Overall it lacks a story. It begins with a very weighty subject: Climate Change, and sets up what could have been a great narrative. There are some very deep social, economic, political, cultural, and philosophical issues with this topic and it brings many of them to the fore. It delves into the list through the use of small vignettes and following a few characters, and the the Ministry of the Future. The Earth is dying, the problems are great, the challenge is difficult and you want to see how we deal with this or we fail. The answer: a bunch of bureaucratic things happen (which seem as unbelievable for a bunch bureaucracies as they are boring — it is the Ministry of the Future after all) and everything is fine. Yeah that’s it. A bureaucratic meeting is held and a PowerPoint presentation says all is well. It is all set up and no delivery. But that is not the end because it goes on for another two hours following the uneventful lives of one of the two remaining characters who are wandering around trying what to do with the rest of their lives but don’t expect any answers there either. It may be true that the solutions will be slow and bureaucratic which is fine and good but it doesn’t mean it is a good story or good reading. A story is needed to get through these perhaps boring measures but the book seems to give up on anything resembling a plot about half way through.
In addition, the philosophic answers to these highly controversial questions are not new, inspiring, interesting, or even presented in a thought-provoking light —- they will also not be to everyone’s taste and do a poor job of arguing their points or winning over any skeptics. It is neither treatise nor fictional tale.
The characters, like the book, start strong but end up presented like resumes. They seem like real people well enough but they do not give you any insight into anything. They live, they work, they retire, and a couple of them just die normal average deaths. By the end even the main character, Mary, seems to question why she is even there or what is the point of her even telling anymore of the non-story. They don’t do anything and they don’t die and the book ends on them going to a festival seriously. Nothing wrong with characters that model real people but there has to be a story. Why do we care about them? Why are they interesting? The book cannot tell you.
The one highlight is the performance which is well done and the voice acting is quite good. The actors give the text and depth to what is otherwise the mush of a story and keep it going longer than it could on it own. The mixture of voices is also a wonderful positive and helps the listener manage the shifts as the book bounces through the vignettes.
Overall this book is a pass and save your listening hours for something else.