Book review: Naomi Alderman sees a lot of finger wagging in The Future
The follow-up to her successful The Power works well as a techno thriller, as long as you can ignore the ‘moral of the story’ clanking along loudly in the background
Naomi Alderman’s fourth novel, The Power, saw a supercharged female population smashing the patriarchy. A timely feminist message, it was also a proper science fiction thriller which sold by the truckload, helped along by celebrity endorsements. Inevitably, Amazon produced a streaming adaptation earlier this year, with Alderman on board as both writer and executive producer.
If The Power documented the end of the old order then perhaps the only way to follow it was with the end of the world altogether. The Future isn’t out in the street, ringing a bell, and declaring “The end is near!” It’s telling us that the end is already here in its opening sentence, but if you’re rich enough – not just well off but minted like Mansa Musa – you’ll be all right.
