The Hour of the Predator

Reviews / Votes

A series of vignettes and meditations on the upending of the international order... A gorgeous though alarming piece of writing * Sunday Times, Current Affairs Book of the Year * An Italian-Swiss writer spent years in the corridors of power observing what he sees as the emergence of a new cadre of strongmen in politics and technology, who feed off each other and share a love of disruption. He skewers them with sardonic humour * Economist, Best Books of 2025 * An impassioned, dazzling slim volume about the state of the world...This is a sharply written and provocative book, filled with witty asides and gallows humour -- Peter Frankopan * Financial Times * The one book you absolutely need to read in order to understand current politics -- Anne Applebaum, author of 'Autocracy, Inc.' A brief, bracing and profoundly alarming book... It exists to provoke thought. The result is something like The Prince for our times. Machiavelli might have written to appease an autocrat while Da Empoli is warning against them, but the effect is much the same: a glimpse behind the curtain of how the game is really played * Spectator * The Hour of the Predator may be little, but it is fierce... While others have written of tech's slow boiling of democracy's frog, Da Empoli's take is fresh, personal, and as bracing as it is bleak * Irish Times * A stylish and coolly sceptical study of power politics in an age of disorder, where autocrats, Gulf oligarchs and "tech conquistadors" pursue their amoral interests as the so-called liberal world order collapses -- Jason Cowley * New Statesman, Books of the Year * There is plenty that is irresistible about "The Hour of the Predator". Mr da Empoli's experiences at the United Nations in New York, the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh and on stage with Mr Altman provide vignettes of the Borgian power grab that he relates with exquisite detachment... Read [this] book, if only to understand how fundamentally the balance of power in the world may be changing * Economist * Immensely readable, mordantly ironic and unsparing -- Michael Ignatieff Da Empoli issues a warning from history, that the Borgia poisoners are back as tech bros. Brilliant, acidly witty, terrifying -- John Sweeney, author of 'Killer in the Kremlin' A sharply observed work of political philosophy, with the warning that, in this world, the big ones eat the little ones * Kirkus Reviews * Essential reading for Europe's political elite * Politico * Cultured and perceptive * Irish Independent * A dazzling expose of the darker side of tech titans and the economic and political power they hold, this eye-opening book from the political advisor and bestselling author of The Wizard of the Kremlin paints a chilling picture of the disintegrating world order and the global rise of autocracy * Waterstones * Empoli shows you the rotting bones of the liberal order and the silhouettes of the predators that have learned to live through it -- David Patrikarakos * Unherd * A dark but dazzling account of the current political and geostrategic upheavals * Le Figaro * A gripping account of how Western elites handed over the keys of power to the new 'tech conquistadors' * Les Echos * Giuliano da Empoli charts the rise of a chilling new world, forged through an unprecedented alliance between unabashed autocrats in the Trump mould and tech titans like Elon Musk * La Croix * In a masterful, evocative narrative, he captures the worst aspects of the conquest led by men like Donald Trump and Sam Altman * L'Express * A luminous thinker, Giuliano da Empoli is the chronicler of our troubled times [and] weaves a narrative as compelling as a novel or a Greek tragedy * Le Monde * He details with a grim lucidity the many ills afflicting our new world * Nouvel Obs * A dark and dazzling book that lays bare the 'predators' of our age * La Tribune * Riveting... Da Empoli sleekly tells us the tale of the enmeshing of the interests of the political strongmen and tech bros...The result is as dramatic as any thriller * Irish Times * A thought-provoking, humorous book that gives us a side-stage view on the machinations of international politics * Irish Examiner * As must-read as any book can be this year * Big Issue * --Praise for The Wizard of the Kremlin * -- * A great book, casting light on the creatures that crawl and slither behind the Kremlin's walls, on the mineral hardness of Putin, on the chaos engine that is his way of hurting us. Read this book and you will understand the Russian mind-fuck. Read it * John Sweeney * A captivating novel that sails close, perhaps too close, to reality * Financial Times, Books of the Year * His novel has become a guide - devoured by many western politicians - to the mindset of the Kremlin -- Simon Kuper, Lunch with the FT * Financial Times * You need to be credible, to get into a character's head and present their point of view... But it has to be entertaining, and it has to be convincing. His book succeeds on both measures -- Peter Conradi * Sunday Times * I doubt I have anywhere seen a cleverer portrayal of the Russian view of power, politics and the world, or a better explanation of how the colourless, secret police bureaucrat Putin swelled into the monstrous, fascinating thing he has become... Take this magical mystery tour of the Kremlin and see if it does not make you think. And what pleasure is greater than that? -- Peter Hitchens * Daily Mail * A chilling perspective on Putin's Russia... I am a dyed-in-the-wool Russophile, so this novel is right in my sweet spot. It called to mind Emmanuel Carrere's Limonov, the nonfiction of Peter Pomerantsev, the political thrillers of Robert Harris, the documentary films of Adam Curtis, and the cold-hearted logic of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor. I loved Baranov's company, his pitch-black cynicism, his self-awareness and his sharp political analysis -- Marcel Theroux * Guardian * The short and terrifying true story of the beastly forces dominating our time, where vulgar strongmen, ferocious autocrats, transhuman technologists, and libertarian tyrants dressed in Star Trek fashion are redefining the international order * Air Mail * Describes both the wolves who run governments and those who run tech companies -- David Brooks * New York Times *