Flashback: Roman (German Edition)
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Review
'This is Simmons doing detective noir with an SF sheen ... Simmons has, as ever, created a compelling, believable cast of characters, but it's not really Nick Bottom's travails that make this such a startling read. His trajectory is tightly plotted and there's an emotional undertow to his actions that's easy to empathise with, sure, but it's the world Simmons has made that's the thing here, a world that sits right next to ours and might actually be our world if we're not too careful - and it's not too late. This is a provocative, frightening book ... Flashback is a fascinating read and many, no doubt, will be outraged at what it suggests. It's a book that will stay with you days after you finish it, chewing over its implications and precedents; but it's also a thrilling detective novel with a grand compelling mystery at its centre and more heart than you might think' SFX.
'...nothing will prepare you for Flashback, a book as relentlessly compelling and unsettling as it punishing to read ... Simmons accomplishes this mood so well that it's difficult to fault the book for essentially excelling at creating atmosphere and complex history for this universe' Sci-Fi Now.
'...nothing will prepare you for Flashback, a book as relentlessly compelling and unsettling as it punishing to read ... Simmons accomplishes this mood so well that it's difficult to fault the book for essentially excelling at creating atmosphere and complex history for this universe' Sci-Fi Now.
Product Description
America, 2036: a wasteland in economic ruin. Terrorism and ultra-violence plague a once powerful society, whose only escape is to numb itself on flashback - a euphoric yet cripplingly addictive drug that allows its users to re-visit their happier, past experiences. Ex-cop Nick Bottom is about to receive a proposition. Flashback dependency has taken his badge, his reputation, and the love of his son. All he has left are the flash-induced memories of his beloved wife, Dara, taken from him in a tragic car accident. Now powerful magnate Hiroshi Nakamura needs Bottom's services, and, in particular, his memories. As head of the original investigation into the murder of Nakamura's son - an unsolved and seemingly impossible mystery - Bottom's flashbacks now, six years later, hold the key to solving what was the toughest case of his career. But as Nick delves deeper, the harder it becomes to trust those around him. And when he uncovers a connection to Dara's death, it is not only Hiroshi Nakamura who wants answers.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm not a fan of US right-wing politics. Nor do I think well of Dan Simmons's personal politics -- and neither would be worth mentioning if that scatter-shot set of nationalist fear-mongering beliefs weren't reflected so strongly in this book. Nearly every chapter had an awkward, suspension-of-disbelief shattering callback to the current events of 2008-2010. I felt physically thrown out of the story every time I read about Obama's campaign, or a mosque at Ground Zero, or that global warming hoax, or...well, you name it -- if Glenn Beck has cried about it or Fox News has pontificated over it, it's here.
If it were simply a matter of world-building, that would be fine. I found nothing wrong with the future he painted; indeed, it was an interesting and thought-provoking scenario with the quirks and curve-balls I expect from a Simmons novel. Even the politics themselves aren't the issue -- it's the heavy-handedness, the constant intrusion of the author shattering the experience.
Authorial intrusion on this scale is especially obnoxious because Dan Simmons knows better. One quote that he's often referenced in his own Writing Well series comes from Gustave Flaubert: "In his work, the artist should be like God in creation: invisible and all-powerful. He should be felt everywhere and seen nowhere."
Unfortunately you see Dan Simmons shining through every time a character in the 2030s, in a bankrupted, drug-addicted, drawn-and-quartered United States, ruminates over the concerns and uniquely American fears of the present day. This never-ending interruption very nearly ruined what would have otherwise been another spectacular work from a spectacular writer.
I say "very nearly" for good reason. Excepting these jarring anachronisms, the story itself was a page-turner and every bit the expected Dan Simmons novel. A combination of well-written characters, glorious scenery-painting, an excellent story, and a compelling, thought-provoking circumstance show that Simmons remains a master of his craft, a writer who truly cares about his art.
For that reason, I can't bring myself to rate this book badly. Despite all the imaginary face-palms and eye-rolling, feeling like I was hitting speed-bumps every 20 pages, this book was not as awful as some of the other politically-motivated reviews suggest. This is not the high point of Dan Simmon's authorial career, but neither is this a truly awful book.
I can't give it the full five stars, as I was regularly and unapologetically thrown out of the story, but minus those moments this is a well-written and fun read in the same vein as Dan Simmons's other works.
If it were simply a matter of world-building, that would be fine. I found nothing wrong with the future he painted; indeed, it was an interesting and thought-provoking scenario with the quirks and curve-balls I expect from a Simmons novel. Even the politics themselves aren't the issue -- it's the heavy-handedness, the constant intrusion of the author shattering the experience.
Authorial intrusion on this scale is especially obnoxious because Dan Simmons knows better. One quote that he's often referenced in his own Writing Well series comes from Gustave Flaubert: "In his work, the artist should be like God in creation: invisible and all-powerful. He should be felt everywhere and seen nowhere."
Unfortunately you see Dan Simmons shining through every time a character in the 2030s, in a bankrupted, drug-addicted, drawn-and-quartered United States, ruminates over the concerns and uniquely American fears of the present day. This never-ending interruption very nearly ruined what would have otherwise been another spectacular work from a spectacular writer.
I say "very nearly" for good reason. Excepting these jarring anachronisms, the story itself was a page-turner and every bit the expected Dan Simmons novel. A combination of well-written characters, glorious scenery-painting, an excellent story, and a compelling, thought-provoking circumstance show that Simmons remains a master of his craft, a writer who truly cares about his art.
For that reason, I can't bring myself to rate this book badly. Despite all the imaginary face-palms and eye-rolling, feeling like I was hitting speed-bumps every 20 pages, this book was not as awful as some of the other politically-motivated reviews suggest. This is not the high point of Dan Simmon's authorial career, but neither is this a truly awful book.
I can't give it the full five stars, as I was regularly and unapologetically thrown out of the story, but minus those moments this is a well-written and fun read in the same vein as Dan Simmons's other works.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The question I have to ask myself is am I annoyed at this book (and I am annoyed at this book) because its plot and characterisation are poor (another book that deals with disgruntled wayward son and estranged father? What is it about the father son relationship that American authors in particular get so hung up on?) or is it because the author so clearly has a vision of the world (as is and what its going to become) that is reactionary, anti Muslim (though I suspect he would say its anti fundamentalism - not sure I'd agree), and in political terms somewhere to the right of the TEA party.
Don't get me wrong I like (if that's the right term in this instance) good dystopian fiction, SF is littered with warnings about what might happen and how characters would react / live in such a society and like the best SF it's a comentary of what's happening now in the so called real world.
But Flashback isn't in that catergory.
Flashback postulates a world where appeasment to Islam is the norm, democracy is not only dead but should never have been invented, and Japan is going to be the new superpower having forged an alliance with elements in the USA (that might be giving a way a bit of the plot).
And all of this comes about by an economic collapse triggered in part by the USA introducing proper health care for its poorest citizens? Apparently it has absolutely nothing to do with Banks playing roulette with other people's money or a large percentage of very rich people doing their best not to pay taxes.
This is reactionary SF of the worst kind but still I might even have forgiven it if not for the crack about the UK for (slightly paraphrasing here) introducing the evils of the NHS.
So to answer my own question; what is annoying about this book?
I think the answer is just about everything.
Don't get me wrong I like (if that's the right term in this instance) good dystopian fiction, SF is littered with warnings about what might happen and how characters would react / live in such a society and like the best SF it's a comentary of what's happening now in the so called real world.
But Flashback isn't in that catergory.
Flashback postulates a world where appeasment to Islam is the norm, democracy is not only dead but should never have been invented, and Japan is going to be the new superpower having forged an alliance with elements in the USA (that might be giving a way a bit of the plot).
And all of this comes about by an economic collapse triggered in part by the USA introducing proper health care for its poorest citizens? Apparently it has absolutely nothing to do with Banks playing roulette with other people's money or a large percentage of very rich people doing their best not to pay taxes.
This is reactionary SF of the worst kind but still I might even have forgiven it if not for the crack about the UK for (slightly paraphrasing here) introducing the evils of the NHS.
So to answer my own question; what is annoying about this book?
I think the answer is just about everything.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Simmons can do so much better than this feeble attempt at a near future dystopia. With its right wing paranoid politics, almost racist depictions of any culture not Caucasian and a hackneyed noir style, this book fails to convince. Sub- Dan Brown plotting made me wonder how Simmons was so brilliant with his shrike novels. Mc Carthy's The Road is so far ahead of this pulp - as a Hyperion to a Satyre (to use a grindingly obvious literary allusion like those that pepper this book and only seem to serve to show us that Simmons has read some decent writing). The last one that I buy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Islamophobia makes for ugly reading
After reading The Terror a couple of years ago, I was looking forward to reading another Dan Simmons. Read more
Published 14 days ago by bennyben80
Maybe it's a joke?
Or perhaps the real Dan Simmons has been kidnapped by space aliens, or been replaced by his evil doppelganger from another dimension. Read more
Published 1 month ago by NICK
Brave and compelling
As the reviewers here show, it's very difficult to write near-future science fiction without causing offense. Read more
Published 1 month ago by JPMT
Life in the absence of virtue
Yet again, polyeidetic Dan Simmons nails the fate of postmodern human self-identity: man without morals, everyone seeing everyone else idiosyncratically. Read more
Published 2 months ago by FrDarryl Jordan
Wasted money
The story line such as it is, is pretty straight forward and the "twist" in the last few pages is about as surprising as a fairy tale beginning with "once upon a time". Read more
Published 2 months ago by Paul_B
Grim, realistic and mature
A very very near and inevitable future. Mere 20 years away. Much of what happened in the book in these years, I predicted in 2006 that it is going to happen soon and guess what? Read more
Published 3 months ago by _astra_
Interesting sci-fi, weak political rant
On one hand we have a tautly written thriller set in a future dystopia that is all too believable. On the other, we have an appallingly clunky political polemic the lurches from... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Martin Anderson
Tea Party Paranoia
I recommend Flashback wholeheartedly as it's a Memento style puzzle of a book.
Now I reckon a few previous reviewers have taken the political philosophy spouted by the... Read more
Now I reckon a few previous reviewers have taken the political philosophy spouted by the... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Sterckx
Truly disappointing
If you are a Dan Simmons fan, back away from this page, never pick up Flashback, and hope his next book will be as good as Hyperion and Carrion Comfort. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Zeynep CB
mmmm....Right wing garbage but a good story in there somewhere
I love Dan Simmons. In fact, his Sci Fi is quintessential if not mandatory reading by anyone who feels they are a sci fi fan. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Damon Doyle
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