has happened begins. Does the mosaic of visions offer a clue?

What did you see?

Now the basis for the Channel 5 hit series FLASHFORWARD


REVIEW:

Books that deal with a glimpse of the future at times have gone on to inspire mankind in its creativity, however what is presented within is a brief glimpse for each human into their own future 21 years ahead. Which allows each to examine that part in the minutae and not get the full picture as if mankind were being manipulated by the gods and taunted with the possibilities in much the same way that the Cyclops of ancient Greece were.

Beautifully written and whilst its dated over ten years ago its inspired a tv series that will have many people hoping for answers from within this novels pages. A great look into the possibilities and the madness knowning our own future would inspire but upon whom is the great cosmic joke and what exactly does this portent precede? This was a book that kept me gripped from the first few pages to the last and is definitely something that’s a tad different to the norm of the usual fiction that’s out there.



BOOK BLURB:

Caitlin Decter is young, pretty, feisty, a matematics genius-and blind. Still, she can surf the net with the best of them, following its complex paths clearly in her mind. But Caitlin's brain long ago co-opted her primary visual cortex to help her navigate online. So when she receives an implant to restore her sight, instead of seeing reality, the landscape of the World Wide Web explodes into her consciousness, spreading out all around her in a riot of colors and shapes. While exploring this amazing realm, she discovers something-some other-lurking in the background. And it's getting more and more intelligent with each passing day. The first of a spellbinding future history trilogy that charts what will happen when the world's first first, and superior, artificial-intelligence is born in the web.


REVIEW:

Wake is another future classic from Robert and the start of a news series for him, in which the principle protagonist learns to see the web and learns of the consiousness stirring within.

As with Flash Forward its beautifully sculpted. The characters a triumph especially with the care and consideration of the protagonista which I really love with an overall story arc that just flows from the page into the readers imagination. Add to this an attention to detail and research that really will make you grasp without the utilisation of an info dump and I think that Robert will be a name to flag as perhaps one of the future names to judge the genre by.

Imaginative, Creative and hopefully one that will inspire readers to reach for thier dreams in much the same way Clarke or Asimov have for previous generations.

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