I've read quite a few of Dan Simmons' novels and have enjoyed them all. I was somewhat concerned by the low ratings I saw some readers here and on Amazon giving this book, thinking that maybe it wasn't up to Simmons' normally high standards. Well, after reading Flashback, let me assure you this book while different than other books he's written, is every bit as excellent as any of his earlier works including Carrion Comfort. The world he's created here is dark but believable and the character development is excellent as always.

Perhaps the reason for the negative reviews is that the author tells it like it and completely ignores political correctness. Reading this book made it easy for me to understand why it was one of the top best selling thrillers of 2011. ( )

A very good thriller, intense, complex, and with surprises. Do not let the bad reviews from Americans, too offended by the poor future that the book hypothesizes for their country, turn you away from this entertaining read! ( )

This book was pretty scary because of its relevance to what could happen in the near future if things get worse rather than better. It makes the assumption that the economy never really recovers after the Obama presidency, and that we become overburdened with entitlement programs that we can't afford, and worse. Things get so bad that most people in the US use a drug called Flashback to dwell on the past instead of the present and future.

Against that backdrop is a mystery that seems to be unsolvable, an old case that falls back into the lap of a former police investigator who only wants to use the flashback drug to remember the good times with his deceased wife, who has given up on his son and most everything else. Pretty bleak.

I have read a lot of Dan Simmons, and this one did not disappoint me. ( )

This was 'Left Behind' for the Tea Party set. That said. I enjoyed it. I liked that he committed to it. His world was believable. It was a manifestation of the slippery-slope argument. ( )

I'm not American so I don't really understand why people are upset about a dystopian story because of politics. It's like being upset about P K Dicks dystopian visions because of drugs. If you think this particular future is implausible I recommend suspension of disbelief - with that the book is really enjoyable if a bit silly (how can you be upset about a book with a talking t-shirt with a portrait of Putin). ( )

This is a very tough book for me to review, because I had such a mixed experience listening to it. I was very interested in the mystery plot, the dystopian setting, and in the three main (viewpoint) characters. Despite other problematic issues, I listened to the entire thing and was pretty much satisfied with the ending, although one major plot point is never entirely resolved (I can take a guess, but I think it should have been spelled out). The dystopian society was intriguing, as was the exploration of the minds of the three main characters.

The difficult part of the book is the political discourse that regularly derails the plot as the book progresses. At first it made me uncomfortable, then annoyed, and finally became just sort of amusingly predictable in its heavy-handedness. I have read that the author claims he does not hold these particular right-wing political beliefs, which are unfortunately delivered without subtlety or finesse. Initially I thought (hoped) he might be trying for a Stephen Colbert-esque approach: to mock a political stance by extrapolating it into absurdity. But as the book progressed I became less convinced that this was what was going on. Sadly, the dystopian society is posited as a direct result of much of this, so for me, that undermined the exploration of the society itself--which was, in all other respects, quite intriguing.

I felt that the book was most successful in its portrayal of the three main characters (all male) and in the intricately interwoven plot lines. It's a very male-centric book in a way, although the lives of all three main characters are certainly shaped by the loss of Dara Fox-Bottom.

I can't say I disliked the book, but I suppose I liked it *in spite* of its deep flaws. So in a way, that's a positive thing. I've stopped reading other books for far lesser failings, so it definitely offered enough to keep me reading and encouraged me to shrug off the problems. Did it offer me any insights into right-wing thought? Not really. If it could have done that as well, and left me feeling that I'd learned or better understood something, I would have rated it higher despite disagreeing with most of the polemics. ( )

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this book. It's a lot of things; near-future dystopia, murder mystery, violent political thriller, tale of addiction and recovery and (partial) redemption. On most of these fronts it succeeds admirably. It starts slowly but builds up to become a gripping tale that kept me up half the night, desperate to find out what was going on. All the clues are there but the whole thing is baffling until the Agatha Christie style revelation (yes, revelation, not "reveal", ugh!) which is just what I want. I hate to be able to guess correctly in advance. Along the way there are several tense and/or exciting set-pieces. As usual with Simmons, the characters are well drawn, flawed and believable. But all of the above is avoiding what has proved to be the highly controversial element of the story; the dystopia.

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY

See the complete review here:

http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/908628/flashback-dan-simmons

After reading some of the reviews and comments about the reviews I am a bit hesitant in posting my own. However, I am going to keep it short & try to keep away from the politics (mostly).
I am a big Dan Simmons fan and have been since I read Carrion Comfort as a late teen. Even when his topics head off into places I really have no interest in (The Terror) he has been able to create an interest in me through his style and the knowledge/history he imparts as part of the story. (Loved that book)!
That being said and without spoiling anything for anyone yet to read the book, I thought the *first* ending would have been really great, in fact I was yelling to my husband...."you were wrong" (He was guessing how it would end). I was very excited that the author threw caution to the wind and really went for the BANG ending. Imagine my surprise when that chapter was complete and another continued the story! Darn it, my husband was right (and believe me he loves to hear that!).
I also it took a very long time for me to care about what happened to Nick, the main character. He was very unlikeable to me throughout much of the book and to be honest I didn't care whether he made it through or not. In fact, a lot of the characters are really not likeable, which is fine...but you have to care about someone right? Why else read a story about them? This character though, did develop and towards the end I did feel for him (I think mostly due to the feelings he had towards his wife).
Lastly, the politics did play a small part for me in giving this book review 3 stars. I don't mind politics as part of the story and to help build the background information and setting, but I did feel that it was a bit preachy at times (whether you agree with the politics or not). I've read the page at the author's site where he says these political views are not his own. Hell no, I believe he said. Whether they are or not, I felt that the politics played too large a part in the story. Rather than contribute to my enjoyment of the book some of the political points in the story served to take me out of the story completely. There were some good and bad viewpoints to consider but the story is supposed to be the whole point, isn't it? Probably some of Nick's views in the story were part of the reason I found him unlikeable for most of the story.
All in all I did enjoy this book, but I did feel slightly disappointed. When it is an author that you really, really like (and I know my expectations are high) you just want to be WOWed, and I wasn't.
I guess I didn't keep this as short as I originally intended- ( )

I have spent the last month reading nothing but Simmons novels. I am going to put this one somewhere in the middle. Not as good as Drood, Abominable, or the Terror but better than Black hills. Still a very good book. The whole dystopian thing gets old after a while. ( )

I liked the book, but it was somewhat heavy-handed with the politics (which I don't agree with). ( )

Very good read and an interesting possible future for America and the world.
Curious to know if the views expressed in this novel such as those concerning President Obama and Global Warming are shared by the author. ( )

Compelling read of an ominous future for mankind where the U.S is controlled by Japan, the U.S primary export is it's military and a drug that allows memories to be relived is prevalent. Somehow Dan Simmons manages to make it all work together and although not one of his finest novels it still is a good read. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2016/04/review-of-flashback-by-dan-simmons.html ( )

In Flashback, a dystopian novel by Dan Simmons, many current citizens in a future, fracture United States take flashback, a drug that allows users to revisit past memories in real time as an unseen observer. Former Denver police officer Nick Bottom, is among the citizens addicted to flashback. Rather than living in the present after his wife's death he sent his son to live in L.A. with his father-in-law and is taking flashback to re-live happier times with his wife. Now Nick is out of funds and needs to take on a case as a private investigator in order to earn money to feed his addiction.

Japanese billionaire Hiroshi Nakamura hires Nick to investigate the murder of his son, Keigo. The crime was never solved and Nick was one of the officers involved in the investigation six years earlier... before his wife's death and the onset of his flashback addiction. While Nick is just looking for a way to score some more flashback and re-live memories with his wife, Nakamura has other plans and has Sato, his body guard, closely follow Nick and the investigation. But, as in all good mysteries, everything is not quite what it seems to be.

Flashback is part science fiction, part murder mystery, and should appeal to fans of both genres. It is a long novel, 560 pages, but I thought the action in Flashback made the novel move along quickly. (In spite of the fact that it appears I took a long time to read it, in fact, I took a long time to get this review written.)

I was looking forward to reading Flashback, but kept putting it off as the reviews kept rating it lower and lower. Now I know why that likely happened and why I shouldn't have waited. Simmons takes current political and economic events and projects a future based on potential outcomes from these events. Most of the low reviews are seemingly based on people upset that Simmons is blaming the current administration for everything. The thing is Simmons never names names or points fingers - he just extrapolates his future events based on current factual events.

So, what I'm trying to say is that Flashback does not deserve the bad reviews and low ratings. Plenty of other authors are allowed to take conservative or religious ideology and put their own fictional spin on outcomes. Simmons certainly deserves the same right to examine a fictional future outcome. He is also a writer who is talented enough to do it better than most.

Flashback is very well written. The characters are all well developed and believable. Simmons' insights into this future dystopian society are well reasoned and chillingly realistic. Will this future world happen? Most likely not. This is fiction. So, even if you would call yourself a liberal, set politics aside and enjoy this futurist murder mystery. If you are a student of political history who enjoys fiction do yourself a favor and read Flashback.

Obviously Flashback is very highly recommended. http://shetreadssoftly.blogspot.com/
( )

People have labelled this less a story and more Simmon's desire to lay out his political leanings. It's almost impossible not to concur with that view a third of the way into this book. Simmons is one of my favorite writers, but he missed the mark with this so called detective novel. ( )

It is a time when the United States power and prestige is destroyed by the invasion of Islam, which has become the most powerful force in the world headed by the Caliphate. And Nick Bottom, A detective, addicted to a drug called flashback that induces dream-states where he can experience the happiest moments of his past life with his now deceased wife, Dara, as many times as he likes - and has the money to pay for the drug - is hired by a very powerful Japanese businessman to find the killers of his son.

To be honest, reading towards the end, I was about to give it just 2 stars because, although it was a good story with an interesting, if not unique, plot and characters, it seemed to be a story told in the usual way many other stories are told with the usual adventures and mysteries of "who done it" in many other books.

But when I got to the last 20 pages, well, to me it was a kick in the head and the ending was worth the read. Don't get me wrong, as a whole the book was good but the ending made it a great read. ( )

A fairly good story and characters ruined by a dystopian vision fuelled by Ann Rand economics and climate change denial. If I didn't know better I would think that it was a propaganda piece for the Koch brothers. It is a shame because Drood was such a good book. ( )

The politics are strongly Tea Party, and the apocalypse is fairly a Tea Party prediction come true. There is also a fair amount of racism involved in the world Simmons has created.

If you can get beyond these limiters, or you believe them, Simmons is still a good storyteller. I've just preferred the other stories he's had to tell. It was worth finishing, it is just hard to think who you could safely recommend it to. ( )

The only other book I have read from this author was The Crook Factory, which I quite enjoyed. I had seen this book a number of times but had past over it because it was science fiction, which is not a favorite genre of mine. 2 weeks ago I saw it on Sale and decided to give it a try. The premise seem good, but wow this was not a good book for me. I have since seen a number of reviews here on Goodreads where the biggest complaint is the conservative bent of the book. I find this laughable considering the number of authors out there who drive their liberal points of view throughout most everything they write (Stephen King, John Grisham to name two recent examples). No the real problem with this book is that it takes forever to go anywhere! I got half way through it and finally gave up. This was not a book it was a big budget special effects movie completely missing a story or containing characters worth following. The writing was staccato and at no time did I care about anything in this book but trying to finish it. The politics of the book were not the problem for me, the lack of a thought out story, written in a readable format, with well developed characters, was the Problem. Another complaint I have with these types of books is instead of explaining-in this books case-how America got so screwed up in the beginning of the book, who have to grind through the whole book and piece it together. Well if the book is well written that is fine, for me I won't have the complete story regarding this book, because there is no way I will bother with the second half. ( )

Somebody asked me the other day, " Hey, Dan, is this book good?"

I said, "Damn good." ( )

This is one of those books where I enjoyed it but at the same time I think it fell short. I love the concept. The characters were great and the tale interesting but there is something I can't quite put my finger on that keeps me from giving it the fourth star.

The concept of the nation addicted to a drug that lets them relive better days is fascinating and it makes you wonder, how many folks would be addicted if there was such a drug? Would you take it?

I recommend this book. I liked it. Compared to Simmon's other works though? I enjoyed some of them far more than I did this one. Start with The Terror and a few of his others, then read this one.



(I am trying to keep all my reviews spoiler free... this is rather difficult and tends to make the reviews much shorter. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing) ( )

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. ( )

This is one of those books where I enjoyed it but at the same time I think it fell short. I love the concept. The characters were great and the tale interesting but there is something I can't quite put my finger on that keeps me from giving it the fourth star.

The concept of the nation addicted to a drug that lets them relive better days is fascinating and it makes you wonder, how many folks would be addicted if there was such a drug? Would you take it?

I recommend this book. I liked it. Compared to Simmon's other works though? I enjoyed some of them far more than I did this one. Start with The Terror and a few of his others, then read this one.



(I am trying to keep all my reviews spoiler free... this is rather difficult and tends to make the reviews much shorter. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing) ( )

Flashback is a thoroughly enjoyable romp through a fairly outrageous but still believable and wildly readable What If set in a future America which has been invaded by Mexico, culturally dominated by Japan and morally and spiritually ruled by Islam - the Islamic Global Caliphate.

The US is bankrupt and raises money by hiring out their army as mercenaries to fight for China and India; at the age of 17, all boys are drafted. Europe is completely under Sharia law, as is Canada, there is a Grand mosque at ground zero, and Israel was destroyed in a brief and dirty nuclear war.

How did this happen? you ask; how did a nation go from virtual super-hero to complete zero in twenty short years? Well, the fault is appears lies with Obama whose overspending on social reforms and entitlement programmes has made the country bankrupt. Flashback has been condemned as atrocious, hyper-conservative, outrageous, right wing and sloppy, but for those with no political axe to grind it is an imaginative thriller.

By the 2030s, over 85% of Americans are addicted to a drug called Flashback, which allows the user to relive memories. Ex-cop turned detective Nick Bottom is no exception, and when he is asked to re-investigate the last case he worked as a policeman by a powerful Japanese magnate he accepts because he needs money for a fix.

Once he starts looking though he finds there are connections with the cold case and the death of his wife, with the drug trade, and the whole chaotic dystopian mess. Incredibly entertaining. ( )

As always, Dan Simmons writes a mean story. Whether or not you buy into the political direction of it, you can still enjoy the excitement and imagination in it's pages. The one thing he doesn't do is edit out details. There are plenty of those, and for readers who want a quick and simple read, they will not find it here. At the end of the book, there is a printed interview with Mr. Simmons. In one of the questions, he talks a bit about George Orwell's 1984 and how it has impacted generations since. The introduction of "Big Brother" certainly has produced a level of distrust by many people towards those in authority. This has perhaps been helpful in some instances and irrational in others, but it has affected how we look at the future. For writers and readers of dystopian novels, Orwell is the gold standard. I think that Dan Simmons has done a great job of creating this fearful but still hopeful look at what the future could hold. He trusts in the power of love and concern for others to overcome that of any political or power hungry sect or individual. The author himself admits that the politics in the book is not one that he espouses, but in reality, it could be the future of any political direction that goes too far off course. I enjoyed this story and recommend it to anyone who is willing to look at the future with concern and yet a hopeful soul. ( )