I think I might have had higher expectations, but the blurb sounds way more interesting than the book is. Maybe others will enjoy the book, I couldn't.

The Future is a story of power, money, technology and how those things can be wielded both for good and bad.

Naomi Alderman is brilliant at writing worlds that simultaneously feel shockingly futuristic and plausibly not so distant at the same time. The Future is full of allegory and social commentary, whilst remaining fun and fast-paced. This was a fascinating read, with so many threads to it that there was always something going on. Hints and clues are weaved throughout to slowly reveal what's actually going on, but there is always a sense of mystery. It's the sort of story that gives you lots to think and talk about, and motivates you to keep reading to find the answers.

Recommended to fans of speculative and dystopian fiction.

Our story starts in the near future, as the world continues to move gradually but determinedly towards apocalypse. Our protagonists are several people close to 3 big tech CEOs, as well as a survivalist blogger. The plot includes and covers all the buzz words: social media and social engineering, AI, global warming, big tech, survivalism, etc.

I can see why some (many?) people might like the book. It has a very heavy moralistic overtone, stemming from visceral critique of the polarising effect of social media on public opinion, and how AI algorithms are contributing to potential impending global catastrophes. Our protagonists are multi layered and complex, with sophisticated value systems. Interestingly, three of four are LGBTQ. I also liked the questions that the book raises, though many probably emerge as a side effect of what the book is trying to say, vs being core to the story itself. The plot has elements of a political thriller as well as a love story, and is able to captivate a reader's attention over time. The underlying pacing is quite good, ensuring that despite the length the book is essentially an easy read.

I struggled with the book, nonetheless. I disliked the simplicity in the moral argumentation, and the assumption that a solution to most (if not all) humanity's problems can be found in addressing certain perverse incentives at the core of the growing influence of big-tech. What about religion? politics? history? other less-than-holy elements of the modern capitalist system (oil and gas companies, agriculture conglomerates, chemicals manufacturers, etc)? On a related note, I also struggled with the message that the book was delivering. What is the extent of evil that is excuses a "greater good"? Apparently, the answer is relatively simple, and the solution to our problems is not addressing their root causes, but rather actively taking advantage of them to manipulate and shift things in a different direction. Is it morally acceptable to use the system for a perceived good rather than change the system? Who has the right to decide what is good for people? Is benign dictatorship essentially better than an evil one, and who determines where one finishes and the other begins?

Other than that, the thing I disliked most was the predictability of the plot. While I can perhaps see how someone might see twists and turns, I could see all of them, and it didn't even feel to be around the corner. The thing that made it so predictable for me is the 100% congruence between the plot twists and the moralistic overtone (and undertone) of the book. So, following the simple moral path it is quite clear and to see where it leads. Nothing particularly wrong in this, but the book made it feel like the author expected me to be surprised and fall off my chair, whereas I found it to be tiring and boring.

I struggled also with the caricature-like aspects of the the capitalist system, as portrayed in the book, as well as the characters of the three CEOs at the centre of the plot. It's either the author did not truly understand how business works (or big tech, for that matter), or chose to dumb it down consciously for the reader. Either is offensive.

Form-wise, I found the long biblical diatribes tiresome and far less relevant than the plot warranted. It was not super clear how they added to the story, and I found them to be hammering the issue home after it was already a done deal. This reminded me of some of the last bits of Atlas Shrugged.

I am happy to recommend it to anyone who is looking for a simple "eco-thriller", with the moral ambiguity of Atlas Shrugged. Parts of the book felt like leftist conspiracy theories and fear mongering (and I say this while essentially agreeing with a lot of what the author is saying). If you're aligned with these values it almost feels like intellectual onanism (like libertarians reading Ayn Rand). If you're not aligned with these values you will find the book infuriating. If you're in the broadly defined middle, you will find the book mostly silly, but might enjoy it you can overlook the moralism.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of the book in return for an honest review.

I devoured this book. Just like I would like to eat the rich.

The Future is very reminiscent of The Power. It's told by following many different people, whose lives may only overlap for a brief moment.
The setting of The Future may be in 'the future' for us, but to me it felt all too present. Three billionaires are prepping for the end of the world, and then the end of the world arrives.

This book felt like a rollercoaster; the first half was building up to the big drop and the second half was thrilling, not knowing which ways the tracks would twist next.

Despite having a huge cast, the characterisation is so strong and tangible throughout the book. Alderman manages to have a unique voice for each person, without losing focus along the way.

The book is chock full of biblical analogies and questions on who is worth saving and surviving. It was fascinating and gripping and all too real at times. A wonderful piece of work by Alderman, yet again.

Very clever, frightening, worrying glimpse of the future and what happens when all the tech giants save themselves. Bit too tech and long for me but I enjoyed the opening and the concept.

This is a multilayered, slow burn thriller, which covers some complex issues: corporate greed, data mining and social media manipulations, to name a few. Three tech billionaires with secret bunkers placed around the world where they have plans to hide and wait out events in luxury should things not go how they would like.
The novel is well paced and well written with intriguing characters and issues. Exploring a possible future world that may or may not be happening. The addition of internet posts scattered throughout the text added to the atmosphere. There was no stated timeline, which was confusing and interrupted the pace for me.
Overall it was an interesting premise with likeable characters and well worth a read.
Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley UK for the ARC.

The end of the world is upon the characters of 'The Future' from the very first chapter. It's set in the near future - about the mid 21st century. Three very clever, very rich and very unpleasant tech company founders have immense power (think Google/Facebook/Twitter/Amazon equivalents). They are secretly preparing for an apocalypse - they intend not only to survive it, but to thrive and rule in what comes after.

Zhen Lee is also a 'prepper' - she makes her living as a survivalist vlogger, making videos about survival technology. Ever since her traumatic teenage years fleeing war she has been expecting and trying to prepare for the worst.

A chance meeting puts Zhen on a collision course with these power-hungry billionaires, linked by Martha Einkorn, who grow up in a survivalist cult and is now the executive assistant to Elon Musk - ahem, sorry, 'Lenk Skentlish'. Martha and her associates think it might be worth trying to prevent an apocalypse rather than assuming it is inevitable.

It's an interesting and gripping novel from the beginning. I immediately felt drawn in and keen to know how it would develop, and I always looked forwards to reading on. Zhen and Martha are both good characters that you can sympathise with and root for, and there are a number of good supporting characters too. The plot is complex and has some unexpected turns along the way.

When I thought about some of it in detail in order to write this review, I did find some plot holes and loose ends - but most readers won't be subjecting it to that much scrutiny. It does lose a bit of pace towards the very end, but by then you've had more than three quarters of a good and compelling read so it's not the end of the world. Better that than the other way round.

It does include, as part of the story, one of the best description of AI technology that I have ever read, and an insight into how social media and their algorithms work. It's worth reading just for those - I feel it's moved on my understanding of AI considerably and I'm actually less fearful of it now. Alderman clearly has a good understanding of these technological topics.

I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys science fiction (there's plenty about gadgetry and technology that will appeal to fans of the genre), and to more general readers looking for an enjoyable but intelligent read. It does have themes of apocalypse/pandemics which some readers might prefer to avoid. Certainly I was impressed overall and would definitely read more by Alderman.

I must admit I was drawn to this book by its cover, I love the geometric design and thought the red was very vibrant and eye catching. I have read Naomi Alderman’s other book, The Power, and although I can’t remember the plot exactly, I remember I did quite enjoy it. In the spirit of reading a different genre, I thought I would give her latest book a go.

The book jumps around a lot, between timelines and characters. At the beginning, we are introduced to a few wealthy, high flying characters who are founders of social media and tech companies. To me it seemed like parallels for Facebook, Amazon, IBM etc. They all receive a notification on their devices telling them the world is ending and they need to decide if they want to go ahead with their survival plan.
The book is set in the near future, but I’m not sure how many years in the future. It reminded me a little of Black Mirror as everyone has tech linked to AI. Of course, climate change is ruining the world and viruses are set to wipe out the population.

As mentioned, this isn’t my usual genre, and although I tried, I couldn’t get into the story at all. I read about 15% before giving up. For me, I think the story jumped around between characters too much and I felt the characters were quite superficial. I didn’t like any of them and wasn’t invested in finding out what was going to happen. I found the story didn’t hold my interest at all and it was a thought to read, I didn’t want to pick up the book.

Some of the descriptions are quite good, but I did find the graphic flirtatious descriptions between Zhen and Martha unnecessary.

I thought I would enjoy this book, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me. I think if you like sci-fi, futuristic, books you might like it.

This book is published on 7th November 2023. Thanks to 4th Estate and NetGalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

The Future is Naomi Alderman's follow up to her acclaimed debut The Power and, as such, has big shoes to fill. But if Alderman was intimidated by the expectations her sophomore novel would inevitably face, it doesn’t show; if anything, The Future is more ambitious in its scope.

In the near future, three tech billionaires (unashamed avatars for Besos, Zuckerberg et al) effectively control the world. They blithely mine people's data, filter the news they consume and buy up ever-dwindling natural resources for personal gain, all while driving the world towards destruction; meanwhile, they are stockpiling survival tech and preparing secret bunkers, safe in the knowledge that, when the world ends, they won't be there to see it.

The plot of The Future is original and fascinating - at once wildly far-fetched and utterly believable. Even the parts of the novel which feature incredibly sophisticated and intelligent technology or bleak predictions about the fate of our planet feel totally realistic; with corporate greed running rampant, the economic divide ever widening and climate change more catastrophic by the year, the scenario set out in Alderman's dystopian science fiction novel feels like a logical end point for the paths we seem to be inexorably marching down. While there were elements of the book I didn't love, Alderman's unsettling vision of a near future which feels so horrifyingly possible chilled me and will stay with me for a long time, and there is a didactic tone to the writing which makes me feel that that was exactly the author's intention. Particularly topical - and therefore frightening - are the ruminations on the power and dangers of social media, and the seemingly endless possibilities for the creep of Artificial Intelligence into all aspects of our lives.

Much of the book is narrated by survival guru and media personality Lai Zhen, whose connection with Martha Einkorn, right hand to the CEO of social network Fantail, kick starts the action in the story, and I enjoyed her dry, snarky wit. The writing is stuffed with biblical and literary illusions, as the characters try to unpack what survival might look like and grapple with the ethical implications of leaving the rest of the world to burn. Some of these resonated with me while others merely slowed the pace of the narrative or diverted attention from the far more intriguing events of the main plot.

The novel gets off to a slow, somewhat convoluted start, and it took me a while to understand why I should care about any of the characters. An unfortunate side effect of the level of detail that goes into explaining how all the survival tech works, and into chronicling the gradual collapse of civilization, is that less time is spent developing the characters into people the reader can empathise with and relate to.

The timeline is bewildering, jumping erratically backwards and forwards so that is difficult to piece together the sequence of events or work out how much time is supposed to have passed. The year in which the story begins is left deliberately vague, although the Covid-19 pandemic occurred recently enough to be referenced frequently and, hilariously, the most concrete piece of contextualising information we get is that Ryan Reynolds is in his silver fox era.

I thought the ending was brilliant - unexpected yet not unbelievable and a total vibe shift.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

The concepts of how our future could look and the idea of changing the dynamics with tech billionaires felt fresh and intriguing. At times I found there was too much backstory that didn't add any depth to the plot, but overall I enjoyed reading the different POVs and following their journeys.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the arc of The future by Naomi Alderman.

Wow!
A terrifying snapshot of what could be our future. Beautifully written with a brilliant twist.

Most definitely recommended.

I’m a fan of The Power and I enjoyed this book.

A cleverly written book that looks at ideas I’m also interested in around the future of the world and the way we live.

The characters are interesting and the way some of the chapters are written is clever.

The Future is Naomi Alderman’s latest novel where she explores the world we have made and where we are going.

The Future introduces us to three billionaires who, between them, run the tech industry (social media, online shopping, and search engines - very clearly inspired by Facebook, Amazon, and Google). This group are obsessed with the possibility of end of the world - and how to survive it. While they safeguard their own survival, they lead the world to destruction.

At the same time, an unlikely group of friends (led by an internet-famous survivalist) hatch a plan to try save our planet.

The Future can’t be compared to The Power, Alderman’s first book, as they’re just so different. However this one is even more daring and disturbing, I don’t know how she thinks up these stories. The world in The Future is so realistic that it’s terrifying. It annoyed me how long it took to actually get to the end of the world (over halfway through the book), but once it happened (!!!), I realised how easily it could happen in real life.

There are snippets throughout this book which take us inside a survivalist forum, at first I didn’t like these bits but they make sense in the story and I think the author was clever for adding them in. Spoilers aside, there’s a huge twist in this book that I genuinely didn’t see coming , so naturally I loved it. I always find myself guessing twists but this one was a genuine surprise. 😇

I think this is the type of book you’ll need to take your time with, there are a LOT of characters which can get quite confusing, and the story itself is complex and full of details (blink and you’ll miss some of the topics/ideas).

Overall I thoroughly loved picking this up and the ending didn’t let me down.

A terrifyingly realistic novel giving us a glimpse of what the future may look like if we continue on the way we are. Intelligent, chilling and beautifully written with a perfect twist. Highly recommended.

Can confirm that Naomi Alderman's next book is every bit as explosive as 'The Power!' 💥

🌎 'The Future' by Naomi Alderman is about the end of the world. It tells the story of three tech billionaires who are obsessed with surviving the apocalypse. Unhappy with the way these billionaires have ended up controlling almost every aspect of modern society, three people close to them decide to take matters into their own hands by enlisting the help of survival expert Lai Zhen.

🤯 This was excellent. I finished it earlier this week and can't stop thinking about it. However, this is NOT a book to rush through. Take your time. There are a lot of details, lots of religious theory & philosophy, lots of detours into characters' rich and unusual backstories. Not a light read, but an immensely satisfying one.

🖥️ I've read a few novels about 'evil global tech companies' with too much power. None of them managed to do what Naomi Alderman's done. She writes with nuance and creates a fully fleshed out near-future world which doesn't fall back on the laziness you sometimes see in this genre.

✨ 'The Future' uses present day events and people (Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg were definitely inspirations!), and weaves them together to explore a huge question: How do we stop climate change and make capitalism more ethical if the people who control the world have a vested interest in sticking to the status quo?

📖 None of the characters were especially likeable, but they were vivid and fascinating. I was especially interested in Martha's backstory - she grew up in an extreme doomsday cult and goes on to become the assistant to one of the billionaires.

📚 Overall, I thought 'The Future' was both riveting and original. If you want a thought-provoking book that holds a mirror up to the flaws in society, do not miss this!

🗓️ 'The Future' comes out on 7th Nov 2023.

🎁 Thank you to @netgalley & 4th Estate Books for my gifted advance reader copy.

- Katie

[Review is on Instagram @katiespencebooks, will be on X/Twitter @katiespencey next week]

Sorry I could not get on with this book. I gave it over 200 pages before giving up. I found all the characters unlikable. Far too much backstory between the first chapter teasing the plot of the book and anything actually happening.
Didn’t get on with the forum snippets

This book is innovative and well paced. If isn’t a book you can pick up and put down easily so be ready to cancel plans! I loved ist and given the author this isn’t a surprise I can see it will be a hit and no doubt adapted for the screen.

David Eggers “The Circle” (and sequel) meets Margaret Atwood’s “Oryx and Crake” trilogy meets Eleanor Catton’s “Birnam Wood” Yuval Noah Harari’s “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” meets Genesis Chapters 13-19 in a worthy follow up to the author’s “The Power”

In January 2017 I read “The Power” and made a series of “near-future” predictions: that it would be a strong contender for the Bailey’s shortlist (and even the prize); that it could even be a Booker longlist contender – albeit English authors were being largely overlooked; that it would be idea for an HBO mini-series. Well, the book of course did go on to be longlisted, shortlisted and then win the Bailey’s (now Women’s Prize) – and was massively underestimated by literary prize followers unable to look past the embedded use of genre and other media conventions by an author embedded in the world of science fiction and scriptwriting – and it has this very year been turned into a miniseries (albeit Amazon Prime).

Now 7 years on we have the author’s follow-up, one which I think has its roots in much of the author’s background:

Bought up in an (to quote Wikipedia) unconventional Orthodox Jewish family and so with a deep scriptural knowledge.

She said in a Jewish Chronicles interview this year about miniseries of “The Power” “As a Jewish person you obviously grow up knowing a lot about the Holocaust and asking yourself questions about how would I know when to get out? How do I avoid it? What are the signs?

She was for a number of years in the early 2010s a technology writer for the Guardian – particularly interested in the area of immersive gaming and digital storytelling.

She was famously mentored by Margaret Atwood in 2012 – and dedicated “The Power” to her, and Atwood’s implicit influence is clear here again.

In 2012 she was the lead writer on the fitness app “Zombies, run” – which as its basic inspiration and premise that the reason we want to be able to get fit and be able to run is to be able to escape in a end time scenario such as being able to outrun a Zombie horde.

And all of these play out in this near, slightly alternative, future novel.

The book opens with third party viewpoint sections by the three billionaire CEOs of the three technological giants which increasingly dominate not just the world’s economy but its global politics and its very social foundations. Lenk Sketlish is the CEO of the Fantail social network (a clear Facebook analogy although the character seems to draw on aspects of Elon Musk also); Zemri Nommik is the CEO of the logistics and purchasing giant Anvil (of course standing for Amazon) – and is planning to divorce his brilliant, black, environmental activist wife Selah; Ellen Bywater is the CEO of Medlar Technologies, the world’s most profitable personal computing company (the closest to Apple in the book – although with a more complex origin story including the gay founder of the firm Albert Dabrowski being exited but not subsequently ever rejoining) - Ellen herself is always conscious of the presence of her late husband, and has a particularly difficult relationship with her non-binary and politically-radical child Badger.

All are together at an environmental conference when all individually receive a notification on their personal device that something has occurred which is going to shortly trigger an apocalyptic scenario, and all will calmly and secretly evacuate to their end time-prepped billionaire bunkers well ahead of the actual event becoming widely known, starting off by (due to their proximity) all taking the same plane and then to wait out whatever occurs.

Next we are taken to posts on a survivalist forum – where a user posts on Abraham’s debate with God over how many good people it would take to stop the total destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

In turn we join Lai Zhen – a poster on the same forum with an expertise in technological survival (first honed by her experiences when her family were caught up in the fall of Hong Kong when the PRC decided to attack it due to the continuing dissent) – she is at a charitable event at a Singapore mega-mall when she suddenly realises that she is being stalked by an assassin who she quickly realises is likely to be from an American fundamentalist, survivalist cult group – the Enochites. The Enochites founder was most famous for his sermon on The Fox and The Rabbit – about how human history has mistakenly but definitively moved from the hunter gatherer Rabbit types to the farming and then City-dwelling Foxes (a divide which features across Genesis as well as other ancient texts). At a London based tech conference Lai Zhen had interviewed (and later slept with) Martha Einkorn – the Executive Assistant and right hand woman to Lenk – and on finding to her surprise in the interview that Martha had not just grown up in the Enochite community but was the daughter of its founder, inadvertently insults the memory of Enoch so leading to her current predicament – one she somehow survives with the help of a piece of software – AUGR – which to her bafflement appears on her clothing embedded thinscreen – not just alerting her to the danger but talking her step by step through her escape.

From there we have a story which spins out in a number of directions.

We go back in time to see how Martha, Selah and Badger seem to have formed an alliance between themselves (into which Albert is also drawn) – all concerned at the way in which their boss/husband’s/Mum’s firms are seemingly taking the world on an inevitable path to collapse (and conscious also of, and intimately involved in, their boss/husband’s/Mum’s plans to pre-emptively evacuate before that collapse and bunker down to await its playing out). Their small-scale attempts to start to try and reverse the damage the firms have done to the very social fabric of humanity are either ineffectual or counter-productive.

We follow Lai as with the help of a brilliant but oddball Eastern European Professor (who specialises in lectures on artificial intelligence and its uses) and technology hacking genius Marius she figures that the software was installed on her phone seemingly by Martha as a gift – but Martha can now not be contacted.

And then we are on a remote Island near Papua New Guinea where the three billionaires (and a surprise fourth occupant) are stranded after their evacuation plane crash lands, and fight it out for survival while the wider world succumbs to a devastating and deadly pigeon and package carried virus.

And we revisit the survivalist forum – for more on the Fox and Rabbit and much more on Genesis.

Before eventually finding out how the world develops post apocalypse.

To say more would be to spoil what is both an deeply thoughtful and a thought provoking novel – although one which like its predecessor will not be to the taste of those unable to look past its embedded genre trappings.

My thanks to 4th Estate, PRH for an ARC via NetGalley

While I enjoyed this book, I felt like it was stretched too thin over too long a period of time. The concept - what if we got rid of all the tech billionaires together? - was really interesting, and there was a variety of moving pieces which all pulled together to create a hugely interesting thought experiment of what would happen when our technology overlords all simultaneously vanished, but my God it was drawn out and convoluted, and really took far too long to get to where it was going. There was serious bloating in the tale, which could have been a very powerful short story, I found myself putting this down multiple times because I was bored, where was this going, when was the actual plot going to start? Naomi Alderman is a great writer, and there are some really excellent passages in here, as well as thoughts about the nature of technology and our reliance on it, and the agglomeration of tech companies coalescing into supercompanies, all of which I quite enjoyed. It just felt, overall, like there was a lot of bloating with the philosophies of rabbit and fox and escaping a cult and online forums... Too much, all at once. Much like trying to find content online. Perhaps that was the idea, and I'm just too dumb to appreciate it?

Comentaba con mis amigos del Fantascopio que el resumen de The Future era un mensaje claro: Eat the rich. Pero claro, quizá a los lectores del blog les gustaría algo más de información sobre el libro, así que me expandiré un poco más.


Naomi Alderman nos maravilló a todos con The Power una distopía feminista que dio mucho que hablar y que pensar. Sin abandonar ese escenario de futuro cercano pero escogiendo otro punto de ruptura, ahora nos ofrece The Future, que por desgracia he de decir que no tiene la misma fuerza, ni el mismo mensaje que su obra anterior.

En este libro, Alderman nos mostrará las vidas de tres multimillonarios tecnológicos que nos recordarán mucho a ciertas personas reales. Desde su posición de privilegio y con un endiosamiento muy bien reflejado por la autora, veremos cómo hacen planes para sobrevivir a la caída de la civilización, que creen que está al caer. Al principio de la novela vemos como canalizan millones y millones en investigaciones que parecen luchar contra el cambio climático y otros monstruos que predicen la desaparición de la humanidad, pero en realidad solo lo hacen por su propio beneficio. Con el resumen que he hecho del libro, no hace falta tener mucha imaginación para suponer que estos personajes son los malos del libro, pero la verdad es que la autora carga tanto las tintas que al final acaban pareciendo villanos de opereta. El mensaje queda al final en algo demasiado maniqueo, por una parte y también bastante inocente por otra.

Alrededor de estos personajes y protegidos también de la vida real TM por su manto de superioridad, aparecen otros personajes que no están dispuestos a admitir el fin del mundo tal y como lo conocemos. Y ahí es donde encontramos el núcleo de la novela, pero os puedo decir que no resulta para nada sorprendente el devenir de los acontecimientos, con los avisos que hemos ido recibiendo anteriormente.

Es interesante cómo la religión sigue siendo una parte fundamental de nuestras vidas, algo que la autora refleja de manera bastante acertada con la creación de los Enochitas (que en mi fuero interno imagino que son un homenaje a Enoch Root), un grupo de “supervivientes” cuyo credo influirá y mucho en las vidas que vemos reflejadas en la novela.

Esperaba mucho más en la parte especulativa de The Future, pero me temo que es un libro que se queda muy corto en los aspectos más interesantes que podrían haberse desarrollado más.