Book Log 2009 #28: Flashforward by Robert Sawyer

Two scientists at CERN are trying to find the Higgs boson, and when they run an experiment designed to do that it instead plunges everyone in the planet into a two minute vision of their futures. While this leads to world-wide catastrophe in the immediate moment (from people having their vision while driving, flying a plane, etc.), in the longer term it leads to questions about why this happened, and if the visions of the future can be changed.

It's an interesting premise, and it plays out among the characters at CERN in various ways, though not always smoothly. There's also a subplot involving a very old man in Toronto that winds up impacting the end of the book in an unexpected way. One that I didn't quite care for, to be honest.

I'd not have sought the book out except that it's the basis for one of ABC's new show next season. Promos aired during Lost even before the new show was officially picked up, which is unusual. And as the concept tied in with the way Lost has played with time, I'm likely to watch the new show as well. I just hope it's done better than the book. The link for the book above is to another review, which I usually don't do but it better addressed some of the specific problems than I could this far past reading it.