Popular science fiction author and Mississauga resident Robert J. Sawyer, who’s written 18 novels, will have his work shown on a major U.S. television network.

ABC has ordered 13 one-hour episodes of Flash Forward, adapted from Sawyer’s novel, Flashforward.

The series will air this fall and Sawyer will work as creative consultant, and write one of the episodes.

“It is expanded from the vision in my book,” Sawyer said of the television show. “Ultimately, we are hoping not for 13 episodes, but over 100 episodes over five or six years. My book is the basis for all of it, but we’ve been adding all kinds of stuff to the vision to make it a series for many years.”

In the novel, published in 1999, the human race loses consciousness during a particle accelerator run in Geneva. While the world is unconscious, everyone, save for those asleep, has a vision from a time in their future (flash forward). However, when the phenomenon ends, many are dead as a result of various accidents caused by the mass loss of consciousness.

Sawyer is tight-lipped about the cause of the flash forward in the TV show.

“It’s like Lost (ABC series), half of the joy for people watching the show is unraveling the mystery.”

The television show’s pilot was co-written and directed by David S. Goyer (Batman Begins) and co-written by Brannon Braga (Star Trek, 24).

“As exciting as this all is, the thing I’m most excited about right now is my new novel,” said Sawyer. “Wake has just come out. And first and foremost, I’m a novelist.”

SOURCE: The Mississauga News