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A review by richardrbecker
2034: A Novel of the Next World War by James Stavridis, Elliot Ackerman
4.0
2034 is tense, taught, and terrifying, especially in how plausible a single spark could lead to a new kind of world war. The next one, by authors Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavidis, has higher stakes than previous world wars in that large population centers can become casualties of conflict, and the consequences of any aggression are more global.
Reminiscent of the rapid escalation of conflict experienced at the onset of World War 1 when the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria led to one of the most horrific conflicts in the world, 2034 sees the same kind of tension when a United States naval commander attempts to rescue a Chinese fishing boat in the South China Sea, only to find it is a cyber warfare operations center.
Where Ackerman and Stavidis win is in the first three-quarters of the novel, outlying three terrifying facts. First, it outlines tensions in the South China Sea and over the disputed sovereignty of Taiwan. Second, it rightly recognizes that no significantly advanced technology can guarantee a military triumph if that technology can be hacked. Third, when two world powers find themselves in conflict, regional powers become emboldened to advance their own agendas.
2034 is nearly a five-star story, only missing the mark by elongating the resolution of various characters after the fact, in my opinion, while glossing over what is described as a reordering of the world. Until then, I thought Ackerman and Stavidis did a splendid job layering the story by providing individual, national, and global perspectives of the conflict. In the end, they limit the perspectives to the individuals in an attempt to drive home a point once made by William Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury: “Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.”
That said, however, the authors succeed in one of their goals, which Admiral James Stavidis defined as scaring the heck out of people by writing a book that reveals the fragility in the face of a modern world war. So on that note, mission accomplished.
Reminiscent of the rapid escalation of conflict experienced at the onset of World War 1 when the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria led to one of the most horrific conflicts in the world, 2034 sees the same kind of tension when a United States naval commander attempts to rescue a Chinese fishing boat in the South China Sea, only to find it is a cyber warfare operations center.
Where Ackerman and Stavidis win is in the first three-quarters of the novel, outlying three terrifying facts. First, it outlines tensions in the South China Sea and over the disputed sovereignty of Taiwan. Second, it rightly recognizes that no significantly advanced technology can guarantee a military triumph if that technology can be hacked. Third, when two world powers find themselves in conflict, regional powers become emboldened to advance their own agendas.
2034 is nearly a five-star story, only missing the mark by elongating the resolution of various characters after the fact, in my opinion, while glossing over what is described as a reordering of the world. Until then, I thought Ackerman and Stavidis did a splendid job layering the story by providing individual, national, and global perspectives of the conflict. In the end, they limit the perspectives to the individuals in an attempt to drive home a point once made by William Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury: “Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.”
That said, however, the authors succeed in one of their goals, which Admiral James Stavidis defined as scaring the heck out of people by writing a book that reveals the fragility in the face of a modern world war. So on that note, mission accomplished.