Homo Deus: ‘An intoxicating brew of science, philosophy and futurism’ Mail on Sunday

Yuval Noah Harari

Sep 2016 · Random House

About this ebook

**THE MILLION COPY BESTSELLER**

Sapiens showed us where we came from. In our increasingly uncertain times, Homo Deus shows us where we're going.

'Spellbinding' Guardian

The world-renowned historian and intellectual Yuval Noah Harari envisions a near future in which we face a new set of challenges. Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century and beyond - from overcoming death to creating artificial life.

It asks the fundamental questions: how can we protect this fragile world from our own destructive power? And what does our future hold?

'Even more readable, even more important, than his excellent Sapiens' Kazuo Ishiguro

'Homo Deus will shock you. It will entertain you. It will make you think in ways you had not thought before' Daniel Kahneman, bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow

Ratings and reviews

It was tedious going through the first few chapters because of the enormous amount of overlap with the first book. Although the later chapters were a bit more interesting in terms of content, they are again, plagued by Dr. Harari's rather slow and meandering narration. At times I felt that it would have been better to skip/shorten some lengthy examples that he provides. All in all, I would recommend only reading this book and not Sapiens.

A missed opportunity. There are some good ideas in this book but I had the impression that the author wrote the third part first and then wrote the first two parts specifically to support his conclusions. Unfortunately I think the third part was the weakest. There was no mention of utilitarianism in his discussion in part two which I find either ignorant or deliberately deceptive. The book could have been a lot stronger with a serious attempt to explore utilitarianism. The other thing I find annoying is that his personal biases keep appearing in his arguments leading me to wonder how much cherry picking his been done in accumulating evidence.

the biggest problem I have with this book and it's predecessor "sapiens" is all to often the author is simplifying very complex arguments and then totally misreading the answers, the author is good when he sticks to his expertise but when he branches out into other fields his over all understanding of the subjects very weak and all to often his arguments are circular over all the books are mediocre at best, I would not even say they are a good introduction

About the author

Prof Yuval Noah Harari has a PhD in History from the University of Oxford and now lectures at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specialising in World History. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind has become an international phenomenon attracting a legion of fans from Bill Gates and Barack Obama to Chris Evans and Jarvis Cocker, and is published in sixty languages worldwide. It was a Sunday Times Number One bestseller and was in the Top Ten for over nine months in paperback. His follow-up to Sapiens, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow was also a Top Ten Bestseller and was described by the Guardian as 'even more readable, even more important, than his excellent Sapiens'. 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, was a Number One Bestseller and was described by Bill Gates as 'fascinating' and 'crucial'. Harari worked closely with renowned comics illustrator Daniel Casanave and co-writer David Vandermeulen to create his latest book, an adaptation of his first bestseller, Sapiens Graphic Novel: Volume 1.