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.

I loved The Overstory and Bewilderment, but I think this is Powers' best book yet. All the intertwined storylines and characters are engaging and the environmental theme isn't at all forced. One surprise for me is that Powers dealt with race in America I think he did an excellent job. I read Playground over 2 days during a 5 day power and cell outage in my community after a severe storm. . There were so many things I wanted to research while I was reading, but I had to wait a few days. That seemed fitting. I highly recommend this beautiful book.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you, NetGalley and publishers.

“The fate of continents is written in water.” Beloved author Richard Powers delivers another meditation on the human experience and life on earth, intertwined as it is. Rather than the forests of the (bestseller) Overstory, the focus here is on the ocean, and lives throughout time and place. Read this. It’s beautiful,

What can I say. It may be that you are new to Richard Powers, or, like me, fell in love with The Goldbug Variations and have read everything since. Powers is the master at exploring a scientific or musical topic in the framework of the novel. (Goldbug - DNA sequencing+ Bach.) Playground expands to encompass human survival and technology with a cast of characters and settings that encompass years and miles. Thia may not be the best entry point to Powers but is a superb novel and is on the Booker long list.

This book covers many topics throughout- 21st-century technology, climate change, statements on society, friendship, and activism . The book is written in a few points of view.

I found the plot line a little bit two heavy / deep for me — I really had to sit down and focus solely on this book in a quiet room to grasp everything that was happening -coupling that with the fact that I found it hard to relate to or connect /stay engaged with the characters didn’t work for me.

The writing is excellent for literary fiction and if my state of mind was in the right place for this book , I would likely have been able to enjoy it more, but the topics are important.

Thanks to Netgalley and W. W. Norton & Company for this ARC . This is my honest review.

A Black boy escaping Chicago’s South Side through his brilliance. A white boy from Evanston who is his intellectual equal. An intensely creative young Pacific Islander woman. A French Canadian who discovers her life passion when she slips below the waves to scuba dive. Over decades, these four characters come together in life-changing ways. Inspired by the diver, the boy from Evanston will discover coding and go on to become the billionaire founder of a gamified social platform. The South Side boy will pursue literature and writing–and the Pacific Islander will become a visual artist whose art changes lives. Decades later their paths will cross again on a tiny island in the South Pacific, where the island residents are voting on whether to serve as a launch point for a utopian free-floating island society. And, over the course of the novel, the future of Earth’s oceans–and humankind–will be decided through the crisscrossing stories of these people.

Told through multiple interweaving points of view, PLAYGROUND is filled with Powers’ trademark attention to the natural world–with scientifically detailed, inspiring, and beautiful descriptions of the ocean flora and fauna. It builds in similar ways to Powers’ Pulitzer Prize-winning THE OVERSTORY (across characters and over time), but more slowly. While it doesn’t quite have the dramatic tension and sheer emotional power of THE OVERSTORY, it still tells a beautiful, moving, and urgent story of humanity’s potential to destroy the worlds and ecosystems we need. Lovers of climate fiction and the natural world will get much from this novel.

I felt very lucky to be approved for an egalley of Playground. I had read The Overstory and expected a stellar reading experience.

Skipping across time, Playground tells the story of four people. There is Rafi and Todd who meet in high school and become competitive friends over chess, then over GO, and then over a woman, Ina, born in Micronesia.

And there is Evelyne who fell in love with deep sea diving and the beauty of the ocean and its teeming life forms. At ninety-two, she still dives. The sections reflecting Evelyne’s view of the ocean from her diving are beautiful, magical.

Through the character of Todd, who becomes an early computer tech magnate, we remember how computers took over our lives, until “games now ruled humanity,” Todd affirms.

Rafi and Ina settle in Makatea; it took months for Rafi to detox and learn to live without technology. He is the teacher on the island, and he and Ina adopt two orphans.

The island of Makatea was a paradise before phosphorus mining came, and before it left. The population plummeted and although they have food and solar energy, they feel the lack of on-island education and health care–and jobs. When they are approached by a business wanting to set up the manufacturing of floating cities the islanders must weight the jobs, money, and growth against further destruction of their ecosystem, particularly the coral reef and ocean life.

The Makatea’s decision is one humanity makes every day. Do we enjoy the benefits of civilization at the cost of environmental degradation and destruction? Or do we protect planet Earth, our miraculous home?

The ending has a twist that spurs doubt about reality, and a funeral, and the beauty of flying devil rays, roiling the sea in a playful dance, a symbol of all creatures, “playing before their tinkering Lord.”

Powers again offers a story that combines stellar storytelling with a deep message that challenges us.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

Another fantastic novel by Richard Powers! As with all of his work, the characters are believable and complicated, and the inner and external conflicts come together in compelling ways. In Playground, Powers intertwines thematic crises of our modern world with the lives of individuals who have everything at stake. I loved the character of Evelyn, but was also drawn in by the relationship between Todd and Rafi. Fantastic imagery throughout, a novel I will never forget. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this early look!

This is my second Powers book and this and Overstory were both powerful works! The characters in Playground are well-developed, complex, intertwined, and yet, despite all that, some amount of mystery remains at the end. I couldn't get enough of Evie's storyline and so wish there had been more. Powers' description of La Jolla and Truk (both places I know well) are spot on and his description of the feeling, sights and sounds of SCUBA diving mirror mine...he must be a diver himself. I found the trajectory of Todd's life a bit too predictable and much like people and businesses. Perhaps the intention, but just didn't feel as creative and engaging as the other components of his tale. Perhaps it is this reader.

A Booker prize Longlist nominated novel!
In Playground, Powers explores the dangers and of technology and the quickly moving threat of climate change utilizing an international background and an unusual grouping of three best friends.

Rafi and Todd are a unique nerdy duo in their elite prep school that becomes three with the addition of Ina. Years later, the friends face off on the small island of Makatea of the Tahitian Islands. What happens between them all is an age old story made powerful and turbulent by Power's abilities. In the background of this relationship is a young woman who falls in love with the sea and her own work inspires millions.

Join Powers in his most powerful work to date - a commentary on culture, race and class, a work of utter beauty and above all, a hopeful yet clear call to action #wwnortoncompany #playground #richardpowers

If you're familiar with Powers' work, you'll be delighted to discover that his latest novel is yet another brilliant addition to his oeuvre. For those who haven't yet explored his writing, this book is an excellent starting point, but I highly recommend diving into his previous two novels as well. Together, they form a sort of thematic triptych, each echoing with the same intellectual depth, curiosity, and empathy that set Powers apart from other novelists. He's truly at the height of his powers with this one.

This novel is complex, with multiple narratives and perspectives, and it requires your full attention. But once you're immersed, you'll find yourself carried along by its literary force, never feeling lost at sea. Powers masterfully navigates through diverse realms, from the depths of the ocean to the intricacies of the cyber world, all the while weaving in a profoundly human love story. The result is a gripping, powerful read that reaffirms my gratitude for authors like Powers who continue to push boundaries and captivate readers. I have no doubt this book will be a strong contender on literary award shortlists this year.

In short, this is a spectacular novel. It's grand in its scope yet intimately rendered. Do yourself a favor and read it—it's already my top pick for 2024, and I can't imagine anything else surpassing it.

A heartfelt thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

This may be one of my favorite books ever. It certainly is my favorite of Richard Powers so far--and I am a big fan of Powers. I loved The Overstory.

Powers manages to do so much in a single work--more than seems possible--and Playground shows just how much he can do. He juggles multiples story lines and seemingly divergent themes--managing to pull them together in a grand finale that is like the thundering yet melodic conclusion to a great symphony.

On one level, the story revolves a set of characters. Todd Keane and Rafi Young meet as young teens. On the surface, the two boys seem quite different. Keane is the son of a successful businessman, securely white and privileged while Rafi comes from an obviously dysfunctional home in an impoverished community. As poor and an African American, Rafi is at an obvious disadvantage at his elite school, while Todd seamlessly belongs. But both boys comes from pain-filled (and pain-inflicting) families, each dysfunctional in its own way and equally incapable of nurturing their children.

Rafi seeks refuge in literature. Todd, who as a young boy dreamed of being an oceanographer, is drawn to technology. After experiencing a tragedy, he gives himself entirely to coding and exploring the newly emerging technology that becomes the Internet.

And always throughout the book there is the theme and activity of game playing. As well as that of ecology, seen through the lens of the ocean and the overwhelming multiplicity of life it contains.

As Rafi and Todd abandon chess for the more intensely challenging game of Go, Evie Bourlieu is submerged into a water tank by her father to test out a new apparatus for breathing underwater. This experiment is the catalyst for Evie for a lifetime devoted to submerging herself in the depths of the ocean.

Somewhere in an island in the Pacific ocean, the inhabitants are trying to recover from an exploitation of their land by Europeans that first enriched and then devastated them. Now the western world is back with a new offer.

The title of this book resonates throughout this book in many levels, many tones, many different keys. Sometimes completely unexpectedly I would realize that I was witnessing yet another echo, another game, another form of play.

Play that is absorbing, exciting, freeing. And sometimes--maybe ultimately and inevitably--lethal.

I was left breathless at the beauty of Powers' descriptions of ocean life, full of poetic lists that overwhelmed--only to leave the reader that much more grief-stricken by how much death we have caused, what desolation we have wreaked.

I found The Overstory exciting and fascinating but Playground moved me to tears (not usual for me when reading). This is Powers at his most passionate.

And the balance between the personal--the friendships, the ways in which we love, and help, and hurt each other--and the more abstract themes which become personalized, particularly through Evie but through the people on the island as well--is delicate and beautiful.

I love books that push me to think as well as enable me to feel.

I couldn't follow all of the tech talk but Powers presents a convincingly ominous depiction of AI's dangerous potential for humanity.

So: frightening, beautiful, moving, exciting. And despite all the pain portrayed, the life force of humanity--and of the planet--and maybe just of the use of so much beautiful language left me energized (and not depressed which could easily have happened).

I would wish the good fortune of reading this book on everyone. For how it delivers pleasure, beauty, excitement. And for its potential to maybe reawaken--or just awaken--our love for this precious, fragile planet before it is too late.

I want to thank NetGalley for giving me this book, W. W Norton & Co. for publishing it, and Richard Powers for gifting the world with it.

Playground will be released in September, 2024.

I'm fairly new to Richard Powers writing, having only read his two previous novels, The Overstory and Bewilderment. Yet, after my reading of his latest, Playground, I can see the literary genius in him that is over and above any other author I've formerly read. In thinking about how to review this book, I have to admit that some of the subject matter in this novel is a little over my head. That being said, the rich, intelligent prose, and multiple learning opportunities presented for me, made this novel hard to put down. I looked forward to each time I'd be able to pick it up again.
Dwelling on themes of the environment, diving and oceanography, AI, technology, video gaming, chess and the Chinese board game Go, as well as the multiple characters whose lives eventually intersect on the island of Makatea in French Polynesia–this book is huge in scope. Delving into questions about the future, both of humans and nature, Playground is an important and multi-faceted work of art that I have no doubt will stay with me for some time.
Thank you NetGalley and W.W. Norton for the advance reading copy!

Richard Powers has crafted an epic tale of friendship, ambition, activism, marriage and community while slyly teaching us about the wonders of the oceans and a multitude of other subjects. Trying to put this book into a tidy little genre is like crabbing blindfolded as you are constantly enraptured by early oceanographer's explorations, the beginnings of A.I. , the ancient game of Go and warnings of climate change. A wide range of characters, each with a unique voice, grace the pages with the main story being about two childhood friends who take different paths and an oceanographer who felt more at ease under the water than above it. They and others will meet again on a the little resilient island nation of Makatea who once again face foreigners trying to use the island to "make life better" only to see their way of life and island paradise stripped. The cover is stunning but not as much as the picture Richard Powers paints of the ocean and its inhabitants. It is a subtle call to activism, a love letter to oceans and to the people with the smallest voice who thrive within them. For anyone who lives for National Geographic documentaries, happily looks for life on every watery horizon and also enjoys a variety of well developed characters. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

Richard Power’s newest book, Playground, may have the words “A Novel” on the cover but don’t be fooled — it’s more a manifesto on 21st-century technology, climate destruction, and society in general with a little plot thrown in for good measure. Todd and Rafi become unlikely friends in high school who bond over a shared love of games. They attend the University of Illinois together, where Todd studies the burgeoning field of computer coding while Rafi follows his dreams of writing and studying literature and poetry. At U of I, they meet Ina, a Pacific Islander artist who they both fall for, but she only has eyes for Rafi. When philosophical differences and a misunderstanding come between them all, years pass where Todd becomes the famous billionaire behind the super website, Playground, and Rafi and Ina end up raising orphaned siblings on the tiny island of Makatea. For good measure, throw in Evie, one of the earliest scuba divers and world-renowned ocean scientists who also ends up on Makatea. It sounds like a lot of plot, but most of the 400 pages consist of Todd’s internal discourse as he tells us more of the story than we actually see happen. Despite my whining, there’s plenty to like including Power’s compelling writing, significant themes, and the parts when we escape from Todd’s monologuing to Makatea or the Evie sections where we learn to love the ocean with her. Like many books these days, an edit of 50 to 100 pages would have done wonders, and a lot less of Todd’s interior life and more action would have made it more readable. Those things aside, Powers still manages to produce a deep book about contemporary issues that many literary readers will enjoy.