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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It is a lighter read, but was enjoyable if you liked 2034 or similar books
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Political/Techno-thriller. Politicians from several countries, billionaires, and scientists court the advent of The Singularity. Second book in the author’s futurist series.
Epoch 5 occurs circa 2054
My audiobook was 9-hours, 20-minutes long. A dead tree copy would be a modest 310-pages. The book had a US 2024 copyright.
This book was co-authored. James Stavridis is a retired United States Navy admiral, currently involved in numerous high-level commercial, academic and media positions. He is the author of about ten (10) non-fiction books on military and political topics. Elliot Ackerman is an American author and former Marine Corps officer. He is the author of five works of fiction. This is the second book I've read by the authors. The first being 2034: A Novel of the Next World War (my review).
The audio book had five (5) narrators: Junior Nyong'o, Brian Nishii, Eunice Wong, Emily Woo Zeller, Vikas Adam voiced the story’s ensemble cast of characters. They did a good job, although I couldn't tell you who voiced which characters.
Firstly, it is not completely necessary to have any previous: technology background to be reading this book. However, it would be helpful to have a Popular Mechanics-level understanding of future tech, along with both PRC and US political organization, and a grasp of international politics.
Secondly, having read 2034: A Novel of the Next World War would also be helpful. The world building of this book leverages the events of that one. Several of the characters in that book are recycled, albeit twenty years later. Frankly, this book should be properly labeled Book #2 in the Twenty-first Century Series.
Finally, having a familiarity with the computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor Ray Kurzweil would also be helpful in understanding the transhuman orientation of The Singularity used in the book.
This book was part of the long tradition of modern, tech thrillers which became popular in the 1970’s by books like [a:Michael Crichton|5194|Michael Crichton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1359042651p2/5194.jpg] and more recently by [a:Daniel H. Wilson|33773|Daniel H. Wilson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1489079874p2/33773.jpg]. These genre-books include a detailed description of technology gone wild. This book adds politicians and political leaders into the story.
The American Century ended with the limited nuclear exchange with the Chinese in 2034. The world is politically more multipolar, with the US no longer being the lone superpower. In the story, nation states are still competing commercially and technologically. In addition, the US has lapsed into a state dominated by a single, conservative, political party with a supermajority. They have a President, angling for his forth consecutive term. (Note this implies the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution was repealed.)
Currently, the world’s Great Powers are in a race to be the first to achieve Technological Singularity. The nation state having First Mover advantage with achieving the Singularity is assumed to exclude all competitors from reaching it.
Characters from the previous book have since risen to high political and commercial positions. (They're grayer now.) New, young, "brilliant", characters were introduced for the action scenes. A race, both hampered by the political situation in the nation states and using a neo-modern, form of technological-espionage takes place with separate countries striving to reach the singularity first.
Writing was technically good. Descriptive prose was written in a clear, unaffected manner. A competent, details oriented, ‘writing team’ typically produces a well-groomed narrative. The narrative contains a moderate amount of details in scenes on both sides of the conflict. Dialog, at least that related to action scenes was good too. However, I thought the prose tended to be too melodramatic.
Issues I had with the previous book continued into this one.
The characters continued to be very flat. This was an artifact of the very short, chapters with changing POVs and only a modest number of pages. It did not leave a lot pages for character development, nor did they give me time to become invested in most of them.
There was an enormous amount of exposition. This was an advantage in the cut ‘n dried techo-political plotlines. However, the narrative fell flat when attempting to describe the emotional relationships between the characters. Most male, female relationships were filial. All romantic relationships were heterosexual. All relationships came out as too on the nose.
Finally, this story was "the view from above". The lowest rank contributing a POV was a US Marine Major. Others included: brilliant, young, scientists; US Presidents and Senators, Billionaires and their young, quant minions.
The final chapter, “Coda”, was a terribly awkward attempt at The Summation trope, by the primary POVs. It was the schmaltziest of chapters contributing to the HFN ending, that had verged on schmaltz throughout.
The book contained sex, a small amount of drugs, and a small amount of music references. (That's, sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll.) There was a small amount of violence due to civil unrest. The sex was of the fade to black type and non-graphic. Alcohol was the only drug consumed. That was in moderation. Music references came from references to background music. Violence was: physical, and military small arms. Violence was not gory and only mildly descriptive. As in many thrillers, the POV contributing protagonists had remarkable stamina. Body count was moderate. (There was a Civil War on.)
World building was a disappointment. Except for implanted devices, automated taxis, and advanced cellular therapy, it might have been 2024. There were no 'new' consumer products, the ravages of climate change went unmentioned, and there was no mention of space industries. Where's the futurism?
In addition, three of the protagonists conveniently (for the plot) "lost communications" in rural Brazil, even from the orbital networks. Currently there are seven, with two more US and two offshore orbital constellations under development. Thirty years from now, no handset on Earth will be out-of-reach from a network. Ever.
Like the previous book, this story was a story of disruptive technology. The opportunist adversaries of the U.S. like the Chinese, Nigerians and Japanese were in a low-level, technological confrontation with the United States. Unlike many techno-fests of this genre, the story wasn’t completely there to support The Singularity. The real story was, “The US’s fractious politics were its greatest liability.”.
This book was a hybrid-fiction/non-fiction work. At heart it’s about how unknown unknowns can topple a well-ensconced leader. Putting aside the techno-babble, it was pretty thin soup. Too many POVs starved the characters of development. (Ackerman didn’t learn from his previous book in the series.) There were too few pages for them to be anything but stereotypical. There were numerous plot holes, particularly with technology and how tech-savvy folks approach 'technical' challenges. They went against the 'realistic' grain of the overall book. There was a lot of exposition. I could not avoid thinking the basic themes of the book were pessimistic and too contrived. If you’re a AI geek into modern political pr0n this would be a decent beach read, this may be for you? However, I’m not reading any more stories in this series.
Epoch 5 occurs circa 2054
My audiobook was 9-hours, 20-minutes long. A dead tree copy would be a modest 310-pages. The book had a US 2024 copyright.
This book was co-authored. James Stavridis is a retired United States Navy admiral, currently involved in numerous high-level commercial, academic and media positions. He is the author of about ten (10) non-fiction books on military and political topics. Elliot Ackerman is an American author and former Marine Corps officer. He is the author of five works of fiction. This is the second book I've read by the authors. The first being 2034: A Novel of the Next World War (my review).
The audio book had five (5) narrators: Junior Nyong'o, Brian Nishii, Eunice Wong, Emily Woo Zeller, Vikas Adam voiced the story’s ensemble cast of characters. They did a good job, although I couldn't tell you who voiced which characters.
Firstly, it is not completely necessary to have any previous: technology background to be reading this book. However, it would be helpful to have a Popular Mechanics-level understanding of future tech, along with both PRC and US political organization, and a grasp of international politics.
Secondly, having read 2034: A Novel of the Next World War would also be helpful. The world building of this book leverages the events of that one. Several of the characters in that book are recycled, albeit twenty years later. Frankly, this book should be properly labeled Book #2 in the Twenty-first Century Series.
Finally, having a familiarity with the computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor Ray Kurzweil would also be helpful in understanding the transhuman orientation of The Singularity used in the book.
This book was part of the long tradition of modern, tech thrillers which became popular in the 1970’s by books like [a:Michael Crichton|5194|Michael Crichton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1359042651p2/5194.jpg] and more recently by [a:Daniel H. Wilson|33773|Daniel H. Wilson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1489079874p2/33773.jpg]. These genre-books include a detailed description of technology gone wild. This book adds politicians and political leaders into the story.
The American Century ended with the limited nuclear exchange with the Chinese in 2034. The world is politically more multipolar, with the US no longer being the lone superpower. In the story, nation states are still competing commercially and technologically. In addition, the US has lapsed into a state dominated by a single, conservative, political party with a supermajority. They have a President, angling for his forth consecutive term. (Note this implies the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution was repealed.)
Currently, the world’s Great Powers are in a race to be the first to achieve Technological Singularity. The nation state having First Mover advantage with achieving the Singularity is assumed to exclude all competitors from reaching it.
Characters from the previous book have since risen to high political and commercial positions. (They're grayer now.) New, young, "brilliant", characters were introduced for the action scenes. A race, both hampered by the political situation in the nation states and using a neo-modern, form of technological-espionage takes place with separate countries striving to reach the singularity first.
Writing was technically good. Descriptive prose was written in a clear, unaffected manner. A competent, details oriented, ‘writing team’ typically produces a well-groomed narrative. The narrative contains a moderate amount of details in scenes on both sides of the conflict. Dialog, at least that related to action scenes was good too. However, I thought the prose tended to be too melodramatic.
Issues I had with the previous book continued into this one.
The characters continued to be very flat. This was an artifact of the very short, chapters with changing POVs and only a modest number of pages. It did not leave a lot pages for character development, nor did they give me time to become invested in most of them.
There was an enormous amount of exposition. This was an advantage in the cut ‘n dried techo-political plotlines. However, the narrative fell flat when attempting to describe the emotional relationships between the characters. Most male, female relationships were filial. All romantic relationships were heterosexual. All relationships came out as too on the nose.
Finally, this story was "the view from above". The lowest rank contributing a POV was a US Marine Major. Others included: brilliant, young, scientists; US Presidents and Senators, Billionaires and their young, quant minions.
The final chapter, “Coda”, was a terribly awkward attempt at The Summation trope, by the primary POVs. It was the schmaltziest of chapters contributing to the HFN ending, that had verged on schmaltz throughout.
The book contained sex, a small amount of drugs, and a small amount of music references. (That's, sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll.) There was a small amount of violence due to civil unrest. The sex was of the fade to black type and non-graphic. Alcohol was the only drug consumed. That was in moderation. Music references came from references to background music. Violence was: physical, and military small arms. Violence was not gory and only mildly descriptive. As in many thrillers, the POV contributing protagonists had remarkable stamina. Body count was moderate. (There was a Civil War on.)
World building was a disappointment. Except for implanted devices, automated taxis, and advanced cellular therapy, it might have been 2024. There were no 'new' consumer products, the ravages of climate change went unmentioned, and there was no mention of space industries. Where's the futurism?
In addition, three of the protagonists conveniently (for the plot) "lost communications" in rural Brazil, even from the orbital networks. Currently there are seven, with two more US and two offshore orbital constellations under development. Thirty years from now, no handset on Earth will be out-of-reach from a network. Ever.
Like the previous book, this story was a story of disruptive technology. The opportunist adversaries of the U.S. like the Chinese, Nigerians and Japanese were in a low-level, technological confrontation with the United States. Unlike many techno-fests of this genre, the story wasn’t completely there to support The Singularity. The real story was, “The US’s fractious politics were its greatest liability.”.
This book was a hybrid-fiction/non-fiction work. At heart it’s about how unknown unknowns can topple a well-ensconced leader. Putting aside the techno-babble, it was pretty thin soup. Too many POVs starved the characters of development. (Ackerman didn’t learn from his previous book in the series.) There were too few pages for them to be anything but stereotypical. There were numerous plot holes, particularly with technology and how tech-savvy folks approach 'technical' challenges. They went against the 'realistic' grain of the overall book. There was a lot of exposition. I could not avoid thinking the basic themes of the book were pessimistic and too contrived. If you’re a AI geek into modern political pr0n this would be a decent beach read, this may be for you? However, I’m not reading any more stories in this series.
Not as compelling as 2034 but still quite interesting and worth a read - and possibly a reread
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No