Everything Belongs to the Future
-
-
4.3 • 3 Ratings
-
-
- $4.99
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
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.
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.
"The scariest, most enduring dystopias walk a fine line between parable and prediction. Penny erases that line. In this made-up story, the rich speciate from the poor; in our real world, working class lifespans are declining as the one percent live ever longer lives at ever-greater removes from the rest of us. This is no mere literary device. This is a pitiless allegory, calculated to enrage and terrify its readers." -- Cory Doctorow
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Time is the ultimate weapon in this uneven dystopian novella from political columnist Penny, in which have-nots are determined to take down the haves who benefit from access to "the fix," an expensive life-extension drug. The story, set in Oxford, England, follows a group of starry-eyed off-the-grid misfits who team up with brilliant scientist Daisy Craver to overthrow "gerontocratic biopower and the money system" by giving away a generic fix for free. Little do the idealists realize that Daisy is planning a different revolution, one that aims to destroy everyone and everything the fix has touched. Despite its provocative central gimmick and a powerful opening voice, the story drags under the weight of heavy-handed philosophical sidebars and discussions about the nature of time, art, the ethics of science, and the business of scientific discovery. The book insists that scientists don't think about the implications of their work but artists do, an idea that will no doubt come as a surprise to many readers in both the arts and the sciences. Penny raises valid questions about access to scientific advances, but readers will wish those questions came with more believable characters and a less predictable plot.
