I heard about this book on Jordy's Book Club and was immediately intrigued by the premise, being a huge fan of science fiction novels. While I did enjoy the book, I was honestly very confused by the timeline all throughout. The chapters jump around - keeping the pace tight and fast moving - but I felt disoriented and disjointed many times while reading, with questions of "what year is this, now?" and simply trying to follow which character the new chapter was focused on. I will definitely read the author's next work - as she is a very strong writer with amazing ideas - but unfortunately, this novel just wasn't for me.

Wow, The Future was an exercise. I'm spent, but I'm happy. The Power blew me out of the water, so expectations were high. This lived up. I had to think, I had to concentrate, and I'm so glad I did. It's dark, it's genre bending, and I highly recommend.

A playful variation of a heist plot, well-done working in modern threats of AI and too-powerful companies.

Thanks again to NetGalley for an ARC of this one! When I first saw this cover and the blurb, I was excited, it's the type of story I normally love. I did not love this one. I love the concept of this, but it really just did not hit the mark for me. Maybe I went in with too high of expectations, because I was left disappointed.

I don't know if this had the same propulsive "I cannot put this book down" energy that The Power had, but Naomi Alderman sure can write characters wrestling with complicated problems. It takes a while to get into the narrative through meeting each of the characters, and the sense of imbalance and misdirection has to be intentional so that the twists toward the end are revealed on a need-to-know basis that is still satisfying. Overall, I liked this one, though I know it won't be for everyone.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an electronic ARC of this book.

I don't know where to begin... so much going on here, what with Alderman's big thinking and sprawling story. I need a book club meeting, stat. The tech bro billionaires are running everything, deciding what we care about and building wealth at the expense of all else, including the planet. Sound familiar? Alderman throws it all in -- climate change, social media, data mining, algorithms, tech tracking, survivalists, religious zealots, some biblical hermeneutics, bunkers (for the billionaires), and a pandemic.

It seems plausible enough (with a soupçon of slightly ridiculous), and it's a fascinating ride. Alderman weaves a story around the way we are running headlong into climate catastrophe and whatever the hell AI is going to do to us, kept calm by what social media algorithms know we like, with our chosen news sources feeding us the narratives we want. Relying on a few unlikely heroes to save us. Read it, then call me to discuss.

Alderman’s latest follows the CEOs of three tech giants and the people closest to them as the end of the world approaches, as well as a survivalist vlogger. The story goes back and forth in time and among povs. It did drag at times and, as is typical of Alderman’s work, the solution to society’s ills seemed a bit too simplistic, but (also typical of Alderman) the novel was thought provoking.

Another great entry in the Naomi Alderman canon, The Future is hits on all levels. Highly recommend to her previous readers and those who are not familiar with her work.

I love a good dystopian novel. Unfortunately, this was not it. The story takes a long time to get going and seems to meander and be somewhat disconnected. Everything does come together in the end, but it was a rather bumpy ride for me. Thank you NetGalley for providing the ARC.

I love Naomi Alderman. In fact the only thing I miss about Twitter (which I deleted in April 2023) is Naomi Alderman's Twitter. I think she's so smart and empathetic, and she's interested in the same things I'm interested in. I also think she's one of the only writers alive who can write that impossible thing, which is a didactic, message-driven novel that is also a good book.

That's THE FUTURE. It's imaginative, satisfyingly complex, perceptive, and resonant. It's full of weird characters whose feelings and humanity are front and center. I really liked all the different angles of survivalism: religious, technological, wealth-based, individualist, collective. The world-building is top-notch. Martha Einkorn, a high-level tech worker who grew up in an Evangelical cult, is a truly fabulous character.

But the book overall was just a little too sprawling and jumpy to really hold my interest the whole time, and the last quarter or so kind of lost me. The ending moves too quickly into a future that I still, ultimately, found too implausible, and it involves a character making a tremendous sacrifice and then accepting it in a way that I just wasn't able to buy.

But I still think it's a very excellent book and I would still recommend it!!!!

⭐️: 5/5

When Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, and Martha Einkorn, a survivor of an infamous cult and current right hand to one of the most powerful tech moguls meet, an explosive chain of events is set in motion. The two find themselves forced to find out what they’d risk and the lines they’d cross at a chance to save the world from a cataclysmic end to civilization.

Books like these inevitably keep me up at night with feelings of existential anxiety. I really try not to watch apocalypse movies, because the thought of what I’d do if I were one of the survivors of a world-ending event makes me feel just so overwhelmed, I just don’t know what to do with myself. The Future, although similar in theme to movies that WILL give me nightmares, was just so masterfully done, that I couldn’t complain about any of the anxious feelings I felt as a result of reading. I absolutely loved the non-linear structure, since it kept me guessing all the way up to the end, and the near-future setting was so immersive and felt like an actual possibility. Not to mention, I loved the blunt and slightly caustic writing style. It’s exactly the type of prose I love to read, and I’ll definitely be picking up The Power really soon. This book was so dark, but also kind of hopeful, and I loved everything about it.

Thank you to @netgalley and @ for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!!

This is a 3.5 for me. This was a great story bogged down by presentation! It felt like the author wrote out every idea they had about what they wanted to do but never went back and refined it. The chapters that were on the message board could have been completely removed, in my opinion, and made this a more powerful book. Were they attempts to break up the drama? If so, they were more distracting than mental intermissions. I can only think of one thing provided by them that was valuable and it could have been done in another way that didn't take up so much space and unnecessary mental energy from the reader. In the rough of this book is a diamond of a story. I wish a better attempt to find it had happened.

As someone who loved The Power I had high expectations for The Future and I was not disappointed.

The dystopian near future presented didn't feel outlandish or unimaginable to me at all. It exists at the whims of the obscenely wealthy, tech billionaires who have made their marks on the world and have every intention to continue living the good life, regardless of what may be happening around them.

We follow communities related to the tech world, and people following survivalist forums. This novel is a beautiful intersection of those groups and how they plan to deal with the end of days, which appears to be rapidly approaching for the society as they know it. The story jumps around, but I did not find it difficult to follow. I've seen reference to this book being long, which I did not notice at all. It was a page turner that I never wanted to put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

Is it the technology, or the billionaires behind the technology that's driving us towards the future. This was interesting and annoying at the same time. The characters were a diverse bunch, believable and intriguing. The plot was convoluted and debatable, but interesting and odd enough to hold your attention to the end. You just have to know how and why.... Unfortunately I don't think it delivered a remotely believable ending. Get rid of just the right people and change the motivations in major social media and it's all pie in the sky, even curing climate change will suddenly fall magically into place. A nice idea that falls apart in the end.

Thank you to @Simonandschuster and #NetGalley for a digital ARC or #TheFuture. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

This was an un-put-downable read for me and I think that was because the premise doesn't seem that far fetched - a little conspiracy theory, but still pretty plausible. No spoilers here.

The plot centers on 3 tech titans (fictionalized mash-ups of Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg, Sandberg, Jobs) and the competitive drive to deliver the next "big thing", dominate the market and make tons of money doing it. But the people closest to them - wife, daughter, personal assistant - have different ideas about what that money can be used for and that creates the conflict at the center of this story.

This was the perfect mix of social commentary, technology and climate crisis with interesting characters and a propulsive plot. Overall, a great read!

Not just a “what if” but a “when” situation occurs on earth as pollution worsens, species die off, and the population is even more divided economically and politically. Underlying the biggest problems are three of the richest innovators in the world today, the founders of Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, tho they are loosely disguised with other company names in the novel. It is thought-provoking look at technology and power and morality. This is a fast-paced suspenseful book with Interesting characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster, Inc. for the ARC to read and review.

“The human race isn’t getting any better we’re just getting different and more and faster and if you’re not getting better then more and faster is just the same as getting worse … We’ve spent the past century hiding under our blankets while the red notices piled up in the hallway, ARREARS: Habitat Destruction and Extinction, DO NOT IGNORE: Social Inequality, PAY NOW OR FACE CONSEQUENCES: Climate Change. And us going “Hey if we shuffle things around, move that balance onto this card, work out how to frack shale and ignore the flammable water coming out of the taps then we can buy a new car and brim it with gasoline and things will be OK for another month.” … And I thought, with this pandemic we’re gonna realize we just have to be sensible. Unlike the dinosaurs, we don’t need to get hit by an asteroid. I know it’s a joke now. “Nature is healing.” Believing things could get better is just a joke, right?”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Alderman writes in a quick and engaging way that drew me in right away. Page-turner.
The ins and outs of what takes place is so predicated on life, today, that every bit seemed like it could plausibly happen tomorrow.
The Future delves into “what if.” What if we took the 3 billionaires (obviously based on real life figures, of course there would perhaps be more than 3 in the real world), who controlled more than any person should, and were leading the world into a dark future - all for personal gain - and removed them from the picture?
What strides could we make in saving humanity and the planet without greed in the way?
Alderman mixes philosophy and biblical references with a semi-manifesto of how to “fix” the world, alongside a bit of mystery with some twists and turns that I found extremely satisfying.
All while facing the ultimate questions. No matter what steps we take, what lengths we go to, can we ever really stop the stream train that humanity is on, barreling toward disaster? Can we ever really change human nature? Can the fox ever live peacefully alongside the rabbit?
Things that fell short for me:
The repetition of the Bible lessons….got it after the first 3 times you told me.
The author is obviously extremely smart, but, sometimes….just a tad too preachy.
Would the amount of time allotted really have been remotely enough time to affect change in the way it is portrayed?
You need to dispel a great deal of belief that all of the pieces of the plot could really have been conceived, planned, and enacted without a hitch (As a reader of fantasy, I went with it, but it was wrapped in a pretty tight bow).
But overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to any lover of dystopian, sci-fi, queer, corporate thrillers.

The future is grim, but you already know that. Welcome to a dystopian examination of where we are going.

My biggest struggle with this book was trying to figure out when it was supposed to take place. References to contemporary culture and movie stars like Ryan Reynolds suggested the very near future, but much of the technology described suggested some time further in the future. It was distracting and unsettling — maybe what Naomi Alderman was going for.

The premise of the book was interesting though and what kept me hooked - what if the honchos at the big tech giants were conspiring against us? It’s like watching a slow moving train wreck as we watch everything we know get dismantled.

The middle of the book dragged for me and there felt like there were too many side storylines for me to keep track of. While intelligent and with a clear message to tell, this one was not easy to read and definitely more suited for those who like to meander in the worlds created by the books they read. But because of the uncertainty in timing I mentioned earlier, I found it hard to fully immerse myself in this near but far future world.

I like Alderman’s creativity (loved The Power) and will look out for her next one, despite not falling in love with this one.

Thanks to @netgalley, @simonbooks and @naomi_alderman for the ARC.

If the Apocalypse is here what will you do? Can we prevent it in the first place? In her new Novel Naomi Alderman again explores the workings of the human society and what is wrong with it. How if you have money and the system is working for you you don’t want to change it even if it means to doom everyone else. How often people think starting new is better than fixing things as it seems so much easier. And how we can become our own worst enemy if we isolate ourselves and lose all trust in the people around us. Even though the book gives a lot to think about it is entertaining and thrilling, a great combination.
If you haven’t already read The Power by the same author, I would highly recommend it!

Thanks to Negalley and the publisher to provide me with an arc :)

I wanted to love this story as much as The Power, but it just didn’t deliver. Too long and detailed in some areas and lacking in others. I often confused the characters because none of them were really fleshed out. This book reinforced the idea that the wealthy should not be allowed to hoard wealth and technology. The inability to share the resources range true to the current state of the world with only a handful of extremely wealthy people using their money to influence policy.