A tale across time, with AI, undersea exploration, and the heart of humanity at its core. Powers explores whatskes us human, but doesn't get preachy.

What another home run from Richard Powers! I’m a huge fan of Power’s works ever since I was introduced to him by a college professor. the overstory being one of my favorite books of the year it came out. Playground is full of Powers signature style and I loved reading every second of this one

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I've had Powers' classic book The Overstory on my to-be-read list forever, but I took the chance to read this one first. I loved this story on the whole, though some of the storylines took me longer to get into or understand than others, which made it slow-going at first. A great tale for us to use to examine our modern world, and all the effects it has had on the life of the planet.

I knew I had to read this one after finally getting around to reading The Overstory last year and I enjoyed Playground even more. Powers' unique voice comes through each character in its own way, easily giving life to the words on the page. The reveal at the end was also satisfying and makes me want to read it again!

There are so many lev els to this book, at level one it is about the characters but the next level is about games and the games people play in the world they live in to survive. As always there is ecology at the center of this book as there is with all of this author book. The connnection between how the characters view the earth and the ocean life descriptions are phenomenal. Ther eis the constannt battle in our world for spaces that are natures and indigenous peoples and the humanity that seemms determined to take it over with no regard to the original inhabitants.

Completely missed the big plot twist that's harder to put together when listening to the audiobook as the printed text offers clues with its selection of font. Interesting topic and beautiful prose might be enough of a draw to reread this novel to parse out the plot twists.

overall a really fascinating and well researched novel, even if it lost me a bit. I can now understand why Powers is such a beloved and acclaimed author. in terms of characters, Rafi’s storyline was definitely my favorite - but the strongest element of the book for me was definitely all the oceanography. I loved the vivid imagery Powers creates although it ends up turning more into an AI story. This actually reminded me quite of a bit of <i> Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow </i>

Maybe if I hadn't listened to the audiobook version and stuck with the print version like I did with Overstory. Either way, I wasn't pulled in by the lush explanations and thought it would be a deep exploration of ocean life but instead it focuses on technology, environmentalism, and a [book:Ready Player One|9969571]-like experience with the disjointed stories that readers have to be patient to see how it all comes together.

There were glimmers of beautiful writing that Powers has but I didn't have the patience this time to wade through it to get to the reward. I needed more time with each of the characters and their stories before moving on to the next one and circling back to get comfortable in the story Powers was sharing. Alas, it was not my Powers book this time and I always am keenly aware of the messages shared in a book which could have skewed my perspective.

I enjoyed the first third of this book a lot, but got bogged down partway through. The writing is lovely, and maybe I'll be in the right mood for a more successful reread of this book later. I know some people who I am sure will enjoy this one, though.

PLAYGROUND by Richard Powers received a starred review from Booklist and praise from numerous other reviewers. I was anxious to read something by this acclaimed author – he has won a National Book Award (The Echo Maker) and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (The Overstory). His writing is beautiful, but often descriptive and introspective with little action. Sadly, PLAYGROUND did not hold my attention despite trying to read an online preview copy and then the print book. Perhaps I will try the audio book and feel differently. 3.5 stars

My expectations going into this book were on the low side as I wasn't a huge fan of [book:Bewilderment|56404444], but I ended up liking it very much and totally see why it was nominated for the Booker longlist.

As a young child, Todd, is totally mesmerized by a book written by an elderly oceanographer, Evelyn, which he wins when he beats his father at chess. Todd is arguably both the protagonist and antagonist of this book which slowly reveals Todd through different lenses. His love for Evelyn's book. His relationship with a young black man, Rafi, with whom he is constantly competing - - to both his benefit and detriment. His unbridled ambition and need to win. His struggles with Lewy body dementia.

It's hard to know where this book is going with these disparate storylines, but each one is engaging in its own right. From beautiful descriptions of the ocean, its creatures, and man's relationship with the sea to insights on the double edged sword that is technology and artificial intelligence, Powers writes a sweeping novel that at the end of the day is more plot driven than anticipated.

From my perspective, the entertainment value was more in the 4 star realm, but after I finished the book, I literally went right back to the beginning and started re-reading huge swathes of it. And lo and behold, there's some really great foreshadowing and big picture storytelling going on here, and I find books like this endlessly interesting to pick apart and discuss. So 5 stars it is! Kudos Mr. Powers for changing my opinion of your work. I'll definitely be revisiting more of it.

Playground will be at the top of my books of 2024. What a masterpiece. Powers has brought the ocean alive in the same way as he wrote so lovingly about trees and endangered species. The AI element was interesting and educational. To meld these topics with game theory was magic.

Another great novel by Powers, this time focusing on the power and significance of the ocean. Overall, a story that tackles climate change, humanity's impact on the environment, capitalism, and technology, all told with Powers well-written prose and complex characterizations. Readers who enjoyed Elif Shafak's "There Are Rivers in the Sky" will like this one.

Powers is so good at taking contemporary science and our big ethical dilemmas, and channeling those things into compelling stories

The Pulitzer Award-winning author of The Overstory explores humanity's impact on the oceans in his new novel.
The primary narrator of Richard Powers' latest novel, Playground, is Todd Keane, who at 57 years old has recently been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a degenerative disease that affects thinking, memory, and movement. Addressing his account to an unidentified "you," Todd wants to relay "the story of my friend and me and how we changed the future of mankind" before his disease overwhelms him. That friend is Rafi Young, a fellow wunderkind with whom he bonded in high school over games of Go; Todd then went on to build an insanely popular social media platform called Playground. It's this linear storyline that forms the backbone of this complex, multilayered tale.

Weaving around this storyline, like the threads of a fine tapestry, are several other compelling plotlines. One centers on the French Polynesian island of Makatea, whose 82 residents have just weeks to decide between maintaining their lifestyle in harmony with nature or embracing a technological future that they're told will bring an economic boom. Another narrates the experiences of Evelyne Beaulieu, a French Canadian diver who's spent most of her life studying the wonders of the ocean. Still another unfolds around Ina Aroita, a Pacific Islander who creates sculptures from plastic and other trash disgorged by the polluted ocean. As the narrative jumps unpredictably back and forth through time and space, Powers explores diverse themes such as friendships gained and lost; humanity's impact on the planet, especially its oceans; neocolonialism; sexism in the sciences; the development and future of artificial intelligence; and many others.

If this all makes it sound like Playground is dense and complicated, there's a reason for that. But Powers' genius is his ability to form a cohesive and absorbing narrative from what at first seems to be a disorienting, unrelated mishmash of ideas. And as always, his writing is luminous. When 10-year-old Todd finds inspiration in a book about the ocean, for example, Powers writes:

"The book sparked endless living experiments inside my head. Every page animated the incalculably large and inexplicably bizarre universe beneath the ocean's surface. Each sentence was a blue-black mystery populated by creatures more fantastic than any role-playing dungeon crawl."

Later, the author describes Evelyne writing the book that will ultimately be read by Todd:

"She wrote of swimming at night in the black, warm water of the South China Sea, when every paddle of her limbs triggered a swirling Milky Way of animals flashing blue and white. Three-quarters of ocean species, from zooplankton to giant squid, were signaling in a language of living light."

Such lush descriptions populate much of the novel; the reader can sense Powers' own childlike wonder at the undersea world. The novel is filled, too, with interesting trivia about the ocean—like how a leatherback turtle "must cry two gallons of water every hour, just to keep its blood less salty than the sea"—and tidbits of history, like a description of how phosphate mining impacted Makatea in the first half of the 20th century.

Playground's characters are richly drawn; even minor characters have a life of their own. Particularly interesting are the Makatean characters, such as a woman named Palila Tepa, whom the islanders call the Queen, who has memorized over a thousand songs about the island's ancient history, and Mayor Didier Turi, who simply wants everyone to like him and is baffled by the changes he's forced to oversee.

The narrative's intricacy and non-linear format did make Playground difficult to get into at first; it was a good forty pages before I was truly sucked in (after which I couldn't put it down). The novel's disjointedness may make it a challenging read for some. That said, it is unquestionably worth the effort.

At one point in Playground, Evelyne thinks that she'd like to write a book: "To try one more time to make the land dwellers love the wild, unfathomable God of waters. To give the smallest hint of creatures so varied and inventive and otherworldly that they might compel humility and stop human progress in its tracks with awe." One feels this, too, is the heart and the goal of Playground. And for this reader, mission accomplished.

Shades of “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” meets “The Overstory”.

I was in a small minority of people who didn’t love The Overstory, but really glad I gave Powers a second chance with this book. I knew his ability to write descriptively about nature, in this case the ocean, was/is incredible, but it was his characterization in this book that felt particularly compelling. This felt especially true with the Rafi and Todd coming of age storyline.

I also loved the sprinkled in bits of social commentary throughout the last half of the book. I’ve read a ton of non-fiction this year, but it was a reminder that fiction can pack an equal punch in its ability to comment on society through the empathy building that narrative uniquely brings.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC—check this out!

Richard Powers’ Playground is an ambitious novel that explores oceanography, technology, friendship, and our longing for beauty, community, and immortality through four key characters. The main narrator, Todd Keane, is a tech genius from a wealthy family who creates Playground, a social media app that makes him a billionaire. Todd tells the story of his friendship with Rafi Young, a brilliant but underprivileged Black student who loves literature. The two young men bond over chess and Go in high school but have a falling out in college over Todd’s tech idea. Now, with a diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies, Todd reflects on their crumbling friendship—but it’s clear we cannot trust everything he says.

The story also takes us to the tiny island of Makatea, ravaged by colonialism and environmental destruction. On this French Polynesian island, Evelyne Beaulieu, a feisty pioneering Canadian marine biologist now in her old age, is still dedicated to preserving the ocean’s fragile beauty, while Rafi’s partner, Ina, a Hawaiian-Tahitian artist, creates sculptures from plastic pollution. Powers contrasts the rise of Big Tech and billionaires’ vanity projects with the fall of a paradise, asking if humanity can still find a way forward.

I must admit that I have some mixed feelings about the book. I loved Evelyne’s—and Powers’—passion for the ocean and the descriptions of marine life are wonderfully lush. But the novel often felt fragmented due to the sprawling storylines and some of the characters, especially Rafi, are uncomfortably stereotyped and superficially sketched through some cringeworthy dialogue. There’s a major narrative twist near the end, and while it didn’t fully explain or make up for the weaker parts, it made me rethink everything about the story until this big reveal.

Playground is at its heart about play: chess, computer games, tricks played on unsuspecting readers, the ways we engage with our loved ones, and the wonders of play in the natural world. It’s thought-provoking and worth sticking with, even if it’s not perfect.

Many thanks to W.W. Norton and NetGalley for the ARC.

A love letter to the ocean and its hidden depths. Much like The Overstory, Powers employs astounding reverence for one of our most complex and abundant natural resources.

Speculative fiction can hold up a mirror to our current moment — extrapolating, distorting, and ultimately exploring the ripple effects of what our future could hold. Playground succeeds in doing just that as the plot converges and collides with the dawn of the AI age in surprising ways. On those marks alone, it’s a winner. It’s elegantly crafted and consistently engaging, but it never fully won me over.

The narrative ebbs and flows between characters and timelines, with each thread carefully fleshed out and fully realized. My hope that these individual strands would tightly weave back together in the end was not to be. Instead, the ending left me puzzled. I had to consult with other readers and do a careful re-read of the final portion of the book to understand just what transpired. And still, I’m not sure. This may be an issue of comprehension on my end, so I look forward to seeing what others think upon the book's release. That said, I genuinely enjoyed reading Playground, and I believe many others will find it just as captivating.

Rafi and Todd meet in their teens in Chicago and their friendship forms the foundation for half of this book. Intermingled with their story is the story of the ocean which includes following the life of a ground-breaking female ocean explorer as well as a college classmate of Rafi and Todd's who grew up in Polynesia. This eco-fiction story was multi-faceted and compelling. A good choice for book clubs (I need to discuss the ending with someone!)

Powers has such a way with words that in my mind, the story is secondary. In Playground, he effortlessly weaves between different characters and locales, all while feeding you some insight into the wonders of the ocean. It's a mesmerizing book that gently lulled me from page to page in a satisfying way.

You wouldn't expect so many different plot points to gel together - an AI tech billionaire from Chicago, a Black poet/writer, an islander and artist, and a nonagenarian with more diving experience that just about anyone.

When the French Polynesian island Makatea is up for a controversial vote, all of these characters and their challenges come together at last. I really enjoyed the journey this story took me along, and this was a worthy contender for the Booker longlist.