Flashback by Dan Simmons

Flashback by Dan Simmons is mixture of a political suspense novel that is about a drug called Flashback which lets the users re-experience the best moments of their life. For a drug available that is so alluring, it is hard to resist. It is about murder, drugs, and a cop going under to find clues about a case. Sounds great, right? Well… read on to find out.

Book Description

“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.” – Flashback

My Thoughts

This is a very interesting novel that has a plot that is really quite unique. I’ve never read a book about a drug like this before and it makes for a really thought-provoking concept for the book.

The main character Nick Bottom is a flashback addict, but that is okay because he actually ends up using it for the case he is working on to find clues into the murder of Nakamura’s son.

If the book was more drug-using and murder-mystery suspense I would have enjoyed it more. Sure, it has that as a big part of the storyline. However, another large part of the book that is blatently hard to ignore is the political tone to the book and the anti-Muslim comments, “Green” technology, global warming, and health care reform bashing.

Overall, it is a good read if you don’t mind all the political comments made throughout the book. If this is highly annoying to you, I’d skip it.

* Thank you to the publisher of Flashback, Little, Brown and Company, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.