A New History of the Future in 100 Objects: A Fiction

I’m a sucker for fiction that can tell a story (or several stories) in a non-traditional way. Whether it’s the weird horror inventiveness of the Thackery T. Lambshead collections or Sylvain Neuvel’s Themis Fil books, where everything is told through transcripts, reports, and other non-narrative methods, it takes a unique level of attention to detail and a heap of creativity to build a world without the usual tricks.

Adrian Hon hasn’t just built a world. Hon has built an entirely plausible century of history out of brief snippets disguised as a compendium of influential objects. Putting a fictional spin on one of the latest literary history fads is an ingenious idea, and Hon executes it brilliantly. Providing commentary on social media, artificial intelligence, space exploration, interpersonal communication, and more, Hon discusses how inventions and innovations change us as much as they change the world.

Moreover, Hon trusts the reader to assemble this curious jigsaw of the world to come, building on context clues and references to future events, constructing a straightforward timeline with numerous little bits of backstory to fill in some of the other entries. It’s an absolute blast to read, appealing to both the sci-fi fan and the history lover in the reader. What a treat.