Book Review: 2034 - A Novel of the Next World War

I read an excerpt of this in Wired magazine and was intrigued. It helped that the authors are Admiral James Stavridis and Marine veteran Elliot Ackerman.

While patrolling the South China Sea, a small flotilla makes a surprising discovery after coming to the aid of a fishing trawler in distress. Over in the Persian Gulf, a test of new stealth technology mounted on an F-35 goes awry. A cyberattack upon D.C. briefly knocks out the power at the White House. Events spiral out of control from there.

The premise that makes this all possible is a technological leap made by China, granting them superior cyberespionage skills, strong enough to incapacitate the American military. Given the lack of cybersecurity infrastructure and the growing prevalence of ransomware attacks plaguing America over the last few years, it does at least seem plausible.

But there are other assumptions that take away from the scenario presented. Iran is struggling too much right now to suddenly become a successful expansionist state. As much as I'd like India to succeed as a nation, the authors envision it making leaps and bounds in infrastructure and military strength in too short a time, particularly for a country that has issues providing sufficient potable water to its cities. NATO is notably absent, albeit still intact. The impact of Covid-19 on the world seems to be largely ignored, granted the manuscript was probably at the publisher.

The story is told from the viewpoint of five characters: US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt, Chinese Admiral Lin Bao, US Marine pilot Major Chris "Wedge" Mitchell, Iranian Brigadier General Qassem Farshad, and US Deputy National Security Advisor Sandeep Chowdhury. The authors provide them with enough backstory to have a sense of who they are, but there was never quite enough for them to leap off the page. They were like made-for-TV characters—functional but not memorable.

I think a major reason for that is, with maybe with one or two exceptions, that most of the action and decision-making takes place off-screen. We get a character's perspective just before something happens and then switch to a different character's viewpoint as they react to the news of the event that just took place. End result: All telling and very little showing. That's a major mistake.

This is no military thriller—Tom Clancy will not be dethroned here. This is meant to be a cautionary tale, a war game scenario turned into a novel. While a U.S. - China confrontation over the South China Sea or Taiwan is always a possibility, particularly if jingoistic factions take control, it seemed as though everyone made the wrong choice whenever possible. While the characters were mere pawns, hubris seems to be a large part of the decision makers' choices. A lesson in Pride goeth before the fall. Maybe that was the authors' intent as the novel was written during the Trump administration. But whatever their reasons, it just didn't work for me as a novel.

2 1/2 stars.

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DED