FlashForward
I just finished FlashForward, the novel by Robert Sawyer.
I read the novel because I have been enjoying the TV series, and was curious about how the novel differed.
I assume that, if you're reading this post, you know what the show is about. Or you have way too much time on your hands, in which case you have the time to google FlashForward and find out for yourself.
The show has been doing pretty well ratings-wise. It debuted this fall, ABC had ordered 13 episodes. But it attracted so many viewers that ABC increased their order to a full 22 episode season. Unfortunately, even though ABC has enough confidence in the show to put it on Thursday nights (when only the most competitive shows are scheduled), no series can currently stand up to the ratings juggernaut that is Fox's American Idol. For this reason, ABC aired up to episode 10 in December, and won't resume broadcasting the show until March 18. Fortunately, learning a lesson from LOST, the network will be airing the remaining 12 episodes each week, with no reruns or pre-emptions, until the conclusion in May.
The novel was published in 1999, but it takes place in April, 2009. He wrote the novel as taking place in the near future presumably because he wanted the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) built by CERN to be a central feature of the story, and the LHC wasn't scheduled to be completed until late 2008. (CERN is the Club for Europeans Researching Nukes. The LHC is a magic ring they created to reveal the secrets of the universe. The LHC is over 5 miles across, and buried 500 feet underground. It can only be worn by creatures with gigantic brains. Learn more in the rap video below.) The building of the LHC was apparently exciting news at the end of the 20th century, because FlashForward is not the only novel to feature it. It also plays a part in Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, published in 2000.
The novel is pretty good, though very different from the TV show. The paperback is 320 pages, but the story moves along quickly.
Because the novel basically takes place today, but was written a decade ago, there are a few amusing missed guesses about what the world of 2009 would be like. For example, Dueen Elizabeth II has died, Prince Charles has gone mad, and his son, William, has refused to take the throne. As a result, the royal figurehead position has been abolished in England. Also, bookstores in the future world of 2009 still sell books, but they only keep one copy of each title on the shelves, as a display copy. Then, if you want to buy the book, they print it on demand in about ten minutes. At least that way they never run out of stock. But that's just detail.
Mostly, the book is about people dealing with their glimpses of the future.
The TV show is a big, LOST-style mystery, with the FBI uncovering conspiracies and searching for the cause of the FlashForward. But the novel is more about ordinary people dealing with what to do with their daily lives, knowing that their futures may be very different from what they expect.
In the novel, the FlashForward gives people a glimpse of a time 21 years in the future, unlike the TV show, which puts the FlashForward at six months. In the year 2030, newspapers will be digital plastic sheets. So will computers, and they will be voice-activated. Cars will hover slightly above the ground, and will also be voice-activated, driving passengers automatically.
The novel centers around a handful of physicists at CERN, while the TV show centers on the FBI agents investigating the mystery, and their friends and families. The protagonist of the novel, Dr. Lloyd Simcoe, is the only character who also appears in the TV show. Otherwise, there is no real carryover of characters. But some similar themes are explored in both media.
In the novel, CERN researcher Lloyd Simcoe is engaged to Michiko Komura. He is using the LHC to conduct an experiment. This experiment, presumably, causes the FlashForward. 21 years in the future, he is happily married to someone else. This puts Lloyd in an emotional upheaval. Plus, he has to deal with his emotionally fragile fiancee, whose daughter from a previous marriage was killed as a result of the FlashForward. Unlike the TV show, Lloyd doesn't have a son. But his main FlashForward-related conflict is, what is the meaning of a future infidelity to a present relationship? This is not unlike Dr. Olivia Benford's conflict on the TV show.
The fact that Lloyd's experiment caused the FlashForward is known, at least to Lloyd if not the world at large, from basically the beginning of the story. So there is no big mystery of what caused it, and if the FBI is investigating it, it isn't mentioned in the book.
Lloyd's colleague, Theo Procopides, does not have a FlashForward. He soon realizes that this is because he is dead in the future. His story is more like a murder mystery, as he travels around seeking out people who have had visions which relate to his death. Not unlike on the TV show, CERN sets up the Mosaic website to allow people to post what they saw in their FlashForwards. This includes people who read about his murder in the newspaper or saw the report on the TV news, but as it progresses, includes people who had more personal knowledge of his death. For example, at one point he tracks down the police detective who investigates his murder. His FlashForward took place while he was observing Theo's autopsy, which freaked him out because he was just a kid in 2009.
SPOILER
He doesn't ever find out the story behind his murder, but the final chapters of the story take place in 2030, when Theo and the now-adult cop manage to thwart his murder and the full story is revealed.
Theo's conflict is coping with his impending doom, and trying to prevent it. This is not unlike FBI Agent Demitri Noh on the TV show.
Although Lloyd is the only character who shares his name with a character from the TV show, Theo has a brother named Demitrios. He is an aspiring novelist, but his FlashForward reveals that he will be waiting tables 21 years in the future. The certain knowledge of his professional failure sends him into a depression that results in his suicide. This is a significant development, because it provides conclusive evidence that the futures glimpsed in the FlashForwards are not set in stone. This is not unlike FBI Agent Al Gough, who, after a FlashForward reveals that he will cause the death of an innocent woman, commits suicide to prevent her death, and thus proves that the future can be changed.
Jacob Horowitz, a nerdy, romantically-unsuccessful grad student working at CERN, has a FlashForward that he will be in a relationship with a woman he barely even knows in 2009. As a result, he tracks her down and they start dating. This is a little reminiscent of medical intern Bryce Varley, who has a FlashForward that he is in a relationship with a Japanese woman. Inspired by this, he subsequently goes to Japan to (unsuccessfully) seek out his future love.
SPOILER
The scientists attempt to reproduce the experiment and get another FlashForward. They are unsuccessful, because as it turns out, the LHC experiment was only part of the cause. The original experiment happened to occur at the same time as the earth was hit by a neutrino burst from a far-off star. The next time such an event would occur is 2030, which is why that is the time people originally glimpsed.
It should be no surprise that the TV show is different from the novel, though in this case the difference is quite large. A fan of the novel looking forward to seeing their favorite scenes and characters brought to life would be quite disappointed with the TV show. The two are very different entities. The TV show is more like a big mystery show that happens to involve some of the same issues as the novel. The novel goes into much more depth with the scientific theories underlying the FlashForward, whereas the TV series will simplify such matters. Sawyer is involved with the TV series, and will be writing one of the May episodes.
The official word is that the explanation of the FlashForward will be somewhat different for the TV show. Plus, they are putting in all sorts of other mystery elements, including government conspiracies, dead birds, and blue hands. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all develops. And I'm glad that the TV series FlashForward is only six months, so the mystery isn't dragged out beyond my attention span.
I read the novel because I have been enjoying the TV series, and was curious about how the novel differed.
I assume that, if you're reading this post, you know what the show is about. Or you have way too much time on your hands, in which case you have the time to google FlashForward and find out for yourself.
The show has been doing pretty well ratings-wise. It debuted this fall, ABC had ordered 13 episodes. But it attracted so many viewers that ABC increased their order to a full 22 episode season. Unfortunately, even though ABC has enough confidence in the show to put it on Thursday nights (when only the most competitive shows are scheduled), no series can currently stand up to the ratings juggernaut that is Fox's American Idol. For this reason, ABC aired up to episode 10 in December, and won't resume broadcasting the show until March 18. Fortunately, learning a lesson from LOST, the network will be airing the remaining 12 episodes each week, with no reruns or pre-emptions, until the conclusion in May.
The novel was published in 1999, but it takes place in April, 2009. He wrote the novel as taking place in the near future presumably because he wanted the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) built by CERN to be a central feature of the story, and the LHC wasn't scheduled to be completed until late 2008. (CERN is the Club for Europeans Researching Nukes. The LHC is a magic ring they created to reveal the secrets of the universe. The LHC is over 5 miles across, and buried 500 feet underground. It can only be worn by creatures with gigantic brains. Learn more in the rap video below.) The building of the LHC was apparently exciting news at the end of the 20th century, because FlashForward is not the only novel to feature it. It also plays a part in Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, published in 2000.
Click to viewThe novel is pretty good, though very different from the TV show. The paperback is 320 pages, but the story moves along quickly.
Because the novel basically takes place today, but was written a decade ago, there are a few amusing missed guesses about what the world of 2009 would be like. For example, Dueen Elizabeth II has died, Prince Charles has gone mad, and his son, William, has refused to take the throne. As a result, the royal figurehead position has been abolished in England. Also, bookstores in the future world of 2009 still sell books, but they only keep one copy of each title on the shelves, as a display copy. Then, if you want to buy the book, they print it on demand in about ten minutes. At least that way they never run out of stock. But that's just detail.
Mostly, the book is about people dealing with their glimpses of the future.
The TV show is a big, LOST-style mystery, with the FBI uncovering conspiracies and searching for the cause of the FlashForward. But the novel is more about ordinary people dealing with what to do with their daily lives, knowing that their futures may be very different from what they expect.
In the novel, the FlashForward gives people a glimpse of a time 21 years in the future, unlike the TV show, which puts the FlashForward at six months. In the year 2030, newspapers will be digital plastic sheets. So will computers, and they will be voice-activated. Cars will hover slightly above the ground, and will also be voice-activated, driving passengers automatically.
The novel centers around a handful of physicists at CERN, while the TV show centers on the FBI agents investigating the mystery, and their friends and families. The protagonist of the novel, Dr. Lloyd Simcoe, is the only character who also appears in the TV show. Otherwise, there is no real carryover of characters. But some similar themes are explored in both media.
In the novel, CERN researcher Lloyd Simcoe is engaged to Michiko Komura. He is using the LHC to conduct an experiment. This experiment, presumably, causes the FlashForward. 21 years in the future, he is happily married to someone else. This puts Lloyd in an emotional upheaval. Plus, he has to deal with his emotionally fragile fiancee, whose daughter from a previous marriage was killed as a result of the FlashForward. Unlike the TV show, Lloyd doesn't have a son. But his main FlashForward-related conflict is, what is the meaning of a future infidelity to a present relationship? This is not unlike Dr. Olivia Benford's conflict on the TV show.
The fact that Lloyd's experiment caused the FlashForward is known, at least to Lloyd if not the world at large, from basically the beginning of the story. So there is no big mystery of what caused it, and if the FBI is investigating it, it isn't mentioned in the book.
Lloyd's colleague, Theo Procopides, does not have a FlashForward. He soon realizes that this is because he is dead in the future. His story is more like a murder mystery, as he travels around seeking out people who have had visions which relate to his death. Not unlike on the TV show, CERN sets up the Mosaic website to allow people to post what they saw in their FlashForwards. This includes people who read about his murder in the newspaper or saw the report on the TV news, but as it progresses, includes people who had more personal knowledge of his death. For example, at one point he tracks down the police detective who investigates his murder. His FlashForward took place while he was observing Theo's autopsy, which freaked him out because he was just a kid in 2009.
SPOILER
He doesn't ever find out the story behind his murder, but the final chapters of the story take place in 2030, when Theo and the now-adult cop manage to thwart his murder and the full story is revealed.
Theo's conflict is coping with his impending doom, and trying to prevent it. This is not unlike FBI Agent Demitri Noh on the TV show.
Although Lloyd is the only character who shares his name with a character from the TV show, Theo has a brother named Demitrios. He is an aspiring novelist, but his FlashForward reveals that he will be waiting tables 21 years in the future. The certain knowledge of his professional failure sends him into a depression that results in his suicide. This is a significant development, because it provides conclusive evidence that the futures glimpsed in the FlashForwards are not set in stone. This is not unlike FBI Agent Al Gough, who, after a FlashForward reveals that he will cause the death of an innocent woman, commits suicide to prevent her death, and thus proves that the future can be changed.
Jacob Horowitz, a nerdy, romantically-unsuccessful grad student working at CERN, has a FlashForward that he will be in a relationship with a woman he barely even knows in 2009. As a result, he tracks her down and they start dating. This is a little reminiscent of medical intern Bryce Varley, who has a FlashForward that he is in a relationship with a Japanese woman. Inspired by this, he subsequently goes to Japan to (unsuccessfully) seek out his future love.
SPOILER
The scientists attempt to reproduce the experiment and get another FlashForward. They are unsuccessful, because as it turns out, the LHC experiment was only part of the cause. The original experiment happened to occur at the same time as the earth was hit by a neutrino burst from a far-off star. The next time such an event would occur is 2030, which is why that is the time people originally glimpsed.
It should be no surprise that the TV show is different from the novel, though in this case the difference is quite large. A fan of the novel looking forward to seeing their favorite scenes and characters brought to life would be quite disappointed with the TV show. The two are very different entities. The TV show is more like a big mystery show that happens to involve some of the same issues as the novel. The novel goes into much more depth with the scientific theories underlying the FlashForward, whereas the TV series will simplify such matters. Sawyer is involved with the TV series, and will be writing one of the May episodes.
The official word is that the explanation of the FlashForward will be somewhat different for the TV show. Plus, they are putting in all sorts of other mystery elements, including government conspiracies, dead birds, and blue hands. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all develops. And I'm glad that the TV series FlashForward is only six months, so the mystery isn't dragged out beyond my attention span.