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!

Another winning story by Naomi Alderman! This is a tale about tech genius, artificial intelligence and the ability of tech to improve our lives. It highlights the desire to mold the world to fit your vision, how very little actions can eventually achieve large results. You follow 3 major industry magnates and learn of their plans to survive and thrive following a pandemic. You also follow tech gurus and learn how intuitive tech can help us survive a disaster. Press and bloggers also play a big part in the public's perception of reality. All of this is so realistic and could be happening right now. But this tale goes one step beyond by exploring an actual disaster and the fallout seen around the world. Scary because there is nothing that is unrealistic. All in all, The Future is a captivating tale full of characters that are authentic and organic, the events so deceitful and chilling. Such creativity!

An interesting concept: what if individuals closest to those with the most power cause use their positions to create long-lasting, positive change in the world? The Future is Naomi Alderman's attempt to answer that question and many others: what can we as individuals do to make this world a better place? How can we leverage what we know to slow the seeming inevitable end of the world due to climate change?

The first part of the book is about who's who: what do they do, how do they do it, why do they do it, and where did they come from, and after all of it, how it made them who they are with their specific belief systems. From the woman who grew up the daughter of a cult leader finding her way to the right-hand position of the CEO of one of the most powerful people in the world to the survivalist/influencer with a tragic childhood teaching the world how to live in any kind of situation, the characters start off separately and then, by the middle of the book, they come together as they're united by a common cause. They've realized that their boss/spouse/resident billionaire are the source of the problems around the world. The disparity of wealth and all the power that comes with that amount of money means that those in the very top of the pyramid get all the information, cause all the problems, and choose not to do anything because it means their power/wealth will go away.

So the second part of the book is bringing the friends' plan to reality. We don't really know what the plan is, but we know something is coming. And then we read about the execution of the plan, and how it shifts things, but does it ever really change anything? Alderman takes the questions about what could be done about climate change and answers them in ways that just really make you think.

The book is good in its delivery, but the second half of the book/execution of the plan seemed a bit rushed. The build-up was 80% and the rest was just jammed in there. The subject matter of climate change, disparity of wealth, religion, and their interconnectedness was fascinating and sobering.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of The Future. I had a very hard time finishing this book. Kept hoping it would get better but it never really did. The timeline was so back and forth and I really had a hard time following what was going on.

It's been 5 years since I read something by Naomi Alderman . . . and it was worth the wait!

In this future, the richest people in technology are influencing all aspects of the world in both positive and negative ways, but all the while looking out for themselves by investing in multiple secret survival bunkers for the end of the world. While Ellen Bywater, Zimri Nommik, and Lenk Sketlish are preparing to retreat to safety at a moment's notice, Martha Einkorn, Lai Zhen and 3 other players are concerned about our world and the damage being done to it. Is there anything they can do to save the future of Earth and prevent it's destruction?

The story was told in a non-linear way and once I realized that, it helped me follow along with the narrative, even when I was in a section that I was struggling with, it would be explained in a clear and satisfying way shortly. The story centers mostly with Lai and Martha as the narrators, with occasionally having a shift to one of the other 6 characters.

If you liked "The Power" and you liked "The Circle" I'm confident you'll enjoy this book! It does make you wonder what would happen if those with the greatest wealth in our world . . . "instead of hurtling unthinkingly toward ever more profit, they decided to think primarily about the kind of world they would leave behind"

Thank you to NetGalley.com, & Simon & Schuester for providing free advance copy to me as a reader for my review.

I enjoyed this book but liked the power better. I liked this concept but some parts like the Bible chapters on message boards, I was not a fan of. It was a little confusing going back and forth with no notice of who was speaking or if it was a present or past chapter but I enjoyed the plot. I really liked the end and did not see that coming at all.