The Future
Jan. 30th, 2025 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThe Future by Naomi Alderman is set in the near future, following multiple characters linked to three massive corporations (sort of Amazon, Meta and Apple) and how their activities affect the state of society.
I have to say, I nearly gave up on it in the first 75 pages, since all the characters were so unlikeable - but then we finally got some decent character development around page 80, as well as some intriguing plot points, so I carried on and was glad I did overall.
The writing style also started out pretty slick and well-observed but quite glib and surface level, so it took a long way for my emotions to be engaged as well as my intellect.
There's some great body positivity, a fair amount of queer representation and lots of non-white characters.
The themes and message are very, very blunt - big corporations bad, too few people controlling vast fortunes and largely making things worse for people rather than better, lots of things we can do to improve things but would need to be quite drastic changes in the world to do so...
By the midpoint, there's quite a lot of good character stuff, and also a lot of interesting discussion of society, philosophy, economics, and religion - but it's pretty much section by section either one or the other, and it doesn't feel like it all comes together into a cohesive narrative at any point.
The timeline is also very confusing and I often found it hard to figure out what had happened at what point.
The second half gradually gets more confusing, more farfetched and more ridiculous - then dips quite dramatically in tension and interest - then turns into a schlocky thriller for quite a while - and then there's a ton of exposition of everything that's happened...
The ultimate conclusion of the main storyline was pretty satisfying, though - mostly because I was invested in the central romance, so the characters got me in the end! But I was left with a few unanswered questions - which increased exponentially with the post-acknowledgements last few pages, which basically lost me completely...
So - very much a mixed bag. I'm glad I persevered (that seems to be the theme of my reading so far this year) but I can't say I was blown away. There was quite a lot I enjoyed about this book, but it didn't really hold together, and it was quite confusing.
I have to say, I nearly gave up on it in the first 75 pages, since all the characters were so unlikeable - but then we finally got some decent character development around page 80, as well as some intriguing plot points, so I carried on and was glad I did overall.
The writing style also started out pretty slick and well-observed but quite glib and surface level, so it took a long way for my emotions to be engaged as well as my intellect.
There's some great body positivity, a fair amount of queer representation and lots of non-white characters.
The themes and message are very, very blunt - big corporations bad, too few people controlling vast fortunes and largely making things worse for people rather than better, lots of things we can do to improve things but would need to be quite drastic changes in the world to do so...
By the midpoint, there's quite a lot of good character stuff, and also a lot of interesting discussion of society, philosophy, economics, and religion - but it's pretty much section by section either one or the other, and it doesn't feel like it all comes together into a cohesive narrative at any point.
The timeline is also very confusing and I often found it hard to figure out what had happened at what point.
The second half gradually gets more confusing, more farfetched and more ridiculous - then dips quite dramatically in tension and interest - then turns into a schlocky thriller for quite a while - and then there's a ton of exposition of everything that's happened...
The ultimate conclusion of the main storyline was pretty satisfying, though - mostly because I was invested in the central romance, so the characters got me in the end! But I was left with a few unanswered questions - which increased exponentially with the post-acknowledgements last few pages, which basically lost me completely...
So - very much a mixed bag. I'm glad I persevered (that seems to be the theme of my reading so far this year) but I can't say I was blown away. There was quite a lot I enjoyed about this book, but it didn't really hold together, and it was quite confusing.
