Take a photo of a barcode or cover
todd_bissell 's review for:
2034: A Novel of the Next World War
by James Stavridis, Elliot Ackerman
1.5 stars, mostly due to the notable plot details/errors and the many cheapie shortcuts the more knowledgeable-than-they-pretend-to-be-here authors took to make this a bit more "mainstream/possible-movie-deal-ready".
A quick and generally decent enough read. The fact that we have only five viewpoint characters -- an US Navy captain, a White House bureaucrat of Indian descent, a fourth generation Marine Corps fighter pilot, a Chinese admiral, and an Iranian general -- means this doesn't get bogged down with "a cast of thousands". Hell, we don't see or even get provided the names of the female President of the United States or the leader of the People's Republic of China for that matter.
I did like the pacing, and the last quarter of the book is a kick to the gut. I liked the somber "Well shit...., pretty much no one wins".
But...., I have to mark this down many notches due to thedozens of lazy shortcuts the authors took here. Warning: I've been associated with the US Navy in one form or another since the late `80s -- problematic plot details and nitpicks both small and large ahead.
* Not all Arleigh Burke (DDG)-class ships are the same. In Captain Hunt's group at the start of the book, they are embarked on board the USS John Paul Jones, a Flight I DDG that was commissioned 41 years before the timeframe of this book. The destroyer group also has the far more capable Flight IIA DDGs USS Chung Hoon and USS Carl Levin, each respectively commissioned 30 and 11 years prior. For several reasons, it seems highly unlikely that Captain Hunt would have chosen the oldest and least capable ship in the group to be her flagship. This is especially true considering that a Flight I DDG like the USS John Paul Jones does not and would not have nearly the same command and control support capabilities as the newer ships. Not even a helo hanger on that ship, for that matter. So even if the JPJ is still commissioned in the year 2034, it's use as a flagship is unlikely at best.
* In a clear "Let's make this more newbie and/or movie friendly", the authors chose to use the term "radioman" for their sailors on the bridge, when that term (and rate) has been null&void since the early 2000s, replaced to better describe the sailors' actual technical specialties. But I guess the authors wanted to take a shortcut and use the obsolete terminology instead of the correct rating descriptors (e.g. Information Technology Specialist, Operations Specialist, or what have you on any given watch) to make this an easier read for the masses. One of many lazy decisions, IMO.
* It may make for good storytelling visuals to have the military quarters at Yokosuka Naval Base face the waterfront, so that the disgraced Captain Hunt character can wistfully watch the ships coming and going while she awaits her fate via military inquiry. But in reality, none of the military barracks at Yokosuka face the waterfront -- there's not only a mountain in the way, but for most of the piers at Yokosuka, there are also a wide swaths of repair and refurbishment facilities between the piers and the rest of the base. Authors forgoing geographic basics in lieue of painting a pretty picture of the dear captain watching the ships leave port without her.
* Even if cleared of all misconduct, when a captain loses a ship (or this case, three ships!), no sane military organization is not going to (1) promote them to rear admiral (lower half) and (2) give them command of an entire carrier battlegroup (for "revenge" purposes or otherwise). Her rank, as a newly minted one-star would not have even been correct rank for a Carrier Strike Group (CSG) assignment -- even if said promotion was somehow fast-tracked and blessed by the US Senate. But in the bigger picture, the US military does not reward failure that way, sorry. In the real world, even if a captain's ship so much as accidentally bump into a reef while leaving Pearl Harbor for example..., they are almost always fired, and they have pretty much zero chance of promotion from that point on. The notion presented here of "main viewpoint character loses three ships and crews; *poof* magically gets a promotion to get revenge!" is utter nonsense. I guess the authors really wanted to stick with their principle US Navy character through and through to the end, even if in reality the Navy would have that captain put out to pasture in a hurry. Yes, even with a shootin' war going on, there's no way she would have been promoted this way.
* As the senior officer in charge of entire carrier strike group, now one-star Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Hunt would have multiple staffs and ship's force to work with, delegate to, etc. Instead, we have an entire nuclear aircraft carrier seemingly inhabited by only a tiny handful of folks. An Electronics Technician Senior Chief, his workerbee petty officer, and no one else on the entire ship apparently. CVNs on deployment are floating cities with upwards of 5000+ folks aboard, but you sure wouldn't know it by reading this book.
* In general terms, we have no mentions of the Chinese or American Air Forces, ever. Ditto for the Chinese and American Armies. The US Space Force and Coast Guard don't exist in 2034, apparently. I guess that comes from the fact that the authors were in the Marines and the Navy respectively, and want to "write about what you know"..., but that comes across as a way too convenient expediency to keep the book "lean & mean" vice reflecting the real world of Joint Force operations.
* Speaking of which, why are there not any mentions (ever) of the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Navy, the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and so on? Is the inept administration of the unnamed US president so dysfunctional that gigantic swaths of the US military/industrial complex are simply ignored during an active shooting war with another superpower?
* With the premise that this is a Navy-centric novel, where are the hell are the US subs while the Chinese ravage the surface ships? Surely China's cyber-attack superpowers can't affect The Silent Service too, right? Why not show that aspect of this conflict, or at least provide some sort of token mention?
* Two US carrier battle groups, quoted here as having a total of 37 ships(!) all get sunk by the Chinese. That's something like 12,000+ sailors, dead or MIA: more than Pearl Harbor and 9/11, combined. But somehow that is shrugged off in a few sentences? Not even much of reaction on the homefront?
* "Tactical" nukes cannot destroy cities. Nukes big enough to destroy major cities can't just be bolted onto a F/A-18 jet (whose very presence in 2034 seems a little unlikely). That may make for good movie fodder -- "Our heroic Marine pilot hero, in a creaky old plane armed with a nuke is the last fighter strike to exact revenge against those darned commies!" -- but unless there's been a sudden leap of miniaturization of nuclear warheads sometime between now [2021] and 2034, that's just not how things work in the real world.
* Where are America's allies while China is sinking US ships and nuking US cities like it's going outta style? Japan is mentioned as staying neutral -- which is somewhat impossible, with the US having ships, planes, and troops actively stationed on and operating from Japanese soil, after all. And there is a snippet here that talks about NATO being an useless in-name-only entity, but surely the US has not cut ties with all other countries, right? If so, how and when did this happen? Or is that the sort of geopolitical complexity that the authors chose to ignore purely for expediencies sake?
* The Russia vs. Iran sideshow makes little sense here, and was seemingly only included to give the Iranian general something to do and a way to earn the retirement he oh so craved. I actually liked this character. But after he snapped and beat to crap out of the captive US Marine pilot, the authors later didn't seem to know how to keep him relevant in a China v. USA storyline.
* Poland gets a chunk of their territory taken over by Russia (via Belarus, which is assumed here to be again part of Greater Russia)..., and the rest of the world does a proverbial ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ? Actually, since this emulates Crimea, I guess this is not so much a head-scratcher after all.
Even with all of the "mainstream/possible-movie-deal-ready" fan servicing and military nitpicks aside, I guess I still grudgingly wound up finding this to be a decent enough read -- as long as you are okay skimming over the many glaring technical faults and just want to "Hollywood-dize" this sort of topic.
A quick and generally decent enough read. The fact that we have only five viewpoint characters -- an US Navy captain, a White House bureaucrat of Indian descent, a fourth generation Marine Corps fighter pilot, a Chinese admiral, and an Iranian general -- means this doesn't get bogged down with "a cast of thousands". Hell, we don't see or even get provided the names of the female President of the United States or the leader of the People's Republic of China for that matter.
I did like the pacing, and the last quarter of the book is a kick to the gut. I liked the somber "Well shit...., pretty much no one wins".
Spoiler
(Well actually, even at the cost of losing Shanghai, China does come out marginally ahead of a beaten down and nuclear disease-ridden America..., with India the clear overall winner here.)But...., I have to mark this down many notches due to thedozens of lazy shortcuts the authors took here. Warning: I've been associated with the US Navy in one form or another since the late `80s -- problematic plot details and nitpicks both small and large ahead.
* Not all Arleigh Burke (DDG)-class ships are the same. In Captain Hunt's group at the start of the book, they are embarked on board the USS John Paul Jones, a Flight I DDG that was commissioned 41 years before the timeframe of this book. The destroyer group also has the far more capable Flight IIA DDGs USS Chung Hoon and USS Carl Levin, each respectively commissioned 30 and 11 years prior. For several reasons, it seems highly unlikely that Captain Hunt would have chosen the oldest and least capable ship in the group to be her flagship. This is especially true considering that a Flight I DDG like the USS John Paul Jones does not and would not have nearly the same command and control support capabilities as the newer ships. Not even a helo hanger on that ship, for that matter. So even if the JPJ is still commissioned in the year 2034, it's use as a flagship is unlikely at best.
* In a clear "Let's make this more newbie and/or movie friendly", the authors chose to use the term "radioman" for their sailors on the bridge, when that term (and rate) has been null&void since the early 2000s, replaced to better describe the sailors' actual technical specialties. But I guess the authors wanted to take a shortcut and use the obsolete terminology instead of the correct rating descriptors (e.g. Information Technology Specialist, Operations Specialist, or what have you on any given watch) to make this an easier read for the masses. One of many lazy decisions, IMO.
* It may make for good storytelling visuals to have the military quarters at Yokosuka Naval Base face the waterfront, so that the disgraced Captain Hunt character can wistfully watch the ships coming and going while she awaits her fate via military inquiry. But in reality, none of the military barracks at Yokosuka face the waterfront -- there's not only a mountain in the way, but for most of the piers at Yokosuka, there are also a wide swaths of repair and refurbishment facilities between the piers and the rest of the base. Authors forgoing geographic basics in lieue of painting a pretty picture of the dear captain watching the ships leave port without her.
* Even if cleared of all misconduct, when a captain loses a ship (or this case, three ships!), no sane military organization is not going to (1) promote them to rear admiral (lower half) and (2) give them command of an entire carrier battlegroup (for "revenge" purposes or otherwise). Her rank, as a newly minted one-star would not have even been correct rank for a Carrier Strike Group (CSG) assignment -- even if said promotion was somehow fast-tracked and blessed by the US Senate. But in the bigger picture, the US military does not reward failure that way, sorry. In the real world, even if a captain's ship so much as accidentally bump into a reef while leaving Pearl Harbor for example..., they are almost always fired, and they have pretty much zero chance of promotion from that point on. The notion presented here of "main viewpoint character loses three ships and crews; *poof* magically gets a promotion to get revenge!" is utter nonsense. I guess the authors really wanted to stick with their principle US Navy character through and through to the end, even if in reality the Navy would have that captain put out to pasture in a hurry. Yes, even with a shootin' war going on, there's no way she would have been promoted this way.
* As the senior officer in charge of entire carrier strike group, now one-star Rear Admiral (Lower Half) Hunt would have multiple staffs and ship's force to work with, delegate to, etc. Instead, we have an entire nuclear aircraft carrier seemingly inhabited by only a tiny handful of folks. An Electronics Technician Senior Chief, his workerbee petty officer, and no one else on the entire ship apparently. CVNs on deployment are floating cities with upwards of 5000+ folks aboard, but you sure wouldn't know it by reading this book.
* In general terms, we have no mentions of the Chinese or American Air Forces, ever. Ditto for the Chinese and American Armies. The US Space Force and Coast Guard don't exist in 2034, apparently. I guess that comes from the fact that the authors were in the Marines and the Navy respectively, and want to "write about what you know"..., but that comes across as a way too convenient expediency to keep the book "lean & mean" vice reflecting the real world of Joint Force operations.
* Speaking of which, why are there not any mentions (ever) of the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Navy, the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and so on? Is the inept administration of the unnamed US president so dysfunctional that gigantic swaths of the US military/industrial complex are simply ignored during an active shooting war with another superpower?
* With the premise that this is a Navy-centric novel, where are the hell are the US subs while the Chinese ravage the surface ships? Surely China's cyber-attack superpowers can't affect The Silent Service too, right? Why not show that aspect of this conflict, or at least provide some sort of token mention?
* Two US carrier battle groups, quoted here as having a total of 37 ships(!) all get sunk by the Chinese. That's something like 12,000+ sailors, dead or MIA: more than Pearl Harbor and 9/11, combined. But somehow that is shrugged off in a few sentences? Not even much of reaction on the homefront?
* "Tactical" nukes cannot destroy cities
Spoiler
(especially the size of Shanghai)* Where are America's allies while China is sinking US ships and nuking US cities like it's going outta style? Japan is mentioned as staying neutral -- which is somewhat impossible, with the US having ships, planes, and troops actively stationed on and operating from Japanese soil, after all. And there is a snippet here that talks about NATO being an useless in-name-only entity, but surely the US has not cut ties with all other countries, right? If so, how and when did this happen? Or is that the sort of geopolitical complexity that the authors chose to ignore purely for expediencies sake?
* The Russia vs. Iran sideshow makes little sense here, and was seemingly only included to give the Iranian general something to do and a way to earn the retirement he oh so craved. I actually liked this character. But after he snapped and beat to crap out of the captive US Marine pilot, the authors later didn't seem to know how to keep him relevant in a China v. USA storyline.
* Poland gets a chunk of their territory taken over by Russia (via Belarus, which is assumed here to be again part of Greater Russia)..., and the rest of the world does a proverbial ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ? Actually, since this emulates Crimea, I guess this is not so much a head-scratcher after all.
Even with all of the "mainstream/possible-movie-deal-ready" fan servicing and military nitpicks aside, I guess I still grudgingly wound up finding this to be a decent enough read -- as long as you are okay skimming over the many glaring technical faults and just want to "Hollywood-dize" this sort of topic.