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Flashback
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Science Fiction (2011)A provocative dystopian thriller set in a future that seems scarily possible, Flashback proves why Dan Simmons is one of our most exciting and versatile writers. The United States is near total collapse. But 87% of the population doesn't 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.
561 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2011
268 people are currently reading
4809 people want to read
About the author
Dan Simmons
289 books13.8k followersDan Simmons is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works that span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes within a single novel. Simmons's genre-intermingling Song of Kali (1985) won the World Fantasy Award. He also writes mysteries and thrillers, some of which feature the continuing character Joe Kurtz.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 820 reviews
July 30, 2015
Dear Dan Simmons,
We have taken your family hostage. If you want to see them alive again, immediately write a dystopian novel that incorporates the following ideas:
1) The election of Obama in 2008 triggers a wave of socialist entitlement programs that bankrupts the United States. Be sure to repeatedly point out that the debt run up by the liberals is the key factor in this. Do NOT mention that Bill Clinton‘s administration paid off a huge national debt that had increased dramatically during the Reagan and Bush Sr. years or that a surplus once again became massive debt during George W. Bush‘s two terms.
2) 75% of the US population does NOT pay taxes, but is entitled to expanded benefits like retiring at 50 with full Social Security benefits. Do NOT point out that it’s usually the Democrats who are accused of wanting more taxes or that current conventional wisdom regarding Social Security is that the retirement age will be raised, not lowered.
2) Muslim extremists now rule most of the world because Obama and the liberals appeased them at every turn. Do NOT mention the so-called Arab Spring or how Obama ordered a SEAL team to appease Osama bin Ladin.
3) The US has lost several states to secession and the southwest has been captured by militarized Mexican gangs.
4) Global warming was proven to be a myth. That’s it. Just say that.
5) The US wasted the last of its money researching worthless green technologies. All the cars are now electric pieces of shit with extremely limited range. Make sure that at some point the hero pins all his hopes of escape on obtaining a V8 muscle car and that his idea is inspired by Mad Max and The Road Warrior. Do NOT point out that a huge expansion of power by countries promoting radical Islam would probably have to be financed by oil production.
6) Right wing radio commenters have been banned and broadcast as pirate radio stations while the state sponsored NPR is the official news channel. Do NOT mention Fox News at any point.
7) The liberals stripped the US military of its nuclear arms and funding. However, the military is now farmed out as a mercenary army to raise cash. If the army was gutted, why would anyone hire it as a mercenary force? Do NOT raise that question.
8) Be sure that there is a character who is an aging academic who is realizing that his type of well-meaning but fuzzy headed liberal thinking was the reason the world has gone to hell.
9) Japan now effectively controls the US.
10) Texas is an independent republic that is the last bastion of real American ideals like keeping most of what you earn to pay for your own health care. Wait. Didn’t we say that we wanted you to have most of the old US paying no taxes and that was part of the downfall? Oh, well. Write it up like that anyhow. No one will notice.
You may incorporate whatever sci-fi elements you feel necessary to entice your usual readers. We suggest a drug that most of the country is addicted to that allows users to relive their favorite memories over and over. Also, mystery stories are popular so incorporate some kind of plot with a detective. Perhaps a former cop who is now addicted to this drug after the death of his wife? We leave those details up to you so that you can get your fans to read this political manifesto.
Once this book is published, we will release your family unharmed.
Sincerely,
The Tea Party
We have taken your family hostage. If you want to see them alive again, immediately write a dystopian novel that incorporates the following ideas:
1) The election of Obama in 2008 triggers a wave of socialist entitlement programs that bankrupts the United States. Be sure to repeatedly point out that the debt run up by the liberals is the key factor in this. Do NOT mention that Bill Clinton‘s administration paid off a huge national debt that had increased dramatically during the Reagan and Bush Sr. years or that a surplus once again became massive debt during George W. Bush‘s two terms.
2) 75% of the US population does NOT pay taxes, but is entitled to expanded benefits like retiring at 50 with full Social Security benefits. Do NOT point out that it’s usually the Democrats who are accused of wanting more taxes or that current conventional wisdom regarding Social Security is that the retirement age will be raised, not lowered.
2) Muslim extremists now rule most of the world because Obama and the liberals appeased them at every turn. Do NOT mention the so-called Arab Spring or how Obama ordered a SEAL team to appease Osama bin Ladin.
3) The US has lost several states to secession and the southwest has been captured by militarized Mexican gangs.
4) Global warming was proven to be a myth. That’s it. Just say that.
5) The US wasted the last of its money researching worthless green technologies. All the cars are now electric pieces of shit with extremely limited range. Make sure that at some point the hero pins all his hopes of escape on obtaining a V8 muscle car and that his idea is inspired by Mad Max and The Road Warrior. Do NOT point out that a huge expansion of power by countries promoting radical Islam would probably have to be financed by oil production.
6) Right wing radio commenters have been banned and broadcast as pirate radio stations while the state sponsored NPR is the official news channel. Do NOT mention Fox News at any point.
7) The liberals stripped the US military of its nuclear arms and funding. However, the military is now farmed out as a mercenary army to raise cash. If the army was gutted, why would anyone hire it as a mercenary force? Do NOT raise that question.
8) Be sure that there is a character who is an aging academic who is realizing that his type of well-meaning but fuzzy headed liberal thinking was the reason the world has gone to hell.
9) Japan now effectively controls the US.
10) Texas is an independent republic that is the last bastion of real American ideals like keeping most of what you earn to pay for your own health care. Wait. Didn’t we say that we wanted you to have most of the old US paying no taxes and that was part of the downfall? Oh, well. Write it up like that anyhow. No one will notice.
You may incorporate whatever sci-fi elements you feel necessary to entice your usual readers. We suggest a drug that most of the country is addicted to that allows users to relive their favorite memories over and over. Also, mystery stories are popular so incorporate some kind of plot with a detective. Perhaps a former cop who is now addicted to this drug after the death of his wife? We leave those details up to you so that you can get your fans to read this political manifesto.
Once this book is published, we will release your family unharmed.
Sincerely,
The Tea Party
December 14, 2013
People dislike this book for pretty much two major reasons, those being the politics he uses to drive the story, and the far too overused these days cries of racism: but same critical people have no problem with when Stephen King or Douglas Preston add in their own politics and Christian bashing to their respective novels.. .. Guess it all depends on which side of the isle you sit on.. .. I was able to get through Under the Dome and and to me it took continuous cheap shots at christianity (which would be racist if it were toward Muslims???) and multiple low blows at conservatives throughout.. Flashback is a faster paced story with more intrigue and much more thought provoking value than most scifi type novels out there.. It's a wonderful blend of throwback private detective and whatif future dystopia!! Flashback does have a "right" tone to it but the commentary is not thrown out there at all like the later of the Crichton novels though.. It's a solid detective story with many twists and surprises. While it's not completely original, what book is? If you can take the authors world that has been created for what it is and get over your political insecurities and fear of what is and isnt considered politically correct I'm positive you'll enjoy this intelligent novel.. It is fiction after all and good fiction at that!! I'm sorry that this book hurt your feelings but there is no way it is a 1 star rating!!
January 28, 2023
Israel obliterated! A Muslim Caliphate spread all over Middle East, Africa, Asia and... Europe! A raging civil war in China! The Caliphate, a feudal Japan, India and Indonesia are the world's main super powers! 85% of Americans are Flashback addicts reliving the past with the wonder drug. What caused all this? Apparently in this ridiculously reasoned Right Wing dystopian conspiracy thriller... Obama, Medicare, the 'global warming hoax' and immigration!!! Now despite the utterly ridiculously history of this reality a broken and cuckolded America makes a fascinating read!
Shamed former Denver cop, and Flashback addict, Nick Bottom is called once again to return to what he thought was a truly dead cold case by America's overseers, the Japanese. An OK thriller with some great characterisations slightly ruined by Right Wing rants that add nothing to the story! All-in-all an interesting book, but to have this thriller overshadow the reality itself is like filming a World Series and only pointing the camera at the umpires!
The Japanese reality in this book is quite interesting and plays a major role in this book; whereas the Muslim Caliphate is almost abstract having zero characters and a microscopic role in this story. Not sure about the accusations of racism at Simmons, with most of the few kind Americans in this book being people of colour, and generally the book being harshest on White Americans than any one else - with many of them violent, rapist, drug addled waste of spaces that have given up on living. 8 out of 12, Four Stars for the character and reality building; if Simmons watched a lot less Right Wing media outlets this story could have been something spectacular.
2019 read
Shamed former Denver cop, and Flashback addict, Nick Bottom is called once again to return to what he thought was a truly dead cold case by America's overseers, the Japanese. An OK thriller with some great characterisations slightly ruined by Right Wing rants that add nothing to the story! All-in-all an interesting book, but to have this thriller overshadow the reality itself is like filming a World Series and only pointing the camera at the umpires!
The Japanese reality in this book is quite interesting and plays a major role in this book; whereas the Muslim Caliphate is almost abstract having zero characters and a microscopic role in this story. Not sure about the accusations of racism at Simmons, with most of the few kind Americans in this book being people of colour, and generally the book being harshest on White Americans than any one else - with many of them violent, rapist, drug addled waste of spaces that have given up on living. 8 out of 12, Four Stars for the character and reality building; if Simmons watched a lot less Right Wing media outlets this story could have been something spectacular.
2019 read
June 22, 2011
In a former United States devastated by economic and political collapse, former police officer Nick Bottom, a Flashback addict like much of the country, is pulled from the ruins of his former life and hired by a Japanese businessman to solve the six year old murder of his son. But what does the murder have to do with the car accident that killed his wife and sent him into Flashback's warm embrace?
When I saw that Dan Simmons' next book was going to be called Flashback, I pre-ordered it immediately. Flashback is a drug that allows the user to relive memories and was first introduced by Simmons in the wonderful Hyperion Cantos, one of my all-time favorite books. Did it live up to the standard set by Hyperion? I'll tell you in a little while...
There were a lot of things I liked about Flashback. Flashback and the culture surrounding it made a great plot device. I thought that using Nick Bottom's Flashback addiction to explore his own memories to help investigate who killed Nakamura's son was a pretty novel idea. I liked the converging plotlines with Nick's estranged son Val and his father-in-law Leonard. I liked the relationship with Nick and Sato, Nakamura's watchdog. I loved the references to other Simmons books like Hardcase and Hyperion and the references to Shakespeare and Keats. Most of all, I loved the serpentine nature of the mystery and how it had to do with Dara's death. The world was very well constructed and was a bit of a throwback to the cyberpunk dystopias of the 80's.
That's a lot of likes but the dislike was very hard to ignore. The tone of the book was so conservative that it made Rush Limbaugh seem like Hilary Clinton by comparison. While I can understand that since the setting is a dystopia ruled by a Caliphate of militant Muslim there was going to be some anti-Muslim sentiments, the anti-Muslim venom Simmons spewed liberally throughout the text got harder and harder to ignore. Simmons also goes on to bash health care reform, global warming, green technology, and a lot of other things. While I'm all for people thinking for themselves and having their own political beliefs and even found myself agreeing with Simmons on a few points, I don't think a novel is the right place to showcase those beliefs. I didn't like it when Heinlein did it, I hated it when Brad Thor did it, and I sure don't like Simmons doing it now. He took a great premise and went all Sean Penn with it.
So did Flashback live up to the standard set by Hyperion? It did not but not for lack of trying. If Simmons wouldn't have been so ham-fisted with the political stuff, I would have rated it much higher. Even still, I found it to be a pretty enjoyable read once I learned to avoid the political diatribes. I guess the final verdict will have to be a 3.
When I saw that Dan Simmons' next book was going to be called Flashback, I pre-ordered it immediately. Flashback is a drug that allows the user to relive memories and was first introduced by Simmons in the wonderful Hyperion Cantos, one of my all-time favorite books. Did it live up to the standard set by Hyperion? I'll tell you in a little while...
There were a lot of things I liked about Flashback. Flashback and the culture surrounding it made a great plot device. I thought that using Nick Bottom's Flashback addiction to explore his own memories to help investigate who killed Nakamura's son was a pretty novel idea. I liked the converging plotlines with Nick's estranged son Val and his father-in-law Leonard. I liked the relationship with Nick and Sato, Nakamura's watchdog. I loved the references to other Simmons books like Hardcase and Hyperion and the references to Shakespeare and Keats. Most of all, I loved the serpentine nature of the mystery and how it had to do with Dara's death. The world was very well constructed and was a bit of a throwback to the cyberpunk dystopias of the 80's.
That's a lot of likes but the dislike was very hard to ignore. The tone of the book was so conservative that it made Rush Limbaugh seem like Hilary Clinton by comparison. While I can understand that since the setting is a dystopia ruled by a Caliphate of militant Muslim there was going to be some anti-Muslim sentiments, the anti-Muslim venom Simmons spewed liberally throughout the text got harder and harder to ignore. Simmons also goes on to bash health care reform, global warming, green technology, and a lot of other things. While I'm all for people thinking for themselves and having their own political beliefs and even found myself agreeing with Simmons on a few points, I don't think a novel is the right place to showcase those beliefs. I didn't like it when Heinlein did it, I hated it when Brad Thor did it, and I sure don't like Simmons doing it now. He took a great premise and went all Sean Penn with it.
So did Flashback live up to the standard set by Hyperion? It did not but not for lack of trying. If Simmons wouldn't have been so ham-fisted with the political stuff, I would have rated it much higher. Even still, I found it to be a pretty enjoyable read once I learned to avoid the political diatribes. I guess the final verdict will have to be a 3.
November 26, 2012
Absolutely loved The Terror. Really liked Drood. Hyperion was pretty darned good too.
But this book? Holy sh*t!
I'll take a guess that the author never put it past an editor. The book is 80% overwritten -- and chock full of the author's political rants. I mean do we really need to know about how much you hate the Boulder, CO city council? For christ's sake. Does the truck driver really need to launch off on a long tirade about the 2012 election?
This book is absolute crap. I've tried to push through the audiobook, and even at disk 13, I just can't do it. I hate the characters. The plot is absolute crap.
I'm guessing that Simmons was either high on crack or had a stroke. Or high on crack and then had a stroke. And then decided he didn't need an editor any more. And then someone decided to let him have his way and publish it anyway.
I'm writing this review without having finished the final 3 disks of the audiobook, and it makes me angry because I still want to know about the core-thread of the plot -- what happened with his wife? What is Flash2? Who killed the billionaire's son? But I just can't do it, guys. It's really messing with my commute and the road rage is starting to come back. Urgh.
LESSON LEARNED: Don't pre-order Dan Simmons' books anymore. Wait for other readers to post their reviews and then make my decision.
But this book? Holy sh*t!
I'll take a guess that the author never put it past an editor. The book is 80% overwritten -- and chock full of the author's political rants. I mean do we really need to know about how much you hate the Boulder, CO city council? For christ's sake. Does the truck driver really need to launch off on a long tirade about the 2012 election?
This book is absolute crap. I've tried to push through the audiobook, and even at disk 13, I just can't do it. I hate the characters. The plot is absolute crap.
I'm guessing that Simmons was either high on crack or had a stroke. Or high on crack and then had a stroke. And then decided he didn't need an editor any more. And then someone decided to let him have his way and publish it anyway.
I'm writing this review without having finished the final 3 disks of the audiobook, and it makes me angry because I still want to know about the core-thread of the plot -- what happened with his wife? What is Flash2? Who killed the billionaire's son? But I just can't do it, guys. It's really messing with my commute and the road rage is starting to come back. Urgh.
LESSON LEARNED: Don't pre-order Dan Simmons' books anymore. Wait for other readers to post their reviews and then make my decision.
August 10, 2017
Judging from the hundred pages or so of Flashback I masochistically goaded myself through the Dan Simmons whose work I love has been replaced by a tea party replicant. Ask him why he won't right an upturned tortoise and he'll launch into a rant about how the tortoise's liberal views, the Obama administration, and the animal's pandering to ethnic minorities are to blame for its vulnerable state.
Seriously though, this book doesn't fit with Simmons' other work, such as the magnificent Hyperion (A book I have given as a gift multiple times), the Olympus books, or even Carrion Comfort. It feels like you're reading a completely different writer.
Clumsy, foam-flecked right wing fantasies infest the narrative, wedged into the unlikeliest of scenes and dialogues with all the subtlety of a furious Donald Trump in a purple bear suit.
Lest you think I'm exaggerating, Simmons has one character recall how the ethnic studies department at his old university became so powerful that "Churchill’s Ethnic Studies students—tattooed, multiply pierced, their fists commonly raised in anger—would stride like Gestapo."
Yep, a bunch of pimply ethnic studies students are likened, without irony, to an all powerful government organisation composed of cold-eyed murderers, torturers and of course, Nazis.
In another tediously didactic section a character sees a loathed public sculpture and remembers how the 'black' mayor at the time favored ethnic minorities in the grants process so some undeserving hispanic made a sculpture everyone hated.
These sorts of ill-fitting points are made all through the story, and they feel as though they have been forced in, regardless of their plausibility, or even the way they fit with the characters that remember them. It's crazy right wing bingo- Mexican invasion, global caliphate, no climate change, a weak military and societal collapse due to left-leaning political choices, etc. etc.
I could handle all this (I loves me a dystopia!) if it was plausible, sold to the reader and flowed with the narrative, but it doesn't. It's a shopping list of fringe grievances tacked on to a story.
Dan Simmons claims this book does not represent his views. In that case I have to ask why he bothered to include them, as they impact so negatively on Flashback that it is borderline unreadable.
Seriously though, this book doesn't fit with Simmons' other work, such as the magnificent Hyperion (A book I have given as a gift multiple times), the Olympus books, or even Carrion Comfort. It feels like you're reading a completely different writer.
Clumsy, foam-flecked right wing fantasies infest the narrative, wedged into the unlikeliest of scenes and dialogues with all the subtlety of a furious Donald Trump in a purple bear suit.
Lest you think I'm exaggerating, Simmons has one character recall how the ethnic studies department at his old university became so powerful that "Churchill’s Ethnic Studies students—tattooed, multiply pierced, their fists commonly raised in anger—would stride like Gestapo."
Yep, a bunch of pimply ethnic studies students are likened, without irony, to an all powerful government organisation composed of cold-eyed murderers, torturers and of course, Nazis.
In another tediously didactic section a character sees a loathed public sculpture and remembers how the 'black' mayor at the time favored ethnic minorities in the grants process so some undeserving hispanic made a sculpture everyone hated.
These sorts of ill-fitting points are made all through the story, and they feel as though they have been forced in, regardless of their plausibility, or even the way they fit with the characters that remember them. It's crazy right wing bingo- Mexican invasion, global caliphate, no climate change, a weak military and societal collapse due to left-leaning political choices, etc. etc.
I could handle all this (I loves me a dystopia!) if it was plausible, sold to the reader and flowed with the narrative, but it doesn't. It's a shopping list of fringe grievances tacked on to a story.
Dan Simmons claims this book does not represent his views. In that case I have to ask why he bothered to include them, as they impact so negatively on Flashback that it is borderline unreadable.
September 19, 2011
Disappointed with this book. Liked Simmons' earlier sci-fi; unfortunately, this book seems to be mainly a smokescreen for some conservative and possibly racist perspectives that I don't agree with. I don't have a problem with political undertones in novels if they are well integrated thematically, even if I disagree with them, but the characters come out with these rants that detract from the story - or worse, there will be a block of awkward exposition about the cost of U.S. entitlement programs and how they led to the collapse of the nation. WTH? So lame. Slogging through to the end just to see what happens to the main character, though I don't entirely care anymore.
November 14, 2011
Two stars for the complex mystery plot. Otherwise, I'm looking for negative numbers. This book makes Heinlein look like a sissy.
The hero is the usual super-tough ex-cop who isn't too smart but always figgers it out in da end. Takes lotsa hits, spits out teeth and gets up again. Bruce Willis in Die Hard. John Wayne in anything. There's a bottle in his right-hand desk drawer.
90% of the people in the world are liberal wimps or stereotypical foreigners, and everything is Obama's fault.
Whenever a fact is required to set a scene, we get half a page of what looks like Wikipedia.
Nothing works anymore, except if it's Japanese or Texan: then it works perfectly and is leading-edge-plus. The Japanese have medical and weapons technology, 40 years in our future, that is essentially magic. Oh, but cell phones still work perfectly, and never need recharging (except for one scene near the end).
The Japanese section of the plot made me think of Kent Brockman and "I for one welcome our new alien overlords." I guess some for'ners are OK and some ain't in Dan's world.
Such a big book, such a lot of my time wasted. This is half wanker fantasy and half bitter right-wing hissing, covered in just enough interesting plot to make you get well into it before you notice what a steaming pile it is.
Simmons has written some excellent books. This isn't one of them.
The hero is the usual super-tough ex-cop who isn't too smart but always figgers it out in da end. Takes lotsa hits, spits out teeth and gets up again. Bruce Willis in Die Hard. John Wayne in anything. There's a bottle in his right-hand desk drawer.
90% of the people in the world are liberal wimps or stereotypical foreigners, and everything is Obama's fault.
Whenever a fact is required to set a scene, we get half a page of what looks like Wikipedia.
Nothing works anymore, except if it's Japanese or Texan: then it works perfectly and is leading-edge-plus. The Japanese have medical and weapons technology, 40 years in our future, that is essentially magic. Oh, but cell phones still work perfectly, and never need recharging (except for one scene near the end).
The Japanese section of the plot made me think of Kent Brockman and "I for one welcome our new alien overlords." I guess some for'ners are OK and some ain't in Dan's world.
Such a big book, such a lot of my time wasted. This is half wanker fantasy and half bitter right-wing hissing, covered in just enough interesting plot to make you get well into it before you notice what a steaming pile it is.
Simmons has written some excellent books. This isn't one of them.
March 8, 2015
Dan Simmons envisions a dystopian future triggered by the Obama administration. Truthfully, had I known this was going to be an atrocious, righteous, xenophobic right-wing fantasy novel, I would not have read it. My brain hurt from all the prejudicial contortions in logic and historical perspective. Delivery of the world-unbuilding was atrocious and defied reason.
I thought often of abandoning it. However, it occurred to me that right-wingers must feel the same way when they read novels about climate change, or corporate world-dominance, for example. I don't want to have a closed mind, so I continued with the novel and focused on the dull murder mystery and (mostly) politically neutral characters. In the end, I still hated it. I offer my sincere apologies to Mr. Simmons. Novel writing isn't easy, especially when readers bash the very foundation of your work, and in this case, core beliefs. Only time will tell what path to destruction mankind treads. I hope it isn't the one Mr. Simmons has conjured. Given the absurdity of this novel, I'm not very worried.
July 25, 2021
I’m having a tough time figuring out how to rate this book, and how to feel about it in general, and what to say in a review.
First off I guess-this book has a pretty decent premise. It’s a dystopian detective novel based in a collapsed and fallen USA-or world, really-in a not too distant future. Most of the population ignore everything that is going on and use a drug called flashback; it’s a drug that allows the user to relive their most cherished memories, and it is a great plot device with unlimited potential. Simmons definitely likes it as it has appeared numerous times throughout his works, including in the Hyperion Cantos, and in a novella of the same name. Nick Bottom is a disgraced former detective who is now strung out on the drug, using it to relive memories with his deceased wife. He is approached and hired by a Japanese warlord (Japan has regressed into a feudal, medieval state) to investigate the death of his son, as Nick may be the only one alive who has the memories necessary to solve this crime.
Not a bad setup, huh? I thought it was pretty good too, and the book actually hooked me pretty quickly. Simmons’s writing is on point as always. He draws you in with intrigue, paints a picture of his world very thoroughly, and does it all with prose that is enjoyable to read. Soon, the problems started.
How much you enjoy this book is going to depend largely on two things: your political views (or at the very least, your ability to read a book that literally shoves politics down your throat, over and over and over again), and how well you are able to suspend disbelief. The book is ridiculous - it is so far fetched at times that I just about laughed out loud. Simmons dystopian world begins with Obama in 2008, and is quickly destroyed by absurd overuse of entitlement programs, attempts to appease Muslims globally and locally, the global crash of the dollar due to inflation, and much more that you can probably guess. The US fractures into some satellite states and is invaded by enemies elsewhere. The southwest is taken over by Mexican drug cartels and becomes Nuevo Mexico; some of Mountain Colorado becomes The People’s Republic of Boulder (seriously); and Texas - you guessed it - secedes and becomes the last bastion of 1776 style, tea party havin’, gun totin’, freedom lovin’, good ol ‘merican values. For real.
Now, it was inevitable that my personal political views may be partially exposed simply by giving my honest thoughts on this book, but let me say this: I do not care what the political views are of authors I choose to read, truly. I love Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Nelson DeMille, Ken Follett, John Sandford, James Michener, etc. Some of these authors are very outspoken on politics, and sometimes they even put it into their books. King sneaks in little shots at Trump, Tom Clancy’s books are just dripping with a general 1980s Reagan Republican view of the world. The difference with Simmons in this case, is they are almost never shoved down the readers throat. Simmons claims this book doesn’t represent his politics, but it is impossible to walk away from this novel without feeling the venom Simmons (likely) has towards certain institutions. These issues come up over and over and over and over and OVER AND OVER again. It’s impossible to ignore, and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
The plot itself is a good one, and the book has some great moments. It also has some ridiculous moments that I had a tough time buying, even for the sake of a novel, and even as a guy who doesn’t mind novels that require big time suspension of disbelief. I mean, I just recently read a Clive Cussler book that involves RAISING the Titanic from its watery grave; and while I recognize the absurdity, I bought it enough to enjoy the book. There were moments here that had me literally shaking my head. Simmons is a brilliant writer, truly. He has had wild things in his books before. Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion were brilliantly nuts and far fetched, but I loved it and I consider both books absolute masterpieces. Yet for whatever reason, this book felt silly at times for me. His prose is great, as always. It’s undeniable how well the man can write. And I will continue to work my way through his catalog. However…
There is one more thing that needs addressed here.
This book is very strangely, and uncomfortably, racial. Some would say flat out racist. And I just don’t understand why he decided to go this direction at times. I get why it’s in here to a point, as the world has fractured often along tribal lines, but there were really odd instances of it. I can only hope these are not thoughts that are truly coloring Simmons worldview. I am not a PC warrior (big John Corey fan!), but there were times it felt somewhat malicious. Cartoonish. Snarky and out of touch.
Dan Simmons is a master writer, but it feels like this book may have been written at a time when he wasn’t in the greatest headspace or something. This book too-often reads as a right wing fear fantasy. It feels bitter and mean-spirited, and while there were things I liked about it, overall I cant consider myself a fan of this novel, and if he had to write it, I really think it should’ve stayed on his hard drive.
**UPDATE**
I settled on 2.5 for this. The writing is the reason. Simmons’s writing is good, as always. I’m rounding down though because I just cannot justify a 3/5 for this book.
First off I guess-this book has a pretty decent premise. It’s a dystopian detective novel based in a collapsed and fallen USA-or world, really-in a not too distant future. Most of the population ignore everything that is going on and use a drug called flashback; it’s a drug that allows the user to relive their most cherished memories, and it is a great plot device with unlimited potential. Simmons definitely likes it as it has appeared numerous times throughout his works, including in the Hyperion Cantos, and in a novella of the same name. Nick Bottom is a disgraced former detective who is now strung out on the drug, using it to relive memories with his deceased wife. He is approached and hired by a Japanese warlord (Japan has regressed into a feudal, medieval state) to investigate the death of his son, as Nick may be the only one alive who has the memories necessary to solve this crime.
Not a bad setup, huh? I thought it was pretty good too, and the book actually hooked me pretty quickly. Simmons’s writing is on point as always. He draws you in with intrigue, paints a picture of his world very thoroughly, and does it all with prose that is enjoyable to read. Soon, the problems started.
How much you enjoy this book is going to depend largely on two things: your political views (or at the very least, your ability to read a book that literally shoves politics down your throat, over and over and over again), and how well you are able to suspend disbelief. The book is ridiculous - it is so far fetched at times that I just about laughed out loud. Simmons dystopian world begins with Obama in 2008, and is quickly destroyed by absurd overuse of entitlement programs, attempts to appease Muslims globally and locally, the global crash of the dollar due to inflation, and much more that you can probably guess. The US fractures into some satellite states and is invaded by enemies elsewhere. The southwest is taken over by Mexican drug cartels and becomes Nuevo Mexico; some of Mountain Colorado becomes The People’s Republic of Boulder (seriously); and Texas - you guessed it - secedes and becomes the last bastion of 1776 style, tea party havin’, gun totin’, freedom lovin’, good ol ‘merican values. For real.
Now, it was inevitable that my personal political views may be partially exposed simply by giving my honest thoughts on this book, but let me say this: I do not care what the political views are of authors I choose to read, truly. I love Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Nelson DeMille, Ken Follett, John Sandford, James Michener, etc. Some of these authors are very outspoken on politics, and sometimes they even put it into their books. King sneaks in little shots at Trump, Tom Clancy’s books are just dripping with a general 1980s Reagan Republican view of the world. The difference with Simmons in this case, is they are almost never shoved down the readers throat. Simmons claims this book doesn’t represent his politics, but it is impossible to walk away from this novel without feeling the venom Simmons (likely) has towards certain institutions. These issues come up over and over and over and over and OVER AND OVER again. It’s impossible to ignore, and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
The plot itself is a good one, and the book has some great moments. It also has some ridiculous moments that I had a tough time buying, even for the sake of a novel, and even as a guy who doesn’t mind novels that require big time suspension of disbelief. I mean, I just recently read a Clive Cussler book that involves RAISING the Titanic from its watery grave; and while I recognize the absurdity, I bought it enough to enjoy the book. There were moments here that had me literally shaking my head. Simmons is a brilliant writer, truly. He has had wild things in his books before. Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion were brilliantly nuts and far fetched, but I loved it and I consider both books absolute masterpieces. Yet for whatever reason, this book felt silly at times for me. His prose is great, as always. It’s undeniable how well the man can write. And I will continue to work my way through his catalog. However…
There is one more thing that needs addressed here.
This book is very strangely, and uncomfortably, racial. Some would say flat out racist. And I just don’t understand why he decided to go this direction at times. I get why it’s in here to a point, as the world has fractured often along tribal lines, but there were really odd instances of it. I can only hope these are not thoughts that are truly coloring Simmons worldview. I am not a PC warrior (big John Corey fan!), but there were times it felt somewhat malicious. Cartoonish. Snarky and out of touch.
Dan Simmons is a master writer, but it feels like this book may have been written at a time when he wasn’t in the greatest headspace or something. This book too-often reads as a right wing fear fantasy. It feels bitter and mean-spirited, and while there were things I liked about it, overall I cant consider myself a fan of this novel, and if he had to write it, I really think it should’ve stayed on his hard drive.
**UPDATE**
I settled on 2.5 for this. The writing is the reason. Simmons’s writing is good, as always. I’m rounding down though because I just cannot justify a 3/5 for this book.
November 1, 2011
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 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-
November 16, 2011
I love Dan Simmons - I just don't love his "twin brother" who takes over the writing chores sometimes. Apparently, the same Simmons twin that wrote "Darwin's" Blade" decided to try another one with "Flashback."
A friend of mine who recently reviewed this book called it a tea-party approved view of the future -- I couldn't agree more. "Flashback" is filled with the worse kind of xenophobia. Set in the near future, apparently 95% of Americans are addicted to a drug that draws them back to the "good old days" when America was for Americans, Stand for the free and the brave, and all that dreck. In Simmons' view of the future, the world is divided (and I truly don't understand this) between Japanese overlords and the "Big Bad Middle East." Israel has been wiped from the map. For all this, Simmons gives us the weakest of reasons - no socio-political reasons (or extremely ridiculous ones) for this change.
I don't know --- Please, Mr. Simmons, convince your bastard twin to let you do the writing. Because the man who wrote "Carrion Comfort," The Terror," and the Hyperion novels is NOT the same person who turned out this awful book.
A friend of mine who recently reviewed this book called it a tea-party approved view of the future -- I couldn't agree more. "Flashback" is filled with the worse kind of xenophobia. Set in the near future, apparently 95% of Americans are addicted to a drug that draws them back to the "good old days" when America was for Americans, Stand for the free and the brave, and all that dreck. In Simmons' view of the future, the world is divided (and I truly don't understand this) between Japanese overlords and the "Big Bad Middle East." Israel has been wiped from the map. For all this, Simmons gives us the weakest of reasons - no socio-political reasons (or extremely ridiculous ones) for this change.
I don't know --- Please, Mr. Simmons, convince your bastard twin to let you do the writing. Because the man who wrote "Carrion Comfort," The Terror," and the Hyperion novels is NOT the same person who turned out this awful book.
October 24, 2011
In lieu of a long, rambling review, I'd just like to point out that, had the president who started the shit spiral that leads to the downfall of America is this book been identified as George W. Bush, rather than Barack Obama, the average rating would be a full star higher than it is. Just my opinion.
This is a solid mystery, great characters, in a very well imagined and fleshed out world, regardless of what your political slant is (come on, you can't suspend your political disbelief for 500 pages?) I dug the shit out of this one, though the motivation for Nakamura to even hire Nick Bottom to re-open the investigation of his son's murder (based on the ending "surprise") didn't really make sense to me.
I did grin as I imagined a number of previous reviewers breaking out in hives when they got to the section where Global Warming was revealed to have been a hoax.
This is a solid mystery, great characters, in a very well imagined and fleshed out world, regardless of what your political slant is (come on, you can't suspend your political disbelief for 500 pages?) I dug the shit out of this one, though the motivation for Nakamura to even hire Nick Bottom to re-open the investigation of his son's murder (based on the ending "surprise") didn't really make sense to me.
I did grin as I imagined a number of previous reviewers breaking out in hives when they got to the section where Global Warming was revealed to have been a hoax.
May 24, 2012
I like much of Dan Simmons work, but this particular novel is a clunker. The story takes place in the dystopian near future. America has become financially bankrupt and administered by the Japanese government. All because of Obama.
Them damn Muslims have taken over much of the world and administer a kind of new caliphate in what used to be Europe. Also, 9-11 is celebrated as a national holiday in America and kids have become indoctrinated with mandatory Islamic education in schools. All because of Obama.
People from Mexico are marching up into what used to be the U.S. (and what used to be Mexico before that) and killing all the white people and taking back land. All because of Obama.
We know that it is all Obama's fault because there is an elderly academic in this novel whose main purpose is to tell us how Obama did it all. His diary entries and novel drafts are the clunkiest, most overbearing part of the book.
Whatever your politics (and I have a good sense of Simmons' after this screed disguised as a sci-fi mystery) the constant drumbeat (drums made out of dead horses) of ultra conservative talking points really distracted from the story. It's like being a regular reader of say Stephen King or Jim Butcher and you can tell precisely when in their careers they got a contract with Coca Cola because all of a sudden there's Coke product placement everywhere. I think Simmons got a contract with FreedomWorks or something. But if you hate Nips, uppity brown people, N-words, and ragheads this book is for you.
Them damn Muslims have taken over much of the world and administer a kind of new caliphate in what used to be Europe. Also, 9-11 is celebrated as a national holiday in America and kids have become indoctrinated with mandatory Islamic education in schools. All because of Obama.
People from Mexico are marching up into what used to be the U.S. (and what used to be Mexico before that) and killing all the white people and taking back land. All because of Obama.
We know that it is all Obama's fault because there is an elderly academic in this novel whose main purpose is to tell us how Obama did it all. His diary entries and novel drafts are the clunkiest, most overbearing part of the book.
Whatever your politics (and I have a good sense of Simmons' after this screed disguised as a sci-fi mystery) the constant drumbeat (drums made out of dead horses) of ultra conservative talking points really distracted from the story. It's like being a regular reader of say Stephen King or Jim Butcher and you can tell precisely when in their careers they got a contract with Coca Cola because all of a sudden there's Coke product placement everywhere. I think Simmons got a contract with FreedomWorks or something. But if you hate Nips, uppity brown people, N-words, and ragheads this book is for you.
July 26, 2011
Wow. I couldn't even finish it. After 30 pages I thought, "this is not up to the Dan Simmons standard". After 100 pages I thought, "really? A two page rant about debt-to-GDP ratios?" And around 200 pages, when I got to the passage which went something like "Once the climate scientists finally admitted that anthropogenic global warming was a hoax, it was too late...", I gave up. Thankfully I got this book from my local library, and didn't pay money for it!
This book is basically an episode of the Glenn Beck show with a murder mystery attached. I don't know, maybe if you like being told how eeevil libruls are for 600 pages, you'd like this book.
This book is basically an episode of the Glenn Beck show with a murder mystery attached. I don't know, maybe if you like being told how eeevil libruls are for 600 pages, you'd like this book.
May 29, 2022
I'm a huge fan of pretty much everything Dan Simmons has published and Flashback is no exception. The book is part hard boiled detective novel, part dystopian nightmare, part Cristopher Nolan-esque sci-fi and manages to blend all those genres perfectly.
Flashback is set about 20 years in the future in which the US has undergone a major economic collapse. To add to the nation's troubles, the vast majority of its citizens are hooked on a drug called Flashback, which enables them to relive, in perfect detail, any past memory they choose. At the center of the novel is a mystery involving former Denver Police Detective Nick Bottom, himself a flashback addict, being hired to investigate the murder of a high ranking Japanese official's son.
While I wouldn't rank Flashback quite as high as my favorite Simmons' novels (Hyperion, Ilium and The Terror), it's definitely up there. The mystery elements are compelling, the payoffs are very satisfying and the future Simmons envisions is a bit too believable.
As in most of Simmons' work, there's also a lot in here that's very thought provoking. He explores the way we, in an effort to avoid pain, deny reality and in doing so forgo our responsibilities and destroy our future. It's powerful stuff and very relevant both to us individuals and to society at large.
If I have one complaint about the book it's that there are far too many scenes where characters withhold information from Nick Bottom for no other reason than that the plot isn't ready for him (or us) to know it yet. It's an obnoxious technique that far too much fiction, especially serialized tv shows (I'm looking at you LOST), is guilty of employing. It's a minor complaint that's more than made up for by the great reveals we do eventually get toward the end of the book.
One final note: Flashback currently has a 2.5 star average rating on Amazon. Reading through the negative reviews it becomes obvious that they all of have one complaint in common: the novel's politics. While I wouldn't say the novel is overly political, there are times, especially when Simmons is exploring the origins of America's collapse, where it becomes so. Simmons' slant in those sections is pretty right wing, which I guess is too much for some people to handle.
The irony of that complaint is that Flashback is based on a novella Simmons wrote about 20 years ago in his Lovedeath anthology. That novella also imagines a dystopian future resulting from economic collapse but its politics are decidedly LEFT wing, going so far as to have the main character place sole blame for the world on the shoulders of Ronald Reagan.
I understand that some people find any mention of politics distracting, but it seems to me that many of those 1 star reviews are more upset the political side Simmons comes down in the novel, rather than the mere presence of politics. I imagine that many of those reviewers would give a much higher score to the novella, even though the novel is much better written and tells a more complete and satisfying story.
All that to say don't let the negative reviews scare you away. They have nothing to say about the book itself. For anyone who is a fan of Simmons, good sci-fi or provocative fiction, Flashback is a must read.
Flashback is set about 20 years in the future in which the US has undergone a major economic collapse. To add to the nation's troubles, the vast majority of its citizens are hooked on a drug called Flashback, which enables them to relive, in perfect detail, any past memory they choose. At the center of the novel is a mystery involving former Denver Police Detective Nick Bottom, himself a flashback addict, being hired to investigate the murder of a high ranking Japanese official's son.
While I wouldn't rank Flashback quite as high as my favorite Simmons' novels (Hyperion, Ilium and The Terror), it's definitely up there. The mystery elements are compelling, the payoffs are very satisfying and the future Simmons envisions is a bit too believable.
As in most of Simmons' work, there's also a lot in here that's very thought provoking. He explores the way we, in an effort to avoid pain, deny reality and in doing so forgo our responsibilities and destroy our future. It's powerful stuff and very relevant both to us individuals and to society at large.
If I have one complaint about the book it's that there are far too many scenes where characters withhold information from Nick Bottom for no other reason than that the plot isn't ready for him (or us) to know it yet. It's an obnoxious technique that far too much fiction, especially serialized tv shows (I'm looking at you LOST), is guilty of employing. It's a minor complaint that's more than made up for by the great reveals we do eventually get toward the end of the book.
One final note: Flashback currently has a 2.5 star average rating on Amazon. Reading through the negative reviews it becomes obvious that they all of have one complaint in common: the novel's politics. While I wouldn't say the novel is overly political, there are times, especially when Simmons is exploring the origins of America's collapse, where it becomes so. Simmons' slant in those sections is pretty right wing, which I guess is too much for some people to handle.
The irony of that complaint is that Flashback is based on a novella Simmons wrote about 20 years ago in his Lovedeath anthology. That novella also imagines a dystopian future resulting from economic collapse but its politics are decidedly LEFT wing, going so far as to have the main character place sole blame for the world on the shoulders of Ronald Reagan.
I understand that some people find any mention of politics distracting, but it seems to me that many of those 1 star reviews are more upset the political side Simmons comes down in the novel, rather than the mere presence of politics. I imagine that many of those reviewers would give a much higher score to the novella, even though the novel is much better written and tells a more complete and satisfying story.
All that to say don't let the negative reviews scare you away. They have nothing to say about the book itself. For anyone who is a fan of Simmons, good sci-fi or provocative fiction, Flashback is a must read.
August 28, 2011
a steaming pile of shit. simmons' worst. book. ever.
ok, i'll put aside my beef with the libertarian nonsense. i don't care, and it's refreshing to read a book that's got left wingers on the defensive, since most dystopia novels hack at the right. however, had simmons used the politics to simply create an intriguing, layered world (which is what makes me worship all of his other books), this book could have been great. instead, he indulges in long, ayn rand-like diatribes. yes, i know the book doesn't represent his personal beliefs and that he has made a point of saying so in regards to Flashback. Still, I just got sick of being hit over the head with it.
ultimately, the answer to the mystery was a cliche. i'm going to ruin it because this book isn't worth reading. the guy that hired him did it! yes, that old cliche. uggh. it wasn't even good in 8mm. guess what? no one would EVER do that. and then, once detective nick bottom has solved the mystery (in the form of a long monologue to the villain, scooby-doo style; i kept waiting for the bad guy to say, 'i would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you darned kids!'), he never answers the much more interesting question: how did his wife actually die? simmons never explains the most vexing part of the whole mystery.
ok, i'll put aside my beef with the libertarian nonsense. i don't care, and it's refreshing to read a book that's got left wingers on the defensive, since most dystopia novels hack at the right. however, had simmons used the politics to simply create an intriguing, layered world (which is what makes me worship all of his other books), this book could have been great. instead, he indulges in long, ayn rand-like diatribes. yes, i know the book doesn't represent his personal beliefs and that he has made a point of saying so in regards to Flashback. Still, I just got sick of being hit over the head with it.
ultimately, the answer to the mystery was a cliche. i'm going to ruin it because this book isn't worth reading. the guy that hired him did it! yes, that old cliche. uggh. it wasn't even good in 8mm. guess what? no one would EVER do that. and then, once detective nick bottom has solved the mystery (in the form of a long monologue to the villain, scooby-doo style; i kept waiting for the bad guy to say, 'i would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you darned kids!'), he never answers the much more interesting question: how did his wife actually die? simmons never explains the most vexing part of the whole mystery.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 9, 2011
I read Flashback before looking at any of the reviews and I'm glad I did. I found the storyline intriguing and the bleak future portrayed a great use of Simmons imagination. Regardless of ones own political beliefs this is simply an interesting take on one possible future with the current political climate. Is it realistic? I think you'll find liberals screaming no while libertarians kow tow to the great wise Dan Simmons.
I'm surprised so many readers couldn't get past the politics and dystopian future to enjoy the fast paced crime novel with all the twists and turns that should be in a novel like this. Personally, I hated the main character...found Nick Bottom whiny and irritating. I loved the grandfather and his tired, aged persona that surprises you occasionally with unexpected spitfire. It made me laugh that Texas became the American utopia. And, I found the idea of the Japaese and the Caliphate "taking over" a bold move by Simmons.
Overall it is a great crime novel and I would recommend this book even if you use it as kindling when you are done.
I'm surprised so many readers couldn't get past the politics and dystopian future to enjoy the fast paced crime novel with all the twists and turns that should be in a novel like this. Personally, I hated the main character...found Nick Bottom whiny and irritating. I loved the grandfather and his tired, aged persona that surprises you occasionally with unexpected spitfire. It made me laugh that Texas became the American utopia. And, I found the idea of the Japaese and the Caliphate "taking over" a bold move by Simmons.
Overall it is a great crime novel and I would recommend this book even if you use it as kindling when you are done.
June 16, 2015
It is sad to realize that someone whose work you had admired in the past has had their intellect eaten away by watching too much Fox News. In Flashback, Simmons basically channels all of his old white guy fear into a future of the United States that incorporates all of the conservative boogiemen, no matter how nonsensical or even contradictory they are. Let's see how many ways we can think of that the scary foreigners can sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids, shall we?
The inscrutable Japanese, of course, who have all the money and are too disciplined to get hooked on drugs, the way we decadent Westerners do, take over most of the United States except for
the Reconquista of the fecund Mexicans, who carve out an Aztlan in the Southwest, except for
the Caliphate of scary Muslims who control everything else, except for
the dirty hippies of Boulder, Colorado, who somehow manage to be both liberal and fascist, of course, and
the Texans, who despite having no concept of government, what it's for, and how to manage it, have the only working piece of 'Merica! left.
Oh, what else? Global warming a laughable joke. Electric cars geld everyone. The youth are violent and drug-addled. Civilization is in a handbasket, riding swiftly on the down escalator.
Our protagonist is an aging, white, drug-addicted widower, who overcomes his drug addiction long enough to rescue his misguided son and fight against all of the awful foreigners and liberals and solve mysteries and get off my lawn!!!
Basically, this is Bill O'Reilly's nightmare, and you'd think Dan Simmons, who pulled off one of the major modern science fictions coups with the Hyperion books, would be smarter than this. I'd love to believe this is a satire, but this book doesn't display the wit and humor such a satire would require. Buy this book for your conservative uncle, he'll love it.
The inscrutable Japanese, of course, who have all the money and are too disciplined to get hooked on drugs, the way we decadent Westerners do, take over most of the United States except for
the Reconquista of the fecund Mexicans, who carve out an Aztlan in the Southwest, except for
the Caliphate of scary Muslims who control everything else, except for
the dirty hippies of Boulder, Colorado, who somehow manage to be both liberal and fascist, of course, and
the Texans, who despite having no concept of government, what it's for, and how to manage it, have the only working piece of 'Merica! left.
Oh, what else? Global warming a laughable joke. Electric cars geld everyone. The youth are violent and drug-addled. Civilization is in a handbasket, riding swiftly on the down escalator.
Our protagonist is an aging, white, drug-addicted widower, who overcomes his drug addiction long enough to rescue his misguided son and fight against all of the awful foreigners and liberals and solve mysteries and get off my lawn!!!
Basically, this is Bill O'Reilly's nightmare, and you'd think Dan Simmons, who pulled off one of the major modern science fictions coups with the Hyperion books, would be smarter than this. I'd love to believe this is a satire, but this book doesn't display the wit and humor such a satire would require. Buy this book for your conservative uncle, he'll love it.
February 5, 2013
Much too long and negative for my taste. 2 of 10 stars
January 18, 2012
First let me state that I like Dan Simmons. But I didn't care for this one. What the heck happened to Mr. Simmons? This book is the right wing counterpart of Soft Apocalypse and while the mystery storyline is stronger than what passes for a plot in Soft Apocalypse it's just as obnoxious. In it's totality this novel is more of a 500 page political/social scree by Mr. Simmons than a novel. It merely uses the dystopian/science-fiction setting to make it a little easier to go down.
I consider myself to be a conservative, but I dislike propaganda writing. Flashback is nothing more than a Tea Party approved novel. I don't necessarily disagree with some of the ideas in the book, but I don't like being beaten over the head. It's a simplistic approach and insulting to the reader. It's better to mix some political/social ideology into the story. Do it subtly so the reader is aware of it, but can still enjoy the story. The story should be in charge, not the other way around. I expect some politics in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic novel. After all it's a story in which a society has collapsed for whatever reason. It's inevitable that the writer will offer a reason or reasons as to the collapse. But it's overdone here.
The only thing I can think of is Mr. Simmons has given into despair about the current situation. Writers should avoid working on a novel when they are in a dark place - well unless it's going to be a good, intense, dark novel. I've been to Mr. Simmons website. He's a wealthy man with a very nice place in Colorado. I imagine that he's weathering the mess that we're in fairly well. He should have just taken a nice vacation to some lovely third world nation and worked on this novel when in a better mood.
Very disappointed. I'm giving it two stars because there was some good stuff in it. A tough, two-fisted, detective story set in a dystopian future can be a great read. This novel has flashes of potential, but it's weighed down by the non-stop lecturing.
For a similar Libertarian/Dystopian novel see The Probability Broach. It's actually little more fun to read, but very similar in it's bleak outlook for the United States. Only in Probability it takes place in 1987. Hmmmm. That forecast didn't come true. I wonder what the 2030's will really be like.
I consider myself to be a conservative, but I dislike propaganda writing. Flashback is nothing more than a Tea Party approved novel. I don't necessarily disagree with some of the ideas in the book, but I don't like being beaten over the head. It's a simplistic approach and insulting to the reader. It's better to mix some political/social ideology into the story. Do it subtly so the reader is aware of it, but can still enjoy the story. The story should be in charge, not the other way around. I expect some politics in a dystopian/post-apocalyptic novel. After all it's a story in which a society has collapsed for whatever reason. It's inevitable that the writer will offer a reason or reasons as to the collapse. But it's overdone here.
The only thing I can think of is Mr. Simmons has given into despair about the current situation. Writers should avoid working on a novel when they are in a dark place - well unless it's going to be a good, intense, dark novel. I've been to Mr. Simmons website. He's a wealthy man with a very nice place in Colorado. I imagine that he's weathering the mess that we're in fairly well. He should have just taken a nice vacation to some lovely third world nation and worked on this novel when in a better mood.
Very disappointed. I'm giving it two stars because there was some good stuff in it. A tough, two-fisted, detective story set in a dystopian future can be a great read. This novel has flashes of potential, but it's weighed down by the non-stop lecturing.
For a similar Libertarian/Dystopian novel see The Probability Broach. It's actually little more fun to read, but very similar in it's bleak outlook for the United States. Only in Probability it takes place in 1987. Hmmmm. That forecast didn't come true. I wonder what the 2030's will really be like.
July 6, 2011
Well I am stumped on this, and doing a major re-evaluation on Dan, who has written some very great books. I've been a major fan. But with this I am torn between a good detective story set in a near future where everything has collapsed and political polemics that don't sit well with me. At all. The US has fallen apart because of Obama basically, and characters lecture airing Fox news reports on entitlements. Which in the case of this book, brought about a world that Crashed completely. And it's a dangerous place where everyone rightly needs a gun. I could go on. Jeez. But in spite of that the mystery was compelling enough that I finished.
July 8, 2018
Abandoned it. Too political for me, and the story itself did not interest me. Too bad, since I have liked other books by this author. This one is just not for me.
September 23, 2011
This may be the best novel I ever read that had a fatal flaw.
Flashback does have a lot of good things in it. Simmons has taken the mystery detective thriller and placed it in a dystopian novel with the skill of a brain surgeon. He envisions an America in 2030 that is on the verge to being torn apart. The economy is in shambles, various states have seceded and foreign countries such as Japan and Russia are fighting over the scraps. Many Americans are addicted to a drug called Flashback that allows them to relive their memories which are preferable to their reality. The author is on the top of his game while creating a complex socio-political web of intrigue and populating it with realistic characters.
But the problem is how Simmons decides to frame his dystopia. He uses the current concern of a runaway debt and the potential devaluation of the dollar as the base. This is a real worry and Simmons' concern for the future is understandable. He also does a good job exploring the angst of people caught up in such a future. In a current blog post on the author's web site, Simmons defends his novel by comparing it to the dystopian visions of Orwell and Vonnegut thus magnifying the problem. Both Orwell and Vonnegut were wise enough not to base their futures on any specific current events. They were more interested in using their worlds to explore the human condition. When Simmons points the reason for his dystopia at President Obama, he leaps into the trap of becoming a propagandist for the right and the tea party and, in doing so, removes the potential of looking at a bigger picture. In some cases, the issues brought up in the novel are already out of date. For instance. Simmons describes the rise in power of Islamic nations and eventually the destruction of Israel directly to the Obama's Cairo speech of 2009 and makes the silly cry of "appeasement". Since then, we have had the Arab Spring, successful maneuvering by the administration leading to the removal of Gaddafi, and, even today, a speech at the U.N. by the president that defends the nation of Israel, Hardly the acts of an appeaser and certainly, situations that destroys the author's fictional timeline based on an actual event. But this is my point. I am arguing over Simmons' flawed political opinions that abound in the book and not the more astute themes of courage, society and family that this book is really about. That is the fatal flaw.
In the same blog post, Simmons states his political views are nothing like what is in the book. Then why are they there and why are there so many points where he leaves the plot and decries thing like political correctness, bad art, and the Islamic religion? Does he really think all Islamics wish to destroy all other religions through violence. That is exactly what the author, not the characters, say in this book. There are other statements in this novel that suggest there is more than a trace of racism here. Chapter after chapter of excellent writing are undermined by an author who can't separate his ideology from the bigger picture.
Having said that, I must say that I did not find these viewpoints as prevalent as some reviewers and they did not wreck my enjoyment of the plot. But they are there enough to make what could have been a great speculative book into a flawed and confused, albeit exciting, one. Hopefully next time Simmons will leave the politicizing to the politicians and ideologues and practice being the complex and thoughtful writer he has been in the past.
Flashback does have a lot of good things in it. Simmons has taken the mystery detective thriller and placed it in a dystopian novel with the skill of a brain surgeon. He envisions an America in 2030 that is on the verge to being torn apart. The economy is in shambles, various states have seceded and foreign countries such as Japan and Russia are fighting over the scraps. Many Americans are addicted to a drug called Flashback that allows them to relive their memories which are preferable to their reality. The author is on the top of his game while creating a complex socio-political web of intrigue and populating it with realistic characters.
But the problem is how Simmons decides to frame his dystopia. He uses the current concern of a runaway debt and the potential devaluation of the dollar as the base. This is a real worry and Simmons' concern for the future is understandable. He also does a good job exploring the angst of people caught up in such a future. In a current blog post on the author's web site, Simmons defends his novel by comparing it to the dystopian visions of Orwell and Vonnegut thus magnifying the problem. Both Orwell and Vonnegut were wise enough not to base their futures on any specific current events. They were more interested in using their worlds to explore the human condition. When Simmons points the reason for his dystopia at President Obama, he leaps into the trap of becoming a propagandist for the right and the tea party and, in doing so, removes the potential of looking at a bigger picture. In some cases, the issues brought up in the novel are already out of date. For instance. Simmons describes the rise in power of Islamic nations and eventually the destruction of Israel directly to the Obama's Cairo speech of 2009 and makes the silly cry of "appeasement". Since then, we have had the Arab Spring, successful maneuvering by the administration leading to the removal of Gaddafi, and, even today, a speech at the U.N. by the president that defends the nation of Israel, Hardly the acts of an appeaser and certainly, situations that destroys the author's fictional timeline based on an actual event. But this is my point. I am arguing over Simmons' flawed political opinions that abound in the book and not the more astute themes of courage, society and family that this book is really about. That is the fatal flaw.
In the same blog post, Simmons states his political views are nothing like what is in the book. Then why are they there and why are there so many points where he leaves the plot and decries thing like political correctness, bad art, and the Islamic religion? Does he really think all Islamics wish to destroy all other religions through violence. That is exactly what the author, not the characters, say in this book. There are other statements in this novel that suggest there is more than a trace of racism here. Chapter after chapter of excellent writing are undermined by an author who can't separate his ideology from the bigger picture.
Having said that, I must say that I did not find these viewpoints as prevalent as some reviewers and they did not wreck my enjoyment of the plot. But they are there enough to make what could have been a great speculative book into a flawed and confused, albeit exciting, one. Hopefully next time Simmons will leave the politicizing to the politicians and ideologues and practice being the complex and thoughtful writer he has been in the past.
March 27, 2015
Well, in this one, Dan Simmons goes back to his more noirish roots. We've got tough male characters. Man, are they tough. One's an ex-cop addict. He's hired by a Japanese businessman (it almost feels like a retro shout-out to the 1980's, this preoccupation with the possibility of Japanese supremacy) and his even tougher Japanese bodyguard. Most of the first scene is posturing among these characters to see who can gain the upper hand- who has the biggest balls of them all? Sadly, not the ex-cop, who is put in his place and then hired to solve a murder that he couldn't solve 6 years ago.
Next, we seque to the cop's punk-ass kid, a member of a kiddie addict-street gang in gritty ol' LA. The kid's fondest wish, if he could ever get off his addict butt, would be to go kill his sorry ol' addict dad.
So much grit. So much nastiness. Such a lack of sympathetic characters, and any female with a brain. So much decline in America due to the stifling of free trade (Simmons lets his political flag fly in this one more than usual). I disliked this world and couldn't finish the book because of it.
Next, we seque to the cop's punk-ass kid, a member of a kiddie addict-street gang in gritty ol' LA. The kid's fondest wish, if he could ever get off his addict butt, would be to go kill his sorry ol' addict dad.
So much grit. So much nastiness. Such a lack of sympathetic characters, and any female with a brain. So much decline in America due to the stifling of free trade (Simmons lets his political flag fly in this one more than usual). I disliked this world and couldn't finish the book because of it.
July 12, 2011
MAN, am I ever of two minds about this book. It combines two of my favorite genres (futuristic dystopia meets noir mystery) and succeeds mightily, with a nifty maybe-maybe-not ending.
On the other hand, it reminds me of State of Fear by Michael Crichton, in which the author constructed a whisper-thin plot as an excuse to go politicizing and act out a snuff fantasy of Martin Sheen getting eaten by cannibals.
The politics (in short, everyone is evil, especially Muslims and liberals, and DAMMIT LIBERALS THIS IS WHAT YOU GONNA GIT) swamp the whole thing at times.
I'm not much for this kind of polemicizing on either side of the aisle. It was ham-handed when Lee Child did it, it's ham-handed here.
On the other hand, it reminds me of State of Fear by Michael Crichton, in which the author constructed a whisper-thin plot as an excuse to go politicizing and act out a snuff fantasy of Martin Sheen getting eaten by cannibals.
The politics (in short, everyone is evil, especially Muslims and liberals, and DAMMIT LIBERALS THIS IS WHAT YOU GONNA GIT) swamp the whole thing at times.
I'm not much for this kind of polemicizing on either side of the aisle. It was ham-handed when Lee Child did it, it's ham-handed here.
July 10, 2011
Most dystopia's are what I call right-wing dystopias, that ask, what if those things traditionally considered conservative (military, free market, etc.) progress to extremes? What bad things could happen to the world? This one asks the same things about things that are considered liberal (political correctness, accommodation, deficit spending*). Mostly it's a good novel, though I wish he wouldn't have spent so much time on exposition. Would have kept it tighter and more effective without the editorializing I think. Also, occasionally he says something anachronistic or unconvincing, though I suppose the 'perfect game' of screw ups would have to happen for most literary dystopias to exist.
*Ha. Anyone remember that one guy, Bush?
*Ha. Anyone remember that one guy, Bush?
July 23, 2011
There appear to be two authors named Dan Simmons. One, who wrote The Terror, one of the better works of fiction I've read in recent memory and the other who wrote this piece of tripe, a pastiche of far right-wing paranoia - America destroyed by "entitlements," invaded by Mexicans, a "global caliphate" ascendant, Israel nuked by Iran (of said caliphate), global climate change a myth, etc. The only thing missing was the main characters extolling the virtue of investing in gold.
It could've worked, though, if only the author had stitched those hare-brained ideas together with solid characters, good dialogue, and believable plotting.
It could've worked, though, if only the author had stitched those hare-brained ideas together with solid characters, good dialogue, and believable plotting.
August 27, 2012
First off, I'm giving this two stars because I just couldn't put the book down and read on in fascinated astonishment. The dystopia, sci-fi noir part is quite interesting up til the end - who did kill billionaire Nakamura's son? The drug, Flashback, is also an interesting idea. I started feeling uncomfortable pretty soon on due to the Japanese stereotyping going on at the start of the novel. But then the novel also turns into a diatribe, a polemic for what I can only assume must be Dan Simmons' own political views, and boy am I never going to buy another Simmons book, in fact I'm thinking about selling my existing copies.
Basically the political message Simmons is purveying will only appeal to that particular section of the American public that our friends over in requiresonlyhate bloglandia love to rightly rag on, so if my review annoys you then head on over there for more frothing at the mouth, or if you agree, then check her blog out anyway for the laughs.
So. In the future America (the USA obviously) is a economic and moral wasteland of broken cities and urban gangs addicted to Flashback. Much of it has been taken over by the Mexican reconquest (aside from the Republic of Texas but more on that later). Nick Bottom is the only one who can solve the mystery through his own use of Flashback (which allows you to revisit memories in exquisite detail) but it seems like his beloved dead wife may also have been caught up in the murder. How did America come to be this wasteland? Well, basically it was all Obama's fault with extra anti Muslim sentiment thrown in. I'm going to quote extensively to give you a flavour of the book in random order as I find the quotes.
Obama - "...your new young president gave a speech from Cairo that flattered the Islamic world ... and praised them with obvious historical distortions of their own imagined grandeur. This president began the process of totally rewriting both history and contemporary reality with an eye towards praising radical Islam into loving him and your country. The name for this form of foreign policy, whenever it is used with the forces of fascism, Mr. Bottom, is appeasment".
Islam - "Islam was always, despite America's absolute resistance in acknowledging it, a violent and barbarous religion ... its prophet a military man no less cruel than our field marshal Hajime Sugiyama or your Army Air Force general Curtis Le May"
"It made sense to Val that the site [the World Trade Center site] should be the place for North America's largest mosque to rise...Well, had been Val's withering riposte, this right wing, anti-Caliphate crap died before Leonard got senile. Like all American kids, Val had studied the Qu'ran since kindergarten and Islam was the Religion of Peace"
"If the Islamic Global Caliphate had shown anything ... it was that it had no respect for local languages, cultures, laws or - other than milking the European or Canadian welfare states dry - infrastructure. Much of [Islam] was from the Middle Ages: tribes, clans, honor killings, and a murderous religious literalism and intolerance that neither Christianity nor Judaism had practiced for six hundred years or more".
What Simmons calls 'entitlement' which I think is a reference to America's few and pitiful attempts at some sort of non free market jungle survival social justice - "as the government and its many entitlement programs bet wrong on the future and went broke ... doubt whether those social decisions toward ever increasing government deficit spending in the midst of [the GFC] had been the wise thing to do"
"[the graph] showed the risks of growing entitlement spending and had bar graphs demonstrating how mandatory entitlement spending would exceed total government revenues sometime between 2030 and 2040."
Japan - "He gave a quick explanation of how the Japanese during their rapid imperial expansion had touted their brutal military occupations as a throwing off of white imperial domination"
Climate change - "The revelation of hoaxes and totally false data sets in Anthropogenic Global Warming studies, confessed to by scores of scientists only after hundreds of billions of dollars and euros had gone down that rat hole"
Europe - "No. I don't think hardly any of us Americans think about the Germans or French or those other poor fucks these days. They invited the tens of millions of Muslims into their house. They made the laws and sharia exceptions to their laws that ended with them turning their cultures over to the Global Caliphate"
Canada - "The Canadians had been willing - almost eager - to 'share the wealth' of their northern part of the continent. Their religious creed of state-enforced multiculturalism and diversity - having long replaced Christianity in Canada - had, in less than two generations, produced a single minority-driven theocratic culture"
How we treat indigenous people - "Wherever the Caliphate rule had come in contact with the formerly pampered 'First Nations' - the Indians and Eskimos treated with such extravagant political correctness in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries ... those native peoples who wouldn't convert had been eradicated by their new Muslim rulers [because they had lost their traditional skills of hunting and fishing]."
Boulder, Colorado - "a comfortable and self-satisfied misture of dork-knobbed trust-fund babies and louse-infected street people"
The Republic of Texas is the only 'real' USA still surviving and fighting the Muslims, Mexicans, and probably the liberals as well. "You people do surgeries like valve replacements for money without a long wait, right?" "Yeah' said the younger Ranger ... "we're old-fashioned that way. Down here we let you keep most of what you earn and let you pay for what you need"
What a long review! I was certainly engaged with this book, and there are loads more delightful quotes I could have picked out - the whole book is one long Mitt Romney speech. Now I'm not even going to go on about how and why Simmons is wrong about pretty much everything - lots of other websites have examined American policies etc in much more detail and eloquence than I can. I'll just mention the fact that Obama is actually pretty right-wing by normal definitions of American politics, Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, the deficit is largely generated by military spending, each country also owns lots of other countries' debts, and there is a huge difference between believing in social care and justice, and the communism that some Americans have a hysterical fear of. And, frankly, the French would die to the last child if Muslims denied them wine.
Basically the political message Simmons is purveying will only appeal to that particular section of the American public that our friends over in requiresonlyhate bloglandia love to rightly rag on, so if my review annoys you then head on over there for more frothing at the mouth, or if you agree, then check her blog out anyway for the laughs.
So. In the future America (the USA obviously) is a economic and moral wasteland of broken cities and urban gangs addicted to Flashback. Much of it has been taken over by the Mexican reconquest (aside from the Republic of Texas but more on that later). Nick Bottom is the only one who can solve the mystery through his own use of Flashback (which allows you to revisit memories in exquisite detail) but it seems like his beloved dead wife may also have been caught up in the murder. How did America come to be this wasteland? Well, basically it was all Obama's fault with extra anti Muslim sentiment thrown in. I'm going to quote extensively to give you a flavour of the book in random order as I find the quotes.
Obama - "...your new young president gave a speech from Cairo that flattered the Islamic world ... and praised them with obvious historical distortions of their own imagined grandeur. This president began the process of totally rewriting both history and contemporary reality with an eye towards praising radical Islam into loving him and your country. The name for this form of foreign policy, whenever it is used with the forces of fascism, Mr. Bottom, is appeasment".
Islam - "Islam was always, despite America's absolute resistance in acknowledging it, a violent and barbarous religion ... its prophet a military man no less cruel than our field marshal Hajime Sugiyama or your Army Air Force general Curtis Le May"
"It made sense to Val that the site [the World Trade Center site] should be the place for North America's largest mosque to rise...Well, had been Val's withering riposte, this right wing, anti-Caliphate crap died before Leonard got senile. Like all American kids, Val had studied the Qu'ran since kindergarten and Islam was the Religion of Peace"
"If the Islamic Global Caliphate had shown anything ... it was that it had no respect for local languages, cultures, laws or - other than milking the European or Canadian welfare states dry - infrastructure. Much of [Islam] was from the Middle Ages: tribes, clans, honor killings, and a murderous religious literalism and intolerance that neither Christianity nor Judaism had practiced for six hundred years or more".
What Simmons calls 'entitlement' which I think is a reference to America's few and pitiful attempts at some sort of non free market jungle survival social justice - "as the government and its many entitlement programs bet wrong on the future and went broke ... doubt whether those social decisions toward ever increasing government deficit spending in the midst of [the GFC] had been the wise thing to do"
"[the graph] showed the risks of growing entitlement spending and had bar graphs demonstrating how mandatory entitlement spending would exceed total government revenues sometime between 2030 and 2040."
Japan - "He gave a quick explanation of how the Japanese during their rapid imperial expansion had touted their brutal military occupations as a throwing off of white imperial domination"
Climate change - "The revelation of hoaxes and totally false data sets in Anthropogenic Global Warming studies, confessed to by scores of scientists only after hundreds of billions of dollars and euros had gone down that rat hole"
Europe - "No. I don't think hardly any of us Americans think about the Germans or French or those other poor fucks these days. They invited the tens of millions of Muslims into their house. They made the laws and sharia exceptions to their laws that ended with them turning their cultures over to the Global Caliphate"
Canada - "The Canadians had been willing - almost eager - to 'share the wealth' of their northern part of the continent. Their religious creed of state-enforced multiculturalism and diversity - having long replaced Christianity in Canada - had, in less than two generations, produced a single minority-driven theocratic culture"
How we treat indigenous people - "Wherever the Caliphate rule had come in contact with the formerly pampered 'First Nations' - the Indians and Eskimos treated with such extravagant political correctness in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries ... those native peoples who wouldn't convert had been eradicated by their new Muslim rulers [because they had lost their traditional skills of hunting and fishing]."
Boulder, Colorado - "a comfortable and self-satisfied misture of dork-knobbed trust-fund babies and louse-infected street people"
The Republic of Texas is the only 'real' USA still surviving and fighting the Muslims, Mexicans, and probably the liberals as well. "You people do surgeries like valve replacements for money without a long wait, right?" "Yeah' said the younger Ranger ... "we're old-fashioned that way. Down here we let you keep most of what you earn and let you pay for what you need"
What a long review! I was certainly engaged with this book, and there are loads more delightful quotes I could have picked out - the whole book is one long Mitt Romney speech. Now I'm not even going to go on about how and why Simmons is wrong about pretty much everything - lots of other websites have examined American policies etc in much more detail and eloquence than I can. I'll just mention the fact that Obama is actually pretty right-wing by normal definitions of American politics, Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, the deficit is largely generated by military spending, each country also owns lots of other countries' debts, and there is a huge difference between believing in social care and justice, and the communism that some Americans have a hysterical fear of. And, frankly, the French would die to the last child if Muslims denied them wine.
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