The Future by Naomi Alderman

The Future by Naomi Alderman
UK Publication: November 2023
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★]

This ARC was provided by 4^th Estate (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis from Goodreads: The Future—as the richest people on the planet have discovered—is where the money is.

The Future is a few billionaires leading the world to destruction while safeguarding their own survival with secret lavish bunkers.

The Future is private weather, technological prophecy and highly deniable weapons.

The Future is a handful of friends—the daughter of a cult leader, a non-binary hacker, an ousted Silicon Valley visionary, the concerned wife of a dangerous CEO, and an internet-famous survivalist—hatching a daring plan. It could be the greatest heist ever. Or the cataclysmic end of civilization.

The Future is what you see if you don’t look behind you.

The Future is the only reason to do anything, the only object of desire.

The Future is here.

My Thoughts: Having previously loved the glorious F**k the patriarchy that was The Power I was looking for more of the same, sadly this book didn’t live up to my expectations and I think that is because it was trying to do too much.

On the one hand this book is about the evil big tech can represent, the way humans can be controlled socially via online interaction and on the other hand it is about the end of the world and climate change. For me the big tech side worked well the climate side not so much.

The ideas behind how big tech can control what we think and feel using careful interference from AI felt terrifyingly real and I wouldn’t be surprised if these techniques are already in use however the climate change side seemed tacked on as a way to explain certain behaviours and the solution to the crisis just left me thinking really?

Add to that the book is over 400 pages long and at points this felt like a slog. I stuck with this because I aint no quitter but there was not much pay off for that dedication.

Who would like this? If you are expecting The Power change your expectations this is nothing like that. If you like wondering about what the end of the world will look like and how those with money would handle it give this a go.

We want to hear from you! Have you read this book? What did you think?