Richard Powers needs no introduction. He's prolific and The Overstory has to been one of the most read books of the 2010s. Each Powers novel is deeply imbued with big questions about the universe and life (as in the existence of). Playground is no different. A story of capitalism, climate change, and how everything in the universe is connected as one giant existence, Playground will have you thinking about it for days after you finish reading.

I don't have the best track record with Powers and I probably wouldn't have picked this one up, had it not been for the Booker Longlist. There are definitely very interesting concepts in this one. I've been discussing the ending of this one so much since finishing it. I find myself both annoyed and fascinated and thinking about it. I'm really excited to have more people read this because there are some really discussable things in this. I would also be curious to read any interviews etc. with the author. This one is really hard for me to rate because if the author meant things to be taken a certain way, my rating would be infinitely higher than if it were meant to be taken a different way.

Thank you so much to WW Norton for the ARC.

When a novel is this good, I feel any words I might add in praise of it will be too paltry. Just know that the characters, the settings, the storyline, and the relevance are all so amazingly and seamlessly melded into this work of art.

Thanks to NetGalley and W.W.Norton and Company for the ARC to read and review.

PLAYGROUND
Richard Powers

Although Richard Powers’ PLAYGROUND is not published in the US yet, it has been longlisted for THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024. It is due to be released on September 24, 2024. The themes in this book are indicative of and like many other titles on the list.

If all the books have a similar theme it is SYMBIOSIS.

But I’m getting ahead of myself and we’re only talking about PLAYGROUND here today. So let’s take a step back and talk about it.

My first experience with Richard Powers didn’t go over well. I DNF’d OVERSTORY and although it was an Oprah Book Club choice, I decided it wasn’t for me. Then I read BEWILDERMENT and was blown away. Powers’ connection to language and to the Earth is extraordinary. And to be a part of it as a reader is a wonderful experience.

PLAYGROUND features characters, but it is more about how we interact with our environment and secondly how we interact with each other. One prominent storyline features a curious young boy who grows into a successful businessman. To have that success he essentially must unbecome a lot of who he is. The two identities cannot exist in the same body.

Is there a version of you that you need to let go of to allow a new rendition to come in?

PLAYGROUND is about symbiosis. How when two things come together a new thing is born. There is no end of us and a beginning to the universe. We extend beyond our human form and part of our expression as humans is how we treat this part of us that is the universe.

You are not a human in the universe. You are the universe.

It is a lot about how we interact with our environment. It’s also about the lasting changes we make to our environment. How all of us who inhabit the EARTH change it for the worse.

In some ways Powers is a literary boy scout. Who wants us to leave this Earth better than we found it. It is in our nature to have dominion over all. To do that we must first have dominion over ourselves.

And every single choice we make as we make it through our days and nights makes a difference. Sam recycling in New York, helps the fish in the deep blue sea in California. Every time we litter or drive our cars, or water our yards unnecessarily, we take. From the forests to the oceans and everything in and between continents.
If you want a flavor of all the books, PLAYGROUND is the one I recommend. An easy Five Stars.

*Full-cast narration


Thanks to W.W. Norton, Netgalley and Spotify Audiobooks for the advanced copies!

PLAYGROUND… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My favorite books are those that make me feel deep emotion, think critically and linger long after reading. Playground by Richard Powers does all of these. The Overstory is my favorite book of all time so I was very excited to read Playground. The rich character development of Evelyne, Rafi and Todd carried the book through a story about environmental degradation, climate change, colonialism, capitalism and AI. So many immense topics but they are woven together beautifully and the twist at the end caught me completely off guard. Playground is a love story to the ocean as The Overstory is to trees. The descriptions of ocean life are breathtaking and Evelyne’s story completely captivated me. Highly, highly recommend.

Thank you to Net Galley and W.W. Norton & Company for the the opportunity to read an ARC of this book.

Astounding work from Richard Powers. Relevant and affecting. Highly enjoyed this one, the plot, the characters, the setting. Powerful book.

Richard Powers is one heck of a writer. In his books, he finds a magical way of elucidating big world issues, like the cosmos or the environment, while at the same time capturing the very real, very human experiences of his characters in an evocative way. Playground weaves a fascinating tale of four different characters who eventually all wind up on the Polynesian Island of Makatea. It's an exploration of the possibilities of AI, of the human impact on the environment, of the complexity of relationships, and of the consequences of our actions and desires. Every step of the way, there's something beautiful and something to think about and I guarantee this book will make you feel things! I couldn't put it down and I'm in awe of what Powers has created here. Maybe the best book I've read so far this year!

As I anticipated, Playground by Richard Powers is brilliant. It is a breathtaking meditation on the wonders of the ocean, a devastating consideration of both the wonders of technology and the sometimes evils those technologies have wrought, and interlocking stories that brought me to truly care about the characters Powers introduced me to. The structure of the stories worked well for me, as I followed along in the various timelines and so the intersections of past and future as both the narratives and the characters developed. Powers's descriptions - of life in the ocean, of coding, of racism, of the various time periods - were engrossing. Like Powers's other books, I suspect this one will be an award winner, and I will recommend it strongly for readers interested in complex stories with messages for the endangered world we now inhabit.

This story, told from multiple perspectives over decades, boils down to eco-suspense. A shadowy American group with extreme wealth seeks permission from Pacific island Makatea to build a seasteading project on and off their shores, and the residents are forced to weigh the potential upsides of technology and development over ecological harm and loss of autonomy. The interlacing narratives follow a handful of characters, most of whom are from North America, as their values and divisions develop over time. The full implications of their connection to Makatea's decision is revealed towards the end,
The three (or four) main characters are well developed; their reasoning makes sense and their surprise when handed a bombshell is satisfying to read. The Makateans themselves are given some platform to explain their positions, but not at the same level of depth; their interiority is comparatively surface-level, which is unfortunate, but likely because they don't figure in the personal drama that animates the plot.
[Spoiler alert:] The ending might be the weakest point for me: fantastical, both in its convenient problem solving, as well as the White Savior flavor (it would be nice if the Makateans were given more agency in their choice of colonialism vs deprivation, but maybe that would be the real fantasy?).
Overall, I really enjoyed my first Richard Powers novel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I love the richness of Richard Powers' descriptions the natural world and the way he creates his ensemble casts with gentleness and a caring eye. I previously enjoyed OVERSTORY and BEWILDERMENT, and this one was not a disappointment. Powers is an author who, it seems to me, continues to experiment with craft and structure with each novel, so it's always exciting to see what he does with his next one.

This is a story about two men who meet as children and grow up together. Both are brilliant in their own ways. It's sort of like MY BRILLIANT FRIEND vibes, but boys in America. Their paths diverge after a significant falling out, and one goes on to be a tech billionaire while the other pursues a love of knowledge and art. Mixed up in all this is AI, and I won't say more about that, but how he uses it is veeerry interesting.

Anyway, this was a great read. Definitely worth checking out.

Full disclosure: I requested this on NetGalley, because I like to read the Booker longlist every year (and also because I always enjoy Richard Powers' books). Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ARC.

For a novel that bounces through time and across the globe, Playground feels incredibly intimate; at its heart, it is an exploration of the way the lives of four people are shaped by their relationships to nature, technology, and each other. Playground's shifting point of view provides insight into both the complexities of its character's lives and how those complexities are regarded by those that know and love them. And always, thrumming in the background, is the ocean, which Powers portrays with a respect and awe that feels contagious. I loved reading Playground for its deft character studies, nonlinear structure, and gorgeous use of play as a motif, but I loved it just as much for introducing me to coconut crabs, pistol shrimp, and giant manta rays. As in his last novel, Bewilderment, Powers is interested in putting the unknown questions of new technology, and particularly AI, next to the oldest mysteries we know: space, the ocean, the unexplainable distances between the people who know each other best. Playground has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and it is one of my favorite books of the year so far. Deeply nerdy, profoundly relevant, absolutely beautiful.

I was intrigued to see Richard Powers back on the Booker list, this time with a novel about technology, AI, and ocean life. A bit of a strange combination when you first think about it, but in Playground, Powers uses his main characters to draw connections between the two subjects.

The novel focuses on Todd, a billionaire, Rafi, a Black man growing up in Chicago, and Evelynne, a French-Canadian deep-sea diver. It follows Rafi and Todd as they grow up together in Chicago and Evie’s path to becoming the first female diver, alternating with Todd's reminiscences from the future as he is diagnosed with dementia.

Where Powers excels is the nature writing, as you might expect if you are familiar with his other books. He truly immerses the reader in the undersea world. I found myself Googling many of the creatures Powers mentions and being awed by their beauty.

All of the characters are stereotypes: the White man billionaire, the girl-boss diver, the Black man trying to break free from his troubled past, island girl stuck on the continent. This becomes partially explained by the ending of the book, but reading these characters was at times frustrating because of how they played into these stereotypes. Other parts of the book, such as the endless discussion of the board game Go, were not interesting to me but I can see how Powers was leveraging it for the larger story. That all said, there were other parts of this book that I flew through, especially as it ramped up toward the end.

The ending is a big twist, which I started to see coming in the last quarter of the book. The twist is ultimately what led me to dislike the book overall. I won’t reveal the twist but it felt a bit gimmicky and was disappointing.

Overall liked the premise but didn’t love the execution.

Playground is my favorite Powers novel to date. This was a remarkable story that weaves through locations and times and narrators much like the movements of the ocean, which is itself arguably the largest character in the book. I never had any trouble following whose story we were in or in what time period, and I fell in love with the ocean through Powers's lyrical writing. This is a book about friendship, about play, about exploration and nature and humanity. I found it completely absorbing and compelling. Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for a digital review copy.

In Playground, Richard Powers explores themes that will not surprise anyone who has read some of his previous books: artificial intelligence,, climate change, the societal impacts of selfish development projects financed by wealthy investors, and the environment, among others. In this book, his focus is on the ocean, filled with incredibly beautiful and miraculous creatures but also increasingly with plastic detritus. Told through several characters and stories, it is not until the end of the book that they come together powerfully and somewhat unexpectedly. I both read and listened to this book and very much appreciate the narrators of the audio version, whose work greatly enhanced my experience. There is no question that Powers is one of our masters of literature and it is the force and beauty of his writing that elevates the book. He and I interacted occasionally when we both worked at the University of Illinois and it was fun to see some of the book set there, especially in the Main Library. But it is the ocean that is the star of Playground, with artificial intelligence cast in a major role. Playground has earned its place on the current Booker Prize long list.

I’ve had a few opportunities to talk about this book to others, and I flounder every time. There are a few main storylines: Todd, telling the story of he and Rafi’s friendship, Ina (and Rafi, her husband) and the rest of her island community in Polynesia, and Evie’s life as a diver. The stories all intersect and overlap through the way they talk about the act of play, as well as AI. Multiple times as I was reading this, I thought to myself, When did Powers write this? It feels like it was written yesterday, in response to ChatGPT. But this is a 400 page book, with stories so intricately webbed that you think you know where the story is going, only to be thrown a curveball (or, maybe a Move 37) in the last 10% of the book, so it had to be a work in progress for a while. It made me think a lot about what we consider “play” and how important play is for humanity. This was nominated for the Booker longlist, and Booker says “The winning book is a work that not only speaks to our current times, but also one that will endure and join the pantheon of great literature.” I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up winning. In terms of other books, at times, with all its talk of games, I was reminded of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, but with all the oceanography and lovely language about the seas, it almost felt (and I write this at the risk of sounding reductive) like an ocean version of The Overstory. But again — it’s so much more than the ocean in here. There is so much we don’t know about the ocean, and so much we don’t understand about AI, and the questions Powers makes you ask yourself have been nagging at me for days. I very much look forward to the release of this, so I can read others’ thoughts and reviews.

Absolutely superb writing and imagery, characters, and science....I found myself highlighting passages, looking up Polynesian islands and sea animals, and marveling both at how unique and wondrous the ocean is, and how little I understand. The humans in this book are the least appealing aspect---they are well conceived but fallible, as perhaps all humans are, and their decisions often frustrated me. Powers' imaginative (and surprising!) ending so imaginatively brought together the natural and technological worlds that I found myself silently reflecting for many minutes after I finished the final page. Would highly recommend.

For a work titled Playground, this has sure left me with that empty, post-weeping feeling.

This story moves between characters, geography, and time. With excellent prose, Powers examines curiosity, progress, and human relationships through a Nature vs. AI plot. I loved the vivid descriptions of the ocean, though I appreciated even more the emotional depth in the relationship between Rafi and Todd. Some of the dialogue regarding the colonialist intervention into French Polynesia felt a little obvious/unnecessary, but overall this is a stellar book. I've read 1/3 of the longlist and so far this seems the most Booker-worthy.

Thank you to Norton & NetGalley for the e-arc.

An astounding and astonishing new book by Powers, where he moves from the interconnected forest theme of The Overstory to the vast connectiveness and fragility of the ocean.

First: the backstories of the four main characters which get shared in highly disjointed narrative sprints. Two social awkward teens, Rafi and Todd, bond in high school first in playing Chess and then becoming obsessed with the ancient game of Go. Their competitive play bonds them, though Rafi is an abused kid from inner city Chicago and Todd from a wealthy if dysfunctional family.
They continue their friendship in college, with Rafi obsessed with literature and Todd with computer programming and nascent AI. At college, Rafi falls in love with Aroita, a Hawaiian college student who grew up in the South Pacific as her mother comes from Tahiti and who struggles to relate to Chicago culture.

They boys ultimately have a falling out over their own cultural divide and after Rafi lends some brilliant gamification ideas to Todd about a computer platform he's designing called The Playground. A big part of the narrative is told by Todd, writing to an unknown “you,” decades post college after he’s become a billionaire off The Playground as well as after he’s been diagnosed with a rare form of dementia. The level of unreliability in the tale he shares is unclear.

Separately, Evelyne a young Canadian woman passionate about research diving expeditions has to fight her way into the boy’s club of ocean diving and academia. She writes a book full of stories of wonder of what she has seen while diving that inspires a generation of adolescents to fall in love with oceanography. She’s now in her 80’s and still lives to dive in the ocean.

All four characters converge on a remote French Polynesian island, Makatea, which has been scarred by intense phosphate mining decades earlier and only has 82 current residents. They all face a contentious vote on whether to allow an ocean seeding project of sea-worthy autonomous pod cities to be constructed and launched from their island.

Woven throughout their stories are a look at evolutions: from pristine oceans to plastic garbage and chemicals that are threatening and being to kill all the biodiversity; from the earliest computers to advanced AI and what role technology will play in the future of both humanity and the world; from independent South Pacific islanders to pawns in global politics. What will it take to save the environment, ocean, humanity and ultimately the Earth? Powers implores us with poetic reverences to turn the tides.

Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Just before I started to read this book, I learned that it was long listed for the Booker Prize, which only increased my excitement. After finishing it, I confess I have no idea where to start. There are so many layers, so many levels, so many ideas so masterfully intertwined, I can't imagine that my review will be able to do it justice. The title, for one. On the surface, it is the name of a computer software program developed by one of the characters, which evolves into an AI program that has the potential to either save humanity or doom it. Beneath that level, the term "playground" refers to the world in which we live. We learn that play guides much of what we do and the decisions we make. As one of the characters, a life-long ocean diver, discovers, even animals play, and are capable of playing with humans (at one point, Evie watches as a cuttlefish moves through a dazzling display of colors and dance-like gestures after which she concludes, in awe, that the fish was performing a play).

Play also enters the picture when the two main characters, Todd and Rafi, begin playing the ancient game of Go, which has only black and white stones but can encompass a seemingly infinite number of moves based on the creativity of the players. Throughout the book we see the contrast between the black and white of decisions made, relationships starting and ending, life and death - but we also see that there are various ways these stories can go based on the creativity of those involved. Will climate change end the planet? Will humans survive, and at what cost? Is death the end of life? Are earth and ocean two separate worlds?

The first chapter of the book tells us the story of Ta'aroa, the supreme god of the French Polynesian islands. Because Ta'aroa was an artist, he created the world, and then summoned the other artists to play on the world and create its inhabitants. He created seven levels and put humans on the lowest level, but whenever humans filled up a level, they climbed to the next level. But, the legend says, even if humans filled all the levels, all still belonged to Ta'aroa. It seems that humans have now filled up the last level, and need to make decisions about what to do next. But it isn't simply black and white. We may need to remember that Ta'aroa is still in charge, and creativity is what started everything in motion so creativity needs to be our way out.

I've written a lot here while not really mentioning the plot or the characters or the book - those are covered adequately in publisher's blurbs and other reviews, and they are yours to discover. My goal with this review is to try and convey some of the life-altering magic I discovered here.

Many thanks to Norton and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this important work.

A moving tale of love between humans and the love the oceans. Beautiful in the scope of language and landscape, this mesmerizing saga will leave you breathless and emotional.