Received a review copy of the first chapter of this book on Netgalley. Will update when I read the rest of the book. 

The authors blended current science with prediction and humor. The best part of the research is the interviews they had with exhibits in the field. The cartoon asides brought a lightness to what could (in other circumstances) be rather dry.

I was unable to properly review this book (unfortunately, as I am very much a fan of the authors) because the review copy seems rather damaged / dysfunctional. 
The contents purport to cover 12 chapters, however the book ended at the end of chapter 2. Chapter 3 was supposed to start on page 73 - by the time I had got to the end of chapter 2, the page count on kindle (ipad version) was reporting page 768. Each page flip advanced the page counter by around 6 to 12 pages!
Rather a shame, really.

Very interesting, some new discoveries and an amazing read filled with illustrations and humor very recommended. The only downside is the PDF format but still a good book.

Very interesting and amusing publication predicting what new inventions may be around the corner
Enjoyed it.
Recommended.

I find this funny, informative and very enjoyable which in unusual for a nonfiction about rocket science.
Book come across as written well researched and written with a sense of fun.

A hilarious book trying to predict the future of technology. Very well researched and highly informative, it's an enjoyable read packed with serious scientific explanations and funny comics at the same time.

“Soonish” presents us hilarious predictions about the future focusing on science and technology. This may have been the only time I laughed out loud at a science book, which I think is pretty high praise indeed. I also bought this for my science-loving teenager, and he loved it so much he moved it to university with him, which surely is the highest praise of all.

This book was a well-researched and informative look at technologies that affect space travel in the near (and not so near) future. I liked the talk of space guns sending goods to the space station, and the comics interspersed throughout the narrative were a fun cute way to get the point across. Interesting to think that the thing that is stopping more space travel is the cost when we spend billions each year on warfare and other not so pleasant things.

YES. YES. YES.
Thank you so much NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this amazing book. I don’t normally read ‘non-fiction’ for a spot of light reading on the way to work, but this one ticked all the boxes. The humour that runs throughout this book is right up my street, as well as the language, making it easy for us Space Nerds who don’t neccarsily know the lingo able to read and enjoy this too.

There’s really not that much more to say, other than it’s absolutely fantastic and read it now!

This book is absolutely funny, informative and highly enjoyable. This shows nonfiction can make you laugh and rocket science can be made as simple as opening your packet of chips.🚶🏃

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This book by one scientist and her cartoonist husband, describes new developments in the field of space travel. 
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It has cartoons which are funny and it is written in a prose that doesnot let you go before you finish it. I found parts describing supergun and asteroid mining too impressive and book tickles reader throughout.
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mini encyclopedia with tongue of a funny kid; it is surely a fun read for nonfiction lovers; particularly fans of space travel.
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.My rating 4/5
🍩🍩🍩🍩
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Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That Will Improve and/or Ruin Everything is a surprisingly entertaining and educating book about space travel, asteroid farming and other future technologies. A must read for the curious geek. 

Total Rating: 9.4/10 

Originality: 9/10
Language: 10/10
Atmosphere: 9/10
Education: 10/10
Illustrations: 9/10
Fun: 9/10
Creativity: 10/10
Believable: 10/10
Relevancy: 10/10
Cover: 8/10


Genre: Non-fiction
Time It Took Me To Read: approx. 1 hour


“We predict that computers will get faster. We predict screens will get higher resolution. We predict gene sequencing will get cheaper. We predict the sky will remain blue, puppies will remain cute, pie remain tasty, cows will continue mooing and decorative hand towels will continue to make sense only to your mom.” 

THE BOOK:
I cannot remember the lat time I have enjoyed a non-fiction book SO much. This book with funny comic illustrations truly spoke to me. The authors present you with numerous future technological inventions, and back each one up with data, research and theory. Absolutely loved it. 


Originality: 9/10
The premise is great, just has one major problem,which the authors are very aware off: Technology evolves so fast that the content is quickly out-dated. Therefore this would actually be a great series with monthly issues or something. For someone like me, who really WANTS to understand science, space and physics, but lacks the background or ability to comprehend some of those complex thinking, I would totally buy a monthly version of this nonetheless. 


Language: 10/10
What do you expect - this has been written by researchers. They know their words. But even more fascinating it was written in a way even science noobs understand, using real live examples:


"By comparison, on a roller coaster, you may feel as much as five times more acceleration. With training, humans can endure about ten or twenty times the elevator without passing out. Much beyond that and you might die. Why? Well, when you accelerate in a car, notice how the water in a cup rushes back and stays back until you stop accelerating. Imagine the cup is your body. Oh, and instead of 0 to 60 in 10 seconds, you're going from 0 to 17,000."

Also, the authors are plainly hilarious. I laughed about this for about 5 minutes:

"For most people, the pleasure of reading this study was the discovery that certain individuals were not just intolerable morons, but statistically intolerable morons."


Atmosphere: 9/10
It is odd to speak about atmosphere in a non-fiction book, but I really really felt amazing reading this. I felt intelligent (because I understood what they were talking about), and I felt drawn in so much I read the whole book in a sitting. I did not want it to stop. Every minute I interrupted my poor husband who just wanted to play his video game and telling him "Wow, did you know...." 


Education: 10/10
As mentioned earlier with language, this book is very educational. I learned so much, more than I learned in my whole time in school in physics, honestly! This book gives you so much material to research further, and so much material to seem really intelligent at small talk. It even answered many of my questions I had about space travel, like why we haven't been back to the moon yet, or why we haven't build mars colonies yet. 


Illustrations: 9/10
The comic strips scattered in the book added another element of humour in the book. They are often just one picture, and I honestly found them funny, which is impressive considering I am not a fan of most comic strips. I almost wished there would be more of those actually. 



Fun: 9/10
So. Much. Fun. To achieve this as a non-fiction book is in my experience incredible. Plus, it did not feel like ideas were stretched out or unnecessarily repeated like I find in many non-fiction books just to fill the pages.

Creativity: 10/10
Most suggestions are based on research - but Kelly and Zach go one step further and ask more questions, developing a first idea into lots of different strings and looking at it from lots of angles. Talking about asteroid farming for example, they keep thinking further: What would that mean for our industry? Could we sell those harvested metals? Who would own the materials? What are the dangers this would bring? Collapse of our economy? Could people create disastrous sabotages? 


Believable: 10/10
I believed it all. Kelly and Zach use lots of research, interviews with experts and data to back up their theories. 


Relevancy: 10/10
Knowledge is power. And technology now is changing so fast, and if you are like me and napped too much during physics, you have no idea what most of those words scientists use actually mean. But this book made me feel much cleverer, informed, prepared for the future, and curious. 


Cover: 8/10
The cover made me think it was more comic-driven than text-driven, which was not a bit misleading. I still liked it a lot though. 


Total Verdict: 9.4/10
I would totally buy this as a monthly subscription magazine. Not only did I learn, I laughed, wondered and was fascinated. Lots of material to impress your geeky date, or shine at office parties.

I have only recently started to truly enjoy non-fiction books and to read about science in general makes my nerdy little heart very happy, if I may say so. In this book, the authors (a husband and wife duo) give us information about ten upcoming technologies. They did a lot of research for this and it shows, they start each of those technology segment with explaining what it is, how far we have come to bring that technology into reality and how much further we still have to go. It is all explained in such an easy, witty way that reading about it is just plain fun.

Some of the topics covered are cheap access to space travel, fusion power, synthetic biology and augmented reality as well as precision medicine. It was all presented in such an engaging way that it almost doesn't feel as if I am reading non-fiction. For someone who is a huge fan of Star Trek, this was such a treat.

Back in 1960s, people had such hopes for advanced technology in the 2000s, and they weren't exactly wrong to dream of that. The only problem they didn't imagine was the money factor, I think, majority of people simply didn't take into account exactly how much money and resources were needed to make space travel a reality for example. I mean, I knew it is a ridiculous amount but till I read up on it, I didn't realise exactly how much is needed just to send a rocket in space.

Things like these in different technologies were something of a surprise to me and frankly, I am a teeny bit more informed now that I have read up on it. The best thing about this is the wit and the little comic panels used throughout the book. I absolutely loved that extra touch. They were weird and just funny in an odd way. When I had started to read the book, I was wondering about the longevity of the relelvance this book might have but after reading it, I have realised that certain technologies have ways to go before this book is irrelevant.

I would totally recommend it to people who are interested in science and technology and how it works. To those science fiction fans, this is the sort of book to read if you are in the mood to dream of things to come.

This book is so enjoyable I want o review it before I have finished it.  I think Space Channel needs to consider doing a TV program based on this book and include the goofy tidbits the authors do - it makes it fun to read and learn. 

What am I enjoying about this book: 1) the style of writing - it keeps me involved and paying attention.
2) the fact that the authors did their homework and gave the citations in the event that I want to read more on my own (yes, I am that kind of reader).
3) short bits of information that can be read and digested quickly if you don't have all night to read.

What I would change - really, at this point just the introduction - though enjoyable it went on far to long.

Unfortunately, this title will have no longevity in a school library, as the information about these technologies is changing quickly. That said, it's well-written and informative, and is a good read.

This book is looking at our world and tries to make predictions where science and technology will lead us. The book is split into sections: ‘the universe’, ‘stuff’, and ‘you’ containing a range of topics such as asteroid mining, augmented reality, brain-computer interfaces, and space elevators. As well as diving into the science, Soonish explores some of the economic and ethical implications around these technologies
The skills of a scientist are paired with those of a cartoonist which means this book stays light and fluffy. Maybe too much so, in my opinion. Often science books can become dry and stuffy, yes, but I would have liked a little bit more focus and less flat humor on this one. Not bad, but I had hoped for more.

Thanks to netgalley and Penguin Press for providing me with a free ebook copy.

With rapid advances of technology and far reaching promises that _the future is here_, what can we expect to see ... Soonish? Will these advances change the world for better or worse? Combining extensive research, insightful interviews with those in the field (or lab), humor and art, Dr Kelly Weinersmith and her husband cartoonist Zach Weinersmith attempt to answer that very question for ten emerging technologies. It's a hard question and there's a lot of ground and space to cover and the Weinersmiths make it approachable. For each topic--from advances to lower the cost of space travel to bioprinting and beyond--they begin with background information to explain how it fits into today's world.  Relying on interviews and research each technology is then further explored to answer a range of questions about the direction of research. They also cover concerns of practical application and ethical natures. Finally the authors look at how it could revolutionize the world. Soonish is an enjoyable read and it will be fun to look back in a few years and see how their predictions fared.

Great read. The authors are really good at explaining then technology in terms that can easily be understood by anyone and the visual comic strips add to the overall humorous tone which makes the book both informative and really fun to read.

My feeling is that this book falls between being a realistic prediction of future scientific progress and a jokey primer for school kids. None of the ideas were new to the average newspaper reader and no distinction was made between ideas likely to be achieved in the foreseeable future and science fiction.

This book was on my list. It was a preview but i really enjoyed it. I liked illustrations and reading style is funny and educated. I definitely going to buy it.

This was actually only a preview excerpt with three or four of the sections from the full book. It was good though, I'll probably read the full book later. Amusing looks at new/upcoming tech advances, with some funny illustrations.