With AI on the horizon, this was a peek into the window that could very well be the future of this country.
Eerily too close to home while being in another dimension literally.

Michael Knightsbridge is a nobody. Stuck in a dead end job, mindlessly on autopilot through his life, nothing going for him. His twin brother is a genius physicist and offers for Michael to come live with him in California.
What’s Michael got to lose?

From there the sky is the limit.

I found the plot a little farfetched yet somehow predictable.
I also wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style, it read more YA to me.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC

3 ⭐️

ARC provided by NetGalley. #2040 #NetGalley

A really poor attempt to create a sci-fi, political thriller. While the original idea to investigate the link between dark matter and consciousness hooked me to read this book, it all fell apart as I kept reading.

Our main character, Michael, makes a living by participating in government projects like walking, which is somehow equivalent to allowances. When his brother convinces him to sell their parents' house and move with him to another city, even working for him in a menial job, I found myself going down a rabbit hole with no wonders at the bottom.

The author struggled to make Michael be likeable thus justifying a non-justifiable character evolution - not development - while what I actually got was a subtle misogynist perspective guised under the pretext of a shy man not knowing how to talk to women. There was not a single female character in this book that the author didn't dedicate space to describe her appearance, not following the same path when it came to men.

I can't give enough info about the plot of the book without giving away spoilers so I will restrain myself by just pointing out that it felt like a story written by a 10 year old who threw some dark matter grapes, a pinch of alien juice and some newspapers in the mixer. Oh oh, and A.I. flavoring on top.

Poor writing, poor execution of an interesting idea and some undercover misogynism.

After reading a significant portion of this book, I have decided to DNF as it is very difficult to read and not engaging. I believe that the plot itself is engaging but the writing style is hurting it very much, This could use some serious editing as well as better dialogue writing, as it's very stilted and hard to read.

Really good sci-fi story with a lot of near future technology that may hinder more than it helps.
The story starts with an underachieving gamer eventually being hired to work for his overachieving scientist brother.
Within a short period the gamer becomes the person he possibly should have been and helps work against alien invasion
It's definitely a great read and I really would recommend it for people who like stories where the underdog comes out on top.

Michael Knightsbridge isn't exactly an overachiever, living off of government programs as opposed to his twin brother, Wendell who is a researcher at UC Berkeley. In the year 2040, Artificial Intelligence has a larger role in society and Wendell is digging into his research in dark matter. Wendell invites Michael to help coordinate volunteers at his lab, scanning people's brains for dark matter bundles. Within days of a scan of his own, Michael is thrown into the world of dark matter, is connected with a powerful Chinese broker named Anni and thrown into the political scene. While Michael's life is turned upside down, he discovers purpose as a mysterious illness called the sleeping sickness hits the world. With Anni in his corner and his insight into dark matter, Michael is in a unique position to help save the world or destroy it.

2040 is a fast-paced speculative fiction novel set in the not too distant future. I could immediately relate to Michael's character. In a world of over achievers, Michael has chosen to sit back and live a slower paced life; however, his life changes drastically after he accepts the position with his brother's lab. From here, the plot moves super quickly. I would have loved to dig deeper into Michael's character as all the changes were happening around him as well as into the larger picture of the world's reactions with the discovery of dark matter, sleeping sickness and the quickly changing political views. I was intrigued by the sleeping sickness as well as the being behind it and would have loved to delve deeper into that other world. Anni's character was another enigma whose true identity I guessed at early. I was interested in how her consciousness developed and her partnership with Michael. The ending wrapped up rather quickly and it would have been great to see how Michael's action affected the world. Overall, a wonderful speculative fiction story with amazing ideas that I would have liked to see dug into even more.

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.