Flash Forward: An Illustrated Guide to Possible (and Not So Possible) Tomorrows by Rose Eveleth

​            I don’t do podcasts, so I’ve never heard of this or the author prior to discovering this book in our library’s latest digital catalog additions, but what an excellent find. In fact, if I were to get into podcasts, this would definitely be right up my alley.
           Flash Forward is a perfect blend of science, educated speculation and speculative fiction. The speculation is done in essay form and the fiction selections are done in graphic form. So this isn’t exactly a graphic novel, this is more of a pop science work of nonfiction interspersed with comic book style stories all pondering the many possible futures to come. Much like Black Mirror in a way, albeit more scientifically based.
      All of that worked really well for me. Reading this book was like having a fascinating (albeit necessarily one sided) conversation with an intelligent futurist about the many directions life might take in the years to come. There are twelve themes to speculate upon here from animal rights to laws for space colonists, from smart cities to afterlife with robots and so much more.    
      To author’s credit every single subject she selected for this book is fascinating and absolutely debate/ponder worthy. The art…the art kinds of drags behind in quality. In fact, the first two stories were plain ugly. Only a few of them I’d say were well rendered artistically, though most did have interesting stories to tell. The real star of the show here are the essays, the boggle the mind in just the right ways, doing what smart books do…inspiring thoughts. The accompanying comics seem almost tangential by comparison. Though admittedly it is a nice, fun and gimmicky/marketable pairing for publication.
      Overall, a fun and exciting read for science nerds who want to go beyond the fiction aspect of science fiction to contemplate the worlds to come.