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Everything Belongs to the Future
Time is a weapon wielded by the rich, who have excess of it, against the rest, who must trade every breath of it against the promise of another day's food and shelter. What kind of world have we made, where human beings can live centuries if only they can afford the fix? What kind of creatures have we become? The same as we always were, but keener.
In the ancient heart of Oxford University, the ultra-rich celebrate their vastly extended lifespans. But a few surprises are in store for them. From Nina and Alex, Margo and Fidget, scruffy anarchists sharing living space with an ever-shifting cast of crusty punks and lost kids. And also from the scientist who invented the longevity treatment in the first place.
Everything Belongs to the Future is a bloody-minded tale of time, betrayal, desperation, and hope that could only have been told by the inimitable Laurie Penny.
In the ancient heart of Oxford University, the ultra-rich celebrate their vastly extended lifespans. But a few surprises are in store for them. From Nina and Alex, Margo and Fidget, scruffy anarchists sharing living space with an ever-shifting cast of crusty punks and lost kids. And also from the scientist who invented the longevity treatment in the first place.
Everything Belongs to the Future is a bloody-minded tale of time, betrayal, desperation, and hope that could only have been told by the inimitable Laurie Penny.
117 pages, Paperback
First published October 18, 2016
About the author
Laurie Penny
30 books602 followersLaurie Penny is a journalist, an author, a feminist and a net denizen. She is Contributing Editor at New Statesman magazine, and writes and speaks on social justice, pop culture, gender issues and digital politics for The Guardian, The Independent, Vice, Salon, The Nation, The New Inquiry and many more. She is the author of Cybersexism, Penny Red and Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism, as well as Discordia: Six Nights in Crisis Athens, co-authored with Molly Crabapple. Her book, Unspeakable Things, was published by Bloomsbury in 2014. In 2010, at the age of 23, she was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing. She is a frequent guest on national television and radio, has appeared on Question Time, Any Questions and Newsnight for the BBC, as well as Al-Jazeera and Democracy Now, and has given talks at the Oxford Union and the London School of Economics.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 179 reviews
December 23, 2016
For me, this was a story of diminishing returns. It started really, really strongly - I thought I was going to love it. 60-80 years in the future, society has been changed by the development of a drug that arrests the aging process. Problem is, it has to be taken daily, and of course, the wealthy elites have made sure that it is expensive enough to be out-of-reach of the masses. Naturally, this has exacerbated the rift between haves and have-nots.
In the college town of Oxford, a small group of young artists & activists have hatched a plan to infiltrate a gala event at which a large supply of the drug - known as "the fix" - will be available. Unexpectedly, while they're there, they will encounter the notorious inventor of the drug - a near-centenarian still in a pubescent body.
It's a great set-up, and promises an exploration of all kinds of interesting issues and ideas. However, for me, it did not convince or deliver.
My main problem is that everything about the book felt so, so, so very 2016. It's chock-full of contemporary buzzwords and issues, with absolutely no sense of awareness that issues-of-the-day ARE of a day, not universal & timeless. The author proposes a radical social change, but is utterly and wholly unimaginative about echoing repercussions of that change other than the one she wants to talk about, let alone natural social changes that would occur over the course of nearly a century. I really, really hope that decades from now, young people are not still nattering on, wittering about "safe spaces" and "coming out" to their parents (for just a couple of examples). People in this book even dress and group themselves just as people do today... "crust-punks" in the 2090s? Really? People aren't going to come up with anything new?
The narrative gave me the impression that readers were supposed to be sympathetic to the activist group. However, for me, it failed. It wasn't that I wasn't convinced that this social problem needed a good dose of activism - it surely did. However, all these people were supremely annoying. They were self-righteous and selfish, but blind to their own selfishness, convinced that they were acting in the interests of social justice. How much of this is intentional? I'm not sure. I feel like the author is asking the reader to consider whether their actions within the plot were justified or defensible, and as they're portrayed, they're so clearly not that it doesn't seem like it's worth asking the question. The novella also feels unbalanced, because it gives us no perspective from 'the other side.' (It also fails to address the obvious 'population problem' question, which is the #1 corollary to an extended lifespan, in any meaningful way.)
The most interesting character was Daisy, the nonagenarian scientist, and her moral quandaries. How would it be, to be a supremely intelligent researcher, still mentally alert and actively working into your 90s, while in the body of a near-child? How would it be to see the changes your discovery hath wrought? Unfortunately, we never really got into her head, and I ended up finding her unconvincing. Her behavior and decisions just didn't feel like things that someone of her experience and background would choose.
As the novella went on, it began to feel like it wanted to be a political essay more than a story, and it lost me. I was disappointed, as it had initially felt so promising.
Read for my SF book club; copy provided by Tor and Netgalley. As always, my opinions are solely my own.
In the college town of Oxford, a small group of young artists & activists have hatched a plan to infiltrate a gala event at which a large supply of the drug - known as "the fix" - will be available. Unexpectedly, while they're there, they will encounter the notorious inventor of the drug - a near-centenarian still in a pubescent body.
It's a great set-up, and promises an exploration of all kinds of interesting issues and ideas. However, for me, it did not convince or deliver.
My main problem is that everything about the book felt so, so, so very 2016. It's chock-full of contemporary buzzwords and issues, with absolutely no sense of awareness that issues-of-the-day ARE of a day, not universal & timeless. The author proposes a radical social change, but is utterly and wholly unimaginative about echoing repercussions of that change other than the one she wants to talk about, let alone natural social changes that would occur over the course of nearly a century. I really, really hope that decades from now, young people are not still nattering on, wittering about "safe spaces" and "coming out" to their parents (for just a couple of examples). People in this book even dress and group themselves just as people do today... "crust-punks" in the 2090s? Really? People aren't going to come up with anything new?
The narrative gave me the impression that readers were supposed to be sympathetic to the activist group. However, for me, it failed. It wasn't that I wasn't convinced that this social problem needed a good dose of activism - it surely did. However, all these people were supremely annoying. They were self-righteous and selfish, but blind to their own selfishness, convinced that they were acting in the interests of social justice. How much of this is intentional? I'm not sure. I feel like the author is asking the reader to consider whether their actions within the plot were justified or defensible, and as they're portrayed, they're so clearly not that it doesn't seem like it's worth asking the question. The novella also feels unbalanced, because it gives us no perspective from 'the other side.' (It also fails to address the obvious 'population problem' question, which is the #1 corollary to an extended lifespan, in any meaningful way.)
The most interesting character was Daisy, the nonagenarian scientist, and her moral quandaries. How would it be, to be a supremely intelligent researcher, still mentally alert and actively working into your 90s, while in the body of a near-child? How would it be to see the changes your discovery hath wrought? Unfortunately, we never really got into her head, and I ended up finding her unconvincing. Her behavior and decisions just didn't feel like things that someone of her experience and background would choose.
As the novella went on, it began to feel like it wanted to be a political essay more than a story, and it lost me. I was disappointed, as it had initially felt so promising.
Read for my SF book club; copy provided by Tor and Netgalley. As always, my opinions are solely my own.
April 20, 2018
4.5 stars
This is Penny’s first foray into fiction I think. I am already a fan of her blogging and political writing. This is a dystopian novella set in Oxford in 2098. As one reviewer has aptly put it; it is “a tale of pharmadystopian, immortal gerontocrats.”
The idea is a simple one. In the early 21st century a drug is developed that maintains youth. It is very expensive, so only the rich can afford it. It is available with some job packages and the wealthy company owning the rights give it to some writers and artists. Society is more divided, the rich being richer and the poor much poorer. The main protagonists are a bunch of activists and anarchists who share a house; Nina, Alex, Margo, Fidget and a few others. They attempt to steal the youth giving drug and give it out mixed in free food for the poor and homeless. They meet Daisy, a disillusioned scientist who helped to develop the drug and who wants to make amends. Action is planned, but what the reader knows but the activists do not is that Alex is working undercover for the drug company.
This is an easy read and could be read quite comfortably in one sitting. Penny has the ability to create believable characters quickly. They all have flaws and are all believable. Penny also uses characters who are transgender in a way which feels natural and unforced. Penny raises the sort of issues you would expect, given her politics; macro issues like climate change, scientific ethics, class, poverty and issues related to gender identity, sexuality, aging and individual responsibility.
The prose and the pacing are good. At times the plot can appear clunky and disjointed and this highlights the main problem for me; the book needs to be longer, much longer. There is plenty of content here that would allow a full length novel and with that sort of space the characters could be given more space to develop and the plot not rushed.
A sharp and thought provoking read.
This is Penny’s first foray into fiction I think. I am already a fan of her blogging and political writing. This is a dystopian novella set in Oxford in 2098. As one reviewer has aptly put it; it is “a tale of pharmadystopian, immortal gerontocrats.”
The idea is a simple one. In the early 21st century a drug is developed that maintains youth. It is very expensive, so only the rich can afford it. It is available with some job packages and the wealthy company owning the rights give it to some writers and artists. Society is more divided, the rich being richer and the poor much poorer. The main protagonists are a bunch of activists and anarchists who share a house; Nina, Alex, Margo, Fidget and a few others. They attempt to steal the youth giving drug and give it out mixed in free food for the poor and homeless. They meet Daisy, a disillusioned scientist who helped to develop the drug and who wants to make amends. Action is planned, but what the reader knows but the activists do not is that Alex is working undercover for the drug company.
This is an easy read and could be read quite comfortably in one sitting. Penny has the ability to create believable characters quickly. They all have flaws and are all believable. Penny also uses characters who are transgender in a way which feels natural and unforced. Penny raises the sort of issues you would expect, given her politics; macro issues like climate change, scientific ethics, class, poverty and issues related to gender identity, sexuality, aging and individual responsibility.
The prose and the pacing are good. At times the plot can appear clunky and disjointed and this highlights the main problem for me; the book needs to be longer, much longer. There is plenty of content here that would allow a full length novel and with that sort of space the characters could be given more space to develop and the plot not rushed.
A sharp and thought provoking read.
September 10, 2020
Oh you, little novella, I very much liked you and your biopunk vibe.
Prior to reading, I knew nothing about the story or its author, just that I needed something short to help get my reading groove back. A premise inspired by true events is woven into a bleak vision of our future, one that is easy to imagine. I very much liked the narrative choices and writing style; I could feel the damp and smell the dumpster dive stew. Yum.
Prior to reading, I knew nothing about the story or its author, just that I needed something short to help get my reading groove back. A premise inspired by true events is woven into a bleak vision of our future, one that is easy to imagine. I very much liked the narrative choices and writing style; I could feel the damp and smell the dumpster dive stew. Yum.
December 23, 2016
Not for me.
October 22, 2016
A short sharp read from Laurie Penny here in a novella length story which I banged through during a working break - intriguing premise, nicely done, but I wanted more to be honest.
One thing that worked for me particularly was the Oxford setting which I know well, living as I do just outside of it, so the sense of place was strong and the Oxford Laurie Penny creates is a compelling one. In a world where you can have longevity of life if you have enough money to pay for it whilst everyone else lives in a rather ravaged world (global warming very current social comment there) a group of activists set out to change things.
Of course things don't go entirely to plan.
I loved what I read but it felt slightly unfocused because it was so short. The concept here could easily be a full length novel which would have allowed for more character development (although in fairness the author gets the sense of them across very quickly) and for more of the scientific speculative element which was so fascinating.
All in all though I enjoyed it very much. Quite thought provoking and a good way to kill some time when you only have a short reading while.
Recommended for the idea.
One thing that worked for me particularly was the Oxford setting which I know well, living as I do just outside of it, so the sense of place was strong and the Oxford Laurie Penny creates is a compelling one. In a world where you can have longevity of life if you have enough money to pay for it whilst everyone else lives in a rather ravaged world (global warming very current social comment there) a group of activists set out to change things.
Of course things don't go entirely to plan.
I loved what I read but it felt slightly unfocused because it was so short. The concept here could easily be a full length novel which would have allowed for more character development (although in fairness the author gets the sense of them across very quickly) and for more of the scientific speculative element which was so fascinating.
All in all though I enjoyed it very much. Quite thought provoking and a good way to kill some time when you only have a short reading while.
Recommended for the idea.
October 12, 2016
For me, science fiction is at its best when it tells an allegorical story reflecting on issues of the present day, and this is what makes Laurie Penny's Everything Belongs To The Future such a strong work.
In 2098, scientists have created a Fountain of Youth in a little blue pill. This creates a gerotocracy that only further divides the haves from the have-nots, as the pill is marketed to the rich, and priced so only the wealthy have access. A small group of idealistic youths with aspirations of political revolution attempt to undermine this disparity and create a modified version of the drug, appropriately named a Time Bomb, to undermine the quest for longevity.
A writer on social justice, feminism, and gender issues, journalist Laurie Penny brings all of these topics to bear in her science fiction debut (Penny has written several non-fiction titles, including 2014's Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies, and Revolution). Her vision of England at the turn of the next century is highly recognizable, but subtly shaded with the repercussions of present-day issues (certain segments of England, for instance, are underwater thanks to many of our Old White Man politicians ignoring climate change and its now-unstoppable effects on future generations). There's plenty of justifiable anger simmering in this book's plot, as well, and while the character's motives are nicely gray their final solution is anything but.
Everything Belongs To The Future is richly political and frighteningly dark, but there's also a certain honesty to it's 'what if' nature that I appreciate. It's better to have a bitter truth than a comforting lie, in my opinion, and this title certainly hits on several unsavory truths about mankind, ambition, and greed.
Final rating: 4 1/2 stars, rounded to 5 on the Goodreads rating metric.
[I received an advanced copy of this title for review from the publisher via NetGalley.]
In 2098, scientists have created a Fountain of Youth in a little blue pill. This creates a gerotocracy that only further divides the haves from the have-nots, as the pill is marketed to the rich, and priced so only the wealthy have access. A small group of idealistic youths with aspirations of political revolution attempt to undermine this disparity and create a modified version of the drug, appropriately named a Time Bomb, to undermine the quest for longevity.
A writer on social justice, feminism, and gender issues, journalist Laurie Penny brings all of these topics to bear in her science fiction debut (Penny has written several non-fiction titles, including 2014's Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies, and Revolution). Her vision of England at the turn of the next century is highly recognizable, but subtly shaded with the repercussions of present-day issues (certain segments of England, for instance, are underwater thanks to many of our Old White Man politicians ignoring climate change and its now-unstoppable effects on future generations). There's plenty of justifiable anger simmering in this book's plot, as well, and while the character's motives are nicely gray their final solution is anything but.
Everything Belongs To The Future is richly political and frighteningly dark, but there's also a certain honesty to it's 'what if' nature that I appreciate. It's better to have a bitter truth than a comforting lie, in my opinion, and this title certainly hits on several unsavory truths about mankind, ambition, and greed.
Final rating: 4 1/2 stars, rounded to 5 on the Goodreads rating metric.
[I received an advanced copy of this title for review from the publisher via NetGalley.]
February 26, 2017
Brilliant spec fic/sci-fi story, great structure. Wonderful characters who seemed so real to me. Loved it.
July 29, 2016
[Revising rating after further thought. Looks like I'm going with 2.5. Full length review coming.]
November 22, 2016
The nitty-gritty: A strong concept that should have worked, but for this reader, there just wasn’t enough emotional connection for me to enjoy the story.
Alex was a survivor. Alex wanted the fix, and that was the deal, the box of Turkish delight to sweeten the work of professional betrayal: half a century. Standard offer to all TeamThreeHundred employees with security clearance. Shit pay and long hours, but what did that matter when at the end of it all, you got fifty more years, at least?
It was the perk to end all perks.
Everything Belongs to the Future has an awesome premise: a longevity pill called the fix has been invented which can extend a person’s life for decades if taken every day, but you have to be rich to afford it. Enter a group of anti-establishment types who have an idea to make their own generic form of the fix and give it away to the masses. But unfortunately, that idea doesn’t go quite as planned…
So the concept sounds good, but unfortunately for me, the execution didn’t quite work. I’m usually a fan of novellas, and Tor.com especially has published some stellar ones this year. But this might be a situation where the story didn’t have enough space to develop, and might have worked better as a novel. The story begins with someone in prison writing a letter to two of the characters, Daisy and Alex. Letters from this mysterious person are interspersed throughout the novella, and eventually you figure out who is writing them. Daisy created the fix and she’s been taking it since she was fourteen, and even though she’s over ninety, she still looks like a teenager. But Daisy has had enough of the elitist mentality that only the rich can afford to extend their lives, and so she sets out to develop a form of the fix outside the laboratory that the masses can access.
Daisy recruits activists Alex, Nina and Margo who set her up in a shed where she begins her experiments, growing a fungus that she discovered on the body of a dead fixer. But Daisy’s experiment goes very wrong, and she ends up creating something much more volatile than she expected. And unbeknownst to Daisy, Alex is actually a spy who works for TeamThreeHundred, the company that holds the patent for the fix, and his job is to pinpoint activists and stop them. Alex does whatever his bosses tell him to do, because at the end of his contract, the company has promised him fifty extra years. It’s his job to stop Daisy, but it may too late…
I'm not that familiar with Laurie Penny, but I believe this is one of her first works of fiction. From checking out her website and Goodreads, I think she’s mostly known for her nonfiction books. I guess my main problem with this story is that I just couldn’t connect to any of the characters. Their personalities all blended together and it was hard, honestly, to tell them apart from each other. Daisy was the most interesting for me, because she turns out to be a rather dangerous person. And I did love the reveal when we find out what emerges from Daisy’s research, but that alone just wasn’t enough for me to recommend this story. Ultimately, what it lacked for me was emotion. I wanted to feel something, for the characters and what was happening to them, but by the end I just felt “meh” about the whole thing.
However, Penny’s writing is solid and I enjoyed her style. I’m definitely curious to read more of her fiction, especially if she addresses social issues—like the divide between the classes, which is what she did here.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.
October 12, 2016
Entertaining and thought-provoking, this novella left me wanting more. (Sooooo much more!)
(Full disclosure: I received a free ebook for review through NetGalley. Trigger warning for rape.)
“All I wanted was to make something small and bright and good, something that lasted a little while, a little while longer than I did. All I wanted was to push back against the darkness just a little bit. To live in the cracks in capitalism with the people I care about, just for a little while. But it turns out I can’t even have that. And now I just want to burn shit down.”
It's the turn of the century - the 21st, to be exact - and humanity has finally discovered the fountain of youth. It comes in the form of a little blue pill that will cost you $200 a pop on the black market; a little less, if you're one of the lucky few who has insurance. Most don't, as this "weaponization of time" has only exacerbated class inequality.
Only the wealthiest citizens can afford life-extension drugs; regular folks deemed "important to society" - scientists, artists, musicians, the occasional writer - may receive a sponsorship to continue their work, but ultimately they live and age and die at the whim of those more powerful than they. Show a modicum of concern for the working class, and you just might find your sponsorship revoked.
Alex, Nina, Margo, Fidget, and Jasper are a group of artist/activists living in a dilapidated, mouse- and mold-infested flat in the underside of Oxford city. They work day jobs where they can find them, but their real passion is playing at Robin Hood. A few times a week, they load up their food truck with cheese sammies or mystery stews made of reclaimed food, and distribute free meals to Oxford's neediest citizens. At the bottom of each foodstuff is a happy meal surprise: a little blue pill, most likely stolen. One per person, so second helpings.
The group's machinations are kicked up about twenty notches when they meet Professor Daisy Craver (d.o.b. April 14, 2003), a 95-year-old woman in a 14-year-old girl's body. She was one of the pioneers of the fix; now she wants to be its downfall. Or rather, its equalizer.
Complicating matters is Alex's duplicity: for the past three years, he's been working for Daisy's employer, TeamThreeHundred, as a snitch: infiltrating the group and reporting back on their activities.
(Given that he's sleeping with Nina, this raises some pretty thorny ethical questions, as explored in "AFTER SARKEESIAN: A RADICAL FEMINIST CLOUDCAST." Penny based this particular plot point on contemporary reports of undercover officers in the UK "deliberately engineer[ing] relationships with activists to facilitate their work.": "Interviews with the agents spin these stories as tragic doomed romances. The women involved describe the experiences as a violation. We believe them.")
So I'm really enjoying Tor's new series of novellas; it gives me a chance to read more authors and explore more fictional worlds than I could otherwise, thanks to the shorter format. As with Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe , Everything Belongs to the Future expertly walks the tightrope that is the novella. Penny introduces a world that is rich and complex and vividly imagined, giving us a plot that's fully fleshed out and resolved satisfactorily, all in just 112 pages. And she leaves us wanting more. (So, so much more!) This is an idea that could easily support a full-length novel - or a whole series of them - and yet still makes it work in a fraction of space.
The characters are all wonderfully developed, from Nina and Daisy to Margo and Fidget. I especially loved the introduction of Milo; he could easily carry a spin-off novella on his own (someone make this happen please?). Penny tackles a wealth of issues: class, race, religion, the meritocracy, sexuality, representation, gender identity, activism, gender, rape, consent, climate change, biodiversity, science and ethics. Everything Belongs to the Future exhibits greater diversity than the entire oeuvres of some authors, and is all the better - more real, engaging, and compassionate - for it.
To summarize, I cannot recommend Everything Belongs to the Future highly enough. The only real downside is that it makes me super-depressed that Penny hasn't written more fiction, on account of she's so damn good at it. Le sigh.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2016/12/05/...
(Full disclosure: I received a free ebook for review through NetGalley. Trigger warning for rape.)
“All I wanted was to make something small and bright and good, something that lasted a little while, a little while longer than I did. All I wanted was to push back against the darkness just a little bit. To live in the cracks in capitalism with the people I care about, just for a little while. But it turns out I can’t even have that. And now I just want to burn shit down.”
It's the turn of the century - the 21st, to be exact - and humanity has finally discovered the fountain of youth. It comes in the form of a little blue pill that will cost you $200 a pop on the black market; a little less, if you're one of the lucky few who has insurance. Most don't, as this "weaponization of time" has only exacerbated class inequality.
Only the wealthiest citizens can afford life-extension drugs; regular folks deemed "important to society" - scientists, artists, musicians, the occasional writer - may receive a sponsorship to continue their work, but ultimately they live and age and die at the whim of those more powerful than they. Show a modicum of concern for the working class, and you just might find your sponsorship revoked.
Alex, Nina, Margo, Fidget, and Jasper are a group of artist/activists living in a dilapidated, mouse- and mold-infested flat in the underside of Oxford city. They work day jobs where they can find them, but their real passion is playing at Robin Hood. A few times a week, they load up their food truck with cheese sammies or mystery stews made of reclaimed food, and distribute free meals to Oxford's neediest citizens. At the bottom of each foodstuff is a happy meal surprise: a little blue pill, most likely stolen. One per person, so second helpings.
The group's machinations are kicked up about twenty notches when they meet Professor Daisy Craver (d.o.b. April 14, 2003), a 95-year-old woman in a 14-year-old girl's body. She was one of the pioneers of the fix; now she wants to be its downfall. Or rather, its equalizer.
Complicating matters is Alex's duplicity: for the past three years, he's been working for Daisy's employer, TeamThreeHundred, as a snitch: infiltrating the group and reporting back on their activities.
(Given that he's sleeping with Nina, this raises some pretty thorny ethical questions, as explored in "AFTER SARKEESIAN: A RADICAL FEMINIST CLOUDCAST." Penny based this particular plot point on contemporary reports of undercover officers in the UK "deliberately engineer[ing] relationships with activists to facilitate their work.": "Interviews with the agents spin these stories as tragic doomed romances. The women involved describe the experiences as a violation. We believe them.")
So I'm really enjoying Tor's new series of novellas; it gives me a chance to read more authors and explore more fictional worlds than I could otherwise, thanks to the shorter format. As with Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe , Everything Belongs to the Future expertly walks the tightrope that is the novella. Penny introduces a world that is rich and complex and vividly imagined, giving us a plot that's fully fleshed out and resolved satisfactorily, all in just 112 pages. And she leaves us wanting more. (So, so much more!) This is an idea that could easily support a full-length novel - or a whole series of them - and yet still makes it work in a fraction of space.
The characters are all wonderfully developed, from Nina and Daisy to Margo and Fidget. I especially loved the introduction of Milo; he could easily carry a spin-off novella on his own (someone make this happen please?). Penny tackles a wealth of issues: class, race, religion, the meritocracy, sexuality, representation, gender identity, activism, gender, rape, consent, climate change, biodiversity, science and ethics. Everything Belongs to the Future exhibits greater diversity than the entire oeuvres of some authors, and is all the better - more real, engaging, and compassionate - for it.
To summarize, I cannot recommend Everything Belongs to the Future highly enough. The only real downside is that it makes me super-depressed that Penny hasn't written more fiction, on account of she's so damn good at it. Le sigh.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2016/12/05/...
August 5, 2017
I love goodreads. I hadn't heard about this novella before a review by Alice showed up in my feed. Thanks to her review I got to read this thought provoking SF novella.
There's a lot of ideas to think about, the one that struck me while reading, is how the powerful have always stolen the time of the less powerful, be they the slaves, peasants, factory workers or just the working class. In reading the acknowledgments the author points out a real world inspiration Which I hadn't considered.
There's a lot of ideas to think about, the one that struck me while reading, is how the powerful have always stolen the time of the less powerful, be they the slaves, peasants, factory workers or just the working class. In reading the acknowledgments the author points out a real world inspiration Which I hadn't considered.
October 5, 2016
Important Story™
Review to come at not-6AM. Though 6AM in and of itself says plenty.
Review to come at not-6AM. Though 6AM in and of itself says plenty.
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October 21, 2016Laurie Penny's long(ish) form fiction debut is a depressingly plausible update of John Wyndham's Trouble With Lichen, set in a late 21st century where eternal youth, like everything else, is freely available to those who can afford it and well out of reach for the rest. The scene is Oxford, in some ways an easy place to project forward a few decades because "Time works its insulting wizardry on everything that breathes, fixed or free, but Oxford never changes." The sense of a timeless space which assimilates the new, the disgust/seduction of the balls, the jockeying over whether a safe space policy means it is or is not OK to have queer sex with "Tory scum" in a shared house...she's got them all down perfectly (though bear in mind that much of my Oxbridge experience was gathered at the other place, which in Penny's future has sunk, because of course an Oxford alumna's SF story which incorporates global warming couldn't resist that detail). That aside, though, she does a great job of resisting the easy jab, the cheap dig. This is a fervent, partisan political book - given the author and the theme, how could it not be? - but it's artistically so, not clunking Pat Mills political. The villain of the piece isn't some cackling 1% caricature, he's an ordinarily weak man taking what seems like the least worst deal in a profoundly fucked society, just like most of the people responsible for the wrongs of the world. And the net of issues which provide the basis for this future is ingeniously woven: biotech patents, the extremes of radical activism, the undercover cops forming relationships to bolster their cover, the consequences of privatisation - these are all real issues now, none of them look to be getting any better, and as they all get worse and leave a smaller and smaller space for anyone to get by in the cracks, the future they make might very well look something like this. Though again, Penny is smart enough to know that just as no advance is without its unforeseen problems, so no change is entirely for the worse: in a world where the magnates and CEOs can expect to see another century, of course they'd finally start taking climate change seriously. There's also a second theme threaded tightly around the first: in a world where immortality of the body has become available, what does that mean for the artist's decision to devote their mayfly existence to making something they hope might outlast them?
Correspondences to Jerusalem, because they seem to arise in every book I finish while reading Jerusalem (except possibly the sub-par Doctor Who anthology and the sex blogger's memoir for which I skipped this bit): I see think pieces every so often saying British fiction doesn't really engage with class anymore. I got a 100-page novella by a debut author and a 1,200-pager by a veteran which say otherwise.
November 16, 2016
I really wanted to like this more than I did, as I've loved Laurie Penny's non-fiction work, but in the end this novella is just too slight on ideas and character to recommend. It reminds me a lot, actually, of the film In Time (itself based on a story, if I recall correctly), which was a smart concept on paper, but the film disappointed by not going into the idea with anything more than surface-level depth. That's sadly the case here. Penny's writing is fine—there's nothing bad here, but the characters and world are thinly sketched—but the overarching conceit, of a world in which life can be extended via a very expensive pill, feels like the first draft of something that requires more room to breathe. It touches a bit on the class ramifications of such a drug, but it doesn't really go any further than that.
Granted this sort of thing—life extension—is of particular interest to me and is something I've obsessed over in one of my larger projects, and that's likely why this left me more frustrated than satisfied in the end. The concept of maybe not immortality but certainly unnatural longevity is one that spirals into so many areas—population control, political legacies and the stifling of new ideas, art and culture and industries that are built on the young looking/staying young forever—that this novella about class warfare and political activism/anarchy just... it just doesn't go far enough. I would love to see Penny take this back to the drawing board and blow it out into something big and expansive, really tear apart the culture that would accept and/or normalize such a thing and what that might mean for the future of our species. But as it stands, there's not much here beyond a loose collection of characters and ideas that only sort of work together.
Granted this sort of thing—life extension—is of particular interest to me and is something I've obsessed over in one of my larger projects, and that's likely why this left me more frustrated than satisfied in the end. The concept of maybe not immortality but certainly unnatural longevity is one that spirals into so many areas—population control, political legacies and the stifling of new ideas, art and culture and industries that are built on the young looking/staying young forever—that this novella about class warfare and political activism/anarchy just... it just doesn't go far enough. I would love to see Penny take this back to the drawing board and blow it out into something big and expansive, really tear apart the culture that would accept and/or normalize such a thing and what that might mean for the future of our species. But as it stands, there's not much here beyond a loose collection of characters and ideas that only sort of work together.
February 6, 2017
Received to review via Netgalley
I found this a pleasant short story on a fairly familiar theme, which never really got past the point of being readable and good enough to while away some time with. I think my problem was that I essentially knew where it all was going, and the social commentary was pretty obvious. Thus, I find that I have correspondingly little to say about it. It’s competently written, and the conflict of the central character between his deceit and his love was perhaps the best thing about it. His mixed feelings and confused decisions made sense and seemed very human, which is always important to root any story into reality, and especially useful with something speculative.
Overall, I wasn’t incredibly impressed, but I wasn’t bored either — I’d read more by Laurie Penny, though probably not more set in this world. I think the story said all that needed to be said about this concept.
Originally posted here.
I found this a pleasant short story on a fairly familiar theme, which never really got past the point of being readable and good enough to while away some time with. I think my problem was that I essentially knew where it all was going, and the social commentary was pretty obvious. Thus, I find that I have correspondingly little to say about it. It’s competently written, and the conflict of the central character between his deceit and his love was perhaps the best thing about it. His mixed feelings and confused decisions made sense and seemed very human, which is always important to root any story into reality, and especially useful with something speculative.
Overall, I wasn’t incredibly impressed, but I wasn’t bored either — I’d read more by Laurie Penny, though probably not more set in this world. I think the story said all that needed to be said about this concept.
Originally posted here.
August 4, 2017
I wasn't aware that Ms Penny had released any fictional work until recently. I've been a huge fan of her feminist and political writing for years, so I was really excited to find out she had a novel out.
It didn't disappoint. This was an amazing piece of dark, speculative fiction with a diverse and interesting cast of characters. The story revolves around a group of well-meaning anarchists, and is told from the point of view of Alex, who probably thinks he is a 'nice guy'.
This story left me with so many interesting thought trains to ponder. Especially about age, and being a female who ages in a society which celebrates only youth in women.
I guess this book may not be for everybody, but I'd definitely recommend it to friends who like to think, period. Amazing work. <3
It didn't disappoint. This was an amazing piece of dark, speculative fiction with a diverse and interesting cast of characters. The story revolves around a group of well-meaning anarchists, and is told from the point of view of Alex, who probably thinks he is a 'nice guy'.
This story left me with so many interesting thought trains to ponder. Especially about age, and being a female who ages in a society which celebrates only youth in women.
I guess this book may not be for everybody, but I'd definitely recommend it to friends who like to think, period. Amazing work. <3
September 14, 2017
I tend to enjoy Laurie Penny’s non-fiction writing, notably Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution, so found the brevity and slightness of her first fiction book somewhat disappointing. I read this novella in about half an hour and my main response was contemplation of what constitutes an allegory. On the cover of ‘Everything Belongs to the Future’, a Cory Doctorow quote describes it as ‘pitiless allegory’. I would disagree, as to me allegory implies abstraction. The theme of the book is time as wealth and direct control by the rich over the length of poorer people’s lives, something that Marx discusses in 'Capital'. Here, there is a pill that delays ageing and most people can’t afford it. The book is set at a specific time (2098) and place (Oxford), extrapolating in a linear fashion from the situation today. This lack of distance from reality does not make for an allegory, not really allowing for the contrast that allegorical writing is supposed to perform. (As an aside, I haven’t studied literature since I was 16, so have no academic standing to say what is and isn’t an allegory. This is merely based on reading stacks of sci-fi and dystopian fiction over the years.)
The reason I’m nitpicking (aside from my personality) is that I found the story intriguing yet insubstantial. It could have been condensed into an Ted Chiang-esque thought experiment short story with less emphasis on character, or alternatively expanded into a full novel with a slower plot and greater depth of characterisation. Hovering between the two at novella length is a bit awkward. There’s also the fact that having read Laurie Penny’s non-fiction writing and plenty of sci-fi makes ‘Everything Belongs to the Future’ seem quite familiar. I liked it, but it didn’t say anything new. This is a first effort, though, and I really hope she keeps writing sci-fi.
The reason I’m nitpicking (aside from my personality) is that I found the story intriguing yet insubstantial. It could have been condensed into an Ted Chiang-esque thought experiment short story with less emphasis on character, or alternatively expanded into a full novel with a slower plot and greater depth of characterisation. Hovering between the two at novella length is a bit awkward. There’s also the fact that having read Laurie Penny’s non-fiction writing and plenty of sci-fi makes ‘Everything Belongs to the Future’ seem quite familiar. I liked it, but it didn’t say anything new. This is a first effort, though, and I really hope she keeps writing sci-fi.
September 12, 2018
Fast contemporary sci fi that is a fun little anarchist themed read.
November 22, 2016
I was intrigued by the concept of this novella but the execution fell short. The characters were flat and uninteresting, especially Alex, and seemed to exist only to serve the plot. The story quickly became a standard haves vs have nots tale, and its politics, no matter how laudable, were simplistic and overshadowed any of the story's nuances. The world building felt incomplete, and there was little emotional core to draw me into the story. On the positive side, Nina's letters were well-written and compelling. More of her point of view and less of Alex's might have helped. This one didn't work for me but I liked enough of it to try something else by Penny in the future.
2.5/5
2.5/5
December 21, 2016
Cool concept but really more a short story than a novella, and I think it suffers for it.
The last part of the story feels cramped and unsatisfying compared to the great premise.
It was always somebody else's apocalypse. Until it wasn't. The end of the world was an endless dark tomorrow: always arriving but never actually here.
The last part of the story feels cramped and unsatisfying compared to the great premise.
It was always somebody else's apocalypse. Until it wasn't. The end of the world was an endless dark tomorrow: always arriving but never actually here.
December 27, 2016
In the near future the dividing line between the haves and have nots is access to immortality. This novella is a really interesting look at what the consequences would be and also taking from real life the actions of undercover police who infiltrate groups. Strongly recommended
November 10, 2016
It’s difficult to overstate how much I loved Laurie Penny’s
Unspeakable Things
. You should read it, full stop. So when I heard she had a novella coming out, of course I pre-ordered it right away. Whereas some science fiction speaks so optimistically to the potential for technological innovations to make our world better, Everything Belongs to the Future falls decidedly on the opposite side of that scale. The dystopian world that Penny imagines here is chilling because it feels all too realistic. Worse still, I’m not sure I disagree with her protagonists’ methods of challenging it.
One thing that Unspeakable Things does well is ground feminist thought in systemic, rather than personal, critiques. That is to say, individual people might commit sexist or misogynistic acts, but we have to view those actions as part of a larger system (the patriarchy). Penny is very good at describing how the systemic nature of discrimination is harmful to people of all genders. When viewed in this way, it becomes more evident why feminism cannot be about “women hating men” or somehow overthrowing them and usurping their power—because in the system we have today, even men don’t necessarily have as much power (they just have privilege that allows them to remain blind to this fact). Feminism and the fight for equity, liberation, and justice can benefit men as well as women, because it’s about replacing a broken system, not championing one gender over another.
Penny explores this idea further in Everything Belongs to the Future. I like how there are no explicit villains in this piece. One of the antagonists, Alex, is a POV character who clearly feels that his actions are justified, that he is acting in his (and even Nina’s) best interests. The character arguably closest to being a villain, Parker, Penny portrays more like just any other cog in the machine of the company. We don’t get as much access to his head, so it’s hard to tell if he has bought into the company line as much as he seems to have done. Nevertheless, even Parker is simply another representative of the system of oppression. It’s this system, the gerontocratic version of patriarchy, that is the real villain of the piece. Penny invites us to have empathy even for the antagonists and to understand that the work of changing society is difficult and often lateral rather than direct.
Penny draws heavily on Foucault as she explores the ramifications of an age-extending pill—literal biopower, if you will—on our society. I’m not sure if Foucault ever commented on the role of biopower as exercised by a corporation rather than nation-state (but I’m sure his successors have since articulated such theories). Penny imagines a future that is, unfortunately, all too possible: one wherein corporations have more power thanks to their personhood, patents, and other legal devices that individuals cannot afford to wield.
The setting is full of interesting ideas. In particular, Penny observes that all the people whose lives have been extended suddenly have to deal with the consequences of global warming that they were previously happy to heap onto their descendants’ shoulders. This is science fiction at its best: a technological innovation just beyond our reach, with its consequences considered carefully as the author uses it to reflect the issues that haunt our contemporary culture. In this case, the age-extending pill just makes explicit what people who experience poverty already know: rich people can afford more time. They can afford medical treatments to extend their lives or treat debilitating illness; they don’t have to worry about working as much to make ends meet. Poverty is a kind of double tax, on one’s wallet and one’s time. And Penny is spot on when she postulates that if such an innovation were to hit the markets, it wouldn’t be the poor who benefit from it.
This is not a comfortable book to read. This is not a book where our band of plucky underdogs heroically take on the big bad corporation and win (or even lose gloriously).
There are not really heroes in this book. There are just people who do bad things and believe their actions justified. Penny minces no words, acknowledging that our protagonists are unabashed terrorists. One of my favourite passages comes from a fictitious piece quoted within the story:
Do you remember that awful Justin Timberlake movie In Time, where one’s time left to live has become a quantifiable commodity to be bought and sold? The trajectory of this novella’s plot reminds me of that movie, if that movie had not been quite so hokey. In both stories, time becomes a weapon, and characters fight over who can give it or take it away.
The comparison to—and contrast with—the atomic bomb is apt. The atomic bomb rightly freaked out everyone at the time, because it was just so destructive. Since then, though, we’ve designed plenty of equally destructive weapons—or, arguably, weapons that are even more destructive on an absolute scale, simply because we use them infinitely more often than nukes. Remotely-operated drones are freaky and deadly, but we don’t see as many people campaigning against drone strikes—partly because, since they don’t put soldiers on our side in as much danger, they seem like a safer, more “humane” way to wage war.
So, returning to the biopower theme, we have this idea that the next weapons breakthrough will revolve around “humane” weapons. This is a common motif in dystopias, where the forces of social coercion are usually insidious because they are not necessarily forceful. In Everything Belongs to the Future, if you play your cards right, you get extra years on your life. If you don’t cooperate, then you will remain a mere mortal and expire, while those you snubbed will get on with their plots without you.
But I can’t stop thinking about how the Time Bomb is so terrible and yet our protagonists use it anyway and Penny acknowledges it’s a bad thing. I’m reminded of the Season 5 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and what Giles does because he knows that Buffy can’t do it: “She’s a hero, you see. She’s not like us.” Moments like this are a challenge to the reader, because you have to stop and ask yourself if you would make the same choices. Would you do it? If I were in Nina’s position, would I use such a terrible device? I don’t know the answer, of course—I don’t think it’s possible to know, really, not having experienced the same intense nadir of hopelessness that Nina and her crew have. But it bears thinking about, because even if we don’t have age-extension and Time Bombs in our current society, we are all complicit in a system of aggression—some of it micro-, far too much of it macro—and we have to ask ourselves how best we can change this system.
It’s so easy to dress up for the part of revolutionary, to call for revolution. It is harder to actually become a revolutionary and live with yourself if you start one.
And that ending! That ending is brutal. I can’t say I’m sorry to see it turn out that way. I don’t think it’s a particularly undeserved ending, if you know what I mean—but it’s not the way you want your stories to end. It’s an uncomfortable ending for an uncomfortable book. I like that this is a novella, and while it certainly could have been a novel, I disagree with people who are saying it should have been. The story might be novella-length, but the time that would have been taken reading a novel-length version still gets used up just thinking about what’s already here. I’m actually really grateful Penny hasn’t dropped a novel on us yet, because I’m not sure my brain could handle that much.
So don’t let the size fool you here: Everything Belongs to the Future is intensely thought-provoking. It touches on matters of gender and class and sexuality. It challenges us to think about the relationship between resistance and terrorism, between corporations and consent and rape culture. These are all pressing topics in this day and age, and through the lens of the future, Penny brings clarity to the conversations we should be having in the present.
One thing that Unspeakable Things does well is ground feminist thought in systemic, rather than personal, critiques. That is to say, individual people might commit sexist or misogynistic acts, but we have to view those actions as part of a larger system (the patriarchy). Penny is very good at describing how the systemic nature of discrimination is harmful to people of all genders. When viewed in this way, it becomes more evident why feminism cannot be about “women hating men” or somehow overthrowing them and usurping their power—because in the system we have today, even men don’t necessarily have as much power (they just have privilege that allows them to remain blind to this fact). Feminism and the fight for equity, liberation, and justice can benefit men as well as women, because it’s about replacing a broken system, not championing one gender over another.
Penny explores this idea further in Everything Belongs to the Future. I like how there are no explicit villains in this piece. One of the antagonists, Alex, is a POV character who clearly feels that his actions are justified, that he is acting in his (and even Nina’s) best interests. The character arguably closest to being a villain, Parker, Penny portrays more like just any other cog in the machine of the company. We don’t get as much access to his head, so it’s hard to tell if he has bought into the company line as much as he seems to have done. Nevertheless, even Parker is simply another representative of the system of oppression. It’s this system, the gerontocratic version of patriarchy, that is the real villain of the piece. Penny invites us to have empathy even for the antagonists and to understand that the work of changing society is difficult and often lateral rather than direct.
Penny draws heavily on Foucault as she explores the ramifications of an age-extending pill—literal biopower, if you will—on our society. I’m not sure if Foucault ever commented on the role of biopower as exercised by a corporation rather than nation-state (but I’m sure his successors have since articulated such theories). Penny imagines a future that is, unfortunately, all too possible: one wherein corporations have more power thanks to their personhood, patents, and other legal devices that individuals cannot afford to wield.
The setting is full of interesting ideas. In particular, Penny observes that all the people whose lives have been extended suddenly have to deal with the consequences of global warming that they were previously happy to heap onto their descendants’ shoulders. This is science fiction at its best: a technological innovation just beyond our reach, with its consequences considered carefully as the author uses it to reflect the issues that haunt our contemporary culture. In this case, the age-extending pill just makes explicit what people who experience poverty already know: rich people can afford more time. They can afford medical treatments to extend their lives or treat debilitating illness; they don’t have to worry about working as much to make ends meet. Poverty is a kind of double tax, on one’s wallet and one’s time. And Penny is spot on when she postulates that if such an innovation were to hit the markets, it wouldn’t be the poor who benefit from it.
This is not a comfortable book to read. This is not a book where our band of plucky underdogs heroically take on the big bad corporation and win (or even lose gloriously).
There are not really heroes in this book. There are just people who do bad things and believe their actions justified. Penny minces no words, acknowledging that our protagonists are unabashed terrorists. One of my favourite passages comes from a fictitious piece quoted within the story:
If one puts aside for a second the question of strict political morality with the understanding that it is dangerous to do so for more than a second one soon realizes that the Time Bomb is as much a paradigm shift in human violence as the machine gun, the tank or the atom bomb. Few lives are lost in its detonation, except at the center of the blast zone; strictly speaking, no injuries are caused. It is a weapon at once entirely humane and utterly monstrous.
Do you remember that awful Justin Timberlake movie In Time, where one’s time left to live has become a quantifiable commodity to be bought and sold? The trajectory of this novella’s plot reminds me of that movie, if that movie had not been quite so hokey. In both stories, time becomes a weapon, and characters fight over who can give it or take it away.
The comparison to—and contrast with—the atomic bomb is apt. The atomic bomb rightly freaked out everyone at the time, because it was just so destructive. Since then, though, we’ve designed plenty of equally destructive weapons—or, arguably, weapons that are even more destructive on an absolute scale, simply because we use them infinitely more often than nukes. Remotely-operated drones are freaky and deadly, but we don’t see as many people campaigning against drone strikes—partly because, since they don’t put soldiers on our side in as much danger, they seem like a safer, more “humane” way to wage war.
So, returning to the biopower theme, we have this idea that the next weapons breakthrough will revolve around “humane” weapons. This is a common motif in dystopias, where the forces of social coercion are usually insidious because they are not necessarily forceful. In Everything Belongs to the Future, if you play your cards right, you get extra years on your life. If you don’t cooperate, then you will remain a mere mortal and expire, while those you snubbed will get on with their plots without you.
But I can’t stop thinking about how the Time Bomb is so terrible and yet our protagonists use it anyway and Penny acknowledges it’s a bad thing. I’m reminded of the Season 5 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and what Giles does because he knows that Buffy can’t do it: “She’s a hero, you see. She’s not like us.” Moments like this are a challenge to the reader, because you have to stop and ask yourself if you would make the same choices. Would you do it? If I were in Nina’s position, would I use such a terrible device? I don’t know the answer, of course—I don’t think it’s possible to know, really, not having experienced the same intense nadir of hopelessness that Nina and her crew have. But it bears thinking about, because even if we don’t have age-extension and Time Bombs in our current society, we are all complicit in a system of aggression—some of it micro-, far too much of it macro—and we have to ask ourselves how best we can change this system.
It’s so easy to dress up for the part of revolutionary, to call for revolution. It is harder to actually become a revolutionary and live with yourself if you start one.
And that ending! That ending is brutal. I can’t say I’m sorry to see it turn out that way. I don’t think it’s a particularly undeserved ending, if you know what I mean—but it’s not the way you want your stories to end. It’s an uncomfortable ending for an uncomfortable book. I like that this is a novella, and while it certainly could have been a novel, I disagree with people who are saying it should have been. The story might be novella-length, but the time that would have been taken reading a novel-length version still gets used up just thinking about what’s already here. I’m actually really grateful Penny hasn’t dropped a novel on us yet, because I’m not sure my brain could handle that much.
So don’t let the size fool you here: Everything Belongs to the Future is intensely thought-provoking. It touches on matters of gender and class and sexuality. It challenges us to think about the relationship between resistance and terrorism, between corporations and consent and rape culture. These are all pressing topics in this day and age, and through the lens of the future, Penny brings clarity to the conversations we should be having in the present.
July 5, 2017
The effect of youth-extending drugs on society has been explored many times before, and almost always better. I also find the counter-culture of the 2090s here frustratingly identical to the counter-culture of the 2010s. In short: there's a lack of imagination here all around.
April 4, 2017
I discovered Laurie Penny from an article about Milo Yiannopoulos during that media brouhaha. (check it out https://psmag.com/on-the-milo-bus-wit...).
I’m not sure what grabbed me but I really like the way she writes, so naturally I head to Goodreads and then to Amazon. There I found “Your Orisons May Be Recorded ” a 22 page story that I wished was a full novel. Again, I am not sure why I found it so endearing but I wanted more.
So, yesterday I had to take a day off for doctor suff (nothing too serious) and to limit my baggage I only brought my kindle. Even though I have tons of unread books on the thing I remembered Laurie Penny and found this short novel (maybe I should have broadened my male horizons and read one of the feminist flavored books, but I didn’t).
Any-hoo...I really liked this one, maybe loved it. The only reason I don’t use 5 stars is because I try to reserve that for those that really blow my mind. This came close, but for now I’m sticking with 4 stars.
But the crux of book is brilliant, a drug that extends life, possibly unlimited, and prevents sickness, AND is only available to those who can afford it. Or get it free because they are deemed by the government to be “worth” more that your average Joe. It is brilliant in that it crystallizes so much of our present society, basically who gets what out of civilization and why, and even more fundamentally what is life all about anyway?
Although this one feels complete, much like “Your Orisons May Be Recorded ” at the end I wanted more.
It was a wonderful one day read.
I’m not sure what grabbed me but I really like the way she writes, so naturally I head to Goodreads and then to Amazon. There I found “Your Orisons May Be Recorded ” a 22 page story that I wished was a full novel. Again, I am not sure why I found it so endearing but I wanted more.
So, yesterday I had to take a day off for doctor suff (nothing too serious) and to limit my baggage I only brought my kindle. Even though I have tons of unread books on the thing I remembered Laurie Penny and found this short novel (maybe I should have broadened my male horizons and read one of the feminist flavored books, but I didn’t).
Any-hoo...I really liked this one, maybe loved it. The only reason I don’t use 5 stars is because I try to reserve that for those that really blow my mind. This came close, but for now I’m sticking with 4 stars.
But the crux of book is brilliant, a drug that extends life, possibly unlimited, and prevents sickness, AND is only available to those who can afford it. Or get it free because they are deemed by the government to be “worth” more that your average Joe. It is brilliant in that it crystallizes so much of our present society, basically who gets what out of civilization and why, and even more fundamentally what is life all about anyway?
Although this one feels complete, much like “Your Orisons May Be Recorded ” at the end I wanted more.
It was a wonderful one day read.
October 20, 2016
Soooooo...as you know I'm a fan of crime and suspense fiction and anything with a badass lady protagonist. While this book is listed as SF--I gotta say it sure reads like a crime novel, and it definitely has a badass lady protagonist.
My one complaint is that it is TOO SHORT. I could have easily read another hundred pages, and wanted to get to know the characters better!!
The book centers around a couple crimes actually and brings up the ideas of breaking the law to do something moral and right, and cops doing things that are immoral and wrong to enforce laws that are dangerous and absurd.
There is a very funny, gruesome, grave robbing scene that I liked very much.
Good stuff!!
My one complaint is that it is TOO SHORT. I could have easily read another hundred pages, and wanted to get to know the characters better!!
The book centers around a couple crimes actually and brings up the ideas of breaking the law to do something moral and right, and cops doing things that are immoral and wrong to enforce laws that are dangerous and absurd.
There is a very funny, gruesome, grave robbing scene that I liked very much.
Good stuff!!
February 24, 2017
This was...okay. This is going to be a short review because there was nothing about this story and characters that impressed me well enough to wax rhapsodic over it. The worldbuilding is very thin, and while the characters are reasonably well drawn, their motivations and backstories are not explored in enough depth to make this an outstanding story.
Laurie Penny does have a sharp, concise writing style, however, no doubt due to her years as a journalist. I think she is a writer to follow, even if this story is unmemorable.
Laurie Penny does have a sharp, concise writing style, however, no doubt due to her years as a journalist. I think she is a writer to follow, even if this story is unmemorable.
August 25, 2018
Everything Belongs to the Future is a powerful novella, examining the wrongs of government in a future world that silences dissent in any form. On the surface, it's a look at the implications of a society where the rich are able to extend their lives by hundreds of years while the poor are left to live their normal lifespan. Deeper down, it's a condemnation of the unethical tactics used by the government to uncover the opposition and their desire to weaponize progress, no matter the cost.
Full review at: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2018/07/...
Full review at: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2018/07/...
May 29, 2018
I'm a really big fan of Laurie Penny's non-fiction writing, so I was curious to see how I would like her fiction. Sadly, I found myself to be pretty disappointed. While I loved the concept and the politics of the book, I found the overall plot and characters to be underwhelming. Part of that is due to the fact that it's a short book, just over 100 pages long, so a lot of it feels sketched out rather than fully rendered. The biggest problem I had with it, and one that is maybe not surprising considering Penny's writing background, is that so much of the story and characterization is told rather than shown. Character thoughts and motivations are stated up front, rather than demonstrated through interactions with other characters. That kind of technique works well in journalism, where you're trying to paint a vivid picture of a real life subject in a short period of time, but in fiction it can come across as lazy or patronizing, like the author doesn't trust that the reader will understand what's going on unless it's directly stated. The science fiction concepts in the book are interesting, but they don't feel fully developed, most of the time they just feel like a vehicle to get the political message of the piece across, which can be heavy-handed at times. I would have liked to see this fleshed out into a full-length novel, because I do enjoy Penny's prose, and a number of the characters held a lot of promise. For people not familiar with her work, I would recommend sticking to the non-fiction essay collections. However, if she takes another turn at fiction I will be checking it out.
May 19, 2020
Actual rating: 3.4/5
This book was a mixed bag. On the one hand, I really like the premise and some of the execution. The philosophical and moral implications of scientifically discovered immortality is fascinating to think about.
For every major plot point, there are usually important sub plots. Threads that pull together to create the perfect whole piece.
This book did a good job of dealing with direct/main plot of the story and I felt that it successfully resolved issues within that scope.
However, there were quite a number of subplots that were... well, abandoned. I dunno mehn, it started well enough but the last 30+ pages ended up leaving me with way more questions than answers.
All in all, I don't think it is possible to explore a story with such a far reaching scope in a novella.
Still, it was a fluid read and I was definitely invested throughout.
This book was a mixed bag. On the one hand, I really like the premise and some of the execution. The philosophical and moral implications of scientifically discovered immortality is fascinating to think about.
For every major plot point, there are usually important sub plots. Threads that pull together to create the perfect whole piece.
This book did a good job of dealing with direct/main plot of the story and I felt that it successfully resolved issues within that scope.
However, there were quite a number of subplots that were... well, abandoned. I dunno mehn, it started well enough but the last 30+ pages ended up leaving me with way more questions than answers.
All in all, I don't think it is possible to explore a story with such a far reaching scope in a novella.
Still, it was a fluid read and I was definitely invested throughout.
September 15, 2017
This science fiction novella packs a lot into 120-ish pages. I picked this up after reading about it on Tor.com; Tor is really the only publisher that I actively follow and if they publish a book, it makes me instantly more interested.
Without giving too much away, this novella focuses on a future where anti-aging medication has been developed that allows people to delay aging by decades, even a century or two--but costs are so prohibitive that only the ultra-rich and privileged are given access to the drug. Needless to say, this causes a lot of social upheaval, and the book focuses on a group of artists gradually becoming immersed in social activism against this new source of division in society.
It's beautifully written and well-structured; I think it could also have been a great full-length novel, but then again, I tend to think that about any shorter work that I like. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys plausible, near-future science fiction focused on social issues.
Without giving too much away, this novella focuses on a future where anti-aging medication has been developed that allows people to delay aging by decades, even a century or two--but costs are so prohibitive that only the ultra-rich and privileged are given access to the drug. Needless to say, this causes a lot of social upheaval, and the book focuses on a group of artists gradually becoming immersed in social activism against this new source of division in society.
It's beautifully written and well-structured; I think it could also have been a great full-length novel, but then again, I tend to think that about any shorter work that I like. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys plausible, near-future science fiction focused on social issues.
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