If there was technology that could let you see one year into the future - would you want to look? Would you want to see what you’ll be doing next year at this time or would you rather wait and let it unfold?⁣
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In The Future Is Yours, Ben and Adhi are working in a startup that is poised to disrupt everything we currently know by giving everyone the opportunity to see just one year ahead. The story is told through text messages, emails and transcripts of conversations as we alternate between the start of the idea and a hearing before Congress about whether they will be able to go through with the launch. ⁣
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I enjoyed this story and the questions it brought up about technology and free will and the ways an idea can spiral in many different directions. I listened to the audiobook and also thought it was done really well with a full cast helping the format come to life. ⁣
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Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

I really wanted to like this book more. I should have enjoyed it more, since it's right in my wheelhouse. I love timey-wimey stories, and this one has a great premise, but I couldn't get past the format. The way the book is put together as a series of messages written back and forth between characters was annoying to me. I guess it's because I read so much email as it is that I'm not interested in trying to piece together a story through someone else's email conversations. I would have much rather preferred this story as a traditional narrative.

The premise for The Future is Yours instantly hooked me. The technology sounded so interesting and I typically love epistolary novels. Unfortunately, the format didn’t quite work for this novel because it put an emotional block between the characters and the reader. When you’re primarily reading business memos, emails, congressional hearings, and texts about work, it’s hard to connect with the characters. In the moments where I felt like I understood who Ben, Adhi, and Leila were, it was more because of the cliche stereotypes they were based on rather than a true understanding of their characters. Plus, Ben makes some truly reprehensible choices, particularly towards the end of the book.

Additionally, the middle portion of the book lost its way a bit. There was so much more that could have been explored regarding the technology but it was buried between constant court cases (mostly featuring Ben, who essentially knew nothing) and interpersonal drama. There also wasn’t really any exploration of the technology itself or the implications of it, except in a very confusing, roundabout way.

That being said, I think this is one of those books that will play out beautifully on screen, which goes to show the author’s strengths as a screen-writer. But as a book, this one didn’t work for me.

*Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I stayed up until 2 am just so I could finish this book. That alone could be an indication of how much I enjoyed it.

This is written not as a traditional narrative, but rather a series of Congressional hearing transcripts, emails, texts, and more. It definitely helps move the book along at a quick pace since it's essentially all dialogue.

The premise of the book is quite intriguing. There is just enough information about the mechanisms of the Prototype given to make it seem plausible, while not fully explaining how it would actually work (since it doesn't have basis in real life... Yet). Beyond the marvel of the ability to peek into the future, the novel also delves into the ethical implications of such a device in society, along with ramifications on mixing work relationships with personal friendships.

The plot moves along quite nicely, especially when you get used to the narrative device and jumping around in timelines. The main characters are well developed. Though they are not all likeable, they are all realistic and reflective of what could happen in this situation.

This story is a great techno thriller, that also has a real sense of humanity to it. If you're anything like me, start the book in the morning so you don't have to stay up until the wee hours of night to finish it. Definitely one of my favorite books of 2021 thus far.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC. All opinions are my own.

I enjoyed how this narrative was told. The mix of emails, text messages, and congressional testimony made this story fun to follow. I also loved the premise of the book!

This is another I received from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair review, and I had a good time with it. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s exciting, it’s written in a fun format, and it’s about a favorite fictional topic of mine - time travel.

Well...sort of.

Ben and Adhi are two unlikely best friends (aren’t they all?) who met at Stanford. Ben the social butterfly, the smooth talker and handsome guy with all the connections; Adhi the introverted genius capable of world-changing scientific breakthroughs, just dying inside for a friend (again, aren’t they all?).

The two remain friends following graduation, with Adhi staying on board to pursue both his Masters and PhD in mathematics at Stanford, and Ben trying to make his fortune in the startup world. They’re both obsessed, just with different things. Adhi wants to be recognized for his brilliance, for the privileged upper crust to once and for all realize they’re just not as good as him. At what? Kinda unclear. Life, I guess. And Ben, quite simply, wants to be rich. That’s where it starts and stops. Simple motivation for a simple dude. Honestly, how he got into Stanford is sort of fuzzy to me, but it’s inconsequential.

Adhi is eventually forced (in his mind) into leaving Stanford after his PhD thesis is rejected. He thinks it’s possible to use some loosely explained quantum entanglement theory to look into the future, because information shouldn’t be bound by Einstein’s theory of relativity. It’s 1s and 0s. Stanford disagrees. He flips them the digital bird.

You see where this is going.

Together, with Ben’s tireless fundraising efforts and Adhi’s genius, they build “The Future.” I know. Terrible name for a company, and it’s addressed. It’s a computer terminal capable of searching any information up to and including one year from the present day. What will you post on Instagram in six months? What will lottery numbers be? What about the hot stocks? Who will win the nba playoffs? Will you be married? It’s all there.

Of course, is as bound to happen with these things, it goes off the rails. Because if there’s one thing fiction - and hell, life - has taught us, it’s that absolute power corrupts absolutely. There is no safe way to use that kind of access. No responsible way. And sure enough, more and more shit starts to hit the fan until it’s a veritable shitstorm.

I didn’t find either of these guys particularly likable until the very end, and then only one of them. But the ending includes a real twist that I loved, and the story is told through text messages, emails, news clippings, and transcripts of congressional testimony. So it’s really fun and unique.

Give it a go. I’m glad I did. It tackles an old problem but does it in a refreshing way, and manages enough surprises and suspense to make you want to keep reading late into the night!

3/5 stars

This was a really fun one! i was a little disappointed with the ending but found it propulsive, thoughtful, and imaginative.

Meh. This book had promise but a lot of little things tripped me up while reading it. Such as:

Adhi referring to Blade Runner by only reference to the film and the film endings. Surely he would have read the story first or at least after? Spoiler: I love reading PKD but I am not a fan of Blade Runner.

Secondly Elon Musk did not start Tesla, he joined Tesla motors which was started by two other engineers. So all the wank for him in this area is unfounded (hah). Actually I believe what was done to one of the original Tesla founders was very similar to what is threatened to a founder in this book. Go figure.

Next we have B repeatedly telling people to delete sensitive emails. I mean I get that he’s not a techie but surely he’s worked in and around tech long enough to realize emails are not deleted. His own SEC investigation notes show that even. It just made no sense.

This book wasn’t a bad read but it was not a good read. Very middle of the road. Like I said the premise was fun but the author doesn’t seem to grasp the concepts they are writing about which makes for very muddled and holey writing. It’s distracting at best.

I LOVED THIS!!!

But honestly, I have zero idea how to review it. I don't know how to put a synopsis together or really explain what it was that made me love this story so much. I will say this. I think any ready could enjoy this because although it is sci-fi, there isn't really a lot of sci-fi info dumping that would turn away a lot of non-hard sci fi readers. However, if you're into the super sciency stuff and are into quantum physics, I will say that this story, and especially the ending, is going to take on a whole different thought rabbit hole for you. Ultimately, I'm going to completely cheat here and say you should read Matt's review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3564203632?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

Received via Netgalley

I was pulled in by the premise and the characters kept me glued to this book. Dan Frey's story of how 2 college friends join forces to begin a tech start-up that changes the world with never before seen tech feels very real in our current world with companies like Facebook, Google and Tesla. I'm a huge fan of sci-fi stories centered around time travel or multi-dimensions and unique as the story is, I believe it's strength is the depth of the characters, I love the diversity of the characters. Ben Boyce is confident and charismatic, Adhi Chaudry is the heads down brilliant nerd that has a hard time connecting with other people.

The entire story plays out through emails, texts and transcripts, which was my only complaint of this book. I get why Dan Frey did this but I just felt like it was too much for the entire book to be this way. As much as I liked the story, it felt too distant for me. The characters are strong and their relationships come through in the series of text, emails, etc. but I felt I was missing out on the real interactions of face to face dialog. We all know very well how meaning and intent get lost in emails and text, but when you talk, collaborate or argue with someone, body language, facial expressions and the tone of how things are said come across a clearer and more impactful that text and email. I think if there was a balance between the text and emails and face to face conversations, this story would have been stronger.

Overall, I think Dan Frey did a magnificent job with The Future Is Yours. My only complaint is pretty minor. It is just something I found myself wondering as I was reading but it never bothered me enough to pull me away from the story. I think it is more about me being greedy and enjoying it so much that I wondered if it could have been better. I think Dan's strength is his ability to create likeable characters with depth. I look forward to ready more from Dan Frey and I highly recommend that you give The Future Is Yours a read.

I want to thank Dan Frey, Del Rey, Random House and NetGalley for providing me with and ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks for allowing me to read this e-ARC in exchange for my honest, unbiased, unpaid review.
This was a really unique read, where a two person small start up has figured out how to connect computers so that you can access emails and news up to one year in the future. This book takes you from the day of their breakthrough and forward, showing the good and the bad that may come of this discovery. It's written in the current fad of the non-linear time style, as it flashes back and forth between the past - before they had the breakthrough, and what lead up to it, the current day, and what they are doing, and the past - when they had the breakthrough and the events leading up to the current day. It's a really fascinating read, and I've reread it twice just to make sure I had all the timelines and threads correct. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys thrillers and books that make you think out puzzles!
#randomhouse #ballantine #thefutureisyours #netgalley #booklover #bookstagram #earc #thriller

This book had so much potential, but it went in a completely different direction than I wanted. I hoped this would be a work of solid sci-fi, focused around technology and the fallout from giving computers too much power and putting too much stock in their abilities. Instead, it just felt like people arguing a lot.

I was really disappointed in the way this really promising premise played out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-arc to review.

This was crazy! So good. The pacing was excellent, the characters were interesting, the premise was mind-blowing. I will say that I expected a bit of the ending (I don't want to say too much and risk giving anything away), but this wasn't a mystery/whodunit so that didn't really matter.

I will definitely be looking for more from this author.

Of all the potential "futureism" books to come out of the last year, The Future Is Yours is the one I'm most interested in exploring. A treatise on ethics and morality as much as a glimpse of a "we can, but at what cost" future, it's compulsively readable.

This is a sci-fi novel written in an epistolary format. You have emails, Tweets, Congressional hearing transcripts, newspaper articles, phone conversations . . . All of these things are coming together to allow us to hear the perspectives of these two best friends Ben and Ahdi. When they first start out in college Ahdi is the quiet genius and Ben is unsure of himself as the first in his family to attend college. They seem like opposites. But when Ben sticks puts his neck on the line for Ahdi I thought their friendship would stand the test of time.

Ahdi has created the technology that allows you to take a peek into the future. Ben with his ambition has built the company that will bring this technology to the public. Most of us can already see the danger here. The future may hold things we don't want to see and what is the point if you have no power to change it anyway. Of course, Ben and Ahdi fall on opposite sides of this coin. Ben would sell his soul to the devil for the sake of the company. Ahdi moves with caution and considers the possible negative outcomes.

Ahdi brings up an important point using Dickens <b>A Christmas Carol</b>. Within the first few lines of the novel we are introduced to Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley. He comes to him as a ghost burdened in chains to warn Scrooge of the ghosts to come. Scrooge through these spectral visitors gets to travel back and forth through time, ultimately changed for the better <i>because</i> of the experience. But what of Jacob Marley? <i>"He's dead and he has no options."</i>

So which is the best take?
- Would you want to know your future even if you couldn't change it?
- Would you want the ability to change yourself and potentially have a better future?

I loved this book. The characters felt very real. The mysterious plot was fun to piece together but not everything was made explicit, The way in which it was written was ingenious, and the theme of friendship was woven so thoughtfully and deeply and lovingly throughout. Great novel. I highly recommend it.

This book was given to me by netgalley in exchanged for an honest review. And I am sorry to say that I could not get into it at all. I never could relate to any of the characters who we get to know only through emails, transcripts of a Congressional hearing and other documents. The premise, building a prototype that could communicate with itself in the future, was an interesting one on paper and the reason I requested the book, But it did not deliver. Two chapters into the book I was bored and had to force myself to finish reading. This book was not for me.

When people think of time travel, the image that tends to come to mind is a person being able to physically travel to the past or the future. In this book, "time travel" comes in the form of searching the internet of the future. Ben and Adhi, whose friendship dates back to college, have united to form "The Future," a tech business dealing in quantum computers capable of allowing users to do just this sort of time travel.

The novel is written in an epistolary style. Instead of an exchange of letters, the plot moves forward through emails, texts, and transcripts. While this creates an easy to follow timeline of events, it distances us from our main characters. We are not privy to anyone's inner monologue, nor do we have the benefit of an omniscient narrator.

Overall, the book has an interesting premise, but this isn't a read for character development.

This book was a really cool concept...kinda like ready player one a little bit. I enjoyed the unconventional format of having the story told in emails, social media posts and text messages. I really had to take the time to read between the lines and the subtext to make sure I’m didnt miss a key plot point. It was cool to get an insider view of how to get a new product developed and how to navigate Silicon Valley. I enjoyed the exchanges between Ben and Adhi. This is a great book to read if you enjoy sci fi and time travel stories. Thank you NetGalley and the Publisher for the chance to review this book and provide my honest feedback.

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for my free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

WOW this book was so fun!! I am stuck between 4 and 5 stars on this one, but overall I really loved this book!! I was immediately drawn into this story of college roommates, Ben and Adhi, creating a computer that can deliver information from exactly one year in the future. I loved how the story was told through transcripts, emails, texts, and blog posts and gosh I could NOT put it down! Each time I sat down to read, I would be sucked in for an hour with these characters and the train wreck that was occurring. This story deals with friendship, science/technology, greed, love, and jealousy! Little did Ben and Adhi realize that this technology they were creating was going to wreak havoc on the future! It really made me think of Blake Crouch's books, which was super fun, and it was cool to be transported back and forth in time throughout the story! While some of these characters choices were crazy and horrible, I could not tear myself away from these pages! I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy epistolary stories, sci-fi, and books that grip you until the end!