A debut book by Alpesh Patel, Future of the Past is about a disaster that strikes the planet and a group of humans facing extinction. The efforts of this group to find out what exactly happened and how they survive the catastrophe, has been depicted in the book.

Characters such as Roshan the journalist, Alex the scientist, Kabir— another researcher— and many others painstakingly come close to the explanation for the disaster that struck the planet.

The journalist takes countless pictures and keeps notes and searches among various libraries for information on what happened. The scientist and the researcher meanwhile try to build a neurocomputer that can store information for the future generation, if there are any survivors.

The book, although with the usual cliched terms that are used in thrillers of its kind, has been written to give the reader a sense of loneliness, portraying the emotion of the survivors very well.

The reader gets a feel of being in the midst of the characters in the book. It also shows the different ways the human mind behaves during extreme situations, and gives choices— would one like to help others survive or would one rather help himself selfishly without thinking about the future.

In some ways the book makes the reader think, putting himself in the same situation.

Published by Frog Books, the style of writing Patel has used, can conjure up images immediately in the mind, for which Patel deserves credit, especially since this is his first book.

However, as the plot develops, Patel tends to ramble, thus boring the reader at some particular parts of the story.

But he has provided the minutest of details, which adds to the imagery.

Also, the amount of research Patel carried out is commendable, for one has to be equipped with essential information on evolution, chemistry, biology, computer science and other subjects. Good timepass, but not captivating enough.