Flashback [Hardcover]

Dan Simmons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2011

The United States is near total collapse. But 87% of the population doesn't care: they're addicted to flashback, a drug that allows its users to re-experience the best moments of their lives. After ex-detective Nick Bottom's wife died in a car accident, he went under the flash to be with her; he's lost his job, his teenage son, and his livelihood as a result.

Nick may be a lost soul but he's still a good cop, so he is hired to investigate the murder of a top governmental advisor's son. This flashback-addict becomes the one man who may be able to change the course of an entire nation turning away from the future to live in the past.

A provocative novel set in a future that seems scarily possible, FLASHBACK proves why Dan Simmons is one of our most exciting and versatile writers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This is Simmons doing detective noir with an SF sheen ... Simmons has, as ever, created a compelling, believable cast of characters, but it's not really Nick Bottom's travails that make this such a startling read. His trajectory is tightly plotted and there's an emotional undertow to his actions that's easy to empathise with, sure, but it's the world Simmons has made that's the thing here, a world that sits right next to ours and might actually be our world if we're not too careful - and it's not too late. This is a provocative, frightening book ... Flashback is a fascinating read and many, no doubt, will be outraged at what it suggests. It's a book that will stay with you days after you finish it, chewing over its implications and precedents; but it's also a thrilling detective novel with a grand compelling mystery at its centre and more heart than you might think' SFX. '...nothing will prepare you for Flashback, a book as relentlessly compelling and unsettling as it punishing to read ... Simmons accomplishes this mood so well that it's difficult to fault the book for essentially excelling at creating atmosphere and complex history for this universe' Sci-Fi Now. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Dan Simmons is the award-winning author of several novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Olympos and The Terror. He lives in Colorado.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Reagan Arthur Books; 1 edition (July 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316006963
• ISBN-13: 978-0316006965
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 2 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (191 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #550,206 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dan Simmons was born in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948, and grew up in various cities and small towns in the Midwest, including Brimfield, Illinois, which was the source of his fictional "Elm Haven" in 1991's SUMMER OF NIGHT and 2002's A WINTER HAUNTING. Dan received a B.A. in English from Wabash College in 1970, winning a national Phi Beta Kappa Award during his senior year for excellence in fiction, journalism and art.
Dan received his Masters in Education from Washington University in St. Louis in 1971. He then worked in elementary education for 18 years -- 2 years in Missouri, 2 years in Buffalo, New York -- one year as a specially trained BOCES "resource teacher" and another as a sixth-grade teacher -- and 14 years in Colorado.

His last four years in teaching were spent creating, coordinating, and teaching in APEX, an extensive gifted/talented program serving 19 elementary schools and some 15,000 potential students. During his years of teaching, he won awards from the Colorado Education Association and was a finalist for the Colorado Teacher of the Year. He also worked as a national language-arts consultant, sharing his own "Writing Well" curriculum which he had created for his own classroom. Eleven and twelve-year-old students in Simmons' regular 6th-grade class averaged junior-year in high school writing ability according to annual standardized and holistic writing assessments. Whenever someone says "writing can't be taught," Dan begs to differ and has the track record to prove it. Since becoming a full-time writer, Dan likes to visit college writing classes, has taught in New Hampshire's Odyssey writing program for adults, and is considering hosting his own Windwalker Writers' Workshop.
Dan's first published story appeared on Feb. 15, 1982, the day his daughter, Jane Kathryn, was born. He's always attributed that coincidence to "helping in keeping things in perspective when it comes to the relative importance of writing and life."
Dan has been a full-time writer since 1987 and lives along the Front Range of Colorado -- in the same town where he taught for 14 years -- with his wife, Karen. He sometimes writes at Windwalker -- their mountain property and cabin at 8,400 feet of altitude at the base of the Continental Divide, just south of Rocky Mountain National Park. An 8-ft.-tall sculpture of the Shrike -- a thorned and frightening character from the four Hyperion/Endymion novels -- was sculpted by an ex-student and friend, Clee Richeson, and the sculpture now stands guard near the isolated cabin.
Dan is one of the few novelists whose work spans the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, suspense, historical fiction, noir crime fiction, and mainstream literary fiction . His books are published in 27 foreign counties as well as the U.S. and Canada.
Many of Dan's books and stories have been optioned for film, including SONG OF KALI, DROOD, THE CROOK FACTORY, and others. Some, such as the four HYPERION novels and single Hyperion-universe novella "Orphans of the Helix", and CARRION COMFORT have been purchased (the Hyperion books by Warner Brothers and Graham King Films, CARRION COMFORT by European filmmaker Casta Gavras's company) and are in pre-production. Director Scott Derrickson ("The Day the Earth Stood Stood Still") has been announced as the director for the Hyperion movie and Casta Gavras's son has been put at the helm of the French production of Carrion Comfort. Current discussions for other possible options include THE TERROR. Dan's hardboiled Joe Kurtz novels are currently being looked as the basis for a possible cable TV series.
In 1995, Dan's alma mater, Wabash College, awarded him an honorary doctorate for his contributions in education and writing.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#80 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

#80 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 52 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars 2 1/2 Stars - Entertaining but Self-Indulgent August 1, 2011

By Bornintime VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

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.

128 of 163 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great except for all the politics June 20, 2011

By D. Schwent

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

38 of 50 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read. . . and I'm a liberal! July 27, 2011

By Riva Kelton

Format:Hardcover

I really fail to see what all the uproar is about. I am an Upper West Side liberal, and disagree with almost every conservative viewpoint Dan Simmons appears to have. So what?! He created a completely plausible world and told a great story. I can read a book or see a movie and not necessarily agree with all of the creator's premises without that preventing my enjoyment of the work. I would strongly urge anyone who hasn't read Flashback yet to ignore the criticism about its politics. I couldn't put this book down.