The Power in The Roundtable

Jul 08, 2017 Viv JM rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rt-challenge-jun-17, dystopia, z-2017-author-female, read-in-2017, author-female, audio, science-fiction

3.5 stars.

“The Power” is set in a future where, one day, teenage girls find that they have developed a skein in their neck that gives them the power to hurt and even kill people with an electrical jolt. The world changes overnight and the story of that change is told from four different perspectives.

The book certainly makes you think about issues relating to gender, violence and control, without providing too many easy answers. I did find it a little uneven in how the story was spread between t ...more

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Jun 20, 2018 El rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 21st-centurylit, society-went-boom, science-fictiony, hear-me-roar-and-gender, library-borrow

Is there anyone anymore who doesn't know what this book is about? It's sort of been everywhere, hasn't it, everyone has been raving about it (or ranting in a few cases) and it's just... ubiquitous. To the point where I threw a mini-fit (all internally because I'm a good kid, of course) that the campus library didn't have a copy of this, so I jumped at the opportunity to let them order a copy. And then I got busy and just now finally got around to checking it out. (I wonder how many people - if a Is there anyone anymore who doesn't know what this book is about? It's sort of been everywhere, hasn't it, everyone has been raving about it (or ranting in a few cases) and it's just... ubiquitous. To the point where I threw a mini-fit (all internally because I'm a good kid, of course) that the campus library didn't have a copy of this, so I jumped at the opportunity to let them order a copy. And then I got busy and just now finally got around to checking it out. (I wonder how many people - if any - checked it out before me?)

The "Power" of the title refers to this new ability girls and women have of electrically zapping people with their hands and fingertips. Of course it progresses beyond that as they learn how to work with their new power and, in the process, females become the dominant gender. Not surprisingly, of course, the idea here is that if women are in charge, if the world is run by a matriarchal society rather than a patriarchal one, things aren't all that different, are they? Some women are excited to finally be able to treat men the way they have been treated all their lives and then they're just like the men. Crazy, right?

The book was heavily influenced by Margaret Atwood through some sort of mentorship program. We should all be so lucky as to be mentored by Atwood. There are a lot of comparisons between this book and The Handmaid's Tale and I don't fully agree with that. But that's also a common comparison that a lot of books have these days, maybe because The Handmaid's Tale has become so relevant again and everyone wants to have a piece of that.

Maybe I'm just cynical.

Again, for all intents and purposes I should have loved this book, but none of it really came together for me. I found it difficult to connect with any of the characters, I found their motivations questionable, and I never really got a sense of place. And the writing itself didn't thrill me. I did like, however, the frame narrative (even though I don't think it was necessary) and the anthropological aspect of the backstory. It's just... not going to replace The Handmaid's Tale in my opinion or in the greater literary canon.

I understand this may be turned into a movie or a series or something. I'd totally watch that - I think I would be able to connect better with it if I can see it rather than read it. ...more

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Feb 13, 2018 Nadine in California rated it really liked it

For about the first 2/3 of this book I felt like I was reading a solid, fast-paced dystopian tale with interesting characters, neither shallow or deep. The last 15 or so pages pulled it together for me and raised it from 3 stars to 4 stars. I think the idea of using electrical power as both a metaphor and a literal picture of the way abstract power flows in a society was inspired! One of the final pages in the novel has an excerpt from the Apocrypha of the Book of Eve, describes what I'm thinkin ...more

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May 16, 2019 Irene rated it it was ok

This novel lacked any subtlety, in its writing, its character development, its plot momentum, in the themes it asked the reader to consider. With no warning, teen and younger girls find they have the ability to generate an electric charge strong enough to maim or even kill another person. Initially, they employ this power in self-defense. But, in a few pages, they are using it to carry out grand schemes. They become the megalomaniacal cult leader and preach a religious message that men are infer ...more

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Jul 20, 2017 Camelia Rose rated it really liked it

Shelves: feminism, science-fiction, dystopia

What a book! It's a very engaging dystopian fiction.

The Power by Naomi Alderman is the winner of 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. It begins when women, the suppressed gender, the second sex, suddenly gain an electronic power. The power is a liberation, especially in the countries and cultures where women are systematically suppressed and where crimes against women are legalized or ignored. Revenge comes naturally. Half way through the book, however, the tide is turned.

Familiar with today' ...more

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Sep 03, 2021 Wendy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, dystopian, science-fiction, girls-rock-the-boys, 2021, women-s-prize-for-fiction

I didn't get emotionally engaged in this one, but it still worked really well as a thought experiment. What would happen if suddenly women discovered an innate (biological?) power that made them more powerful than men? I particularly appreciated the framing device with the male author meekly approaching his female editor with an explosive theory about history, that maybe men weren't always the supporters and homemakers for women. This female counterpart counters that this makes no evolutionary s ...more

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Jul 01, 2018 Julie marked it as didnt-finish · review of another edition

Shelves: womens-prize-for-fiction

I'm giving up on this one. It is not interesting me. I don't know if it's the writing style or what, but I don't feel connected with any of the characters and there is little emotion to the book. ...more

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Apr 23, 2018 Sera rated it it was ok

Shelves: library, science-fiction

Ugh - where to begin. I didn't like this book very much. The only things keeping me from a 1 star rating are that it moved quickly and from time to time kept my interest. However, I found it to be way too long, and I could never really buy into the concept of how women would act if they were in a position to rule the world -that is, if they were the holders of power. Well, spoiler alert - they would be no different from men. Yep that's it. Now you don't have to read the book and you can move ont ...more

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Jul 28, 2017 Rachel rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasysci-fi, feminism, libraryebook

3.5 stars.

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Dec 14, 2022 Sarah rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I can't lie, I hated reading this book.

I felt like I was reading violent feminist revenge porn. I couldn't understand the point. We're already familiar with these horrors, so why not just flip the pronouns in a history book and call it a day? I don't want to read about anyone being brutalized, regardless of their gender.

After finishing, I reflected that maybe I wasn't the target audience for this book. Maybe, it's about centring men in feminist narratives to make it easier for them to identify ...more

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Mar 12, 2018 Meghan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, library, british, brit-lit, sci-fi, dmbc, book-club

A fun read. Interesting to read given the gun debates occurring now. In some ways, humans are humans no matter the gender. The biggest impact for me was when I soberly recognized the torture and pain inflicted upon women around the world today. Alderman really expresses the terror and pain of rape and torture of physical and mental abuse that is not about sex but power. Just because they can.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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