DNFd. I couldn't get into it. I tried rereading it so many times but the beginning was just too difficult to get past. I'm sure it's good I just couldn't get past the beginning. Sorry!

What an imagination Naomi Alderman has! This stunning, unputdownable book is a caper novel with a love story at its sci-fi heart. An unflinching look at how technology is transforming our world — for good and ill — that is somehow idealistic and optimistic. Reading it put me in mind of Neal Stephenson's REAMDE and Cryptonomicon, but for the world we live in now (and with a satisfying centering of women). What a fantastic, thoughtful, affecting ride! I'll be featuring this book in the November 10 episode of my podcast The Library of Lost Time (https://strongsenseofplace.com/library).

The Future is a novel set in the not so distant future where the big tech powerhouses are leading the world into turmoil. The top 3 are notified of an event that will destroy the world, so of course they calmly make their way to their private jet & fly over to their fully secured bunkers until it's all over. We follow Zhen a refugee-survivalist vlogger & Martha one of the top companie's executive assistant. We see as they question what extremes they are willing to face to save the world from destruction.

The premise of The Future sounded so interesting, I couldn't resist not reading it. I was fully invested in the story from the beginning. I liked how it relates in a way to our current society & it made it easy to identify who the big tech giants were. It makes you think of the privilege of the one percenters & how easy it would be for them to just hide out in their bunkers while the rest of the world suffers apocalyptic chaos. I also thought the biblical allegory to foxes and rabbits was interesting. I think this book would make a great book club read to discuss more in depth.

Thank you #simonbooks for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another fascinating concept by Alderman (although I liked The Power better). Set in a not too distant future, the first half of this book is character building/backstory. Then the plan is put into motion. Then the twists happen. What would happen if incredibly rich tech CEOs decided to save themselves while the world burned? It's a horrifying and fascinating glimpse into a possible future, and a very interesting read.

"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."

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Is there a future wherein a computer app could predict the future and keep you safe?
Can technology save us from ourselves? Should it? If technologic geniuses discovered such answers …would they make all our lives better or ?
This novel is a very entertaining exploration of those questions…along with interesting answers.
I do recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

If you love stories involving futuristic science fiction you will like this. Four people make a plan to escape for the end of the world. The story is told from multiple perspectives in multiple voices. It is easy to read and plot flows easily.

"The Future" by Naomi Alderman takes readers on a thrilling journey to a world where the future is the ultimate prize, but it comes at a steep cost. As the richest individuals on the planet discover, the future is where the money is, and they are the ones leading the world to destruction while securing their own survival in opulent secret bunkers.

Alderman's vision of the future is a terrifying one, where private weather, technological prophecy, and highly deniable weapons shape the landscape. In the midst of this chaos, a handful of friends, each with their unique backgrounds and motivations, including 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, come together to hatch a daring plan. It could be the greatest heist ever, or it could spell the cataclysmic end of civilization.

"The Future" is a poignant exploration of what we might become if we fail to look behind us, blindly pursuing an elusive future at any cost. It's a stark reminder that the future is not just a goal but the only reason to do anything, the ultimate object of desire. Alderman's portrayal of this future world is both enthralling and unsettling, making it a thought-provoking addition to the realm of dystopian and speculative fiction.

#netgalley
#simonandschuster
#naomialderman #thefuture

I was a huge fan of Naomi Alderman’s The Power and at first thought this was a sequel given the similar naming structure. However, it’s obvious pretty quickly that this is a standalone novel. Unlike The Power, the sci-fi, dystopian elements of this one feel way more true to life. It brings together religious cults, doomsday preppers, and tech billionaires in a way that is as genius as it is a damning indictment of society. I couldn’t put it down. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the advance copy.

The Future (pub. November 7, 2023) by Naomi Alderman was just as good as her 2016 The Power (now an Amazon Prime limited series I still need to watch) but in a different way. Where The Power highlighted feminism and what could happen if women suddenly obtained an innate power to protect themselves, The Future goes further and highlights capitalism, tech, climate change, survivalists and what could happen to the future if just a few very powerful people didn't get to make decisions that affect everyone else? I loved it and couldn't wait to read what happened next.

Alderman focuses on two characters--Martha Einkhorn, executive assistant to techbro billionaire Lenk Sketlish--and Lai Zhen, survival expert and content creator. Their paths cross when Zhen interviews Martha and sparks fly between them in an interview that feels like a date, intimate but also viewed by the world, that results in a several-night fling.

In Martha's circles, besides Lenk, CEO of Fantail (social media), are Ellen Bywater, widowed female CEO of Medlar (operating systems) and her nonbinary child Badger, and Zimri and Selah Nommik (Zimri is CEO of Anvil--logistics and purchasing--and Selah his wife and hotshot computer scientist/coder). These most powerful people in the world have contingency plans--their own bunkers paid for by their billions so that when the world ends, they and their chosen few will be able to continue.

With the story interspersed with excerpts from a survivalist message board and going back and forth in time and all over the world, it took a while to figure out what was going on, but when it was obvious--wow! What a thing to do.

The Future was also, happily, fat-positive, as Martha Einkhorn was described as "heavy-set" with creamy, freckled skin, and she was much-desired by Zhen.

✨𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀✨
• relatable, world events
• multiple timelines
• intertwining stories
• survivalist/doomsday preppers
• end of the world apocalypse

✨ 𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 ✨
This book will leave you sitting where you are, book in hand, while you contemplate how real the story is and could be. The Future is Now.

What worked for this book was Naomi‘s writing skills. And the reality of it all. At first I struggled to get into the story and understand what was happening, but it soon started to unravel. The story revolves around the decisions of many people in the role we all play no matter how rich or poor or our status in life.

What didn’t work for me was the forum sections. They were a little odd to read in the format chosen. Sometimes I felt a little disjointed and jumbled as I read through, but once everything ties together, it makes more sense.

Know that this wanders (yes wanders) back and forth in time and place, includes long discussions of the Bible (especially the story of Lot), and skewers the titans of the tech world even as it has a love story in the center. This is an unusual read, to say the least and it won't be for everyone but once you get the rhythm and latch on to a character, it's a page turner. Set in the future (not clear when) it's sort of about what happens when three titans set themselves up to escape when the world is falling apart thanks to the next pandemic (or the one after). They're meant to be going to bunkers. But first there's Lai Zhen, a survivalist and Martha, assistant to the all powerful Lenk but more importantly a woman who survived her father Enoch's end of days cult (and a bear). There are computers (so many computers), drones, Marius the ace Romanian hacker, Badger and and the rest. I struggled with the philosophical discussions that separate some of the chapters but that's a small quibble. Alderman has a big imagination and lots of ideas. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good, quite thought provoking read.

The Future by Naomi Alderman reads like a view of our potential future if the world were run by a few self-centered billionaires (wait...), if we had remarkable drone technology (yeah...), and if the earth was perishing from global warming (uh...). It's essentially an action-packed and thought-provoking narrative about the planet we might inhabit in the not-too-distant future. And I enjoyed almost every second of it!

The plot follows a number of different characters as an impending apocalypse approaches. The world's three wealthiest billionaires hatch a plan to escape what's coming by utilizing underground bunkers concealed across the planet. They don't care to stop the imminent death and destruction because they believe they can survive and prosper when it's over. Others, however, believe they can undo the harm done and save the world and the people in it. If they want to be successful, they must race against the clock and devise hidden strategies without getting caught.

I'd heard excellent things about Naomi Alderman's previous novel, The Power, but never had the chance to read it. This was my first exposure to Alderman's work, and I'm now a big fan! I intend to read everything the author has written.

The Future is a wild ride that makes you wonder how much of this fictional story could actually happen. How much of it has already happened?! I strongly recommend you add this book to your reading list!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book explores the future of the world we live in today - computer tracking and monitoring our daily lives, data mining our online activity, increasing environment disasters, super-bugs, the ultra-rich and what they may or may not be researching and developing, etc. It had twists that I saw coming, some that I didn't. The book has a satisfying, unexpected, and thought-provoking ending.

What this really comes down to is, what are you willing to do to try for a better future?

Three major tech players and their supports (assistants, wives, predecessors, children) are making plans for the failure of society. They have multiple hidden bunkers and are ready to go into hiding to survive and come out on top.

All too soon that day arrived.

Unexpectedly a fourth party, the lover of one of the supports, also finds her way onto their safe haven. It doesn't take long for the three enormous egos to go to war, but it takes years for the full truth to be revealed.

SPOILER ALERT
And then the end shows up that no matter how much progress we make there's always some mindset, group, person willing to drag everything back down.

This is an engaging, entertaining read, but it's not at all fun.

How to explain this book? It was unlike anything I ever read, and was more like 3.5🌟

If I had to keep it really short, I would describe this book as fascinating but slow.

To expand on that - the concept is fascinating and somewhat disturbing. Huge tech companies questionably collecting, using, and exploiting data collected from their customers to push their own agendas and consumerism; sound familiar? Add in a layer of severe climate change and a devastating pandemic that has the potential to destroy the planet while previously mentioned CEOs have all of the resources to survive and don’t plan on sharing, makes for a read that makes you think “how unrealistic is this actually? Because I can kinda see it….”

Other than the overarching concept, I also enjoyed the formatting (short & long chapters, multiple POV, forum-styled posts) and diverse representation.

Unfortunately, the book itself was SO SLOW. The pacing was off - it started strong, fell off, picked back up again, slowed down, then left with a “wait, what?”. I also didn’t love that I couldn’t figure out the timeline of the book - sometimes I thought a day or week had gone by, only to find out later it was months or years. It felt hard to connect with the characters and their stories when I had no concept of how long they were experiencing their struggles.

Food for thought: “… this was how these technology fortunes had been made: make it all so easy and enjoyable and frictionless that you never start to ask yourself the big questions about whether this is really how you want to be spending your life.”

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for sending me an ARC copy!

I liked this but it didn’t live up to my previous experience with the author. I think this will be a big book and popular with many readers though.

There is nothing more terrifying than thinking about our future. Every day our lives are filled with news stories that portend doom. Lately, dystopian novels have felt a bit tough for me to read – mostly because they actually feel like they could happen in real life now. A tyrannical despot that brings about the fall of democracy? Climate change making our planet uninhabitable? Seems like we’re on our way to that type of future.

So, I was a bit trepidatious going into Naomi Alderman’s “The Future.” I absolutely loved her last novel, “The Power,” so the bar was high. But I also wasn’t sure if I could handle reading about tech giants and their connection to the end of the world. Luckily, I ended up in good hands. Alderman has this ability to create characters that feel so real and unique. Even when I was feeling like the events in the book were hitting a little too close to home, I was also completely intrigued to find out what was going to happen next to these characters.

“The Future” is told from the perspective of several different titans of the tech world (the typical obnoxious billionaire type). But the story becomes especially interesting from Martha and Zhen’s point-of-view. Martha escaped from a doomsday cult as a teenager and has become one tech guy’s right-hand-man. Zhen, her love interest, also fled as a teen, but from a refugee camp. She becomes a well-known social media star who shares her survivalist strategies to the masses. I loved that I thought I knew where this story was going, and then there were several twists I didn’t anticipate.

“The Future” does have a few faults that prevented this from being a five-star read for me. First off, I felt like the timelines were a bit confusing. Even towards the end of the book, I found myself unsure which events took place at which time. Secondly, there were side sections in the book that detailed Martha’s opinions about specific Bible passages (stemming from her very religious upbringing). These sections felt extraneous to me – I wasn’t 100 percent sure why Alderman included them. Perhaps I didn’t get it because I’m not super informed about the Bible or maybe the connections just went over my head. Either way, it took me out of the story instead of furthering the action in a meaningful way.

Despite these issues, I was drawn into the story the entire time, and I was impressed with how Alderman was able to tie all the loose strings together at the end. This book didn’t make me any less scared for the future, but if there are more books like this in store for me, maybe it won’t be so bad.

What does your perfect future look like? Naomi Alderman has one in her new book, The Future.

"A handful of the biggest tech billionaires think they have a way to flee before society ends. Some new software will alert them when it's time to run to their luxurious bolt-holes.
A group of friends think they can make the world better so they hatch a plan to do just that."

Alderman has an interesting view of the near future. The tech billionaires are from fictional companies, but you'll recognize them. Observations about algorithms and business practices will make you go "hmm" - so much is already true. Alderman's group of quiet renegades just want a better world and they think they have a way to do it. It would be interesting to see it work. You'll probably guess the little twist (one of them anyway - you won't get the second one) But it's still enjoyable to see the direction that Alderman takes.
For fans of cult-fiction, there's a cult backstory for Martha - one of the main characters. The idea of Fox and Rabbits comes from there.
This is a dystopian story but one that is easily recognizable. Great new book from Alderman.

Thank you to the publisher for a copy of The Future by Naomi Alderman

Favorite Quote: There were no clicks or eyeballs in the sensible, reasoned middle ground, and all the money in the world in encouraging users to rush to treat the extremes as if they were the center.

Story Synopsis: Martha Einkorn is the right-hand woman to one of the most powerful tech CEOs in the world. After a global pandemic, political unrest, and the continuing polarizing of viewpoints, Martha and a few unexpected allies take saving the world into their own hands.

How do a handful of people save the world? By controlling the future.

Why does this book beguile? I’d heard a bit about this book before I received it from Simon & Schuster, but I didn’t have any expectations. After all, ARCs can be amazing and become long-term favorites… or, they can fall flat.

The Future is one of the former. I immediately got sucked into the dystopian setting, which is very believable. In the future, our world looks as it does now: political unrest, nearly unbelievable tech, and a few tech oligarchs controlling everything. With parallels drawn to Elon Musk, Apple, and Amazon, Naomi Alderman writes a compelling story about what could happen if we don’t focus on what made the human race successful in the millennia leading up to the twentieth century.

There are multiple POVs and timelines, which make for a twisty, exciting adventure because you continue to wonder what’s next. The cast is diverse, and the message Alderman wants readers to absorb is simultaneously overt and understated.