The Power

By: Naomi Alderman

Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh

In this stunning best seller praised as "our era's Handmaid's Tale", a fierce new power has emerged - and only women have it (Washington Post).

In The Power, the world is a recognizable place: There's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family.

But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: They can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets. From award-winning author Naomi Alderman, The Power is speculative fiction at its most ambitious and provocative, at once taking us on a thrilling journey to an alternate reality, and exposing our own world in bold and surprising ways.

©2017 Naomi Alderman (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Narrator Adjoa Andoh capably portrays an international cast of characters in this thrilling novel about the reshaping of the world when women develop powerful electrical abilities. Andoh makes the most of her vocal range, tone, and pacing, as well as an extensive catalogue of accents. The audio presentation particularly shines in the development of the character Allie into Mother Eve, especially in some scenes in which the Mother Eve persona drops and Allie speaks in her own voice." (AudioFile)

"Captivating, fierce, and unsettling...I was riveted by every page. Alderman's prose is immersive and, well, electric." (New York Times Book Review)

Un-listenable accents

I both read and listened to the book. I had to read when I got sick of the American accents. The reader seems to think all Americans sound like fake Southerners from the Dukes of Hazard. Mind you, I'm Californian and even I can tell. Just think of an American doing a horrible fake Cockney accent, guvnah, or a horrible Scottish accent.
This narrator reaches that level of badness. This was all very frustrating because the story is brilliant; I was engrossed. But my schedule makes audiobooks convenient so I stuck with it and shifted to reading whenever I could. Even Tunde's Nigerian accent seemed cartoonish. I only know one Nigerian, a colleague, so I concede on that point I could be wrong.
And don't get me started on the absurd Eastern European accents. Every sentence is delivered one of two ways: An over-the-top villainous goon or a simple-minded ingenue. The Jocelyn character sounds like a baby Muppet. Incredible.

As for the story itself, it's brilliant. This is speculative fiction at its best. Alderman posits the appearance of a phenomenon with the potential to disrupt society utterly and then she follows one possible path of development. I've seen reviews that say it wouldn't happen that way or it's too implausible or whatever.

Every time you start thinking that way just remind yourself of every prediction made since the Industrial Revolution about war, technology, society or culture. How many of those have been right?
"We'll only ever need a handful of computers and the government will own most of them."
"They'll greet us like saviors."
"There are not 300,000 Chinese soldiers just over the border waiting to sweep into North Korea during the Korean War." "Black soldiers aren't smart enough to fight in armored formations (General Patton)."
"Austerity policies are good for the economy and lead to broad prosperity."
"Women don't have the killer instinct to be good fighter pilots."
And so on.

Alderman's story is one possible path. Human history pretty convincingly tells us there are maybe a hundred different ways the appearance of The Power could play out.

Read it. Argue with it in your mind. Or simply enjoy it. But don't deprive yourself of its quality.

My first review in 4 years!

I loved this book! The narration was perfectly done, along with an amazing story that will have me thinking for weeks to come.

Fantastic and Empowering

This book is incredible! An absolute must read for anyone interested in feminist issues. I found the reversal of roles in the sexes to be very interesting and the stories of the characters are gripping. My new favorite book!

The timing couldn’t be better

I love the reversal roles and thought provoking characters and scenes! In a time where women are losing rights it’s a great read to ponder our current world and history.

A must read for anyone struggling with the current political climate

I loved the relevance of all the characters. Each character had something profound to bring to the story. I’ve been struggling with understanding the current political climates and polarization. Naomi Alderman really highlights the main overall struggle with Humanity in a way that is tolerable for us to bare witness. She gives us an opportunity to question ourselves in the overall big picture.

Whoa. Just whoa.

A must read. History may not always repeat itself but it sure does rhyme. But sometimes it’s just a repeat.

Embarrassing performance

The story is fine, for what it is, if a little stuttering and circular. The problem here is the narrator—I actually don’t know whether the book is good or not, because the voice actor so over-acts. Embarrassing, actually. Should have taken it out from the library.

Thought provoking but not enjoyable

This book was thought-provoking, the sort of book that you may read in a gender studies course. I said “gender studies“ not “women’s studies“. This book may be misconstrued as feminist or part of an empowerment agenda, and I noticed that many people were unable to see deeper than that. It is not that at all. It explores human nature and the value placed on physical power and its consequences, from greed, cruelty, suffering, war, destruction, and reinterpretation of the aforementioned.
It was not a pleasant book to experience, was very cynical, and disturbing. Despite all of that, I felt that it was worth reading, if you can see the big picture and are ready to be be shown a cynical view of humanity full of shallowness and depravity, which may or may not be what you already think.

Thought provoking

Worth a listen just for the performance alone. The story is definitely very thought provoking.

An exciting concept some blind spots in the execution

The concept and world created by Naomi is incredibly interesting and creative! However the are some challenges in the execution as it oversimplifies the role of women in the Middle East, the characters followed are not well balanced and their development is relatively limited... the end comes across as a little abrupt and does not effectively conclude the storylines for the main characters that the readers have been following.

The book lends itself well to audiobook format however some of the accents the narrator uses come across as a little comical and at times take the reader out of the seriousness of the moment. This is especially true for the characters from “Besapara”.