Take a photo of a barcode or cover
eggcatsreads 's review for:
The Future
by Naomi Alderman
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Simon & Schuster for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
“Murder Your Local Tech Billionaire to Save the World” the Novel.
Okay, okay. So there’s no actual murder in this book. And a great deal of this novel focuses on differences in belief systems, rather than drastic plot actions. However, it’s catchy, and if I had to choose a brief description that would get me to read this novel, that’s what I’d use to describe this book.
This book is told through a few perspectives leading up to the end of the world. We follow a few of these aforementioned tech billionaires as they use a groundbreaking new technology to figure out when natural and manmade disasters reach the tipping point where they need to “get out of Dodge,” as it were. Their focus is on expanding their companies and making more money - regardless of the personal or environmental harm it will cause. It’s much easier to simply figure out when the end of the world would occur, and survive it so they can rule afterwards.
The other main perspectives follow a survivalist popular for showing others how to survive in extreme scenarios and prepping for disaster, and the assistant of one of the main companies in the novel. We also get excerpts from a forum of preppers discussing both survival - but also with a surprisingly large focus on religion (and mostly a cult started by one single man named Enoch).
Through individual perspectives, and this forum, we can see the connections to the current world, and the potentially unhinged ramblings of Enoch to his Enochnites. The main story told by Enoch focuses on two characters named Fox and Rabbit (hence, the cover art) where Fox is a hunter-gatherer who lives off the land but never fully settles or owns it, while Rabbit lives in cities and has become complacent and lost the ability to survive on his own. The novel focuses on whether one way of life is actually better than the other, and whether you should choose to leave and abandon - or stay and fix it.
In the Biblical context, this story of Fox and Rabbit is seen through many different characters, with focus in this novel on Lot and Abraham. Lot has settled in Sodom with his family, and eventually has to escape with his family before God destroys the entire city. Abraham, however, is blessed by God and travels from one place to another, teaching his gospel. The idea we focus on in this novel is whether the city of Sodom could have been saved vs destroyed. And we take this perspective to the world at large with the question - When do you leave? For how many people is it worth saving the world for?
The two differing perspectives in this novel then clash between these two ideologies. Is it better to simply continue on as we are and let the world eventually crash and burn, and climb out of the rubble to potentially make the changes we need to save it? Or should we incorporate some drastic changes now to avoid the end of the world altogether? Are we Fox or Rabbit? Do we let Sodom be destroyed?
I really enjoyed this book far more than I would have expected getting into it. Despite having a slow buildup, the narrative is engaging and really brings you into considering the larger picture - as well as the reflections to the world we currently live in. There are a few times where the timeline changes unexpectedly, and it can be hard to follow along, but it’s never so difficult that it takes you out of the story. I will also say that there were a few times near the end where it felt almost too hopeful and optimistic about the future (and reminded me of Tomorrowland 2023), but otherwise I would have liked to incorporate the solutions provided in this book. I was also unsure what the ending epilogue actually meant, but this book feels like one where you get more out of it on subsequent rereads (and despite really enjoying this novel, there were a few times it felt like I wasn’t smart enough to fully understand it - but once again, I expect to be rereading this novel more than once.)
“Murder Your Local Tech Billionaire to Save the World” the Novel.
Okay, okay. So there’s no actual murder in this book. And a great deal of this novel focuses on differences in belief systems, rather than drastic plot actions. However, it’s catchy, and if I had to choose a brief description that would get me to read this novel, that’s what I’d use to describe this book.
This book is told through a few perspectives leading up to the end of the world. We follow a few of these aforementioned tech billionaires as they use a groundbreaking new technology to figure out when natural and manmade disasters reach the tipping point where they need to “get out of Dodge,” as it were. Their focus is on expanding their companies and making more money - regardless of the personal or environmental harm it will cause. It’s much easier to simply figure out when the end of the world would occur, and survive it so they can rule afterwards.
The other main perspectives follow a survivalist popular for showing others how to survive in extreme scenarios and prepping for disaster, and the assistant of one of the main companies in the novel. We also get excerpts from a forum of preppers discussing both survival - but also with a surprisingly large focus on religion (and mostly a cult started by one single man named Enoch).
Through individual perspectives, and this forum, we can see the connections to the current world, and the potentially unhinged ramblings of Enoch to his Enochnites. The main story told by Enoch focuses on two characters named Fox and Rabbit (hence, the cover art) where Fox is a hunter-gatherer who lives off the land but never fully settles or owns it, while Rabbit lives in cities and has become complacent and lost the ability to survive on his own. The novel focuses on whether one way of life is actually better than the other, and whether you should choose to leave and abandon - or stay and fix it.
In the Biblical context, this story of Fox and Rabbit is seen through many different characters, with focus in this novel on Lot and Abraham. Lot has settled in Sodom with his family, and eventually has to escape with his family before God destroys the entire city. Abraham, however, is blessed by God and travels from one place to another, teaching his gospel. The idea we focus on in this novel is whether the city of Sodom could have been saved vs destroyed. And we take this perspective to the world at large with the question - When do you leave? For how many people is it worth saving the world for?
The two differing perspectives in this novel then clash between these two ideologies. Is it better to simply continue on as we are and let the world eventually crash and burn, and climb out of the rubble to potentially make the changes we need to save it? Or should we incorporate some drastic changes now to avoid the end of the world altogether? Are we Fox or Rabbit? Do we let Sodom be destroyed?
I really enjoyed this book far more than I would have expected getting into it. Despite having a slow buildup, the narrative is engaging and really brings you into considering the larger picture - as well as the reflections to the world we currently live in. There are a few times where the timeline changes unexpectedly, and it can be hard to follow along, but it’s never so difficult that it takes you out of the story. I will also say that there were a few times near the end where it felt almost too hopeful and optimistic about the future (and reminded me of Tomorrowland 2023), but otherwise I would have liked to incorporate the solutions provided in this book. I was also unsure what the ending epilogue actually meant, but this book feels like one where you get more out of it on subsequent rereads (and despite really enjoying this novel, there were a few times it felt like I wasn’t smart enough to fully understand it - but once again, I expect to be rereading this novel more than once.)