The Future Is Yours by Dan Frey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Title: The Future is Yours
Author: Dan Frey
Series: n/a
Pages: 352
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Date: February 9, 2021
Summary:
Two best friends create a computer that can predict the future. But what they can’t predict is how it will tear their friendship—and society—apart.
If you had the chance to look one year into the future, would you?
For Ben Boyce and Adhi Chaudry, the answer is unequivocally yes. And they’re betting everything that you’ll say yes, too. Welcome to The Future: a computer that connects to the internet one year from now, so you can see who you’ll be dating, where you’ll be working, even whether or not you’ll be alive in the year to come. By forming a startup to deliver this revolutionary technology to the world, Ben and Adhi have made their wildest, most impossible dream a reality. Once Silicon Valley outsiders, they’re now its hottest commodity.
The device can predict everything perfectly—from stock market spikes and sports scores to political scandals and corporate takeovers—allowing them to chase down success and fame while staying one step ahead of the competition. But the future their device foretells is not the bright one they imagined.
Ambition. Greed. Jealousy. And, perhaps, an apocalypse. The question is . . . can they stop it?
Told through emails, texts, transcripts, and blog posts, this bleeding-edge tech thriller chronicles the costs of innovation and asks how far you’d go to protect the ones you love—even from themselves.
Review:
One year. How wonderful would it be to know what will happen one year into the future? We would know the results of the presidential election. We would know where the world stands with the COVID-19 crisis. And yes, we would know the winning lottery numbers. Yes, that would be wonderful!
But why can we only see one year into the future? Has something happened? Is it a glitch with the software? Did we cause it?
Quantum physics is used to explain the ability of information to travel from the future. Don’t let that worry you though. There are only a couple of places where the science gets heavy and it does not disturb the flow of the story. I am not a scientist. I know the words/concepts they use, but I do not understand the science. Not understanding did not disturb the flow of the plot at all.
Underneath what is a wonderful science fiction story is a slow building tension. What really does happen in the future and does the “time machine” affect it? Can it, should it, be fixed?
I never saw the ending coming, but I should have. The clues were there. I just didn’t put it together.
This is not just a science fiction novel, but a novel of human relationships. There is jealousy, both professional and personal. There is a fear of the future and how this science can and will influence that future. There are politicians, scientists, and the common man. Everyone is involved!
I generally don’t care for books that are not written in straight prose. This one, however, makes the variety of styles work. The only thing is you have to pay attention to the dates because they jump around and I found that confusing at first.
Would I recommend this book? Definitely, but only to readers who enjoy science fiction. I don’t think this is a book for the general populace. I think that it would only be appreciated by readers who enjoy science whether they truly understand it or not.
This book was sent to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Elaine Reads . . . constantly! 