Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

I thought this book was strange but still fun. This is climate fiction with a particular bent, and I found the author's vision of what might happen to be intriguing. The time travel aspect was the strange thing here, but it was the crux of the story, so I accepted it. Those who enjoy climate fiction may enjoy this book.

I thought this was going to be a dystopian novel that I would love. I also thought the concept of going back and forth between two timelines. The topics that this book covers are very heavy given what's happening in our current world problems. Michael covers climate control, COVID, education, etc. These may not be heavy topics for most people, but sometimes it hits harder and closer to home to some people. It's not just another dystopian novel that you can pick up in the YA/teens section.

Email From The Future is a compelling and thought-provoking speculative novel. More importantly, this is a book the world needs. And I don't say that lightly.

What I liked: It's hopeful! It's set in a future where things ARE better, where people managed to fix the shit we're facing now. The publisher's blurb says it all, "From climate change, education, space travel, and religion to sex, food, crime, politics and even gaming, acclaimed futurist Michael Rogers describes the world of 2084. And more importantly, how we can actually get there."

So thank you Michael Rogers, it's a breath of fresh air and I'm sure I speak for millions of people when I say - I needed that!

What I liked less... Well, let's be honest. It's not much of a novel. it's a series of essays disguised as a novel. I'm not going to throw it under the bus for that (as I said, I needed to glimpse this ray of light at the end of the tunnel) but I will take a star off as penalty.

I would give good money to see this book on school curricula worldwide. If you have teenage kids, get them to read it, get them to get their friends to read it. It could have tremendous impact on young minds, with tremendous potential consequences.

I didn't get to finish this one before it was archived. When originally thought this was a novella rather than a full novel, so I didn't leave myself enough time to finish it. However, I did enjoy what I got to read of this. As a huge fan of expository narratives, the premise and execution of this story was really doing a great job of reflecting on the main character's past in a way that felt genuine. The parts of history the main character choose to share felt relevant and meaningful on both a personal and societal level. I enjoyed the narrator's POV and the way he choose to share his story. I wish I gotten to read more and finish this one. It's definitely worth a read and very relevant to the current state of the world right now. But not in way that just makes you feel bad, it leaves room for hope.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

This reads basically like a history lesson but it worked for me! It would be lovely to imagine that the Earth in this story becomes reality. Very optimistic and overall pleasant read.

A strange email arrives in the inbox of a blogger in 2020, claiming to be a diary from 2084 detailing how society changes in the next 64 years. Confused by its mysterious, untraceable appearance, he posts the diary in its entirety online, to see what other people make of it.

Fundamentally, this book is optimistic. What if humanity were capable of working together to fix global warming? What if we could build a utopia, and how could we do it from where we are right now? Rogers has clearly tried to think about and compensate for as many of our current social, political, and environmental issues as physically possible to craft the basis for the perfect society. As a result, it often goes into detail of the current state of society (Covid and fallout; racism; education; capitalism vs global warming etc.) with a highly critical lens. Those looking for total escapism should probably, therefore, look somewhere else.

The book is, however, incredibly slow paced. There is, perhaps, a little too much detail in some places to keep up a consistent reading pace and I considered putting it down for good at several points. By going into so much detail, it has dangerously also put a shelf life on its own optimism; with the political dramas currently playing out around the world, it already feels a little obsolete.

Interwoven with the passionate considerations for humanity’s future, Aldus interweaves his own story, addressing his grandson for whom the diary is ultimately intended. We learn about his struggle to find meaning in a rapidly changing world, which brings some grounding to the passionate realignment of our future history. These more human moments try to balance out the memoir, but only really start to succeed in the second half of the book.

Ultimately, I’m glad I read this, and I’m glad I finished it. Aldus’s story is a hopeful, although potentially overly optimistic, look at the future of humanity and the earth.

I liked some of the ideas the author had. The style of writing was refreshing to read. At the same time, the world feels too perfect and simplistic. The tone is aggressively optimistic. It can also be hard to follow, since information isn't clearly conveyed to the reader.

This book reads like a non-fiction, at times that is good, at times, I found myself getting a bit distracted. It wasn't one of those books I consumed in an afternoon, but one I sat and read a bit at a time. Parts of it felt too too much like - here is a futurist from around 2020 imagining the future - but at the same time, there were ideas here, on what a future could look like, and how we could get there

I feel a bit conflicted about this title, I see the strengths, but I didn't enjoy reading all of it,
I'm not sure if it was the authour's style, or just me not meshing well with the diary format.

Unfortunately, I was just not feeling this book.

I have not read George Orwell's 1984 but was captivated by the description of 'Email From The Future: Notes from 2084'. As promised, Michael Rogers provided perspective on what the future might look like in 60 years. I felt, though, that some of the terminology, i.e. technology of 2084, wasn't clearly explained so I didn't fully understand all of the concepts of the story. However, I really liked how the author introduced and then concluded his story and was satisfied with my reading experience. I recommend this book.

What if we could change how we've messed up the planet and the people who inhabit it?
Aldus is a retired robot repairman and is writing emails, and essays, to his grandson, Luca. He writes about the history, climate change, strikes, famines, and other things that have transpired on Earth in the previous 64 years.
The entries flip flop between talking about general history of the world, Aldus's day to day life, and family history.
People live in walkables, fully self contained communities. The Internet has become something more. So many things about life have changed.
While this is a great story, it does feel a bit long winded and boring at times. Having g said that, the ideas in the book are thought provoking and do provide a possible course of action for the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for offering this book as a free e-book.

I quite enjoyed this. It wasn't my usual read, but I found myself drawn to it. A mysterious email lands in someone's mailbox and when they decrypt it they find a bunch of essays written by a man called Aldus, claiming to be from the 2080s.

Aldus writes his essays to his grandson, Luca, telling him about the world and how much it's changed since the 2020s. It's more of a memoir than anything with Aldus talking about his life, meeting his wife Mariana and having Luca's dad. There are a few references to times past, covid being one and it was just really interesting to see an alternate world to the one we live in now.

Obviously we know that the events in this book won't come to pass as some of the things mentioned happening in 2020 haven't actually happened, but it was nice to pretend that they had.

First of all, I’m a pessimist. When I look at today’s world I can’t see it changing for better, only for worse. In simple words, I think we’re all f*cked.

This book is a very, sometimes painfully optimistic and sometimes even naive answer to ‘what if’ questions about how we can change our world for the better for the future generations. I love the idea of the letters (emails) from the future in a form of fictional biography of someone who lived through all that trials and tribulations the world had to go through to get better. I really liked some of the things the narrator talked about like personal tutors for every person in the world who creates learning programs based on it’s observations of it’s student through childhood to adulthood or the idea of paying people a Living Income which allows them to participate in society without worrying about satisfying their basic needs.

Unfortunately, as I said before, there is a lot of things I just can’t imagine happening. I believe humans are able to come together in times of crisis but I just can’t see us all actually going against the rich, the governments who we all know don’t give a single f about us, the companies who violate human and animal rights, to quickly enough not only save our planet but also change our societies and get rid of cancers like xenophobia, racism, homophobia etc. It’s just too idealistic to be possible in that short amount of time (letters are from 2084).

However, the book was still an interesting read and if treated just as such it’s a good book, definitely worth reading.

I absolutely love the concept of this book and what it aims to do. I think it's extremely important and I wish we could actually do some of the things mentioned in it, like actually turning electricity off and limited travel on earth day or combating big business corporations who rightfully deserve it. All of that and the fact that I wholeheartedly support its concept and writing more books with this mindset is why I can't give any lower than 3 stars. However, it reads like a textbook and I'm more interested in narrative-style books. I do love how it's set up where it could very well be from a real person in the future, and a lot of it rings scarily true and possible. But after reading the reviews on Goodreads, I'm not going to finish it, at least right now, when I have a feeling it'll end a lot better than how I honestly expect the real-world equivalent to turn out.

This seems like a hopeful tale, and one that many will connect with. I hope this sells well even thought it's unlikely to break thru. Good stuff.

I really appreciate the free review copy!!

The story seems a bit whiny/martyr-y at times, particularly in the beginning, but I am a Gen Xer, so maybe the message is not quite for me. I did like the near future aspect of the early part was well.

A compelling series of speculations about what the next century will be like…. Absolutely brilliant… I just wish I could give it more than five stars! Got me from page one and I couldn’t stop reading till I found out how it would end!

A fascinating (and hopeful and optimistic) look at what the future could hold for our planet. Of course it's a science fiction book, but at its heart is a love story. A quick and easy read that leaves one feeling better for having read the book.

Climate fiction, but not a novel. This is an optimistic fictional biography of an old man, writing a legacy for his grandson. It's 2084 and the "email" chronicles what the world looks like after society did everything right for 50 years.

Born in 2010, Aldus lived through it all—the War on the Warming, the repair of the planet, the rise of true artificial intelligence, automation everywhere and much more.

Interesting story if you have had enough of dystopian climate fiction. A breath of fresh air (literally).
Thank you #netgalley for an advance reader copy.