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A review by ninjalawyer
The Skeptics' Guide to the Future: What Yesterday's Science and Science Fiction Tell Us About the World of Tomorrow by Bob Novella, Jay Novella, Steven Novella
3.0
Shallow futurism married to dull sci-fi.
This one is super disappointing - I love Dr. Novella’s work on the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, and some of the deep dives he does on his blog, but this was seriously challenging to not abandon. Anyone into sci-fi books and movies should be especially hesitant to pick this up - it’s all going to be a rehash of the last few decades of genre cliches, at least for the first half.
The first half is particularly dull. This one sees Novella talking about current tech (self-driving cars, stem cells, gene manipulation, etc.), which tended to be at a YA level of complexity, and then extrapolating that tech far into the future. The initial explanation will be trite to anyone who has read the news in the last 5 years, and the extrapolations are straight out of sci-fi films.
Early on, Novella gestures at the fact that just because a tech can work doesn’t mean it will take off if society rejects it or certain uses of it (e.g., we don’t clone people just because we can), but the predictions never get into an interesting level of discussion. It’s impossible to read these sections, and not think “Well maybe, but you haven’t given me any reason to think your version is likely.” There’s just nothing here that rises above the level of mainstream sci-fi, and there’s none of the cutting skepticism and insights that Novella is known for.
The writing in this half doesn’t do the book any favours either. The punch from Novella’s blog is absent, with the book feeling over-smooth as if it was edited by committee and had all the chunky/interesting bits sandblasted off. It’s also peppered with references to sci-fi books and movies that will mean nothing to non-fans and are obvious to fans.
There are actual sci-fi shorts interspersed between some chapters, but I ended up skipping these after the first. They seemed present merely to occupy pages.
The second half is significantly better. It’s about future tech, and Novella actually applies some skepticism here and the writing seems much improved. I’m not sure if Novella found his groove here, or if he ejected one or both of the co-writers (which are much less prominently featured on the cover), but the whole book could’ve used whatever the case.
This one is super disappointing - I love Dr. Novella’s work on the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcast, and some of the deep dives he does on his blog, but this was seriously challenging to not abandon. Anyone into sci-fi books and movies should be especially hesitant to pick this up - it’s all going to be a rehash of the last few decades of genre cliches, at least for the first half.
The first half is particularly dull. This one sees Novella talking about current tech (self-driving cars, stem cells, gene manipulation, etc.), which tended to be at a YA level of complexity, and then extrapolating that tech far into the future. The initial explanation will be trite to anyone who has read the news in the last 5 years, and the extrapolations are straight out of sci-fi films.
Early on, Novella gestures at the fact that just because a tech can work doesn’t mean it will take off if society rejects it or certain uses of it (e.g., we don’t clone people just because we can), but the predictions never get into an interesting level of discussion. It’s impossible to read these sections, and not think “Well maybe, but you haven’t given me any reason to think your version is likely.” There’s just nothing here that rises above the level of mainstream sci-fi, and there’s none of the cutting skepticism and insights that Novella is known for.
The writing in this half doesn’t do the book any favours either. The punch from Novella’s blog is absent, with the book feeling over-smooth as if it was edited by committee and had all the chunky/interesting bits sandblasted off. It’s also peppered with references to sci-fi books and movies that will mean nothing to non-fans and are obvious to fans.
There are actual sci-fi shorts interspersed between some chapters, but I ended up skipping these after the first. They seemed present merely to occupy pages.
The second half is significantly better. It’s about future tech, and Novella actually applies some skepticism here and the writing seems much improved. I’m not sure if Novella found his groove here, or if he ejected one or both of the co-writers (which are much less prominently featured on the cover), but the whole book could’ve used whatever the case.