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3.53 AVERAGE
3.53 AVERAGE
2034: A Novel of the Next World War
Author: Ackerman, Stavridis
Publisher: Penguin Press
Publishing Date: 2021
Pgs: 303
Dewey: F ACK
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
=======================================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
On March 12, 2034, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is on the bridge of her flagship, the guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones, conducting a routine freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea when her ship detects an unflagged trawler in clear distress, smoke billowing from its bridge. On that same day, US Marine aviator Major Chris "Wedge" Mitchell is flying an F35E Lightning over the Strait of Hormuz, testing a new stealth technology as he flirts with Iranian airspace. By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt's destroyer will lie at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the Chinese Navy. Iran and China have clearly coordinated their moves, which involve the use of powerful new forms of cyber weaponry that render US ships and planes defenseless. In a single day, America's faith in its military's strategic pre-eminence is in tatters. A new, terrifying era is at hand.
So begins a disturbingly plausible work of speculative fiction, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and decorated Marine veteran and the former commander of NATO, a legendary admiral who has spent much of his career strategically outmaneuvering America's most tenacious adversaries. Written with a powerful blend of geopolitical sophistication and human empathy, 2034 takes us inside the minds of a global cast of characters--Americans, Chinese, Iranians, Russians, Indians--as a series of arrogant miscalculations on all sides leads the world into an intensifying international storm. In the end, China and the United States will have paid a staggering cost, one that forever alters the global balance of power.
_________________________________________
Genre:
War
Politics
Militaria
Fiction
Why this book:
I love a good war novel. For being co-authored by an Admiral as far up the food chain as Stavridis was, I expected more detailed descriptions of the vehicles and weapons involved. If that’s what you come for, you aren’t going to find it here. This is more focused on the geopolitical ramifications and the fallout of those actions.
_________________________________________
Least Favorite Character:
The “villains” of the piece are cardboard men. The authors tried to put meat on their bones, but they were stalking horse characters.
Favorite Scene:
Blinding the elephant, holy shit. That would be a horrifying concept to run up against.
Hmm Moments:
Reading this amidst the shadows growing out of Russian adventurism in Ukraine is sobering.
Cutting undersea cables... It's like this book is reading my mind. I had a similar conversation regarding the Russian navy exercises off Ireland.
Uhm Moments:
Not sure if you could do that to an F18, stripping out the advanced avionics so it becomes an analog fighter plane and still have it fly much less get it off the deck of a modern carrier and into combat. And the idea that a stripped-down, dumb plane, regardless of pilot skill, would stand up to and fight back against modern military aircraft isn’t kosher.
Suspension of Disbelief:
I think Ackerman and Stavridis are naive in the extreme. They and I, both, live among the fanatics scattered throughout the American populace. They would see it as their holy duty if there was a nuclear bomb burst on American soil to send the entire world to heaven in a rapture of nuclear fire. America is a religion to many: Prosperity Christians, fanatical evangelicals, the America F Yeah crowd, etc. A quasi-Christian death cult effectively, they would see it as their right and moral obligation to have vengeance. Put it down to Reagan, Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne and the Heroic Anglo Narrative illusion drilled into all of us as school children. And we'd all burn because of it.
Strikeout:
Strike 1. The Iranian squirrel incident was so telegraphed and overwrought that it has come close to killing my interest in the story. The jury is out and deliberating.
_________________________________________
Pacing:
Very well paced.
=======================================
Author: Ackerman, Stavridis
Publisher: Penguin Press
Publishing Date: 2021
Pgs: 303
Dewey: F ACK
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
=======================================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
On March 12, 2034, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is on the bridge of her flagship, the guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones, conducting a routine freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea when her ship detects an unflagged trawler in clear distress, smoke billowing from its bridge. On that same day, US Marine aviator Major Chris "Wedge" Mitchell is flying an F35E Lightning over the Strait of Hormuz, testing a new stealth technology as he flirts with Iranian airspace. By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt's destroyer will lie at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the Chinese Navy. Iran and China have clearly coordinated their moves, which involve the use of powerful new forms of cyber weaponry that render US ships and planes defenseless. In a single day, America's faith in its military's strategic pre-eminence is in tatters. A new, terrifying era is at hand.
So begins a disturbingly plausible work of speculative fiction, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and decorated Marine veteran and the former commander of NATO, a legendary admiral who has spent much of his career strategically outmaneuvering America's most tenacious adversaries. Written with a powerful blend of geopolitical sophistication and human empathy, 2034 takes us inside the minds of a global cast of characters--Americans, Chinese, Iranians, Russians, Indians--as a series of arrogant miscalculations on all sides leads the world into an intensifying international storm. In the end, China and the United States will have paid a staggering cost, one that forever alters the global balance of power.
_________________________________________
Genre:
War
Politics
Militaria
Fiction
Why this book:
I love a good war novel. For being co-authored by an Admiral as far up the food chain as Stavridis was, I expected more detailed descriptions of the vehicles and weapons involved. If that’s what you come for, you aren’t going to find it here. This is more focused on the geopolitical ramifications and the fallout of those actions.
_________________________________________
Least Favorite Character:
The “villains” of the piece are cardboard men. The authors tried to put meat on their bones, but they were stalking horse characters.
Favorite Scene:
Blinding the elephant, holy shit. That would be a horrifying concept to run up against.
Hmm Moments:
Reading this amidst the shadows growing out of Russian adventurism in Ukraine is sobering.
Cutting undersea cables... It's like this book is reading my mind. I had a similar conversation regarding the Russian navy exercises off Ireland.
Uhm Moments:
Not sure if you could do that to an F18, stripping out the advanced avionics so it becomes an analog fighter plane and still have it fly much less get it off the deck of a modern carrier and into combat. And the idea that a stripped-down, dumb plane, regardless of pilot skill, would stand up to and fight back against modern military aircraft isn’t kosher.
Suspension of Disbelief:
I think Ackerman and Stavridis are naive in the extreme. They and I, both, live among the fanatics scattered throughout the American populace. They would see it as their holy duty if there was a nuclear bomb burst on American soil to send the entire world to heaven in a rapture of nuclear fire. America is a religion to many: Prosperity Christians, fanatical evangelicals, the America F Yeah crowd, etc. A quasi-Christian death cult effectively, they would see it as their right and moral obligation to have vengeance. Put it down to Reagan, Chuck Norris, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne and the Heroic Anglo Narrative illusion drilled into all of us as school children. And we'd all burn because of it.
Strikeout:
Strike 1. The Iranian squirrel incident was so telegraphed and overwrought that it has come close to killing my interest in the story. The jury is out and deliberating.
_________________________________________
Pacing:
Very well paced.
=======================================
I heard Elliot Ackerman do a radio interview, he was so excited and giddy about this book that I happy to read it. I was lucky to get it from the library.
Boring, lack luster, characters who we described to the end of the alphabet but had not one interesting thing to say. I lost interested half way through. It was written by a committee and the editor should go back to writing greeting cards. What a wast of time
Boring, lack luster, characters who we described to the end of the alphabet but had not one interesting thing to say. I lost interested half way through. It was written by a committee and the editor should go back to writing greeting cards. What a wast of time
An excellent, realistic account of America’s battle against China.
I am not a military veteran. Admiral Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman are. I don't doubt the escalation of tensions in the South China Sea or use of new technologies to wage a primarily cyber war, but my thoughts and readings on traditional warfare and proportional responses is that since the end of the first stage of the Cold War (and the assumption that we are in the second stage, which feels even more evident with the acknowledgement of the depth of the hacks executed by the Russian government while Chinese soft power will be utilized extensively to reshape parts of Africa and South America in their image in post-COVID economic recovery), wars have remained exclusively cold between nation states. Espionage and cyberwarefare are the tools of the trade for contemporary warfare.
The remainder of this review contains spoilers.
With the resumption of traditional neo-liberal politics in Washington that seek a more conciliatory tone to Beijing, the prospect of a war going not only hot but nuclear in 13 years time is difficult to believe. Especially to assume that the policies of mutually assured destruction are no longer the go-to. A nuclear strike consisting of a single bomb on one mid-tier city does not feel like the retaliatory actions the United States would take in response to a fleet sinking and infrastructure attack. Nor does a two city attack of cities, one the western seaboard that isn't LA, SF, or Seattle, sound like what would be done in response. When Shanghai is nuked at the end of the book, there is no retaliation of any kind as the sides work to bring peace. Mutually Assured Destruction means that the only winning move is not to play.
That said, the personal intrigue and multi-state negotiations and smaller acts of warfare were enjoyable to read. I just personally find it difficult to believe that nuclear assaults on the nationstate level is something still hypothesized in today's thinking.
The remainder of this review contains spoilers.
With the resumption of traditional neo-liberal politics in Washington that seek a more conciliatory tone to Beijing, the prospect of a war going not only hot but nuclear in 13 years time is difficult to believe. Especially to assume that the policies of mutually assured destruction are no longer the go-to. A nuclear strike consisting of a single bomb on one mid-tier city does not feel like the retaliatory actions the United States would take in response to a fleet sinking and infrastructure attack. Nor does a two city attack of cities, one the western seaboard that isn't LA, SF, or Seattle, sound like what would be done in response. When Shanghai is nuked at the end of the book, there is no retaliation of any kind as the sides work to bring peace. Mutually Assured Destruction means that the only winning move is not to play.
That said, the personal intrigue and multi-state negotiations and smaller acts of warfare were enjoyable to read. I just personally find it difficult to believe that nuclear assaults on the nationstate level is something still hypothesized in today's thinking.
Wowowoowow heavy and interesting and amazing. It makes you think, you fight for different people, it was just really great.
When the media depicts the world one way, it's good to read another possibility. This book is thought provoking. It opened my eyes to what is already happening today.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
dark
informative
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Quick read. Thriller
dark
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes