Flashforward has the main protoganists, the scientists, quickly assuming a time-shift took place early in book. While the rest of the world panics and believes in this, it's unbelievable that scientists in 2008 could 24 hours after the Flash Forward. The subplots, Canadian content, philosophical questions about freedom, and neat prognostications for the next decades hold interest to the finish, but they're insufficient to overcome the readily acceptance of a time-shift by scientists for a great book. The scientists appear heavily influenced by science fiction. This one gets a 2 and a 1/2 goes for the cool cover design. Sawyer has produced better novels.