"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."

This book took me on a roller coaster of a plot and counter plot always believable and slightly terrifying!

As a commentary of how the world is run it was chilling and as a story it was clever and kept me engaged.

This is an amazing book. It kept me away from my sleep for too many hours. I was intrigued by the somewhat eccentric characters and the insights in a world that is depressingly similar to what will or is currently occurring. I loved the way technology affects humans lives, but emotional decisions are what drives the plot. I loved the twists (except the last one, which I thought was a bit too much). The thing I did not like was the fact that the whole world's existence and its ability to thrive seem to depend on the decision of a handful of people. And since these people are egoistic, if not evil, then the world is not going to be saved. Reality is a bit more complex than that, people respond to incentives, and nobody is evil per se (ok, maybe with a few exceptions). But beside this point, I loved this book!

You might know Naomi Alderman from her smash hit book ‘The Power’, where women developed the ability to mete out electric shocks to oppressors and society shifted accordingly: you might have sprinted around our city to Zombies, Run!, the now ten-year-old exercise adventure app for which she provided storylines. But even if these sentences are your first encounter with Alderman’s work, you should immediately put her newest book to the top of your reading list. The story opens in the disturbingly-possible moments just after the big tech billionaires have been alerted to the imminent end of the world, thanks to the AI and statistics software which they own – but crucially for these CEOs and their loved ones, it is still days before society at large will become aware of the encroaching disaster. This advance notice gives the executives enough time to get to the bunkers they’ve been building for precisely this moment – but in the background, a few of their closest associates have been quietly wondering if the decisions and attitudes of these industry leaders might be the very reason society is now facing collapse. Is there anything they can do to alter what seems to be an inevitable future? Strap yourself in for this absolutely gripping thriller which confronts issues around artificial intelligence, power-hoarding and wealth imbalance – and get ready for the mother of all twists.

Featured in the January 2024 issue of Cambridge Edition Magazine – digital version linked below

Naomi Alderman always writes good. The well-developed characters made it impossible for me to put down, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Overall, it's an easy and enjoyable read that I would highly recommend.. This dystopian novel reflects our own world back at us. It’s uncomfortable, but clever and thought provoking.

Absolutely brilliant. Uncomfortable to read because of the dystopian nature of it, so I did put it down quite a few times. However, it is so well written, definitely worth it! I enjoyed The Power a lot when it came out, and this was different but also really enjoyable

he sirens sound in the street. The lockdown order comes. The images on the television are of chaos and illness, total societal collapse. The apocalypse is here, and where are the rich? Already holed up in their survival compounds, ready to ride out the end of the world before emerging to take control of what’s left of it for themselves.

Billionaire preppers and their plans for Bond-villain bunkers have now pervaded the public imagination to the extent that this year we have two novels dealing with the phenomenon. First there was Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood, which took inspiration from Peter Thiel’s efforts to build a bunker in New Zealand. Now, Naomi Alderman’s The Future picks up on the idea with a near-future narrative about the secret survival plans of three global tech tycoons...

Full review: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-last-battle-the-future-by-naomi-alderman-reviewed/

If Alderman hadn't already cemented her status as this century's most inventive, feminist speculative sci-fi writer with her debut book "The Power", she sure as hell does it in "The Future". There's something electric (excuse the pun) about her writing and her mode of storytelling that has me both engrossed and my hair stand on ends. Truly spectacular.

A clever and insightful book about the near future. For much of its length it looks dystopian, until suddenly it's not. There are clues at various places that things are not as they seem, but they are a bit subtle, and you might miss them if not paying close attention. I don't want to be a spoiler, but you really have to read it all the way through to fully appreciate what the author is doing here. The social commentary is sharp indeed.

Alderman always writes with brilliant verve. This dystopian novel reflects our own world back at us. It’s uncomfortable, but clever and thought provoking.

Naomi Alderman has the skill and craftmanship to put our greatest fears into a book and captivate the reader whilst she explores what might happen if things carry on along their current trajectory.

in 'The Future', money and power are focussed in a few people's grasp - billionaires are making choices that will make them ever richer whilst wilfully ignoring the impact on the planet and the rest of the world's population. When they have to go into hiding following a natural disaster, is it time for the rest of society to have their say?

Witty, sharp, scarily future-looking at times- well worth a read.

This is near future dystopian (sort of).

In a world not too dissimilar to our own, things are creeping towards disaster and 3 billionaires, running companies whose equivalents you could name, pretty much control things.

So of course they have a secret system to alert them to go into hiding once things tip over a certain level. But at the same time we have 3 people associated with those billionaires who see an opportunity.

How do they pull off this kind of heist, where does that take us and what happens to the regular person caughtbup between these 2 sides?

This was good, I didn't love it as much as the power but it's still a really strong read. I had assumed it was going to be more post-everything happening, but the bulk of the book is jumping about in the timeline to show how they got to this point.

I also like that it's kind of a rosy view of things and what it might take to fix where things are going - although the starting point is fairly extreme!

Naomi Alderman is a fantastic author and this story just goes to show this!

The Future is such a compelling and gripping story - I honestly could not put it down as I was reading.

As with her other books, the plot addresses some key issues in our society - it is very much a cautionary tale. The characters were so well written and I felt myself thinking of them even after I had finished the story.

I would definitely recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley for the arc.

Compelling dystopian science fiction from Naomi Alderman, author of the recent ground-breaking hit, The Power. High technology, social media and the end of the world.
Gaze into The Future. And shudder.

As an absolute fan of The Power, I was so excited to be given an arc of The Future by Naomi Alderman. Dystopian is my jam and Naomi knows how to write it.

In The Future, Naomi takes us slightly into the future where the world seems to be as it is now. It's just that people seem to think the end is coming. Tech giants, not unlike our real world tech giants, are not interested in saving the world. They're only interested in saving themselves and being part of whatever is next.

That's it. I'm not saying anymore. I'll ruin the surprise if I do. You know it sounds good though.

Read if you're into:
· Dystopia
· The apocalypse
· Technology
· Biblical references
· Travelling
· Chat rooms

An enjoyable read which cleverly entwines all the worst aspects of where we are now with climate change, AI and so forth, and wraps it up in a compelling tale. Sadly, I could not believe the premise that once three tech geniuses are out of the way the rest of the world would get on with doing what should be done to save the planet. We can but dream, I suppose…

Three leaders of the world’s biggest tech companies get an end-of-the-world code red warning, and immediately board a plane together, heading for their apocalypse-prepared bunkers. To say anymore would be to spoil this ingenious and sometimes terrifying novel. Alderman takes on big big ideas but without sacrificing plot - this is a propulsive, page-turner of a ride through Doomsday cults, worldwide networks of hackers, the prepper mentality of the uber-wealthy, and the idea that maybe there’s a hope of a better world. Wild and twisty genius.

In all honesty - it took me a while to get through Naomi Alderman's latest release "The Future". It was unsettling and eerie and bizarre and chaotic and realistic, and the unholy combination of this was at times a lot.

The Future sits somewhere between dystopian and speculative fiction. Set in a 'not too distant future' where the world continues turning and humanity continues careening down the path to self-destruction. A handful of millionaires and their big tech companies are seeming pulling the strings behind the scenes - influencing the masses and the governments while juggling complex algorithms, technological breakthroughs and the use (or misuse) or data.

The build up was complex and intertwined many different components of the story and character. The pay off and twists towards the end was both satisfying and thought provoking.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

As three CEOs prepare to save the world from destruction lives collide; the Future is here!

This was a fast paced and twisting novel which had me gripped from the first page. I loved the multi[le viewpoints and the speed at which events began to unfold; it was really a thrill a minute.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

I won’t lie, The Future by Naomi Alderman took me forever to get through. It was an extremely unsettling and disturbing read. Why? Because it’s so very feasible. Nevertheless, I’m glad that I read it and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.

The Future is the world of a handful of billionaires who are able — through the various technologies they own and their algorithms — to control our lives. Doesn’t sound that far off, does it? In order to change our trajectory, a group of their closest allies, privy to the reality of what really drives these people, comes up with a plot to take the top three down in an attempt to better everyone else’s future.

This book is out there but then again it’s so not. The top three are very similar to three well-known guys living among us, and the problems they all face in their future world, well, we’ll be there before too long ourselves.

This is a book that really makes you think, disturbing in its verisimilitude, and an important one to read.

Imagine a world where three big tech companies hold sway, influencing individual and governmental behaviours through use/misuse of data and complex algorithms (ok so probably not much imagining needed here) - this is the starting point in the book 'The Future', a world much as our own, albeit slightly further down the track. Early on in the book we are told that the leaders of these companies have an algorithm which is going to enable them to identify when the end of the world is near ... a perpetuation of the premise that knowledge is power and that those with knowledge and power always win. But this book is so much more than this. There were, I have to admit, times when I felt that I'd rather it hadn't been a book of 475 pages, that I'd have preferred it to be a bit shorter, but when the twists were revealed at the end I completely got why Naomi Alderman had spent so much time introducing us to a whole complex cast of players, their backgrounds and thus their motives. I almost gave up just before the end as I wasn't sure where the book was going at that point but I am SO glad that I didn't. Reflecting back a couple of days after reading this book, my views are that actually it's a book that is worth reflecting on - rather than being treated as just another quick and easy apocalyptic dystopian text. I know I'll be thinking about this book for a while yet and I'm hugely grateful to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC in return for an honest, unbiased review.