Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy. The concept of this book sounded interesting so I was very intrigued. The first chapter sucks you in about a world ending event but then you go back in time. I felt like I was waiting so long to get to the event and that is what the summary stated the book would be about. The way the story was told was confusing because of all the time jumps. The writing was very pretentious and not my style.

The Future (by The Power author Naomi Alderman) is a near-future novel which follows Lai Zhen, former refugee turned survivalist influencer, and Martha Einkorn, cult survivor and executive assistant to tech billionaire CEO Lenk Sketlish.

Sketlish, and his tech billionaire CEO pals Ellen Bywater and Zimri Nommik are convinced that climate change, political instability, popular unrest, another global pandemic, or any and all combinations of the above are imminently going to end civilization as they know it. They are equally convinced of their own brilliance and indispensability to what remains of a post-apocalyptic society and have thus taken steps to ensure their survival in the form of secret, remote bunkers.

The Future opens "On the day the world ended," and hops back and forth primarily between Zhen and Martha in the months before and after the world changes forever. There are of course numerous parallels to our present-day society; the tech corporations at the center of the novel--Fantail, Medlar, and Anvil--are distortions of familiar companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon blended with notes of Apple, Google, Tesla, etc. for good measure. In these parallels to real life corporations and references to current events, The Future hypothesizes about the ways in which societal collapse is likely to happen and interrogates the responsibility and capacity those who possess and control vast accumulations of wealth have to mitigate disaster.

Alderman expertly weaves together these characters and social critiques with other seemingly un-connected threads (which I will say no more about so readers can enjoy them with hopefully the same amusement and delightful perplexity that I was privileged to enjoy) to a highly satisfying conclusion... then promptly tempered by The Future's epilogue, with which I was initially dissatisfied for taking the wind out of my sails, but upon reflection I feel was appropriately sobering.

The Future's cast of characters all felt like distinct personalities to me, and represented a diverse set of identities, given their relatively small number and that of those, a significant subset are tech billionaire CEOs. The Future hooked me immediately and I didn't want to put it down. I would absolutely recommend The Future to anyone who enjoys speculative fiction, Alderman's other work, or fans of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future as it has similar themes. That the novel is set in the near-future and references recent events occasionally and briefly took me out of the reading experience, but this combined with the novel's social critique on the whole worked to draw me further in because it grounded the novel in time in a way that made the plot feel more real.

I have no content warnings to add; The Future rather cleverly includes its own content warnings within the text itself at the beginning of part 2, before the plot really gets going. [In context, it seems to apply to the specific philosophical discussion in that chapter (the most disturbing descriptions in the novel, which is to say I did not find them particularly so, though my opinion is not a judgment on anyone else's sensitivities); however, nothing is missing from that list that it couldn't apply to the novel in its entirety. Without spoiling the content, I would invite readers to decide for themselves whether to continue reading at this point.]

With gratitude to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster who provided me with a copy in exchange for an honest review; these opinions are my own.

The Future does for Robber Baron Tech Billionaire individualism what The Power did for Misogyny. A story for everyone who is fed up with the Bezos and Musk agenda for the world. Alderman brings a strong vision and morality to her tale without losing the ability to see the humanity of the characters. Also, this book packs multiple twists that will keep you guessing even when you feel sure you’ve figured it all out.

There may just be too much going on in this book. The chapters compiling "secret messages" were much more distracting than helpful, I thought.

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of The Future by Naomi Alderman from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley.

As a fan of The Power, I was so excited to receive a copy of The Future by Naomi Alderman. While The Future is fiction, it bears a close resemblance to our current world. The world is suffering from unprecedented pandemics, wars, and natural disasters led by a handful of billionaires who control social media, logistics, and online commerce. Sound familiar? The story is told from a variety of perspectives. It's a great technique because even a villain is the hero of their own story. There are preppers, survivalists, and a cult. For epistolary lovers, there are the chapters that are snippets of forum postings complete with comments. There is plenty of fodder for deep thoughts. The questions the book poses aren't even new. Could we have a better world with less suffering if those with power and resources stopped being motivated solely by profit? Naomi Alderman imagines a world where someone decides to take action to find out.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for the advanced readers copy.

I was so looking forward to this book after how much I enjoyed reading The Power a few years ago. I just had a hard time getting into it or caring about the characters. I didn't feel pulled into the story like I expected. Not sure where the disconnect was for me but it took work to get through it. The writing itself is great and the author's imagination is amazing. I tend to believe there are no bad books, but that it might just not be the right time to read it. That's probably the issue here for me.

Brilliant, amazing, a must read. Lyrical and yet a plot that tosses you around in the best way. Absolutely fantastic.

I wish I loved this book because I love a good dystopian novels but it didn’t click with me. I found the characters pretty awful and the plot was dragging because of them. While it was a decent plot I feel like the characters took away from it

This book is entertaining while also providing some biting commentary on the hazards of technology, especially social media. The plot has a few twists (one of which is quite obvious if you are familiar with Orson Welles' broadcast of "The War of the Worlds") and also some minor holes. Although the writing starts off strong, the middle half of the book has a lot more telling than showing and feels heavy handed. Recommended for all libraries.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending this to me for review. I was very excited to read this book after falling in love with The Power years ago. Unfortunately, this book didn't hit me the same. The Future dives into politics of power, similar to The Power, but with a focus on the corporate world. While the writing was phenomenal and the characters were interesting, the story was a slog to get through. Rather than a slow burn book, this book felt like it wasn't really going anywhere. 200 pages in, I felt like very little excited me, and the story hadn't really gotten going yet. This book could benefit from a much tighter structure to speed it up.

I am a huge fan of Naomi Alderman's work "The Power" and am a fan of science fiction. I can still remember where I was when I read the last sentence of "The Power", so I was geeked to get an advanced of "the Future" and this book did not disappoint. 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. I enjoyed this book immensely!
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review. #netgalley #thefuture

I really tried to read this book. The description sounded interesting, which is why I requested it for review. But, while I consider myself an intelligent person, I felt like the book was fiction geared to hard core academics, & with the limited amount of time left in this lifetime, I couldn't make it past 5% (per my kindle).

dnf @ 50% i was soooo bored. it started cool with the alerts going off and then it fell off and got boring. nothing was really happening for half the book and it would probably pick up in the second half but i can’t convince myself.

In alderman style, this was an epic of a story! Beautifully woven and suspended in chaos. This was a bit out of my box topic wise, but I was able to enjoy and be comfortable outside that box!

Overall, this was an interesting read with a lot of interesting ideas. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it to other readers. However, there were some points that felt disjointed or like there was too much going on.

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @simonbooks for an early copy of The Future by @naomi_alderman. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Blurb:
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.

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

The Future made me think a lot of what ifs – it’s a book full of big, and futuristic ideas, but most of all, it made me think, what if it’s all real? I never imagined how the impact of different technologies, especially social media, could affect how the world ends. Scary, isn’t it? We use these technologies every day. We buy stuff online, we reach our friends and family through social media, we have stuff delivered to our front door, etc. This book unravels just how these everyday things we do certainly make the rich go richer, and the poor go poorer, and impact the world’s end.

The story wasn’t told chronologically; told monotonously in multiple timelines with multiple POVs, it could get somewhat confusing and uninteresting, but each revelation and when it was thrown out to the reader made it made sense – I actually enjoyed the twists and the mystery as I read through; it made me flip through this novel’s pages faster.

The Future is definitely a page-turner for me despite its length and somewhat confusing timeline. Rating this ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5. Releases November 7th, 2023.
#TheFutureIsHere #SimonBooksBuddy

Another thought-provoking novel by the author of The Power! As in her previous novel, Naomi Alderman does a masterful job of combining a fast-paced story with a thought-provoking treatise on the dangers of giving so much power to tech billionaires. The book takes place in a somewhat dystopian near future, and tells the story of a small group of rebels who are fighting on behalf of the rest of us when the end of the world may (or may not) be at hand. It illustrates the perils of allowing tech companies to take over our lives as well as how little regard the super rich have for anyone else. Although it's a novel, it seems like it could be a window into our actual future. Whether you just want to read a thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat or you're looking for a deeper look at what the future holds, this is the book for you!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this novel. I started this novel and thought, "Terrific, another doomsday dystopian book that seems less dystopian now than it did four years ago..." But I stuck with it because the plot intrigued me, and I'm glad I did. I can't explain much without spoilers, so I will simply say that it's worth the read.

The world is dominated by three mega tech companies and their egoistical, self-important billionaire CEO’s. Technology may be driving the world to extinction. Or it could be used to improve the future of the planet. This book is part science fiction with intriguing ideas of possible new technologies, part sermon on the intrinsic conflict of human good and evil and part page turning action adventure. I would have preferred more action and less sermonizing but it’s a good read

I absolutely loved Naomi's book The Power when I read it a couple years ago, so when I heard she had a new book with similar vibes coming out, I was so excited. Unfortunately, this one didn't have the same hook for me that The Power had - I found myself not really caring about any of the characters and rather actively annoyed by them, and having a hard time concentrating on the plot. I think my love for The Power made me have incredibly high hopes for this one, but I found the writing a little more...overwritten. I'm grateful for the opportunity to read this one early, however, and her imagination is astounding!