2024 the best of tomorrow novel review

Price: $14.57
(as of Dec 12, 2024 03:57:08 UTC - Details)

NEW YORK CITY, the near future: Mitchell Zukor, a gifted young mathematician, is hired by a mysterious new financial consulting firm, FutureWorld. The business operates out of a cavernous office in the Empire State Building; Mitchell is employee number two. He is asked to calculate worst-case scenarios in the most intricate detail, and his schemes are sold to corporations to indemnify them against any future disasters. This is the cutting edge of corporate irresponsibility, and business is booming.

As Mitchell immerses himself in the mathematics of catastrophe—ecological collapse, global war, natural disasters—he becomes obsessed by a culture’s fears. Yet he also loses touch with his last connection to reality: Elsa Bruner, a friend with her own apocalyptic secret, who has started a commune in Maine. Then, just as Mitchell’s predictions reach a nightmarish crescendo, an actual worst-case scenario overtakes Manhattan. Mitchell realizes he is uniquely prepared to profit. But at what cost?

At once an all-too-plausible literary thriller, an unexpected love story, and a philosophically searching inquiry into the nature of fear, Nathaniel Rich’s Odds Against Tomorrow poses the ultimate questions of imagination and civilization. The future is not quite what it used to be.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00ANI9EMO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux (April 2, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 2, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3718 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 317 pages
Reviewer: Claude Forthomme
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Remarkable Climate Fiction Novel
Review: An excellent read, well-written, fast paced, the main character is geeky, absent-minded and thoroughly likeable. The ending is unexpected, though in line with the character's off-beat personality. This was my first "brush" with climate fiction, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would just like to add that I suspect Nathaniel Rich's original intention was to zero in on one disturbing aspect of our society, the way we use mathematics and turn it into a pseudo-science to fool people and get them to cough up money for insurance. But after Hurricane Sandy, his book took on another deeper, more threatening meaning and it was suddenly seen as an excellent example of climate fiction. Indeed, the book cover is meant to catch this aspect, depicting New York under water. Climate fiction has been getting a lot of attention recently becoming fast a hot new genre that some see as an offshoot of science fiction and others as a self-standing speculative genre that has something important to say to us about our future.Regardless of that squabble, the fact is that Nathaniel Rich's book is highly entertaining and an excellent read - but it's also the kind of read that makes you think after you've closed the book, a definite plus!

Reviewer: Mika
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book on Environmentalism!
Review: I had to read this book for an environmental literature class, and it was way more interesting than a textbook. Nathaniel Rich blends in tons of references with a poignant message about the environment and the dangers it holds, as well as the multiple ways of looking at environmentalism through the many characters he offers. The plot moves rather quickly and keeps up a good pace. Humor is dotted throughout, sometimes macabre, but always welcome. The characters personify the ways of looking at global warming and environmentalism, and one can find references to WWII, Hurricane Katrina, Chernobyl, and more. Nathaniel Rich offers a view on how different people deal with disaster, and this book truly makes you think. The ending seemed to peter out for me, but it leaves it open to interpretation and a call to action.This would be a wonderful read for high-school and college-aged students looking for an environmental book that is packed with tension and action! The amount of papers that could be written on this book is endless, and I'm surprised at the lack of articles on it, although it is a 2014 book.

Reviewer: William Carpenter
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Interesting and Disastrous Premise
Review: Mitchell Zukor, the protagonist of Rich's novel Odds Against Tomorrow: A Novel, is a recent college graduate who moves to New York City and works as a "quant," that is as a quantitative analyst for a firm that engages in high finance. He is also obsessed by disasters and is very good at figuring out the odds of all sorts of unlikely but awful events. Thanks to a rather forced set of circumstances, he has the chance to earn a lot more money and indulge his passion in disasters by accepting a job at FutureWorld, a company that makes big dollars by indemnifying other companies against lawsuits sparked by disasters.This part of the novel is dark, but humorous and interesting. We learn a little bit about Mitchell's interesting parents, who are affordable housing slumlords in the mid-west, and see Mitchell develop a rather odd pen pal relationship with a woman who is an environmentalist farmer in Maine.Then a real disaster occurs - a hurricane that floods New York City. Mitchell is the only one who predicted such an event and briefly becomes a media star while trying to live through the disaster himself. Unfortunately this disaster is also where the novel becomes something of a disaster. The author switches from writing as a novelist to writing as a reporter. He obviously writes from the perspective of someone who has studied New Orleans after Katrina. It's all entirely plausible and horrific, but unfortunately not very interesting. As Mitchell changed in response to the disaster, I found my interest in him evaporated. Unfortunately the plot also becomes dull at this point in the book. I read to the end of the book only because I had almost finished it rather than because I was interested in the characters or the story.I should note that the author writes well, especially in some surprisingly wonderful descriptive passages.

Reviewer: Oliver
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Die Thematik des Buches und auch dessen Umsetzung sind interessant. Dem Leser wird die dahintersteckende Problematik einleuchtend geschildert. Jedoch zieht sich der Anfang sehr in die Länge.

Reviewer: Client d'Amazon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excellent mais livraison beaucoup trop lente

Reviewer: Rajat Pungaliya
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This book couldn't get any better! In love with the authors writing style. The story is absolute genius! If you're a fan of fiction and science, you will love this book!

Reviewer: Andre Paulo Alves
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: It was ok but plot wasn’t really believable

Reviewer: CHRIS WHITE
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Well written and not standard type plot or characters - much better than that.Never obvious what will happen next; a real plus.