I enjoyed Yuval Harari's course A Brief History of Humankind when it was available on Coursera (it can still be found on youtube, although at low video quality — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGhTQ4iruLc&list=PLE-kxvSEhk...). This was before Harari released his book, Sapiens, largely based on this course; and before he started fantasizing about the future.
Harari gets a lot of flack (I guess having wildly popular books and fame does that), but I found both Sapiens and Homo Deus entertaining.
And, yes, I've read some of the criticisms of his work. They seem to take issue with the tiniest claims, even go so far as labeling his work as "dangerous"[0]. "Harari’s motives remain mysterious". It's hilarious.
