The Future (pub. November 7, 2023) by Naomi Alderman was just as good as her 2016 The Power (now an Amazon Prime limited series I still need to watch) but in a different way. Where The Power highlighted feminism and what could happen if women suddenly obtained an innate power to protect themselves, The Future goes further and highlights capitalism, tech, climate change, survivalists and what could happen to the future if just a few very powerful people didn’t get to make decisions that affect everyone else? I loved it and couldn’t wait to read what happened next.
Alderman focuses on two characters–Martha Einkhorn, executive assistant to techbro billionaire Lenk Sketlish–and Lai Zhen, survival expert and content creator. Their paths cross when Zhen interviews Martha and sparks fly between them in an interview that feels like a date, intimate but also viewed by the world, that results in a several-night fling.
In Martha’s circles, besides Lenk, CEO of Fantail (social media), are Ellen Bywater, widowed female CEO of Medlar (operating systems) and her nonbinary child Badger, and Zimri and Selah Nommik (Zimri is CEO of Anvil–logistics and purchasing–and Selah his wife and hotshot computer scientist/coder). These most powerful people in the world have contingency plans–their own bunkers paid for by their billions so that when the world ends, they and their chosen few will be able to continue.
With the story interspersed with excerpts from a survivalist message board and going back and forth in time and all over the world, it took a while to figure out what was going on, but when it was obvious–wow! What a thing to do.
The Future was also, happily, fat-positive, as Martha Einkhorn was described as “heavy-set” with creamy, freckled skin, and she was much-desired by Zhen.
Reading While Fat 