Book Review: Flashback by Dan Simmons

Say what you want about dystopias, but they can be a real downer. Dan Simmons is one of my favorite contemporary novelists. While he writes many different types of novels across the spectrum of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, I’ve been a big fan of his historical supernatural fiction, such as The Terror (much better than the TV series!), The Fifth Heart, and Abominable. In these books he takes an event that happened in the past few hundred years (like the lost Artic expedition, the Hays/Adams relationship, and scaling Mount Everest) and adds a supernatural element (like an angry polar creature, a Sherlock Holmes crossover, or potential yetis). While delving into fantasy, the books are always grounded in reality – through the stories you can learn a ton about things like contracts for supplying food for 19th century British merchant vessels, the importance of the Chicago World’s Fair, and why alpine climbing methods fail in the Himalayas. With such great works taking place in the past, I wanted to take a chance on Flashback, Simmons’ novel about the future. It did not turn out that well. Except for 1984, it’s hard to think of a dystopian novel that worked well. Part of that might have to do the setting – it takes a lot of effort to make a reader actually want to spend time in a terrible place. Especially when that place is a wasteland, like it is in many books, including Flashback. The work is set in the America of the 2030s (note: the book was published in 2011, so it was based on a 20 year gap), where for all intents and purposes America is broken – the country is bankrupt, some states has seceded, and foreign powers have taken over our territory in deed if not name. Most Americans are addicted to a drug called flashback, which allows you to relive past moments, with many people opting to commit horrible crimes in order to relive them again and again. This is not a setting you would really want to spend much time in – in order for it to work you need a great story and lively characters. Unfortunately, for the type of Dan Simmons books I’ve read in the past, the setting was the reason to slog through them. The story in and of itself is passable – it’s a murder mystery that’s used as an excuse to travel all over the western US (or what’s left of it). Like most Dan Simmons books, the plot is overly complicated and bogged down with turns and red herrings, then just kind of arrives at a conclusion. This wasn’t really a problem in his historical fiction books, but the dreary setting makes the story’s shortcomings more pronounced. The characters are where the book really falls off a cliff – there’s nobody to root for. The ostensible protagonist, Nick Bottom (yes, the Shakespeare allusion does come up a few times), is a former cop who is now a flashback-addicted PI and even late in the book is not above shooting an unarmed teen in the head. Again, this is our hero. If you don’t want to root for him, you can root for his son, who for most of the book is in his own story. Val spends most of his time dreaming of killing Nick. Also, although he is only an occasional flashback taker, he runs with a flashback gang, where Val was the lookout while the rest of the gang raped someone, and later takes part in a murder plot. Again, this is your alternative hero. Now we come to the really problematic part of the book – this dystopia is completely Republican. And, besides the keeping Vladimir Putin a villain, it’s not even “mainstream” Republican – it’s Trump Republican (which is quite a feat considering it was written several years before Trump ran for president). Although it never names him, it is obvious from the exposition that everything that ruined America could be blamed on Obama – universal healthcare and other entitlements bankrupted the country, Mexican drug cartels have taken over half the Southwest, and appeased Muslims have formed a Great Caliphate that has taken over Europe and parts of Canada. We also learn that all European socialist democracies have failed, Israel has fallen due to lack of American protection, global warming turned out to be a lie, and the People’s Republic of Boulder spouts equality while relying on veritable slave labor to function. The only treasure in the west is the capitalist Republic of Texas. Now, this might sound like the perfect basis for a dystopia for you (and if so, HELLO MRS. ZEITLER!); however, please keep in mind the following: • Why would you want to risk ticking off half your readers by bringing politics into the story at all? • In the reading guide at the end of the book, Dan Simmons answers the question as to whether or not his personal politics were represented in this book. His answer was “In a word, no…in two words, hell no.” So he doesn’t even believe the Trumpian politics he’s espousing in the book – which should tick off the other half of the readership! As he said in the reading guide, the point of the book was to create the same feelings in readers that Dan himself experienced in real life when he came home from freshmen year of college to find out that both his parents were diagnosed with terminal cancer. That’s a completely valid reason to write a dystopian novel, but it still doesn’t explain why ultra-conservative politics had to be a part of it (especially since half the readership would be nodding their heads at seeing Obama being the culprit). The dystopia could have had many other reasons for being, such as an unexpected war, or a nuclear accident, or that great earthquake in the Pacific Northwest finally happening, or…I don’t know…off the top of my head…A FRIGGING PANDEMIC!!! One other thing that must be noted – while so much of the setting was dictated by new century conservatism, a key part of the story is based on 80s conservatism – Japan being the economic power of the world and having purchased most of the remaining US. While it was obvious Simmons really wanted to discuss bushido and medieval Japanese political systems in this story, this was a bit of a head-scratcher – I tried to think about whether there was anything that happened ten years ago that indicated the Japanese economy was on the rise and came up with nothing. With all that said, there was a twist at the end that ALMOST saved the whole story…then we find out it was just a dream. Meh. So, I still love Dan Simmons books (and will probably pick up his book Black Hills sooner rather than later), but I can’t really say I enjoyed this 700+ work that much. Five out of ten hot dogs.