The Power by Naomi Alderman is a bestselling 2016 sci-fi novel imagining a world where women begin to develop the ability to release electrical energy from their hands, and how this power flips societal gender dynamics. Widely lauded by critics and audiences alike, the novel won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and won a place among former president Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2017. And now, a new legion of fans are about to discover the world of The Power.
After a number of years in development, the television series adaptation will finally be hitting Amazon Prime Video on March 31. In preparation for the show’s premiere, here’s everything you need to know about The Power.
What is The Power about?
In an alternate world, teenage girls around the globe simultaneously develop the power to emit electricity from their fingertips. As girls everywhere start using their powers in self-defense, they gradually begin to injure men and boys, both accidentally and deliberately. Society descends into fear and chaos as gender and power dynamics are dramatically shifted, affecting individuals as well as communities at large.
The story has received widespread critical acclaim, praised for its nuanced exploration of the intersections of gender and power, as well as additional themes such as race, religion, and politics. The Power forces listeners to consider: What if parents had to warn their sons to make sure to be home before dark? What if women took advantage of power imbalances to silence and suppress men? What if men had to live in constant fear of coming to harm by an angry woman?
Adding even more dimension to the story is its structure. Told as a novel within a novel, The Power is framed as a work of historical fiction submitted to an influential female author by a male writer named Neil Adam Armon (an anagram of Naomi Alderman), imagining how the matriarchal society he lives in came to be.
In The Power, we follow a handful of different characters, hearing how people of various backgrounds throughout different parts of the world respond and change as a result of the rise of supernaturally-abled women. Expertly narrated by Adjoa Andoh, who brings each distinct character to life, the audiobook effectively captures Alderman’s world, highlighting the individual voices of people navigating the emotional turmoil occurring throughout the planet.
Who are the main characters of The Power?
There are four primary characters featured from the start.
Roxy, one of the first to discover and use her power, is the daughter of a mob boss in London who witnesses her mother’s murder.
Tunde is a journalist in Nigeria who is one of the first to capture footage of women using the power.
Margot is a Wisconsin politician who must figure out how to manage and respond to this global phenomenon on both a public level and a personal one, as her own daughter Jocelyn comes under scrutiny for allegedly harming some classmates with the power.
Allie is a young girl in the foster system who quickly develops great control over her power and uses it to escape her abusive family.
Through the eyes of these four characters, as well as others in proximity to them, we are able to piece together and understand what is happening in the world of The Power and get glances at how different individuals and groups respond to the tumult and change.
What do we know about The Power series so far?
After first being optioned back in 2016 and beginning development in 2019, the long-awaited British television series adaptation of The Power will be hitting Prime Video on March 31. Author Naomi Alderman is an executive producer for the series, which hopefully means we can expect a true and effective depiction of her vision for the story. Furthermore, much of the creative team behind the show, from the writers room to the executive producers and director, are women. Reed Morano, the show’s director, won both the Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award for her direction of the pilot episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, so The Power is certainly in capable and reliable hands.
Though the show went through multiple cast changes over its years in development and scheduling issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Power boasts an excellent cast with a great mix of big names and newer faces. The incredible Toni Collette plays Margot, with John Leguizamo as her husband and Auli’i Cravalho as her daughter, Jos. Toheeb Jimoh, perhaps best known for his appearance as Sam Obisanya in Ted Lasso, plays the journalist Tunde. And to round out our four primary characters, actresses Ria Zmitrowicz and Halle Bush will appear as Roxy and Allie, respectively.
To get a glimpse of what’s to come, make sure you check out the show’s exciting trailer. From just this first taste, the series already promises to be incredibly intense and compelling, with a gorgeous and sweeping scope.
Listens for Fans of The Power
If you’re already caught up with The Power and are looking for similar listens to tide you over until the series drops (or keep you entertained after the season’s end), here are three audiobooks that will keep you satisfied while waiting for the streaming premiere.
For listeners who were drawn in by Adjoa Andoh’s brilliant interpretation of The Power, here’s another audiobook featuring her remarkable talents. A novella set in the same universe as her novels Who Fears Death and The Book of Phoenix, Nnedi Okorafor's Remote Control follows Sankofa, a young girl who is both exalted and feared for being the adopted daughter of Death, burdened with the power to kill with a simple touch. Much like Alderman does in The Power, Okorafor is known for using her fiction as a vehicle for exploring feminist themes and where they intersect with race and politics. Though Remote Control is arguably a quieter and more meandering story compared to the intensity of The Power, it does touch on these similar themes and is also an excellent introduction to more of Okorafor’s work in Afrofuturism.
Much like The Power, Kelly Barnhill's When Women Were Dragons examines how the societal structure is rebuilt when women come into great power. The book is set in an alternate 1950s United States, where thousands of women who have been oppressed are able to transform into dragons. Teenager Alex Green loses contact with her beloved aunt Marla, one of the women who transformed in the Mass Dragoning of 1955, and must navigate life in the aftermath of the event. Narrated beautifully by Kimberly Farr, the story explores women’s rage and incredible strength, the consequences of stifling social conventions and what it means to completely destroy them, and the power of being able to transform into your truest self.
In a very near future, a mysterious and deadly virus breaks out, quickly causing a global pandemic. But this virus only affects men. Soon, 90 percent of the male population has been wiped out, leaving women and the few remaining men to attempt to develop a vaccine as well as completely restructure society while coping with such devastating loss. How would we reorganize governments and systems and communities in the face of such extreme circumstances? In what ways does a world dominated by women differ from the world we live in today? To explore these questions and more, The End of Men highlights a number of characters to get multiple points of view. Accordingly, the audiobook is performed by a cast of multiple narrators, making for an immersive and dynamic listening experience.
Patricia Thang is a Los Angeles-based educator and senior contributor for Book Riot. If not reading or writing, you can probably catch her singing along to her favorite J-pop tunes. Find her on Twitter @aintnopthang
