Flashback

Absolutely loved The Terror. Really liked Drood. Hyperion was pretty darned good too.

But this book? Holy sh*t!

I'll take a guess that the author never put it past an editor. The book is 80% overwritten -- and chock full of the author's political rants. I mean do we really need to know about how much you hate the Boulder, CO city council? For christ's sake. Does the truck driver really need to launch off on a long tirade about the 2012 election?

This book is absolute crap. I've tried to push through the audiobook, and even at disk 13, I just can't do it. I hate the characters. The plot is absolute crap.

I'm guessing that Simmons was either high on crack or had a stroke. Or high on crack and then had a stroke. And then decided he didn't need an editor any more. And then someone decided to let him have his way and publish it anyway.

I'm writing this review without having finished the final 3 disks of the audiobook, and it makes me angry because I still want to know about the core-thread of the plot -- what happened with his wife? What is Flash2? Who killed the billionaire's son? But I just can't do it, guys. It's really messing with my commute and the road rage is starting to come back. Urgh.

LESSON LEARNED: Don't pre-order Dan Simmons' books anymore. Wait for other readers to post their reviews and then make my decision.

Flashback spooked me since I see the real potential of something like this coming true. With young men addicted to their video games and young women addicted to social media (seriously do they ever put their phones down???) and the forgotten lower middle class addicted to opiates and alcohol we have a basis to believe a drug like flashback could actually take the country down.

While being a very decent detective story with many twist and turns there are - as many have pointed out - some political/cultural elements injected throughout. Some readers seem really taken aback by this, and of course the leftist troll network has chimed in with many 1 star reviews. I SAY SO WHAT!!!! I read a lot of James Lee Burke novels and sense his left wing slant all over his work - who cares - I still love his stories. Man just get over it. Besides it is the political/cultural rot that would lead to such disenchantment that could usher in a world like that which is described in this story.

All in all it's a super interesting near-future scenario that is not so far fetched, not really. Cry babies who can't handle any critique of their political hero should just read something else.

I agree with Dangerous Dan, a pretty good story line with an interesting world to describe it in.

The book was too neo-conservative for me.

I usually grab anything by Dan Simmons but this was the first one that was so anti-liberal.

Dan Simmons has written some terrific novels over the years including his Hyperion series of books. I also enjoyed Drood: A Novel although Black Hills: A Novelthe most recent book prior to this one lost me. I was a bit surprised that Flashback continues a decline in the quality of Simmons' novels.

Set 20 years from now as the U.S. faces economic and social collapse, "Flashback" focuses on former cop Nick Bottom's search for the killer of a government advisor's son. This provides a chance for Nick to escape his own drug addiction--he's using the drug flashback that allows the user to vividly relive past memories trapping them in a spiral of drug abuse and the past. Nick's addiction is to the memory of his wife who died in a car accident. He has to shake his own addiction to complete his assignment but finds a twisting, unexpected conspiracy at the heart of the mystery he's trying to solve.

The main flaw with this dystopian mystery thriller is that Simmons lets politics get in the way of a potentially good story. Every novel has a point-of-view (something that Simmons dismisses later) and there's nothing wrong with that as long as you know that going in.

In the "Reading Group Guide" at the conclusion of the novel Simmons claims that he believes "Flashback" doesn't betray his political beliefs and that, as a novelist, he is able to avoid this trap. Sorry Dan I don't buy it. You then go on about your political beliefs in this same section which reflects some of the observations and the "world" that you've built in your book.

The second flaw is much less forgiveable. Many of Simmons characters in this book lack the depth and the writing itself seems much more by-the-numbers compared to his previous efforts. The good news is that the clever plotting redeems these flaws somewhat.

If you can get past the heavy handed politics (Simmons claims that he is, like other authors of dystopian novels, just a "canary in a coal mine" warning us of the potential economic and political toxins surrounding us. He could be right but there's a lack of subtly in "Flashback" that works against completely letting go and enjoying it), "Flashback" does have enough of the old Simmons magic to make it at least interesting enough to dig through this 500 plus page novel.

I personally found the plot and premise interesting enough to forgive the heavy handed detour into the politically charged scenery here. "Flashback" is a better written novel than "Black Hills" but you'll need to ignore the debris that threatens to bury the fascinating premise and story presented here.

Despite some of the other reviews, this is a masterful novel about reality and what it means to be human. It's sci-fi canvas makes light of what is a deep and thoughtful novel, fast-paced and politically insightful, that will keep you wondering until the last page. Dan Simmons' thought-provoking world is almost too realistic and frightening, but will remind you of what matters for a long time.

Set twenty years from now, in Flashback Simmons envisions an America rapidly disintegrating. The economy has collapsed and hyperinflation set in after the nation has been bankrupted by entitlement programs like Obamacare. "Green" energy policy has failed and our industrial infrastructure lies in ruins. Racial and religious Balkanization is tearing the country apart. Texas has seceded, as have Hawaii (which briefly became a monarchy again before being taken over by Japan) and the People's Republic of Boulder (formerly part of the state of Colorado), and Mexico has reclaimed Arizona, New Mexico, and southern California. Major entertainment venues such as sports arenas and amusement parks have been converted into prisons, Homeland Security "detention centers", and refugee camps for the few hundred thousand Jews who survived the nuclear annihilation of Israel, and a global Islamic caliphate rules not only the Middle East, but Africa, most of Europe, and Canada. Illiteracy, crime, gang violence, terrorism, and substance abuse and chemical dependency abound. With the help of these last (and the indoctrination of public "education" in multiculturalism and political correctness), most Americans have gradually become inured to the situation. Specifically, most Americans are addicted to a new drug called flashback, which allows its users to not merely remember but relive happier times.

Despite this dystopian, sci-fi setting, the story is really more of a noirish mystery (as though Simmons has been reading a lot of Frank Miller and Mickey Spillane---Flashback reads like Mike Hammer in Hell). Former detective (and flashback addict) Nick Bottom is hired to investigate the five-year-old murder of the son of one of Japan's "advisors" to what's left of the United States. But the further he progresses into the investigation, the more there seems to be at stake---perhaps even the future of nations.

So far, most reviewers are reacting negatively to what they perceive to be the novel's political slant---but they're missing the point. Simmons has explicitly denied that the dystopian setting represents his own political views (and from what I can gather from essays and things he's written, my best guess is that his views are actually closest to some sort of Jeffersonian agrarianism)---though he does seem to be genuinely (and appropriately) concerned with some of these issues, such as runaway government spending. But the book is simply a dystopian projection of current government policies---and more, of the ideologies behind our cultural trends. And the theme of the story is not "Obama bad", but the danger of living in the past.

To be sure, other writers have done this sort of near-future scenario before (Robert Ferrigno's Assassin trilogy comes to mind), but Simmons does it better. All in all, while this isn't one of his best novels, and while it's in some ways even bleaker than The Terror and Drood, Flashback is something of a return to form for Simmons. After his last few, I hadn't gotten around to reading this one until now, over six months after its release---but now, I'll be eagerly awaiting his next book!

And now, I've just received my copy of another near-future dystopian thriller that came out this week, Living Proof by Kira Peikoff...time to see what happens if the Republican candidate wins this November! If there's any truth in fiction, it looks like we're screwed either way...

Love this book! Especially well done and well conceived speculation as to what could happen here if both Orwell and Huxley are right about human proclivities. The very concept of the flashback drug is amazing and the consequences of its use well thought out.

You know I read all of the other reviewers' warnings about the political stuff in this book before I decided to buy it. I thought maybe the reviewers were just being overly sensitive. The premise of the book sounded really interesting, and I've enjoyed other books by Simmons in the past. Although I thought DROOD was a total snore.)

Seriously, I could not get through a third of this book. The political nonsense in here is ridiculously heavy handed, xenophobic, borderline racist and just largely unnecessary to the story. Its so similar to the problems with Tom Clancy's latest book, you have to wonder if Simmons and Clancy are hanging out together in tea party chatrooms or something.

I would argue that even the most ardent Republican reading this book would stop and say WTF??? Did I really just read five pages complaining about Obama's rally in Denver and what did that have to do with this cop trying to solve a murder??? Then again, who knows. Maybe there is an audience of people who will read this book and nod to themselves that they knew all along the native American and Mexicans infiltrating our universities would lead to the collapse of the US and people would one day be openly celebrating 9/11 as a holiday in Los Angeles.

Yeah seriously. That stuff is in this book.

Last Dan Simmons book I will ever waste my money on.

Buried within this book is a passable post apocalyptic mystery. Normally I would award a book like this three stars and damn it with faint praise. One star is given to to something so bad that it has to be experienced as a stick in the sand from which to measure all of the other bad Sci fi floating around the net.
There is one redeeming value to this book. For those of that could never understand the abject fear that drives the T-bagger party; here is the explanation. For every incomprehensible and ridiculous calamity that that this future inflicts on the USA, there is a rant linking it to a current T-bagger talking point. This author obviously has an agenda that he expresses through the voices of various characters. (I use the plural of the word character, but it all came across as one shrill voice for far right wing values.)
If this is how T-baggers see the future i can understand the migration to abandoned missile silos.
I was looking for entertainment and got Fox and Friends meet Thunderdome.

Simmons is normally a talented author because, while fantastic, his settings and characters have a certain believability about them that engages the reader. Unfortunately, the future envisioned in Flashback is hopelessly unrealistic, and the characters all have a bizarre right-wing political slant to their thinking that becomes extremely annoying over time. Let me get this straight -- Muslim extremists band together with China to take over the world and out research the US with better technology? How exactly is that going to happen?

Of particular annoyance to me personally is Simmons's coverage of Japan, conveyed through a murder investigation, which is superficial and stereotypical. Wow! Simmons knows what a tatami is! Does he have to make such a big deal about it? This is the 21st century where people can look this stuff up. Continuing on, his future extension of Japan and Japanese relies on an unarticulated scenario where Japan's bubble economy and the bad habits associated with it continue for another 70 years. Except that one of his characters, looking back at the past, warns of a disaster thanks to Obama's policies -- just like Japan. It's little screw-ups like this that convey the lack of thought and effort put into the novel, which is a departure from better-written novels by Simmons. Sadly, I could not finish the novel, which is a first for me. Let me suggest Simmons find a new editor or muse. This novel is a disaster.

If you want to read about a protagonist stuck in a dystopian future that is far more believable and engaging, I would suggest 'Player One."

I've read and enjoyed literally everything Simmons has written. Hyperion and Song of Kali both rank in my top 5 books by contemporary authors.

This, however, is awful. It takes a twisted view of politics from a hyper-conservative Colorado perspective on the world. I don't care if I agree with it or not, this is political propaganda at its worst. Story-telling gets tossed under the bus in one of the worst things I've read in the last three decades.

Dan, find a venue for your politics and share those views there.

Find a venue for your fiction, and write it there.

Don't combine the two.

Separation of church and state?

I'd like some separation of politics and fiction. If that doesn't work for you, I will respect that and also know when to say I stopped reading your works.

I was going to write a review mentioning the same thing in riva kelton's " great book and I'm a liberal" .. but riva beat me to it ! :P

I'm so liberal I'm practically socialist and I still enjoyed this book.. I'm not sure it's the "epic saga" other reviewers say it is.. I reserve such praise for classics like Stephen King's " The Stand " or Gunslinger (first 3 books that is) series or George Martin's " Wild Cards" (the older books back when they were still good), Joel Rosenberg's " Guardians of the Flames" (may the poor man rest in peace) or Weis and Hickman's first 3 "Dragonlance " novels (Autumn Flame/Winter Night/Spring Dawning) ... those to me get 5 stars and I can't quite put Flashback on the same level as those other books far as my personal opinion of it ... for one thing at times the book seemed a bit longwinded and I normally devour super long books. And that's not the only reason.. hard to put a finger on it just didn't have the "epic" feel those other books did I just mentioned... still, I enjoyed reading it.

Look at it this way... assume the author, Simmons, has no political views one way or the other.. Simmons listens to the Tea Party Conservatives talking about how America is doomed unless we do X, Y and Z now (and without being for or against them I still think one can safely say they tend to take a " worst case " " Do something about it NOW or we're all screwed ! " sort of philosophy ) .. Simmons thinks to himself " Hey that would be a great novel ! " .. and he writes one ! :) ... this is basically a worst case scenario outlook of just how badly screwed up America can get as a nation , " What if the Tea Party people were right ? " kind of a story.. but as far as all the Simmons bashing goes.. folks it's JUST A BOOK ! A fictional, imaginary work .. if Simmons is out there saying " I wrote this to let everyone know what's going to happen to us if we don't watch out" in real life (I dunno, maybe he did? Or maybe he didn't?) then I could see a bit more of a reason for protests but even then I'm not sure I'd want to CRUCIFY the guy over it either .... regardless of the author's political views it's still a fun, entertaining work of fiction... I'm not sure I would have paid full retail price but if you can snag a used copy at half the suggested price like I did grab it.

Dan Simmons tells us clearly of his political leanings and in this his dystopian view might be frighteningly prophetic. The Mexican reconquistas have taken back the American south and the Islamic militants have occupied with a will. The latter is surprising since the book was written before ISIS became dominant in the Mideast and a threat to the West. Europe is entirely in the hands of ISIS. Surprisingly, Japan looks to be dominant. Simmons lectures throughout, and he inserts, on page 101, a depressing example of the speech of young men and women who cannot say three words without inserting "like". And too many Americans are addicted to a flashback drug which takes them back to happier events in their lives. Even scarier, young addicts commit hideous crimes so that they may flash back to relive them. This is entirely plausible. Simmons has always been able to plumb the ugliest, saddest depths of human nature.

The narrative drags between long discourses of what went wrong in America as well as background of situations extant in the period of his story. Professor Leonard, his grandson Val and Val's father Nick trudge through this morass.

I was hooked on Simmons with his early works such as Song of Kali, but his storyteller's instincts have become bogged in what I have just described.

My first Dan Simmons book was The Terror and that book was so excellent that I had to read more of his work. I then read Drood and Black Hills. This man is unparalleled when it comes to historical fiction. Following those books, I delved into his earlier fantasy/horror works, Carrion Comfort and Song of Kali, which were both fantastic books. So now I'm thinking I am definitely a fan of this author and order his latest, Flashback, because the general description intrigued me.

Oh. My. God. Flashback is such a shameless and thinly veiled political and social treatise, which struts out every extreme ring-wing polemic and attributes the fall of the United States (and the rest of the world) in the next 30 years directly to the 2008 election of President Obama! He doesn't leave one talking point out - I mean, sheesh, it's open season on everything from foreign policy regarding the middle east and Israel, global warming, green energy, immigration, health care reform, entitlement programs, so-called socialism in the U.S. and Europe (citing in particular, Great Britain since WWII --GAK, does he really believe that?) and oh, how the stereotypes abound ... I mean the list and diatribes is truly a right-wing wet dream. I'm surprised that Fox Spews and all of the right-wing media have not promoted the hell out of this book and tagged it as must read for "like-minded" folks!

And as for Simmons disclaimer that these are not his views? I call bullshit. Mr. Simmons, I am done with you and I regret having bought this book.

One can hardly read any review of art, music, literature, theater, film or television without finding a political component. As long as it makes sense and is seamlessly woven into the story, fine. When the preachiness starts readers get concerned. In this case, Simmons could have presented the bleak future without a lot of overt commentary and let the events speak for themselves. After all, there's little argument that the USA is bankrupt, our $17T debt only a fraction of our unfunded liabilities - a consequence of self-delusion that we can live beyond our means forever. Obama was not the only offender - simply the worst. The author successfully shows a direct correlation between the decline of a nation's finances and the decline of its ability to project power, thrive as a modern state or defend itself.

Politics aside, the story is fantastic, bubbling with creativity, foresight, trend extensions and great dialogue. Characters are authentic, not at all caricatures. The portrayal of the hero was a complete success since the reader soon begins to think of him as someone they could meet next door. In other words, he becomes real. Terrific writing on the Japanese culture and what many forecast will be the first modern feudal state when their debt bomb explodes. Actually, Simmons is simply extrapolating current trends....the rise of India, the denouement of China's monstrous overbuilding and refusal to liberalize, the unification of Muslims worldwide and the decline of the West, especially Europe. Much of this is simply a matter of demographics but the vitality of civilizations is not static. It will move on and the cycle will start again.

The concept of Flash was quite novel. Indeed, it is the scaffold on which the plot is hung. The writing is evocative of a once-great power losing control, the atmosphere dystopian. The sense that life is aimless, that nothing matters, that dreaming with Flash is preferable to our dreary existence permeates the book. A subplot involving the son of the hero segued effortlessly into the overall arch of the story. Then ending seemed forced and a tad unrealistic. In the end there is family, love and dedication and perhaps, if things work according to plan, redemption. My Grade B+ (for preachiness)

Repeated, explicit political commentary / right-wing fear-mongering. Obama causing the downfall of the USA, yadda yadda ... seriously? I was looking to read a fiction book, not a fairly extreme political opinion piece.

His early works were such great stories, but Dan Simmons has run off the rails. A slow, slogging beginning sets up a dirty apocalypse where, who knew! Liberals have destroyed the world! The Ayn Randian hero dwells obsessively on his bygone marriage which, apparently, did not seem particularly interesting to him at the time. An unlikely regaining of his personal skills occurs after years of neglect. At the end, nothing was what it seemed! But everything turned out for the best!

Aside from the weak futuristic slant, very little originality here. And wow Dan, I did not see the right-wing extremism coming.

Imagine watching "Mad Max Thunder Road" but Max likes to lecture on the Trump administration's failings. Pointing at ways the Trump administration really caused this post apocalyptic nightmare through each of its policies. As if Max stops for 2-3 minutes to paint a caricature so ludicrous of what the future is going to lead to, even the most die-hard liberals have to roll their eyes at both the inherit silliness and naked political nature of the content.

This book is pretty much that. Brilliant for stretches, exhausting in it's lecturing tone.

The world could be very interesting, if created under slightly more plausible scenarios. Love the idea of the Flashback drug, the dystopia with a collapsing United States, shifting boundaries between porto-ethnic nations, a resurgent Japan reverting to a feudal style system. It's all a pretty interesting tapestry.

Too bad every reality of this world is all tied back somehow to the Obama administration--its all a bit over the top.

I preface my comments by saying I think Simmons is a truly excellent writer. I was left with the impression that this otherwise talented writer wakes up in the middle of the night sweating and screaming "entitlements! taxes!"

What a shame...an otherwise excellent story was dragged down by his politics. Honestly, I don't want to read politics in my science fiction. Most disappointing is that Simmons chooses to give voice his obvious obsessions at critical junctures in the plot's development. These mini diatribes are jarring and awaken the reader from the otherwise compelling spell the author casts over his reader.

I left the book not contemplating the character development or the landscape of the not too distant future, but instead was wondering when his radio show would start and whether it would lead into Hannity or Lindbaugh.

The newest mega-novel from literary star Dan Simmons is a keeper. If you like a story that is well-plotted, has realistic characters, and pushes the boundaries of "what if" then go out and buy this book. Flaskback envisions a plausible, but dark, near future for the United States, where many of today's worst nightmares have come true. The federal government has quibbled itself to near extinction and holds limited, geographically restricted power. Immigration has overwhelmed the populace, giving vast, threatening powers to those who have the most gun power. Drug use, in specific, the use of the powerful and addicting drug Flashback, is the norm. Flashback is the ultimate escape drug, allowing the user to go back to past life events and relive them in as if they were actually occuring for the first time. What a marvelous notion - especially for the populace of the US where not much more exists than former glory, former fame, former achievement, former love and hope. Consumerism has burned itself out in a blaze of rash spending. The economy has tanked, and in a brilliant stroke of irony, people now live in abandoned shopping malls and strip mall stores.
The protagonist, Bottoms, is a former Denver police officer, fired for addiction to Flashback. His wife, Dara, was killed in a car accident, precipitating his entry into the clutches of addiction. His teenage son, Val, despises him, friends are a thing of the past, and his only good times are those he can spend in Flashback reliving his former life with his beloved Dara. Bottoms lives in one-sixth of a Baby Gap store in an abandoned mall and drives a car, a term very loosely applied, he refers to as a gelding. Clearly, life is not good.
There are, as always, the fabulously wealthy and powerful - included at the top are the Japanese ruling class - yes, the Japanese wield incredible power in the US. One of the nine regional advisors in the US, Hiroshi Nakamura, a "hundred-times-over billionaire," hires Bottom to find out who killed his son, Keigo. Keigo was murdered six years ago and Bottoms was the homicide detective assigned the case. The case went cold and the murderer was never apprehended.
Bottoms gladly agrees that he is the man to solve the case, as he envisions all the Flashback he can buy from the expense money alone. Not the best start to solving a mystery, but Bottoms clearly had no intent to do so anyway.
He cashes in his advance, buys sufficient Flashback for 600 hours "with Dara" and checks in at a local flashcave to be watched over and cared for as he starts his imagined epic flash. Of course, this is not to be, as Mr. Nakamura's body guard, Sato, finds Bottoms and quickly ends his pleasant dreams. Bottoms is forcibly thrown into the case with Sato at his side and the adventures begin.
Bottoms is one of those old-time detectives; gritty, arrogant, with a ready patter as a cover when he doesn't know something, which is often. But he is a good cop and has the right skills, albeit a bit rusty, to piece together a puzzle that starts out to be a homicide investigation and ends up being something far more powerful and dangerous. His investigative skills and quick thinking serve him well in this fast moving tale.
In the end, the mystery is resolved. But with this answer comes even deeper and more provocative knowledge. Bottoms learns of the sources behind the the downfall of a nation, revealed by the powerful Japanese advisor. It is a tale of great ideas used to thwart great results. Of constant reworking tired old processes to stimulate new results, with no success. Of how political correctness can strangle a nation unwilling to take a stand on anything related to social policy. Of trying to please everyone at the same time, and in the end, pleasing no one and loosing everything.
At the end of this noir tale, Bottoms is left with a troubling insight, one which might have been the redemption of a nation had it been heeded. Life is pain. Pain is okay. Life without pain is no life. A pain free life is a series of constant, unnoticed defeats, that when aggregated, have catastrophic effects on a nation and on the people who have willing followed into the abyss.
Simmons tells this grand epic with great pathos and brio. He gallops through Bottoms world and we hang onto to tail of the horse hoping not to miss a single word. The story is a familiar one; the moral, one we well know. But through Simmons masterful eyes, it come alive yet again, carrying us to its end, immersed in a world of the past that may await us in our future.

This is best near-future dystopian novel I've read since Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake." The world building is logical, scary, and if you're a fan of these sorts of novels, there's a lot to sink your teeth into. You get the large view, the diminution of the United States, but you also can also see the effect of the country's decay on its citizens. The plot and characters are just OK; they're really an excuse for the author to wallow in the horrors of a future America where everything has gone wrong, but the story does move along. You get to see an impoverished Denver, a Los Angeles being destroyed by a civil war, and a decaying interstate highway system where travellers are subject to attack by roving bandits. The portrayal of high technology in a broken country that has simply stopped working is well done.

Many of the negative comments are driven by a dislike of the politics presented in the novel. A lot of the comments read as if the jilted commenters are disappointed that their favorite author isn't a conventional liberal. If you lean to the left, the best way to look at the novel is as a portrayal of a future America that has made a series of choices that have all gone bad. They could have just as easily gone well, in which case the author wouldn't have had much of a story.

Mr. Simmons is a natural storyteller, and this is a good book and a worthwhile read.

I read and very much liked Simmons' early novels but this is absolute drivel. Racist phobias abound in a story that held early promise. Only fans of wingnut political propaganda will find it even remotely entertaining.

Overall, Flashback is an interesting idea that gets tripped up by uneven writing and too many internal contradictions. Flashback itself, a drug that allows people to live in select episodes from their past, has tremendous potential, both as a literary device and to be so hugely addicting that society really does break down around it.

Taking that premise, the general noir detective story plot fits with the dystopian theme, though personally I found Nick Bottom to be very flat and unengaging most of the story (he does improve eventually, though really its too late for a reader to really engage with the character). Unfortunately, Simmons makes a number of quite surprisingly amateurish errors in his writing and his research that, given the fact that many of his novels can justly be called genius, really were inexcusable.

As an example, at one point Leonard (perhaps the most rational character in the book to that point) goes to the grocery store to buy some non-perishable food items. So, of course, he heads straight for...the fresh produce department? Simmons takes several digs at groups he's been vilifying in the subsequent paragraph, so clearly he set up the prior scene for that purpose, but (as he does very often in this book) he is internally inconsistent with his own preceding words. That really interferes with the suspension of disbelief that is so critical to dystopian fiction (particularly this one).

He is also guilty of slack research, particularly for his Japanese characters, seeming to have used Clavell's Shogun not only as a prop at the murder scene but also as the sum total of the research for his various Japanese cardboard cutouts. Possibly with some Rising Sun thrown in (certainly, there are shades of Chricton's book throughout the mystery portion of the plot).

In all, I was disappointed not by the politics (it is fiction, after all) but by the mediocre writing. Perhaps from some writers, I could let that slide, but I know Simmons can do so much better. Three stars, for the interesting premise and better-than-the-rest final few chapters, but also for the sloppy writing and research and the poor pacing.

It seems like the bestselling and award winner author, Dan Simmons, used up a lot of his talent and ability with the truly fantastic The Terror, and almost as good Drood, and in the meantime has been publishing sub-par work that fans and readers of his have come to expect to be otherwise. Black Hills was an atrocious story that seemed to get lost in itself; while Flashback is a definite improvement on its predecessor, yet it still has a lot to be desired as a science fiction novel, especially when coming from the mind of such a talented author.

In Flashback, the United States is on the brink of collapse, but the citizens of America don't care because 87% of them are addicted to a drug known as "flashback," that when taken allows users to travel back into their past and memories and live specific moments over and over in excruciating detail, to the point where it is almost as if the memory were reality. Nick Bottom used to be a detective, a good one, and then his wife was killed in a car crash, and now he's been fired and is addicted to flashback like so many others, reliving moments with the love of his life. But Bottom was a good cop and one rich man knows that, and is employing him one last time to investigate the murder of a top governmental advisor's son, because Bottom remembers the time of the murder and will need to use flashback to remember some important details to see if he can find out just who this murderer is.

While Flashback seems like a vaguely interesting science fiction premise, and Simmons tries for a quasi-noire story in down and out Nick Bottom, the big problem is that this storyline and construct has been done and overdone in some way or shape or form numerous time in the genre and through various mediums: William Gibson did it with Neuromancer, Neal Stephenson did it with Snow Crash, Phillip K. Dick did it with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (made renowned by the movie version, Blade Runner), Richard K. Morgan is another author who uses this construct. Perhaps this wouldn't be such a distracting obstruction if Flashback was written by a middling author, or even a new one; but to have it written by a man whom many have come to expect truly great and original and astounding novels from . . . it leaves one feeling disappointed to say the least. Here's hoping Simmons novel in 2012, whatever it might be, is a big improvement, or the man may begin dropping fans like a person suffering severe leprosy drops digits and eventual limbs.

Originally written on September 21, 2011 ©Alex C. Telander.

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After greatly enjoying The Terror and Drood as well as his earlier sci-fi books, I looked forward to reading Flashback. Just finished the book, and in my view this is hs weakest effort, for two very different reasons.

First, the main character, Nick, is hardly believable as a former Denver detective. Even drugged as he is, his main function in the book is to repeat in awe something just told him by someone else. As in, "it was your wife"' , "My wife?!" This happens constantly, and Nick never does much more than that, other than get angry. Not much to base a book on.

Far worse, however, is the continual intrusion of Mr. Simmons politics in the book. He hates President Obama, Muslims, Japanese, environmentalists and Democrats, and blames them for the end of America. Indeed. What simple garbage.

It is right of course to write what he likes. Just as its mine to never buy another of his books.

"Flashback" is a sad continuation of the suicidal (in terms of creativity, as well as humanism) drive Simmons started in that obnoxious "Olympos". As a reader (and owner) of all of his books published so far, I sincerely hoped that the kind of semi-literate confused trash he peddled in "Olympos" was an aberration, something clearly provoked by the 9/11 trauma and the crusading brain-wash of the times. "Terror" and "Drood" were fine books, "Black Hills" much worse, but still so much above the "Olympos" level that my optimism was bolstered. Then comes this awful attempt of a book... It's a bad story (whodunnit is almost non-existent, since the simplest solution from the start turns out to be correct), it's confused, it's hiding really interesting questions about the envisioned future (like those about the "flashback culture" about which the murder victim made his deadly documentary), it contains inexplicable coincidences (a trademark of Simmons even in his best efforts, here going rampant), most of characters are flat and some are quite contradictory, it's repetitive, its ending is as hollow as that of any number of Hollywood blockbusters.

However, these literary weaknesses will, obviously, fall into deep shadow of Simmons' many hatreds, which are here elaborated in even more hideous details than in "Olympos" and we get a bunch of new items as well. So, after finishing this book, I've had that nasty feeling of gasping for air, something I feel whenever facing one's passionate and irrational hate. In contrast to "Olympos", Simmons evades anachronisms here by referring to the "days before It All Hit The Fan", that is, the present day, while gleefully telling us that he hates or despises not only Moslems (expected, but way over the top here), but also Mexicans, French, United Nations, citizens of Boulder (Colorado), affirmative action, Chinese, President Obama (whose Cairo speech, btw, is put in the cataclysmic context comparable to 9/11; this is vicious, despicable demagoguery on Simmons' part), the European Union, climate science, socialdemocracy, wind turbines, computer games, postmodern architecture, Vladimir Putin, jogging (!), agnosticism, Canadian culture (even when he explicates it in a thoroughly racist manner as the "WHITE Canadian culture"), UK Labour party (funnily enough, in spite of their generous contributions to the crusading "war on terror" Simmons is obviously enraptured with), and, most fiercely, something he calls "entitlements", which he never bothers to properly define. So much hatred there. Would be way too much even if some of it is justified, which a fraction probably is. He endorses not only stupid pseudo-scientific conspiracy theories about the global climate change, but goes much further in McCarthyite conspiracism and gives a nod of approval to utter occult nonsense written about the Denver International Airport. Contrary to the opinion of some reviewers here, it's not the problem that some of the characters are racists; we all know racism is a reality, now as much as a couple of decades down the line. The problem with "Flashback" is that practically ALL characters are racists and that racism is present in any situation in which the author obviously wishes to convey a moral message, including the deus-ex-machina contrived happy ending (or illusion of it). Even the Japanese come across largely in negative light; though they're still better than the Caliphate, they are shown as hardly more than feudal barbarians with nuclear and hyperkinetic weapons. Obviously, Simmons is utterly incapable of ever IMAGINING any global power other than the US as being capable of true civilization, and this rampant jingoism coupled with the intensity of his hatreds makes this book next to worthless.

I feel somewhat emotionally invested in the work of Dan Simmons so I find myself unable to stop reading (yet!) even though his last few works have been disappointing. I first started reading Dan about 20 years ago when Summer Of Night came out. Dan instantly jumped into my top handful of authors and stayed there for many years. I read everything he put out and it was all exceptional; I didn't care what genre he was writing in. I loved it all. He was a gifted storyteller. I could get lost in his work, the way you should get lost in a fiction writer.

Things have changed. The Terror was a bit of a slip and things have gotten worse with Drood and Black Hills. Flashback is probably my favorite of the last 3 but it certainly is not a great book. It is an interesting multi-genre (SF, mystery, action) story that is fun at times. The characters are a bit cliched but I was able to care about what was happening to them. The story was certainly a worthy idea for a book. But, the same as all his recent work, there is too much of Dan Simmons in the book. I know that he wrote it but I just felt like I was constantly being schooled, constantly exposed to the author's opinions about everything, not just politics. And here's the thing - it seems that I lean Dan's way politically. I do have a problem with the US getting 4 billion dollars a day deeper into debt and I don't think anything good can possibly come out of this. And I still thought he was overly preachy! I know it's fiction but throughout the book the reader is constantly subjected to lessons about everything. He knows more than you do and you need to be enlightened. How is one possibly supposed to lose yourself in a STORY when you are barraged with intellectual asides constantly. I couldn't care less about Shakespeare and I am tired of Shakespeare content being inserted into a novel where it adds absolutely nothing except to indulge the author.

When I am schooled like this for so long I start to take for granted that the author is much more intelligent than I am. BUT the conclusion to the book is so tidy and improbable that I don't believe he is as smart as he thinks.

I guess I am overly criticizing a book that I liked somewhat. But unfortunately Simmons' early greatness is in glaring contrast to this average and somewhat pretentious tale. It has become an interesting experiment to me to see when exactly I will stop reading him. So far I haven't missed one. This one was good enough to make me come back for one more, and then we'll see.

Despite having enjoyed all of Simmon's novels up to this one, I couldn't get past the fact that the premise of the novel is that Mexicans and Arabs will take over and destroy what's left of America after the liberals backrupt it. I can deal with dystopian near futures, and writers like Charlie Stross are able to have complex multicultural societies where there are real racial and political tensions, without appearing to be writing the backdrop for Fox News of 2025.

What's all the fuss? Apocalyptic tales have to have an apacalypse. If its built off of present day trends, then that makes it all the more realistic. I think some of the readers just can't stand the fact that Simmons telescopes their ideology to catastrophe.

I've noted that in book reviews, people who press the unfavorable review button are often times opposed to the opinion rather than the quality of the review. Say a shaver is a piece of crap, get a gold star, say a certain book is a piece of crap, and get burned in virtual effigy on the store. Go figure.

This is a well thought out noir detective thriller set 25 years in the future, when the US has collapsed due to financial burden and most of the US is held addictive captive by flashback, a drug that let's people relive their favorite memories as if they were there.

From hindsight, all the pieces of the mystery are there, yet while I was doing the book, I kept on saying "how does that fit", "how is he going to weave that back in". Usually I don't go for the gumshoe detective stories, but this one is excellent. Right to the end, when Simmons makes us believe he's going to pull a "Brazil"-esque finish.

The book starts with Nick Bottom stating to his potential employer how necessary he is to the cold case, then proving that given the amount of effort put into the case so far, the detective is totally irrelevant, then slowly weaving it back to Nick's assertion that he's the only person who can solve the case. It doesn't take the path you might guess, and the solution is completely on again off again as you go through the book. It does keep you guessing until the end.

For a Coloradoan (like me) it does provide interesting sidelines of history about Colorado loire, like that demon possessed blue horse at DIA among others. People in Colorado may enjoy it just for the familiar setting.

Who should read this: Its suited best for those who like murder mystery whodunnits. Those who like post-apocalyptic tales will find this a nice twist. It's also reasonable (but not fully engrossing) for those who like adventure tales.

Don't read this is you have a hard time with profanity in books.

This is a great book. Well written, exciting, and just what a Dystopian novel is supposed to be. For the people who are using their own political bias to review the book that must mean Dan Simmons did his job. Read Dan's own words about the subject, not the people who have their own agenda.

[...]

Not a completely worthless book! But an author with fewer books to his credit might have been reined in a by an editor, and saved the world a lot of trees.

* Overweight by at least a third - long sections of this book should have gone after the first draft
* Drifting - the plot has several minor and major hiccups
* Disrespectful - the book has a lecturing, hectoring tone that doesn't suggest the author has much respect for his readers

And yes, the gun-loving, "White Guys Rule!" blast furnace of mindless angry ranting is hilariously bad. Many readers will find the writing racist to the point of being a little unhinged.

I only finished the book because I'm a very fast reader.

I have always liked Dan Simmons books for the range of genres he writes across. Hyperion was hard sci fi while this bookreminded me of a futuristic "Harry Bosch" story.
The theme of America declining to a vast welfare implosion is sadly believable.
No wonder farmland prices have been rising all over America. The desire to live off the grid is attractive.
The unanticipated twist was that Japan could make a comeback. Mercantile societies rarely do and Japan proves that you can't hoard your way to prosperity.
Texas as a seperate nation is believeable though. i would apply for citizenship.

There have been plenty of reviews which recap the plot so I won't. I'll just tell you my reaction to the book. The first 50 or so pages were pretty depressing. Not as depressing as, say, "The Road", but depressing none the less. The story takes place 20 years from now. I have every hope of still being alive 20 years from now but being 80 years old in the world depicted in Flashback would not be pleasant. But I started getting into the story of disgraced former Denver cop Nick Bottom, drawn back into his worst case but someone he is powerless to resist. Nick is powerless because he is a Flashback addict and lives as much time as possible under the influence of the drug that allows him to relive his time with his beloved, but dead, wife. As Nick worked the case he started to change, started to become the man he once was. I also liked the story of Nick's son, Val, whom he abandoned in LA with his father-in-law (who is about as old as I'll be in 20 years). Through much of the story, until Val, Nick and Leonard (the father-in-law) finally join together, Simmons keeps the two story lines (and sometimes more than 2 story lines) un-synchronized in time. This got confusing at times. I did like the twist at the end, has America (lead by the Republic of Texas) turned the corner and started to fight back or is the ending Nick's Flashback 2 fantasy?

My real problem with the book, and the reason I'm only giving this a rating of 2, is the same as mentioned by many other reviewers. It took me awhile to realize it but this American dystopia was caused by every radical right-wing fear-mongers fantasy you could imagine. The reconquista is rampaging through the US southwest. The New Caliphate has taken over the entire mid-east, most of Europe, and is making inroads in Canada. Muslims have wiped out Israel with nukes. Universal health care with 19-month waits to see a specialist (even when the condition you have will kill you in 6 without care). The US president observing 9/11 with the New York iman, at the mosque built right on Ground Zero. This world would have been even worst with run away global warming, but global warming turned out to be a hoax. It goes on and on.

At first, I thought that maybe Simmons meant this as a parody. There is a short scene where Val hears a snippet of an illegal right-wing talk show (on a pirate radio station), where the host (who was probably Glen Beck) was saying "I told you this would happen". I've not read anything recent by Simmons so I wasn't aware of his apparent political leanings. But late in the book, Nick confronts Mr. Nakamura, the Japanese overlord character who is forcing Nick to re-investigate the old case. Nakamura goes into full Obama Derangement Syndrome ascribing all the ills of 2032 to that American president of 20 years ago. Then I knew that Simmons was serious.

Mr. Simmons is free to have is opinion, of course. And I could have chosen not to read the book. It there had been any hint at all on the dust jacket (maybe a favorable quote from Rush Limbaugh), I probably wouldn't have read it.

Dan Simmons himself is far more depressing than the hopeless future he presents in this novel. He used to be a brilliant writer, but now he's channeling the sad ghost of Ayn Rand. If you want ponderous, pedantic musings about how liberals and Muslims ruined the world, this is the book for you- think Bill O'Reilly with Alzheimer's on a good day. If you want actual conservative theory, go read the Weekly Standard or the National Review. They have interesting articles that are based in solid fact. If you want Dan Simmons, go read Hyperion, Ilium, or Summer of Night. You won't find him here.

Set twenty years from now, in Flashback Simmons envisions an America rapidly disintegrating. The economy has collapsed and hyperinflation set in after the nation has been bankrupted by entitlement programs like Obamacare. "Green" energy policy has failed and our industrial infrastructure lies in ruins. Racial and religious Balkanization is tearing the country apart. Texas has seceded, as have Hawaii (which briefly became a monarchy again before being taken over by Japan) and the People's Republic of Boulder (formerly part of the state of Colorado), and Mexico has reclaimed Arizona, New Mexico, and southern California. Major entertainment venues such as sports arenas and amusement parks have been converted into prisons, Homeland Security "detention centers", and refugee camps for the few hundred thousand Jews who survived the nuclear annihilation of Israel, and a global Islamic caliphate rules not only the Middle East, but Africa, most of Europe, and Canada. Illiteracy, crime, gang violence, terrorism, and substance abuse and chemical dependency abound. With the help of these last (and the indoctrination of public "education" in multiculturalism and political correctness), most Americans have gradually become inured to the situation. Specifically, most Americans are addicted to a new drug called flashback, which allows its users to not merely remember but relive happier times.

Despite this dystopian, sci-fi setting, the story is really more of a noirish mystery (as though Simmons has been reading a lot of Frank Miller and Mickey Spillane---Flashback reads like Mike Hammer in Hell). Former detective (and flashback addict) Nick Bottom is hired to investigate the five-year-old murder of the son of one of Japan's "advisors" to what's left of the United States. But the further he progresses into the investigation, the more there seems to be at stake---perhaps even the future of nations.

So far, most reviewers are reacting negatively to what they perceive to be the novel's political slant---but they're missing the point. Simmons has explicitly denied that the dystopian setting represents his own political views (and from what I can gather from essays and things he's written, my best guess is that his views are actually closest to some sort of Jeffersonian agrarianism)---though he does seem to be genuinely (and appropriately) concerned with some of these issues, such as runaway government spending. But the book is simply a dystopian projection of current government policies---and more, of the ideologies behind our cultural trends. And the theme of the story is not "Obama bad", but the danger of living in the past.

To be sure, other writers have done this sort of near-future scenario before (Robert Ferrigno's Assassin trilogy comes to mind), but Simmons does it better. All in all, while this isn't one of his best novels, and while it's in some ways even bleaker than The Terror and Drood, Flashback is something of a return to form for Simmons. After his last few, I hadn't gotten around to reading this one until now, over six months after its release---but now, I'll be eagerly awaiting his next book!

And now, I've just received my copy of another near-future dystopian thriller that came out this week, Living Proof by Kira Peikoff...time to see what happens if the Republican candidate wins this November! If there's any truth in fiction, it looks like we're screwed either way...

I enjoyed Flashback. I won't get into the dystopian future and politics which other reviewers have thoroughly discussed. Let me go right to the ending, which in my opinion makes Flashback a great horror novel:

SPOILER
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Flashback has two alternate endings: 1) Nick is reunited with his son and father-in-law and has a good life in Texas. Nick assists in the resurgence of the US and the future is hopeful. And 2) Nick failed and his family is all dead. He is leading a dream life under the influence of Flashback 2 and is in reality floating in a Matrix-like tube.

Clues in the novel (such as the location of the Alamo) make clear that ending 1 is a fantasy and that Nick has utterly failed and is now submerged in liquid with his eardrums ruptured and his eyes sutured partially shut.

Dan Simmons delivers in his book a possible quite near future of our society, something that Huxley already did too.
However he arrives to conclusions that are diametrally opposed on almost every point.
Huxley showed us an extremely ordered, homogenous and hyperorganised society while Simmons shows chaos, disorder and degenerescence.

People with scientific education will necessarily think about an analogy with the second law of thermodynamics.
In the nature order is an exception and disorder is the rule. This is simply because in any system there are many more possible disordered than ordered states. This natural law can be extrapolated to human societies which are nothing else than particular natural systems and this is exactly what Dan Simmons did.

An ordered society of Huxley's kind has an extremely low probability to occur and to last for a long time. A chaotic society of Simmons' kind has a much higher probability to occur and to last a long time.
I called what D.Simmons created "anti Huxley" because his scenario has a much higher probability to occur than Huxley's.

What I liked most in the book was the impressive internal consistency. Everything fits together, there are no internal contradictions.
The only sci-fi ingredient is the flashback drug which may but has not to exist one day.
D.Simmons introduced it obviously for litterary reasons because it enabled him to link the 2 complementary themes of his work.
On one side we have a classical thriller containing a mysterious murder and a lonely, broken detective. Yes we have seen that already many times but it gives something to readers who are interested by action and mystery too
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On the other side we have the background which is the US society of the middle of 21st century after the debt reached 9 times GDP and the USA went into bankrupcy what made the proverbial stuff to hit the fan.
Is that believable? Of course and eerily so.

It is excellently summed up by a dialogue between a literature professor and an economy professor that took place in the beginning of the 21st century and where the literature professor is trying to understand what is happening in the economy(quoting approximately).
Lit.Pr : "But this cannot happen. There are plenty of smart advisors in the government.
Eco.Pr : "It is too late. Ironically it is the smart people who got us in this mess. Always remember that."

I recommend the book to everybody who likes a very consistent even if disturbing vision of the future, very good characterisation (but that is a special tm of D.Simmons anyway) and even for those who prefer action and mystery, the murder intrigue is quite compelling too.
Great read.

In a former United States devastated by economic and political collapse, former police officer Nick Bottom, a Flashback addict like much of the country, is pulled from the ruins of his former life and hired by a Japanese businessman to solve the six year old murder of his son. But what does the murder have to do with the car accident that killed his wife and sent him into Flashback's warm embrace?

When I saw that Dan Simmons' next book was going to be called Flashback, I pre-ordered it immediately. Flashback is a drug that allows the user to relive memories and was first introduced by Simmons in the wonderful Hyperion Cantos, one of my all-time favorite books. Did it live up to the standard set by Hyperion? I'll tell you in a little while...

There were a lot of things I liked about Flashback. Flashback and the culture surrounding it made a great plot device. I thought that using Nick Bottom's Flashback addiction to explore his own memories to help investigate who killed Nakamura's son was a pretty novel idea. I liked the converging plotlines with Nick's estranged son Val and his father-in-law Leonard. I liked the relationship with Nick and Sato, Nakamura's watchdog. I loved the references to other Simmons books like Hardcase and Hyperion and the references to Shakespeare and Keats. Most of all, I loved the serpentine nature of the mystery and how it had to do with Dara's death. The world was very well constructed and was a bit of a throwback to the cyberpunk dystopias of the 80's.

That's a lot of likes but the dislike was very hard to ignore. The tone of the book was so conservative that it made Rush Limbaugh seem like Hilary Clinton by comparison. While I can understand that since the setting is a dystopia ruled by a Caliphate of militant Muslim there was going to be some anti-Muslim sentiments, the anti-Muslim venom Simmons spewed liberally throughout the text got harder and harder to ignore. Simmons also goes on to bash health care reform, global warming, green technology, and a lot of other things. While I'm all for people thinking for themselves and having their own political beliefs and even found myself agreeing with Simmons on a few points. But I don't think a novel is the right place to showcase those beliefs. I didn't like it when Heinlein did it, I hated it when Brad Thor did it, and I sure don't like Simmons doing it now. He took a great premise and went all Sean Penn with it.

So did Flashback live up to the standard set by Hyperion? It did not but not for lack of trying. If Simmons wouldn't have been so ham-fisted with the political stuff, I would have rated it much higher. Even still, I found it to be a pretty enjoyable read once I learned to avoid the political diatribes.

Okay, so as other reviewers have pointed out, this is an allegorical, dystopian novel written from an apparent Right-wing political perspective. Oh, and the author has an agenda. So what?! The story was compelling and well researched. It matters not whether you agree or disagree with the author's vision of the future as detailed in the novel. In fact, if you disagree, this is a great opportunity to see another side, whereas if you agree, then confirmation bias will make you feel warm and fuzzy. If you seek a fast-paced, thought provoking, well written and interesting piece of speculative fiction, give Flashback a try.

This is a fairly enjoyable sci-fi detective story. Nothing special, but kept my interest. Not one of Simmon's best (The Terror) or worst (Children of the Night). I found his vision of the future to be as much amusing as disturbing. A country run by Muslims and Japanese, with Mexicans trying to take over Cali. Yet you see very little outside of the world of the drug addicts. Those few glimpses Simmon's gives us are quite interesting - his description of Boulder (?), where pets and motorized vehicles are banned is quite amusing.
Still, more often then not his descriptions tend to sound like the complaints of an old man. I was amused to discover that everything that has led to this future nightmare stems directly from the "farce of an election" of 2008 and Obama. Post Obama politics - which I would have found MUCH more interesting - are barely even mentioned. I don't have issue with an author's political beliefs shaping a novel if it's done competently, but here it feels overly contrived - they never feel like the thoughts of the bitter protagonist, but more like contrived excuses for a bitter author to rant. And it's not just politics he goes off on bitchy tangents about. In one of the more ridiculous cases, he spends 1-1/2 pages complaining about the design of Denver's art museums. No significance to the plot AT ALL. Did these bitch-fests ruin the book for me? Hardly, but they distract from the story and don't feel in the least genuine in relation to the plot or main characters. A decent editor should have known when to reign it in.

This book really scared me because this is the worst case scenario that could happen to this country if we keep going down the road the same way we have been doing for the past 10 years.

Even though it is a mystery novel, the scene of the U.S. in the future is very bleak. It is a story of the destruction of the U.S. as we know it. I read it as a sci-fi novel and nothing else but it's a future that really could happen. On our onward progress toward growing entitlements, influx of illegal immigration, our countries' endless spending and borrowing from China, our appeasement of radical Islam we have no where to go but down.

I thoroughly enjoyed it but had to take it in small doses. I kept asking myself "could something like this really be the future of our country?"

Well written.

Four stars because it wasnt Hyperion or Endymion, but I couldn't put the book down. He seems to be spot on about today's politics and sadly his future -sans Flashback- may not be too far from reality. Definitely worth reading!!!

FLASHBACK

Author: Dan Simmons

Type of Book: Paperback

Genre: Dystopian Fiction, Science Fiction, Thriller

Length: 708 pages

Publisher: www.reaganarthurbooks.com

Re-Release Date: July 2014

Original Release Date: 2011

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

My response to reading this book is "Holy Moly". Dan Simmons has quite the imagination and this fictional version of America's future is truly frightening. What makes it so terrifying is it's realism and potential for becoming fact rather than fiction. He has taken current events and foreseen a potential future. With the current focus on ISIS in the middle east this book becomes even more scarily plausible. Wow!

Not only is this book s commentary on where America could be headed, it is also an amazingly wonderfully written work of science fiction and a terrific mystery.

The character of Nick Bottom is so well realized that it is easy to picture him as a real person rather than just a character in a book. His grief over his wife's death will draw readers in. Anyone who has ever lost a loved one can relate to his pain and to his wanting to retreat into the world of Flashback.

Flashback is a drug that allows the user to re-experience a moment (or moments) in their lives that they wish to revisit and relive. Who could resist the allure of being able to go back and live the happiest day (or days) of their lives over again?

FROM THE BACK COVER:

"Twenty years from now, the United States is in the midst of total collapse: economic, social and political. But most of the population doesn't care - they're addicted to flashback, a drug that allows its users to reexperience the best moments of their lives. After former detective Nick Bottom's wife died in a car accident, he started going under the flash to be with her; now he's an unemployed addict, estranged from his teenage son."

"Nick may be a tortured soul, but he's still a good cop, and when he's hired to investigate the murder of a government advisor's son, Nick becomes the one man who can change the course of an entire nation turning away from the future to live in the past."

This book is the very definition of the word: THRILLER. Despite it's length, this story never lags. There is non-stop action from start to finish.

Also, FLASHBACK will make you think! You will not be able to stop yourself from pondering the plausibility of this fictional future.

I absolutely LOVED this book. It is intelligently written, thoroughly engrossing and completely mind-boggling.

There are many facets to this story. There is the fictional drug "Flashback" along with the addiction aspect of the drug. There is an absorbing murder mystery. There is family drama. There is the drama and grief of a husband who has lost his wife and a son who has lost his mother. There is teen angst and the phenomenon of peer pressure. There are politics. There is warfare, both abroad and at home. There is prejudice and hatred, and much, much more.

Readers will not want to put this book down. Dan Simmons is a force to be reckoned with and even though this is the first novel of his that I have read, it will certainly not be the last.

I rate this book as 5 out of 5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Dan Simmons is the Hugo Award-winning author of Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion, and their sequels, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion. He has written the critically acclaimed suspense novels Darwin's Blade and The Crook Factory, as well as other highly respected works, including Summer of Night and its sequel A Winter Haunting, Song of Kali, Carrion Comfort, and Worlds Enough & Time. He lives in Colorado.

For more information visit www.dansimmons.com

To read more of my reviews visit http://amiesbookreviews.wordpress.com

Many people who were so negative in their reviews of the political leanings of this book aren't seeing that what is happening now could result in this grim future. Our lead character says that back in (now) people voted in so many entitlements that the USA actually had to borrow money from China, that we had a president who bowed to Islam, that Islam was able to become a Global Caliphate... any of this sounding familiar? That we were overrun with illegals but instead of toughening up the laws we just voted more entitlements for them too. We also keep hearing some of the characters are racist. Well, I guess none of us has ever met or known a racist...?

He does go on a bit too much with the repeated political leanings but I found this well written with interesting views of a possible future plus I liked it book well enough that I will get more books from this author.

Pretty good book, though the longer it went on, the more I realized that it was really a fairly strong, right-wing screed, which surprised me, I guess. The story of a near-future America, which has collapsed politically, financially, etc., is pretty realistic and the way Simmons works in his detective story is interesting and fun, for the most part. But the world-view on display just has me wondering a bit. It seems like this future is a direct result of our current president's policies, combined with the collapse of the welfare state, and so forth and so on. The one bright spot in America is the Free Republic of Texas? And Muslims are involved in covertly undermining societies from within so the Global Caliphate can take over Western Europe and Canada? Israel has been destroyed and no one said or did anything? A lot of this stuff is fairly hard to believe, but if you can suspend your disbelief, there's a good story here about a man re-taking control of his life after several years wasted, wallowing in addiction to a drug called Flashback, that lets its users re-experience any memory from their past. I've always liked Dan Simmons in the past and read most of his books and I would consider The Terror to be one of the best books I've ever read, but all this rabid political sub-text has me wondering just a bit if I should keep reading him in the future.

I liked "Flashback." I preordered it and was not sorry that I had. It is different from his other books but then I don't think Simmons writes one specific type of book. We have Summer of Night,A Winter Haunting,Terror,Carrion Comfort,Drood - a pretty diverse selection and that doesn't even take into account his science fiction or mysteries.

I liked that the story was based mostly in Denver, where I grew up - it's always nice to have some point of reference in a story. There was a lot of political folderol but this is a free country. Simmons can write whatever he likes and I can choose to agree with him or not. And if he's too out there, there's the option of not buying his books. BUT that written, I liked the book. I liked that Nick Bottom lived in what used to be part of the Baby Gap in the Cherry Creek Mall. I liked the descriptions of the mall condos. I liked Nick and Sato. I liked the flashcave. And Nick's father-in-law, Leonard. And his son, Val. I liked the way he used the drug, flashback, to bring forward things in Bottom's past - a clever idea.

Simmons has created a dark world that doesn't seem that outlandish to me. I enjoyed reading about this scary future. This book reminded me in some ways of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, another dark look at the future.

Good premise ruined by naive politics and heavy handed exposition. If you want a good Dan Simmons novel, check out The Terror. That one is much, much better.

EDIT: I've thought about it, and possibly the purpose of all these right-wing worst-case-scenarios might be to give the more liberal reader a deep sense of failure or hopelessness. Simmons' dystopian world does have a nightmarish quality that suggests that MAY be the intention. If that's the case, then its an interesting effort, but one where the world building is handled poorly and feels out of place.

If, however, he's just expressing his opinions, then it sucks.

Once my favorite author, Dan Simmons has let his politics get in the way of a potentially great book. I'm having a very difficult time getting through this read. It's hard to stomach the racism and the far right wing-nuttery that is trying to be passed off as fiction by the author. Oh, for another "Hyperion"! Although, I'm not sure I can read any future books written by Mr. Simmons. I can't get past it. Not smart to alienate 50% of one's readers.

FlashbackFlashbackOnce upon a time, on a dark and stormy night back in the 1990s, Simmons illuminated the power of empathy in his Hyperion quartet - an unwieldy and pretentious ex-schoolteacher's attempt to forcefeed 19th century poetry into space opera, maybe to disguise his snobbishness about Genre. Yet despite this the four books rose to a thrilling, overwhelming and moving paeon (see, his style is contagious) to humanity.
Now after 28 novels and on the edge of Hollywood riches - Hyperion and Drood are both in productio, if some distance from casting and shooting - in Flashback he writes like a grumpy meanspirited old man. He once wrote a good ghost story - now is he possessed by the entitled spirit of Ayn Rand, the most naively and childishly selfish writer of the last century? What happened to the empathy for those left behind, his humanity?
And, yes, we know his main Flashback character Nick Bottom is a Shakesperian character from the Dream, who has his dreams via the eponymous drug - cheap, obvious, morally shrill, but all that goes nowhere. Its empty name-dropping not adding any poetry to a mundane plot.
There is a real tragedy of lost dreams waiting to be spun here, but Simmons is not the man he was or the man to write it. Now he is the bore left behind by both his talent and history. With Flashback, we mourn the adult writer we have lost.

The sad problem is that Flashback does not come close, at least in a literary sense, to Simmons' other masterpieces that I have read, including the Hyperion Cantos, Ilium and Olympos, The Terror and Drood. While the mystery that drives the plot would be passably enjoyable from any other author, from someone of his caliber it is surprisingly unimaginative and timid in scope. The complexities and intricacies that made his other works so unusual are mostly missing from Flashback.

The embarrassing problem is perhaps even more serious. Simmons has apparently acquired the distasteful habit of being unable to separate his writing from his extremely vehement political opinions. While I admire an author who is bold and clever enough to weave his/her political thoughts or personal beliefs, whatever they may be, into their stories, in Flashback Simmons gives up any pretense at subtlety and often has his characters give long soliloquies and diatribes against 'leftish policies' of today, which in the setting of the book are already 20-30 years in the past. This is hardly an isolated incident, and neither fits within the context of what the characters are doing, or often with their purported knowledge and experience. While one incident of the liberal old academic slowly coming to realize how great the Reagan years really were is amusing, two similar episodes per chapter is just plain confusing.

These two problems, as detailed above, serve to severely limit any potential Flashback might have. Combined with forgettable characters, possibly racist portrayals, and a somewhat confusing ending, I can easily award Flashback the lowest rating I have ever given to a novel written by the author who I suppose I still must deign my favorite.

Read Flashback at your own peril. It has none of the transcendence of Hyperion, none of the surreal action and philosophy of Ilium, none of the historic wonder of The Terror, and none of the artistic complexity of Drood. It is merely a poorly veiled political treatise disguised as a post apocalyptic mystery by a once great author.

I can understand why this book turned so many Simmons fans off. It reads like one of Glenn Beck's nightmares. I don't suppose it occurred to those who were offended that Simmons was aiming more for satire than what he actually thinks will happen to this country under Obama's presidency (though, interestingly enough, he may have gotten a few things right). It was an exciting murder mystery, but I was a bit disappointed by the reveal and the resolution. It seemed like a big build up for an obvious answer and ending. Other than that, it was enjoyable if you don't get your panties in a wad over fictional books offending your precious political leanings.

I've read almost everything Dan Simmons has written. I loved the Hyperion stories and his early horror stories. Unfortunately, almost everything he's written recently has turned me off. Drood, The Terror, and now Flashback. Illium and Olympos were better than I expected. What made the earlier stories good was the suspense and the newness of the plots. What makes Flashback bad is the predictability and the depressing, dystopic vision. The characters are unsympathetic and the story is not very interesting. Sort of reminded me of the detective stories Dan wrote about a "hard" case only set in the dystopic future of Flashback.

The plot line basically follows one character as he follows clues and searches his past to find out why he has been hired to revisit a murder case by the Japanese overlord of Denver, CO. The story is sequential in nature and follows the heros journey much as countless other stories have: pain, suffering, betrayal, transcendence.

Simmons at his best used multiple plotlines, flashbacks, flash forwards, and interesting characters. Too bad for me that he has departed from that "formula".

This is easily the worst book that Dan Simmons has ever written, and one of the worst I've ever read. It reads like the fantasies of alt-right lunatics. It's a clear example of not letting your politics influence your writing.