I was excited for this one because I loved “The Power” so much I read it twice. Not so much this one. I found the plot weak and unfocused and frankly found it difficult to care about any of the characters.

This was a great book that for sci-fi hits incredibly close to today's world. The main character is Jun whose background is into survivalist knowledge and is an active publisher on the subject with large but not celebrity level social media presence. We learn of her background and why this has become her passion/career. She meets a tech billionaire who she falls for quickly. Meanwhile, we learn about other tech billionaires that eerily sound like Zuckerberg, Gates and Musk who have a monopolized the commerce and internet aspects of the world. You also learn they are very close associates. For hear the story takes, so many twists any details would make for spoilers. Needless to say, you won't guess the end, but when you get there you will be glad you read this book and realize how close we could be to it actually happening. If you enjoy sci-fi with a mild thriller, then you need to read this book.

Fantastic! So different! It’s our world with its dangers of pollution and billionaires and technology and ignorance. So enlightening and hopeful in an incredibly imaginative way. I’m grateful to have read this!

A thriller of a book set five minutes into the future about the billionaire tech giants who rule our lives (clearly paralleling Tim Cook/Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg) and what happens when their own tech notifies them, and only them, that the world is about to end. But even more, it's the world we live in today, with every moment controlled by a device, our entire lives held in the palms of our hands, and the power that such technology holds.

Originally I was fascinated by The Future because of its connection with the tech world and how it could impact everything outside of it. I work in tech and have thought about this a number of times. The major good and bad impacts that tech could have on the future of the world.

The parallels between the three technology billionaires and real life were very apparent. This book is based on the idea that the end of the world is coming and either three billionaires and their closest people can survive or all of humanity and the environment can survive. I thought this was an interesting thought exercise and I was entertained by all the future technology the book introduced. The focus felt more on the plot of the book rather than the characters and in general I'm prefer more character development.

Towards the end the book the plot dragged a little and I mostly wanted to know how it would wrap up. I found the end unsatisfying. I can suspend belief to a certain degree but I don't believe putting three tech billionaires on an island will solve all of the world's problems. I did not enjoy the bible story that was intertwined with the plot. It didn't add to the story for me and mostly added confusion to the overall message.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for sending me this ARC for an honest review.

It started off pretty interesting with the end of the world starting and the rich people running away, and this the novel just died. It got so boring and nothing was going on and it was trying to weave things around too many characters. I got 1/2 way through and just couldn't keep going.

This was good but initially a slow start due to character intros and detailed background. I really liked the later part of the book. Overall I would recommend to some but not all readers. It takes some time to get into.

I had a hard time pushing through this one. Which is a shame because I loved The Power SO MUCH. It was an interesting premise but just didn't hold me like the power did.

The Future—as the richest people on the planet have discovered—is where the money is. The Future is a few billionaires leading the world to destruction while safeguarding their own survival with secret lavish bunkers. The Future is private weather, technological prophecy and highly deniable weapons.

The Future is a handful of friends—the daughter of a cult leader, a non-binary hacker, an ousted Silicon Valley visionary, the concerned wife of a dangerous CEO, and an internet-famous survivalist—hatching a daring plan. It could be the greatest heist ever. Or the cataclysmic end of civilization.

Imagine that the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, and Google were all so rich that they created secret bunkers around the world. The bunkers are large enough for themselves and a small group of individuals close to them, all in preparation for a possible end to civilization as we know it. Knowing that they could be safe at the end of the world, would those CEOs let the world spiral out of control, or would they use their vast resources to help save the planet for all? What about those that know they have a safe space in the bunker – would they try to influence the CEOs to save the world?

The first half of the book is largely character introduction and backstory, along with some philosophical discussions and biblical stories. The pace was a little slow for me, but about midway through the book the pace of the story accelerates, and things get much more interesting. There are some plot twists in the last third of the book that nicely fill in the earlier gaps in the story and make the overall premise more believable.

Thanks to NetGalley, Naomi Alderman, and Simon & Schuster for providing a complimentary copy of this book in hopes that I will leave my unbiased review. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and the above review is simply my opinion of the book.

I was such a fan of The Power that when I saw The Future released I was beyond excited. This book was a little harder to become invested in but I ultimately really enjoyed the plot twists and characters. The idea of a select few being able to survive an apocalypse was intriguing and I found myself wondering what would happen next. I was hoping for more excitement towards the end but overall really enjoyed it.

The end of times is approaching. A group of survivalists come to realize that the billionaire tech giants are only looking out for themselves with little care about anyone else. Not only do they have secret bunkers but they also have software that tells them when and how to escape. And she doesn’t know how exactly, but survivalist, Zhen also has this software. She needs to figure out how and more importantly why this software was given to her before it’s too late to do something about it.

Although some of it was over my head, I really enjoyed this book & I liked the twist ending. It doesn’t seem too far fetched that society might have to face something like this in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Shuster for providing me with a copy of this book.

As engaging and thought-provoking as The Power, this time focused on the world at a tipping point and the sacrifices one might make to save it.

The book opens as a conference in which the CEOs of world's more influential tech companies--think Apple, Amazon, and Meta--receive early notice that the world is facing imminent disaster, and that they have mere hours to retreat to their individual bunkers to ride out the inevitable apocalypse. On a different timeline, Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, is fleeing from a gun-wielding fanatic when a cryptic piece of technology intervenes to save her. How Zhen got the technology--the same technology warning of the coming apocalypse--and how her path will cross with these CEOs and people within their circles is the bulk of this story.

The narrative itself has an interesting construction that keeps the readers on their toes, as we're sometimes lagging behind the characters in understanding the full scope of the story. It's unclear when certain events are taking place--at least, not at first--so sometimes, the import of a particular scene or even doesn't become clear until later. It upends expectations and assumptions (in a good way!) throughout.

The novel focuses on big ethical questions and encourages readers to consider what lengths they would go to and who they might sacrifice if it they had the access and power to save the planet from the destructive course it is currently on. This might make the book particularly good as a book club selection.

I liked this book although I thought it dragged in places. Ultimately it’s a look at an unorthodox way to solve issues of corporate greed and the ways in which it destroys the planet.

I went into this book without reading the plot summary so my experience was completely authentic as I read through the story. I was immediately intrigued by the unique fact that the plot focuses on the events leading up to an apocalypse, while most books in this genre focus on the events immediately after. This led to some great moments of tension and lots of mystery as a tried to piece together what was happening and how it would ultimately come together. There were also a number of plot twists that took me by surprise and kept the pages turning.

Much like the author’s previous book, The Power, this story features an ensemble cast that work separately and together to move the plot forward. The story mostly focused on Martha, the assistant to a Zuckerberg-esque tech billionaire, and Zhen, a survivalist influencer. Both characters had rich backstories and were fun to watch on the page. There is also a large cast of secondary characters, each as vibrant and well development of the protagonists.

While this is a science fiction novel, the fiction aspect of it takes a backseat. The world looks much like our own just a few years in the future with slightly more advances technology but not space-age level of advancement. Instead, the author focuses on the science elements, exploring engineering theory and how it plays into social media algorithms and the good of man-kind. I was expecting a bit more fantasy given the explosive elements of the author’s debut novel, but I really enjoyed the mixing of real world work with fiction to create a horrifyingly believable future for our world.

The Future is written by Naomi Alderman, the award-winning author of The Power and other subversive science fiction and fantasy novels. Unlike most of the books I review, I wouldn’t consider this book to be suitable for most Young Adults due to scenes of graphic sex and violence. This is a a challenging but rewarding read perfect for those who love viewing the world through a new lens and learning more in the process.

3.5 stars. In the near future of The Future, three billionaire tech moguls get advance notice via a top-secret, exclusive app that the world is about to end, giving them just enough time to evacuate to their multi-million-dollar end-of-the-world enclaves before the apocalypse hits and society collapses. From there, the narrative spans backward in time, introducing these tech giants, their companies (which bear very intentional resemblances to Amazon, Apple, and Meta), and the people in their orbit – a diverse group of characters who set out to change the course of the future before it’s too late.

The world of The Future is one we can all recognize, because it’s the one we’re practically living in right now – a late-stage exploitative capitalist society where our reliance on technology is firmly-entrenched, for better or (usually) for worse. It’s a deeply philosophical, ambitious work of speculative fiction, full of big ideas, so complex and thought-provoking. There’s lots of allegorical discussion about the Bible, lots of interesting theories about technology and AI, but it also has excellent world-building and a propulsive narrative, with engaging characters and a heist aspect to the plot that’s so original and entertaining. Despite some pacing issues and some sections that probably could’ve been condensed, The Future really worked for me – both as a cautionary tale and as a fascinating and smart tech thriller.

The Future pairs well with Stephen Markley’s The Deluge, if you’re feeling fatalistic and looking for a one-two punch of technology overreach and climate change.

This was difficult to stay engaged with. Many persepectives and there was a lot happening. Ineresting use of Bible scripture.

They say you can’t prepare for the future (lowercase, general concept). Turns out, you also can’t prepare for The Future (capitalized, this book). This smart sci-fi thriller was a wild ride from start to finish, and every time I thought I knew where it was going, it unfolded another layer of complexity and deception.

As a preliminary note, I don’t really agree with categorizing this book as a “heist” as the blurb does. There is a fair amount of scheming, but there’s more survival and less infiltrating evil systems. I just want to flag this now as a way to manage expectations going in so nobody is caught off-guard or disappointed.

This is one of those books that, as you’re reading, you can tell just how smart the author is. The deftness with which she blends commentary on technology, religion, psychology, and wilderness survival speaks of a deep comfort with all these topics, and of a creative ability to connect them cohesively, which (happily) prohibits the story from falling cleanly into any one genre or subject. It also allows the book to traverse a variety of themes–independence versus interdependence (with fascinating metaphors about rabbits and foxes), corporate responsibility, internet community (shoutout to one of my favorite micro-tropes, “online friends forced to meet in reality,” which features in a side plot of the book), the benefits and limits of new technology, and more–with a tone that slips effortlessly from humorous to reflective, scathing to sincere.

Few of the novel’s characters are fully likeable, but all of them are, in their weird little ways, sympathetic. For me, this was a major plus, because I love questionable morals, and really, it isn’t surprising when people find themselves making unsavory choices in dire circumstances. I do realize, though, that some may prefer when they can fully root for their protagonists, and though Martha and Zhen are both generally what I’d consider “good people,” they do have their flaws. More obvious are the flaws of the tech giants in the book who, though less savory, do have intriguing character arcs of their own.

I only had two real complaints in this book. First, the start of the novel set the tone a little oddly, with a handful of medium-graphic (but not erotic) sex scenes, an angle that was never again revisited; I could see this putting off some readers, so just trust me, stick it out even if those scenes aren’t your jam–there won’t be more of them once the story gets going. And second, as the book built toward its big twists, at least one reveal was premised on information that was withheld by abridging key scenes earlier–an obfuscation that would make sense from an unreliable limited narrator, but made much less sense from the book’s detached third-person voice. That’s a personal preference thing, though, and I’m sure some people won’t mind; it just sat oddly with me.

Even with those flaws, though, this book was truly a delight to read. If you like your thrillers with a brainy edge, or your sci-fi with a twisty flair, you’ll love this one!

Trigger/content warnings: pandemic, violence, murder, hallucinations, suicide attempt, vomit, religious cult
Rep: sapphic Chinese MC, sapphic fat MC, Black SC, nonbinary SC

I loved Naomi Alderman's The Power and dystopian fiction is my favorite genre. You can imagine how excited I was to receive the ARC for Alderman's The Future. I started reading the book right away and was disappointed from the start. The book is slooow. I mean brutally boring. And what's up with the names?? Lenk Sketlish? Zimri Nommik?

The book centers around a bunch of billionaires who are hatching a plan to save themselves in the event of an apocolypse, a internet-famous survivalist and a cult survivor. I had a hard time caring about any of these strangely named characters and in the end, the book just sort of fell flat for me.

Naomi Alderman creates a future that is not to dissimilar from what we may be facing today. In The Future, Alderman creates an eerie landscape where the richest people on the planet- just a handful of billionaires, come together to predict and protect themselves from the end of the world. (This reminds me of a recent podcast revealing how rich people are buying bunkers right now to protect themselves from the end of the world.)

The story is fast-paced and suspenseful. The character development is engaging. Alderman successfully creates empathetic and flawed characters and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Fun read.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the eARC.

This was a great book; the concept was incredibly unique, and the character development was thorough. It was a multiple POV story, but the stories were woven together in a way that was engaging and never confusing. THAT PLOT TWIST! This really made me think about social media and online presence in a way I had not previously. The characters ended up being wonderfully morally gray, which I prefer. Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to more from Naomi Alderman.