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bergsteiger 's review for:
2034: A Novel of the Next World War
by James Stavridis, Elliot Ackerman
This book was pretty underwhelming. I always compare WW3 books back to Red Storm Rising as the gold standard, so that will form a lot of the basis for my low rating of this book.
My first concern with this book is the technology piece. If this were a fantasy story, it would be employing what is known as "soft magic". A wizard or sorceress waves her hand and magic things happen--don't worry too much about how or if it makes sense. That's how technology is treated in this book. The Chinese do this thing where they gain control of US ships and planes (one of them half way around the world in Iran), but don't question it, just understand that the US has the equivalent of a muzzle loader against the SKS, that is Chinese technology. Tom Clancy explained technology perfectly--just enough for the layman to follow along and understand what was happening, but not too much that your eyes glazed over.
My next concern is with plot holes. The Chinese can spot US ships and planes controlling them from halfway across the world one minute (resulting in the destruction of a destroyer flotilla and then 2 aircraft carrier groups), and then in the next are being blockaded by carrier groups that they are defenseless to stop from dropping tactical nukes (tactical nukes that somehow wipe out entire cities). Speaking of nukes, the US decides to drop a nuke on China because Russia cuts a 10G internet cable in the Pacific? Aside from the fact it's hard to see why those two events would connect, it's even harder to understand why one more in a series of communication blocks, suddenly results in the escalation to nuclear war. Tom Clancy understood that nuclear weapons were not something anybody wanted to use and kept his conflict conventional, because it made sense and reflected the reality of geopolitics.
Lastly, characters. The characters in this book are all placed to tell a story. They are archetypal inserts, plugged into slots that allow the authors to tell their story along political lines that they want to expound on. Tom Clancy's characters may not be the most well developed in literature, but they did seem like real people that the outside world was influencing and shaping. 2034, simply plugged in some standard US based tropes for the various main characters and called it a day. The worst, was the diatribe by the Chinese admiral on the decline of great empires through decadence-yawn, heard it a million times and doesn't make me identify with the character at all, since he is clearly a mouthpiece for a political message.
I am always looking for interesting and forward thinking takes on future conflicts. This is not one of them. I am giving it two stars because it moved along at a good pace, but ultimately this is just a pulp book without a lot of thought behind it.
My first concern with this book is the technology piece. If this were a fantasy story, it would be employing what is known as "soft magic". A wizard or sorceress waves her hand and magic things happen--don't worry too much about how or if it makes sense. That's how technology is treated in this book. The Chinese do this thing where they gain control of US ships and planes (one of them half way around the world in Iran), but don't question it, just understand that the US has the equivalent of a muzzle loader against the SKS, that is Chinese technology. Tom Clancy explained technology perfectly--just enough for the layman to follow along and understand what was happening, but not too much that your eyes glazed over.
My next concern is with plot holes. The Chinese can spot US ships and planes controlling them from halfway across the world one minute (resulting in the destruction of a destroyer flotilla and then 2 aircraft carrier groups), and then in the next are being blockaded by carrier groups that they are defenseless to stop from dropping tactical nukes (tactical nukes that somehow wipe out entire cities). Speaking of nukes, the US decides to drop a nuke on China because Russia cuts a 10G internet cable in the Pacific? Aside from the fact it's hard to see why those two events would connect, it's even harder to understand why one more in a series of communication blocks, suddenly results in the escalation to nuclear war. Tom Clancy understood that nuclear weapons were not something anybody wanted to use and kept his conflict conventional, because it made sense and reflected the reality of geopolitics.
Lastly, characters. The characters in this book are all placed to tell a story. They are archetypal inserts, plugged into slots that allow the authors to tell their story along political lines that they want to expound on. Tom Clancy's characters may not be the most well developed in literature, but they did seem like real people that the outside world was influencing and shaping. 2034, simply plugged in some standard US based tropes for the various main characters and called it a day. The worst, was the diatribe by the Chinese admiral on the decline of great empires through decadence-yawn, heard it a million times and doesn't make me identify with the character at all, since he is clearly a mouthpiece for a political message.
I am always looking for interesting and forward thinking takes on future conflicts. This is not one of them. I am giving it two stars because it moved along at a good pace, but ultimately this is just a pulp book without a lot of thought behind it.