I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Future is Yours by Dan Frey Published by Del Rey on February 9 2021
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 352
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A computer with the ability to see one year into the future causes all sorts of problems in this thought provoking and twisty sci-fi story.
I thought this book was a lot of fun! If you enjoy twisty, mind-bending sci-fi stories with an emphasis on technology and how it shapes our lives, you’ll probably have fun with this too. The Future is Yours is told in an epistolary format through a combination of emails, text messages, internet articles, blog posts, tweets and more. I liked this format a lot, although in my eARC the formatting wasn’t very good. For that reason, I would recommend reading a physical copy if you can, which I’m sure is formatted better.
The story revolves around Ben Boyce and Adhi Chaundry, who meet at Stanford as undergrads and decide to launch a technology start up after Adhi makes a startling discovery. Based on theories of quantum computing, Ben and Adhi develop a prototype computer that can “see” one year in the future. This opens up all sorts of possibilities, and they decide to call their company The Future and sell their revolutionary computer to the masses. But things do not go smoothly, as they run into all sorts of roadblocks, including trying to lure investors into giving them loans, family squabbles, and the frustrations of coming up with a Prototype that actually works. When they finally succeed they become overnight billionaires (on paper, at least.) But it turns out seeing a year into the future might not be a good idea after all, and that’s when things really start to fall apart.
Ben and Adhi have been summoned to a Congressional hearing which begins on December 1, 2021, right before the company is due to open retail stores across the country and launch their product. This serves as the main framework for the book, as the judiciary committee questions Ben about data that has come back from the future, suggesting that civilization as we know it is coming to an end. These sections are interspersed with emails and other communications between Ben, Adhi and a host of other characters, which show the progression of creating and testing the device. Most of these communications are dated, which is very important, as Frey jumps around from past to future and back again. I liked that he even mentions Covid-19, as Covid falls right in the middle of his timeline. (I’m pretty sure the publisher made a decision to add this in before publication, since the author probably wrote his book long before Covid made an appearance.)
Frey does a great job of exploring all the things that might go wrong when people are given a crystal ball of sorts that can see into the future. Before the computer even hits the market, Ben and Adhi do lots of testing on the Prototype by googling themselves and the company to see if they will be successful. When they are able to pull up and download future internet articles that prove their success, they start to get greedy in the present, which leads to all sorts of issues. There’s also a very dark side to all this, as several deaths occur that directly link back to the use of the Prototype. Ben and Adhi try to cover up all the negative aspects because there is so much money on the line, but you just know it’s coming back to bite them in the butt.
I enjoyed the way the author shows the pitfalls and challenges of starting a business, from investors to marketing and having to deal with people who are trying to seize control of their ideas. Ben and Adhi bring various friends and colleagues into the mix who ultimately muddy the waters and cause a lot of headaches for them. Frey also namedrops famous companies like Apple and Facebook to make some of his points, which I liked.
The actual idea of a computer that sees into the future was a lot of fun, and I loved how the characters react to certain revelations about themselves. And of course, once they get their computer to work, they start to think even bigger—the big question of “can we change the future for the better?” is explored with interesting results. Near the end, Frey introduces yet another futuristic device to bring his story full circle, and I actually thought it worked pretty well, although I’m curious to see what other readers think about it.
But let’s talk about the characters, which is where this book falters a bit. I really didn’t like Ben at all. He’s sort of a jerk, not to mention he always seems to be lying about one thing or another. His wife Leila is a corporate attorney and eventually joins the company—conveniently enough when The Future starts to run into legal problems. There’s all sorts of soap opera-like melodrama surrounding Leila and Ben and Adhi, and Ben cheats on his wife at one point and tries to shrug it off as nothing. Leila and her father have an odd relationship as well. He’s trying to control Leila’s life and wants her to work at his firm, but of course Leila has other ideas. The only character I really liked was Adhi, who is a sensitive, thoughtful man who uses his blog, The Black Hole, to muse over art as a metaphor for life—he talks about Star Wars and Star Trek, vampires and Krishna, and I thought these sections were a good way to dig deeper into his personality. Adhi is also the only person connected with The Future who is smart enough to realize how it might actually destroy the future, and he takes steps to correct that.
But ultimately, my issues with some of the characters didn’t really ruin my reading experience. I finished The Future is Yours in only a day and a half, mostly because I wanted to find out how everything ended up. I’ll admit I did not see that ending coming, but for me it worked.
Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.
That’s a shame about the characters but otherwise this sounds fabulous, especially the premise of a computer that can see into the future. Wild!
It was wild, and honestly the characters weren’t as important as the ideas.
Great review! I think you know I loved it too. 🙂 I agree, Ben becomes a total jerk — success seems to bring out the worst in him. I thought the reasoning about not being able to change the events that the Prototype sees was really interesting, and I agree, I loved Adhi’s blog posts!
I thought the author explored some really interesting ideas, it definitely makes you think!
Fantastic review! I count on you to bring these books to my attention since I’m not always tuned into them.
Thanks Anne, I do like that we don’t always read the same types of books. I enjoy hearing about all genres:-)
This sounds like it would be worth a read!
I really enjoyed it and it was hard to put down:-)
Ohhh, this is intriguing! And it makes me think about predestination paradoxes, which are the source of proverbial headaches: since the main characters can see one year in the future, would their present actions end up influencing the future they see and ultimately change it? I will have to read the book to get the answer, won’t I? 😉
Thanks for sharing!
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The book explores all of that! Yes, definitely read it and I’d love to hear what you think:-)
This had me considering how one interesting thing about science fiction is how it explores what could go right or wrong with different sorts of technologies if they were possible. And this is so much the case there’ve been scientific groups that included science fiction writers to try to explore all these different possiblities in advance. And all this had me wondering how often science fiction stories actually make reference to this when exploring the technology that we as readers know is destined to cause problems, but they within the story often don’t. All that aside, though, it does sound like an entertaining read. 🙂
This is definitely one of those “cautionary tales” that explores the pitfalls of technology. Lots of fun!
I’m far more excited to pick this up after seeing how much you’ve enjoyed it! Physical format definitely sounds like it will work better, it’s also a bummer when eARCs don’t have great formatting. This sounds like such an interesting concept to explore.
Lots of food for thought, it really makes you think!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it too!
I really did, fun and twisty:-)
This sounds… complicated. Most time related things give me a headache But what I really want to know is whether this is one of those things where the computer predicts Ben is going to cheat on his wife, so he figures he has to do it to ensure the timeline, or something of the like? I’ve never cared for those sort of paradoxes.
Nice review Tammy!
Well, you actually got it partially right, lol. Although things don’t quite work that way, but yes sort of.
Hoping to read this one later this month, so I skimmed the details – but I’m glad you enjoyed this and that any pitfalls weren’t enough to hamper enjoyment!
I swear all the SF I’ve been reading lately is starting to blend together, lol, although this is one of the better ones. I need a good fantasy very soon:-)
This sounds extremely intriguing to me! I do love the premise, it sounds like something I’d like. I might have to find room for this one. Great review, Tammy!
Thanks Lisa, it was very good!
I love books with this format! It usually add something to the whole experience (that’s not to say that I would love for all the books being like that, but once in a while, to mix the things up and see something different, I really love it!) and this seems an interesting reading, even if it is a shame that you didn’t like all the characters! (Ben really seems bad!)
I agree, it’s nice to change up the format of your books, it keeps things interesting:-)
This sounds good, even though you didn’t like the characters much it didn’t spoil the read for you which is good.
Lynn 😀