After a long run of disappointments and a lot of reading in other genres I'm finally hitting a run of good modern #sff#books I can recommend. First across the finish line is The Future by Naomi Alderman. It starts off in a pre-apocalyptic, more hopeful Bill Gibson mode with a highly capable young female protagonist getting dragged into an oligarchic power struggle by means of a Macguffin. Very readable, enjoyable catnip for anyone who despises tech billionaires.
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There's a lot going on in this book but it moves along quickly. I suppose it is in the style I've seen called "hopepunk" but people need to stop trying to make fetch happen with that. There were a couple minor things about it that I personally didn't love, like too much time spent retconning the Bible and a primitivist-Romantic cultural vibe I can't buy into but these are nitpicks. Mostly it's a smart, well told story of resistance to the looming tech driven disaster.🧵
Some other bullet point/keyword type notes on The Future by Alderman:
forcefully, thematically feminist
lesbian main character
diverse characters
very on trend/current in its tech biz references
None of the above feels forced or anything at all though. And the politics in the book are interesting, being anti techbro capitalist but not anti technology. I'm not really buying it but it's enjoyable to read and think about.
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