[I received a free advance reading copy of this book through a Goodreads First Read giveaway. ]

Oh Robert J. Sawyer. I want to love your books. I usually love the ideas (Flash Forward was so creative a concept!), but something in the execution always frustrates me. The characters always seem so flat, and yet I can feel you trying (too hard) to make them real. You have a story to tell me and sometimes I swear I can feel you bonking me over the head with your plot.

Things that bothered me about this one:
- I hate reading about the US President. It's so overdone and can't help but be a cliche no matter what you do.
- a main character that is a Canadian Sikh is different and interesting, but don't keep throwing how interesting and unique it is in my face. By page 150 you can probably just refer to your character by name, rather than referring to him as "the Canadian" or "the Sikh". This is an example of trying to make a character interesting via characteristics instead of depth.