If you have read any of Powers' previous novels, you don't need to know more than this: this is another masterpiece which you will absolutely adore. If you are new to Powers, I have this to say: read this, but also read his previous two novels, for though they are not connected they form a triptych of sorts. The themes that run through this have echoes in his other works, and reveal an intellect, curiosity and empathy for the human world missing in most other novelists works. Powers is indeed writing at the top of his game here. This novel has multiple stories and narrators, and reading it does require concentration from its reader. However you are soon swept up in the literary swell that you won't feel adrift. Powers takes you on a journey under the ocean, into the cyber world, and to a very human love story. It is gripping, powerful stuff and makes me very grateful that writers like Powers are still writing and being published. I fully expect to see this on awards shortlists in the coming literary year. This is a superb novel, epic in scope yet intimately told. Just read it. It is already my favourite novel of 2024, and I cannot see how it can be beaten! Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

This is such a beautifully written book! A gorgeous exploration of the ocean and the people who love it, alongside a discussion of pertinent issues in today’s society. I thoroughly enjoyed the previous Richard Powers book I read ‘Bewilderment’ and this new book ´Playground’ has cemented Powers as a must read author for me. I’ve seen people describe Playground as doing for the ocean what The Overstory did for trees and now I absolutely must got read The Overstory as soon as possible! This powerful book explores important themes in society including A.I., social media, the metaverse, climate change, loss of island communities and protecting (or destroying) the ocean. It’s such a persuasive novel for why we should love and protect our ocean spaces through pure storytelling, the lives of four separate people and how they intersect and connect. No lecturing, just genuine human stories. I was totally entranced by Evelyne’s story, our tall, ginger haired, French-Canadian, determined diver who defies gender stereotypes. We see Evelyne throughout her life, from small child, to still diving in her nineties. Through Evelyne’s eyes we revel in the oceans, travelling the globe and experiencing the weird and wildest parts of the underwater world. We learn the technology that advanced, the worlds that were explored and the sacrifices that had to be made and prejudices that had to be overcome for Evelyne to achieve her dreams. This were my favourite sections of the book and I adored the passionate and ocean-obsessed Evelyne. This was a wonderful book that I would gladly read again.

Playground is a novel set in and around the oceans. As with his novel The Overstory, the disparate characters' lives are drawn together over a period of time, culminating in a life changing event. Some of the opening chapters will stay with me forever, especially the one where the daughter is thrown into water, looks up as she sinks, sees her father through the skin between liquid and air, and all the father does is to tell her to: 'Breathe'. At that moment, I thought I was watching a child drown. And then the world opened up. Our planet is more water than land, and in this novel, I felt that I swam with marine creatures I had never seen or heard of before. What a magnificent book, not hard to read but impossible to put down. Everyone should see our world through the lens of this novel.

It is very difficult to say much of substance about this book without giving away everything that makes it such a brilliant piece of art. Suffice it to say that Richard Powers has done it again, doing for Earth's oceans in Playground what he did for her trees in The Overstory. As with that book, this is a novel as much about the vast power of storytelling as it is a plea to save the planet's natural wonders. Once again we follow seemingly disparate storylines that connect in ways you won't expect. Powers' writing is gorgeous and absorbing, and his characters are beautiful and flawed and heartbreaking. There were tears. Just truly breathtaking stuff.

"Once people witnessed the abundance of underwater life, once they lived there, they would ache to take care of the place like it was their home." "As Arthur C.Clarke has observed:'How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean'." Talk about the most relevant book of 2024! This book takes on some of the most radical ideas that are in circulation and builds a tale in parts fascinating, in parts scary and for most parts entertaining. Richard Powers flexes his research capabilities and writes a book that does to Oceans what Overstory did to trees. 70% of the world is made up of oceans and is it any wonder that the humans would soon want to colonise this? Makatea is an Island of 82 people which is chosen for seasteading pilot - a concept very much in vogue and being toyed around the world by billionaires as tax havens. The residents of the island, including children, get a vote to decide if they are to choose growth over the ocean. Among the residents is an artist and teacher couple who once upon a time made a trio with an AI pioneer. Rafi is a philosopher poet (black) who wanted to raise the dead in words. His wife Ina is an islander and artist who is building a sculpture from plastic that gets washed onto the shores. We see the writing of Toddy Keane, the son of a billionaire, whose friendship with Rafi defines him and he goes onto become the pioneer of AI who creates the virtual world of Playground. Watch out for the chapters on Deep learning and machine learning that gives a layman gist of what the potential of the technology is - even if it over simplifies it. Evelyn the nonagenarian marine biologist has some of the best parts describing the world under the ocean. Chapters written to inspire awe in the reader with playful Mantas, symbiotic shrimp and gobi fishes and a whole new world. Her book and her life inspires the world to understand the ocean better and she finds herself on the island as well. With Mr.Powers, it is not the story but the ideas. Like how the children should get a vote in any decision that impacts the future. Or how an AI system left to figure out the best strategy for living on earth, would probably choose not to do the mistakes we did. I probably highlighted more passages than I have done in quite some time.