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2034

A Novel of the Next World War

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2034

By: Elliot Ackerman, James Stavridis USN
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, P.J. Ochlan, Vikas Adam, Dion Graham, Feodor Chin
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About this listen

 From two former military officers and award-winning authors, a chillingly authentic geopolitical thriller that imagines a naval clash between the US and China in the South China Sea in 2034--and the path from there to a nightmarish global conflagration.

On March 12, 2034, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is on the bridge of her flagship, the guided missile destroyer USS John Paul Jones, conducting a routine freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea when her ship detects an unflagged trawler in clear distress, smoke billowing from its bridge. On that same day, US Marine aviator Major Chris "Wedge" Mitchell is flying an F35E Lightning over the Strait of Hormuz, testing a new stealth technology as he flirts with Iranian airspace. By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt's destroyer will lie at the bottom of the sea, sunk by the Chinese Navy. Iran and China have clearly coordinated their moves, which involve the use of powerful new forms of cyber weaponry that render US ships and planes defenseless. In a single day, America's faith in its military's strategic pre-eminence is in tatters. A new, terrifying era is at hand.

So begins a disturbingly plausible work of speculative fiction, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and decorated Marine veteran and the former commander of NATO, a legendary admiral who has spent much of his career strategically outmaneuvering America's most tenacious adversaries. Written with a powerful blend of geopolitical sophistication and human empathy, 2034 takes us inside the minds of a global cast of characters--Americans, Chinese, Iranians, Russians, Indians--as a series of arrogant miscalculations on all sides leads the world into an intensifying international storm. In the end, China and the United States will have paid a staggering cost, one that forever alters the global balance of power. 

Everything in 2034 is an imaginative extrapolation from present-day facts on the ground combined with the authors' years working at the highest and most classified levels of national security. Sometimes it takes a brilliant work of fiction to illuminate the most dire of warnings: 2034 is all too close at hand, and this cautionary tale presents the reader a dark yet possible future that we must do all we can to avoid.

* This audiobook edition includes an exclusive interview with co-author Admiral James Stavridis. Genre Fiction Military Political Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense War & Military China War Political Thriller Fiction
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The book does well to make the reader imagine a situation where the US faces a near peer adversary in the not too distant future. It provides much to consider about how the west should respond to China’s growing power and the threat of cyber attack. It’s not Tom Clancy but it certainly made me think. The parallels drawn between the US and the end of the British Empire were quite striking. The narration/performances were great too.

A cautionary tale

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It is hard to review this book without giving spoilers but it is written from the perspective of senior personnel who are decision implementers not decision makers and they taking their initiative in multiple cases just makes things worse. There is little or no reference or analysis of either the decision makers or the general population where millions are impacted and the global situation totally changes. A great opportunity squandered

Too simplistic

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Well read - in fact, performed - and a really interesting premise, but ultimately it’s a lightweight version of “The Ghost Fleet” that spent no time creating a narrative of the “how” and a great deal of time, frankly, fluff.
The threat is real; actually, that is underplayed. The reliance upon technology so great, it’s the Achilles heel that decades of regulatory arbitrage have gifted the West’s greatest enemy.
So, the premise works. But at no point is even an attempt made at how this vector can be attacked, removing any real sense of threat.
Further, the story moves in great leaps in which as personal reflective stories you are informed as to events. I really don’t care about the character development and fluff.
Perhaps, growing up on Red Storm Rising and others of that genre I am spoiled. Perhaps I am of a generation that cares more about what is happening than how people feel about what is happening.
Perhaps too, I am neither and this is just a very good premise utterly ruined by a complete failure to own the how and thus drive the compulsion.

Good premise, but failed execution.

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The authors clearly are trying to give an overview of the story and omit certain details. But there was a lack of narrative on the decisions reached at the executive level and felt simplistic on the strategic implications of moving to the next stage. Still a cautionary tale for current world events.

Not much told how the decisions are reached

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Interesting book, for sure. I am no expert on the subject, but I suspect that it is based on a realistic threat. Even if it is not, it still is an interesting read.

Interesting book

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