Kaylia Metcalfe

And all that in my own words?

The Future is a dystopian novel about tech billionaires, cults, and survivalists. It tries to ask the question: what would you do to protect the future? Unfortunately, it seems to only ask certain people… people in positions of power or maybe people very very close to people in positions of power.

Which isn’t to say that the question itself isn’t worth asking, but if you are looking for a “greulla fight” type of burn-it-all-down story about a driven group of normies who manage to save us all…well, this isn’t the book for you. 

But that’s ok. I mean, it worked for me. I love the fantasy of the plucky underdogs as much as the next millennial raised on Star Wars and Harry Potter, but if you really think about it, the people in power (the rich people with power) have most, if not all, of the control and ability to actually fix the problems of the world. My decision to recycle isn’t going to be nearly as helpful in stopping climate change as several governments deciding to pass regulations that move us away from dependency on fossil fuels (just an example). 

Ok, this book is over 400 pages but this review shouldn’t be. Let’s get into it.

A Atmosphere:

This is a dystopian novel in that it describes a society that is undesirable and frightening. But I want to be clear here, this is not a post-apocalyptic novel… at least not at the onset. This is a dystopian novel about what leads up to the apocalypse. Interestingly, the central drama of the book is not about averting or stoping the apocalypse, but rather is how to manage it, control it, and maybe benefit from it or live through it. Again, most of our main characters are powerful people or powerful by proxy, and they have the self-interest of any person facing down a near extinction level event: how can I survive and protect the people or things or institutions that I care about?

The tone is… a bit scattered, to be honest. Despite what you might expect, there is no sense of urgency or a ticking clock. Even though, I think Alderman meant for there to be one. We will talk a bit more about that when we get to Plot and Pacing but for now, let me just say that the tone is one of narrative wordiness. Alderman has a LOT of plot to get to and so she sacrifices nuance at times for more of a manifesto vibe full of talking points that are sometimes actually said out loud (actual talking talking points) but are often either thought or typed out in the online chat community that is a key part of the story. Let’s get to that…

S Style:

Ok real quick. If the name Naomi Alderman sounds familiar to you, you might have heard or read her book The Power. That book had a variety of characters from a variety of backgrounds and the style was very “collection” as the reader moved through time and plot alongside these characters. We learned along with them, and their distinct voices and issues and reactions flowed from that. 

This… is not that book. Again we do have a variety of characters, more on them in a second, and again we have a lot of skipping around all over the world… but this time their voices are not as distinct or varied. In fact, it feels at times that they are proxies for Alderman herself. I could be wrong, but I feel like I definitely got how Naomi Alderman feels about technology and the evils of capitalism more than how any of the somewhat seimi diverse cast of characters felt about these issues. Or maybe I am being prickly and most of these characters just have similar worldviews. I don’t know. 

All that aside, there is also the narrative device of the internet chatroom. We have chapters and chapters that are just message boards where usernames argue back and forth about esoteric concepts. Now, this is helpful as there is a pretty important cult that exists in this world and these message boards do a great job of explaining the cult and getting into the weeds of biblical mythos and symbolism and how it is related to technology etc… and the cult itself is very believable. In fact, the cult might be the most believable part of the entire book. Had this book been written by a male science fiction writer in the 70s, I think the Enochites might have given the Scientologists a run for their money. There is also a pretty active survivalist group that feels very very real. 

(Quick caveat, I don’t do the message board thing anymore… I mean I used to be fairly active on the Buffy The Vampire Slayer boards back in the day, but that was a good 20 years ago. I am pretty sure message boards evolved into Reddit and 4chan so they still exist in that version, and we all know that some really creepy places on the internet definitely exist and have preppers and doomsday vigilantes, and cult people…. But since I don’t personally take part in such things, I cannot tell you how accurate the message board in this book is. I can tell you that it feels very real and believable… but I have no idea if that is just because of what current culture has kind of hinted to me it is like in those places or if it is an accurate description.)

Anyway, back to writing style: Outside of the very detailed and profound, or at least profound sounding, diatribes credited to the folks on the message boards, the rest of the book is very simply written. You will not need a dictionary or a thesaurus… and you will have no problem understanding the words that are being used… but understanding the action or the plot, well,… that is a bit more complex.

P Plot: 

Let’s talk plot. Of course, spoiler free here, but some quick strokes. Bad things are coming. Bad things happen. Some people are trying to… affect those bad things. The question is who and what sort of affect. Are they trying to stop it? Profit off it? Hunker down and just get through it? For those questions you will have to read the book yourself, but I can tell you that the plot is out of order, relies on flashbacks, has multiple points of view, and is purposely vague at times to keep the character and the reader in the dark. 

Now, I sometimes enjoy that bit of mystery if I trust that the author has a clear plan, that all will be revealed, that it will make sense at the end… and most importantly, if the ends balance out the means. AKA: I want the reward to be on par with the struggle. You can’t have a character suffer too much trauma and then only get a mediocre ending. Well, you can, but I personally don’t find that very satisfying. The same is true the other way. If someone is going to get the perfect ending, they have to have gone through some actual shit. 

Since I can’t tell you the ending, I will tell you that I gave this a 5 star review on my StoryGraphy. I’ll just leave it at that. 

But the plot is full of characters and tech and future concepts in terms of world-building that might be hard to follow. You have to be okay with letting a certain amount of it wash over you before it all starts to make sense. You have to be okay with not understanding what is going on or why. That is hard for some readers and if you are that type of reader, feel free to not read this book. 

E Entertaining:

Yes. It kept me engaged… but mostly for the following reasons: 1. I trusted Alderman. 2. I was committed to finishing it. 3. A Sapphic love story arc existed… but on the back burner…. And I desperately wanted to know if it was going to make me happy or royally piss me off. 4. I was raised in the Christian church and I found the whole cult and the interpretation of the story of Lot and his wife fascinating. That story always bugged me and while Alderman does not make the story any less problematic or fucked up… she, through the voice of the message board users, does give it a context and symbology that I found really really interesting. Are they correct in how they interpret that story? No. I really don’t think so. I have a hard time thinking that the story is anything more than what it seems like on the surface…. But the literature major in me LOVES the idea of taking something we all pretty much know and saying, yeah but what IF this isn’t a story about virgins and hospitality and faith in god and punishing wickedness… what if it is about the struggle between the city and the country, tech and non-tech, hunters vs farmers, one type of society versus another… It is a very fun thought pool to jump into with or without drugs and there is definitely a part of me that wishes it were true. It would definitely make the Bible a little less awkward and far more interesting.  

To be fair, I’m a nerd and I can totally understand why other people noped out of this book.

C Characters:

I touched on this earlier, but Alderman’s characters were not that great in this book. On their own, they were fine… but put together as this mosaic of lived experience during this apocalyptic time… no. Again, they all sort of eventually sounded like the same voice. Which, was disappointing. Also? She has stand-ins for the rich billionaires in our own world and the characterization isn’t even subtle. You can clearly see who the Elon Musk stand-in is. Jeff Bezos is there too. Etc etc. The idea behind that isn’t necessarily bad… but the execution left a bit to be desired. However, karma is great and as this is a book about the fantasy of change, it is fine that these proxies are there. I just think that Alderman is capable of better and more nuanced depictions. 

Although… I have read that she started working on this book back in the late 20teens but it just didn’t get published until 2023. So… maybe my judgment is skewed because of how much a household name Musk and Bezos have both become in the last five years. There is a chance that had this book been published and read in say 2017, my quibbles about the tech billionaire stand-ins might be muted. Honestly though I just can’t remember. I feel like Elon has been a thorn in the side of, well so many things, for so long… he is like Trump. Was there a time before him? It’s hard to remember.

T: Why This Book?

I read this book in April of 2024. I thought it was going to be an optimistic book about the future and since I am an optimistic person, especially at the start of new things  (new years, new seasons, new weeks, new days, new projects, new friendships, new routines….) I was excited to read it. No idea what I was starting in mid April of last year, but, yeah. Plus, again, I really liked The Power and wanted to read another Naomi Alderman novel. It was a #BOTM pick, and it was in my top 10 of 2024. 

Final thoughts / Would I recommend it?

Ok so. I know I keep talking about The Power but bear with me a little longer. 

The Power was a feminist book about women gaining power and being able to change their circumstances. It was billed and promoted as a feminist fantasy and a lot of self-described feminists were very excited to read it. 

But

The Power was actually a book about how power corrupts and the fact that the patriarchy exists and is awful for women isn’t because men are inherently evil or bad… it is just because they are the ones in charge… and once you give women the power, well… then you get a bunch of asshole people being awful to other people and setting up institutions that will keep them in power and oh look, in this case, it is women. To sum up, men aren’t the enemy, power is the enemy so women gaining power is not the answer to the actual big picture problem, it is just the answer to the current problem that women are facing. Do you see the distinction? 

I loved it by the way even though it was way darker and far more messy than anticipated. 

However, a lot of feminists and nonfeminists really did not like the book. It is far simpler and easier to have a more black and white outlook. Men bad, women good, men with power really bad, women with power utopia! Except, humanity is complex and there are assholes in every group. Evil is like color. It isn’t gendered and it is socially constructed. The Power dealt with that and it was pretty epic. 

Ok, so back to this book The Future. Capitalism is evil. Technology things like AI and drones, and algorithms, and the very existence of billionaires is evil. BUT… if you are going into this book with the idea that the answer is going to be easy and sweet and not challenge your perceptions… well, this might not be the book for you. Because if the answer to the problem of rich and powerful people is a different subset of rich and powerful people… then what is the actual message that Alderman is trying to tell us? 

If you like your fantasy simple where the good guys wear white and the bad guys are introduced with thudding baselines and organ music… this might not be the book for you. If, however, you are interested in seeing this not as an allegory for our times but as a pure dystopian novel about a world that is somewhat like ours…. This will probably work for you. If you are cool with a scattered timeline, a “variety of points of view” and wrestling with some thorny issues that really do not have simple answers, and you aren’t afraid of a 400 page book,… then yeah. But it is ok if this is not your cup of tea. It really is. There are lots of other teas out there to drink and most will have a better aftertaste.

*** ASPECT Method (I created this, I used it, feel free to do the same.)

A Atmosphere: How did it make me feel? What was the world like? This might include the overall tone.

S Style: What was the writing style like? Simplistic or sophisticated? Clunky or beautiful?

P Plot/Pace: Was it engaging? Were there holes? Did it feel too rushed or too long?

E Enjoyment: Was it a chore to finish or compelling enough that I picked it over other fun activities?

C Characters: Were they believable, sympathetic, interesting?

T This? Why did I read *This* book? What “Type” of book is it?