This book was a quick read that I enjoyed in a weekend between chores and family time. While the premise of the book is fantastic and the synopsis made it seem like it would be an amazing book, it was a bit unbelievable. The book is set in 2082, and looks back at objects from the past, and gives commentary on what the world will be like. Some of it was just hard to believe given current developments and social climates. It seems more fantasy than science fiction, making it hard to follow along. For me, it reminded me how in middle school of 2000, I was saying we would have flying cars and robot servants in 2020, yet here living in some strange 1900s dystopian political climate with a global pandemic, and my car continues to obey the laws of gravity. While maybe the book was meant to be entirely fantastical, the way the synopsis and writing came off, it did not seem that way. It seemed to be more of a commentary on the future than a sci-fi novel, based on writing style. It was an interesting read and had thought-provoking thoughts on occasion, but overall, I found it to be far fetched and rooted more in fantasy than sci-fi. It was on that strange middle ground of not being too realistic to be seen as fantasy or dystopian, but too unrealistic to be sci-fi.

An interesting speculative history of the 21st Century, as told by a narrator in 2082.

This book is a fictional transcript of a talk (?, it's not made fully clear what the format of the presentation of this is) given in 2082 looking back at 100 objects that defined the 21st Century. This is a very interesting topic and the author attempts to give some commentary on humanity and society through the selection and description of (currently) fictional objects and experiences.

The thing that I most struggle with is the timeline introduced by these objects. By the late 2070's, the book says that humanity will be living predominantly off-Earth and will be taking quick day trips to orbit Saturn. This seems a bit unbelievable, but I suppose that anything is possible in the next 50+ years. Even more so, I think that the objects of the 2020's show the most problems, probably because this book was originally written as a Kickstarter project in 2011. By 2025, the author says that governments will be using virtual reality technology to interrogate terrorists. That seems very plausible. However, by that same year, he also says that we will have a Sex Workers Union very well-established in New York City and having already developed an app that will allow sex workers to provide sexual experiences remotely for customers. This feels like much too fast timing for something like this, given the current political/technological/societal climate.

Overall, for people who enjoy reading science fiction and/or like speculating about the future, this would be a fun read. Especially if you just suspend disbelief for a while...

There have been many "History of [X] in 100 Objects" books published, but this is the first one I've seen from the future.

Requiring impressive creativity and (I assume) research, the next 80 years are reviewed based on inventions that are yet-to-be.

From prison reform to expanding sexuality to the role of AI in everything, the only reason this is science "fiction" is because you aren't working hard enough for the future.

**I received this story early from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The title of this book is intriguing but I found the style to be sarcastic and unreadable. Its not even ironic or funny, its annoying.

This was an interesting speculative fiction book. As a fan of the "100 objects" series, I found this new spin on it fascinating.

After reading this, this book is not what I thought it was going to be. Instead it talks about technology and how it has helped different corporations. It is not a discussion about different well-known inventions like the telephone or a Morse code machine. I actually felt this was rather dull. JMO..

You can tell the writer has a lot of passion for this book and probably did a reasonable amount of work, but the execution of this book was off. Some parts where fascinating but it is a no for me.

Thanks to Netgalley, Adrian Hon and MIT Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 10/6/20

For me the concept is a little too cute. The best entries are single ideas that would work well if included in a longer work. The worst entries are just criticisms of today, usually about America and nearly always about conservative values and policies. Either way, the overall effect is pretty thin.

Book Review: A New History of the Future in 100 Objects by Adrian Hon
The MIT Press. Publication Date 06 Oct 2020.
Genre: Science Fiction(I got an e-ARC from Netgalley)

Science is about imagination, technology, and future, and all these culminates to invention of objects. We have seen how technology changes...

Detailed review at https://anups.net/2020/07/12/book-review-a-new-history-of-the-future-in-100-objects-by-adrian-hon/