Playground

Reviews

A Globe and Mail, Washington Post and NPR Best Book of the Year

“This is a characterful, capacious and engaging novel, distilling subjects as diverse as oceanography, climate change, the legacies of colonialism and the arc of a lifelong friendship into an exhilaratingly entangled narrative in which Powers’ unparalleled gifts for revealing the magic and mystery of the natural world are on full display.” —2024 Booker Prize Jury

“Enchanting. . . . Playground reminds, with a spirit of fun and wonder, why the sea—an alien planet within a planet—is so very worth sustained attention. . . . This is a novel that pries us from our daily hourglass, forcing a hard focus on the sand.”  —New York Times

“Another remarkable novel about artificial intelligence from Richard Powers. . . . Powers is such a cunning writer that every time I looked back at a chapter, I noticed narrative feints I’d missed before. . . . In the now-vast library of fiction and nonfiction books reminding us of the planet’s imperiled condition, I can’t think of another novel that treats the Earth’s plight with such an expansive and disorienting vision. . . . Powers manages to entwine our longing for friendship, paradise and immortality with the algorithms of artificial intelligence that surpass all understanding.”  —The Washington Post

“This is a challenging novel, fragmented but compelling, with fine writing on friendship and its loss and on the awe and delight the ocean inspires. Along with its environmental warnings, the book carries an intriguing look at the ways people and animals play, as in the boys’ competitive chess, the antics of manta rays, the allure of computer games, and what a meta-minded author might do with his readers. An engaging, eloquent message for this fragile planet.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Exhilarating. . . . Powers is a vivid writer, and it can be intoxicating to get lost in his words. . . . We glimpse how woven Playground is, with coincidence or serendipity as its own sort of network interlaced beneath the surface, not unlike the teeming currents of the sea.” —Los Angeles Times

“An epic drama of AI, neocolonialism, and oceanography . . . dazzling. . . . The elegance of [Powers’] prose, the scope of his ambition, and the exacting reverence with which he writes about the imperiled world serve as reminders of why he ranks among America’s foremost novelists. . . . Readers will be awed.” —Publishers Weekly

“The greatest takeaway from the novel, which brims with love for humanity and the planet, is that while change is inevitable, the fragile enchantments of life—underwater and on land—are worth savoring and saving.” —NPR

“Playground asks us to log off TikTok, put down our phones, and pay close attention. Powers is renowned for his graceful melding of fiction and science; no author has done more to turn our gaze outward to the mysteries of the universe, above our heads and below our feet. He engages the infinitude of ocean species with awe and humility. . . . Here he’s a literary Cousteau, immersing us in wonders beneath the waves.” —The Boston Globe

“Richard Powers’s Playground is a compelling, eloquent love letter to what he calls this ‘fading’ planet. . . . There is a lot going on in Playground, with reflections on power, nature and friendship in a book with well-drawn protagonists and graceful prose. It is a story that rewards a slow read for full immersement.” —Independent

“Playground is a brilliant, edgily futurist, surprisingly playful commentary on where the Fourth Industrial Revolution is taking us, with a cast of intriguing characters whose lives ultimately connect on Makatea, an isolated island in French Polynesia.” —Lit Hub

“The story might be a game, but it is a game in which the stakes are extremely high, exemplifying the potential of literature as a means to explore the most serious (and deadly) challenges that humanity faces in the 21st century.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“Playground extends and deepens [Powers’s] ongoing project of telling stories that combine lyrical mastery with environmentalist didacticism to criticize humankind’s treatment of the world while attending to the promise of the nonhuman—natural and artificial.” —The Atlantic

“Is there anything Richard Powers cannot write? The world here is complete, seductive, and promising. The writing feels like the ocean. Vast, mysterious, deep, and alive." —Percival Everett, author of James

“An extraordinarily immersive journey through lives linked in mysterious ways—gripping, alarming, and uplifting.” —Emma Donoghue, author of Room

“Powers is a master of taking important topics of our times—from threats to our oceans and climate change to AI—and turning them into riveting and fiercely relevant books imbued with psychological insight and a deep awe for nature. This eloquent dance of the scientific and emotional makes him one of our finest storytellers. Playground is brilliant, captivating, and important—and the best book I’ve read this year.” —Andrea Wulf, author of The Invention of Nature Expand reviews