When women develop the ability to generate electrical shocks from their own bodies, they literally have power at their fingertips. The scales of gender imbalance tip and then fall. Suddenly, women are the stronger sex and society becomes a better place, right? Wrong.
The narrative is gripping and there are moments of beauty and horror. It suffers from too many narrators, a distractingly whimsical framing device about an academic 5,000 years in the future (who inexplicably still uses email and speaks in 21st century English) which is a superfluous salute to Margaret Atwood, and a ponderous discourse on religion (or something) that lost me. Nevertheless, it's going to be a classic.
The Power is speculative fiction at its best, asking a huge "what if" and coming up with answers that are inevitable and surprising. It left me pondering who I'm going to shock first when my skein comes in. ***
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