2034: A Novel of the Next World War

Fast-paced, shorter than expected, not very convincing in some regards. Each of the main characters plays many roles in the conflict. It's almost as if the authors didn't want to burden the reader with too many characters.

Book shows, at least to me, that although authors have military background that I do not question for a second, modern Western military has (or better yet had, they got a glimpse in 2022) no idea on what modern war between nations looks like. It seems that lessons from WW1 onward are completely forgotten.

Also, and I understand that this is more for fiction than fact presentation because this is not war game simulation (for which I truly hope they base more on reality), this book's way of presenting nations that West sees as a enemies is so full of cliches to the point of caricature. Because what Iranians do - they beat down anything they see using most-brute force because hey, it is what they are, right, brutes hugging anti aircraft guns (?) and trying to shoot down the invading airplanes (in area towards which attackers need to fly at least hundred's of planes over good portion (several hundred of kilometers) of Iranian territory? I guess missile defenses in these area are non existent? but they have electromagentic guns? Please....); Chinese you say, Fu-Manchu characters all, with tendency to kill off everyone involved in the embarrassing acts; and Russians, as always seen by West as drunks unable to even use appropriate amount of explosives not to mention follow the simple meteorological data and winds so entire airborne division ends up in the sea (and this is for army that predominantly uses helicopter air assaults (yes even with parachutes)) - I mean ridiculous.

Above is standard West's view of potential adversaries, Clancy followed the same recipe, Larry Bond also could not but portray the enemies as ultimately incapable. So no big surprise here.

When it comes to the side of "angels" US is the only force standing up, European forces are nowhere to be seen which says a lot [considering the author's credentials].

What I find most disastrous in this book is how they see inter-state escalation, which is pretty worrying considering the above mentioned authors' credentials and history.

Internet gets cut off and infrastructure falls, but after a while everything comes back online? How? I understand there are backups but level of destruction mentioned in the book is such that satellites are at least jammed if not outright fried down, no connection is possible and then physical link is blown up but it is just a few days' hiccup? I have lived through complete shutdown of electricity and believe me, when only distribution network is down, it is down, it takes months to bring everything up and this is only utilities infrastructure (pretty straight forward). Here computer network is cut in half and satellites are jammed and everything is back online after a week or two? Just electricity interruption would destroy substations that would take months if not years to bring back online. I like the fact that old good radios are back in use but this would open up communication to any opposing force and be sort of a double edged sword.

Interestingly no EMPs are used by any side. This would be most effective method of destroying ground communications but nobody uses it. Hmmmm, one would then expect that nuclear weapons are then also off the menu but no, in this book US chooses to strike with nuclear weapons almost immediately [triggered by Chinese invincible control of US military networked technology on sea and air, which is such a deus ex machina danger that truly sounds like magic, flip a switch silver bullet - I like these exaggerated views on possibilities of cyber attacks that just pull the wool over the eyes to avoid questions of good old fashioned ECM and missile weapons that can cause just as much mayhem but are more tangible issues - getting outranged by modern day missile and artillery might bring back questions on usage of certain types of weapons, which is something most technocrats in militaries all over the world just dont like even to hear about].

And then we get to the nuclear exchange and the way conflict ends.

So, US loses two cities - Galveston and San Diego, former is unknown quantity for me except it is in Gulf of Mexico area (I guess to show max radius of China' reach - which I am not sure it's true, but OK) and latter is known for military bases in Pacific - but obliterates Chinese military bases directly across of Taiwan and blows up Shanghai, and everybody is just saying, oh yeah, shoot, we better stop? In what fairy tale? I mean dont get me wrong, I wish this type of scenarios would end up like this but US is very strongly pushing for nuclear retaliation even in case of cyber attacks that cannot be fully attributed to anyone so to think they would just drop few nuclear bombs and stop is ridiculous. No strategic bombers using standoff missile launches, or battle cruisers firing cruise missiles using old navigation patterns to strike at continental bases? What.... Chinese not firing missiles across the Pacific targeting islands used as military staging points? I mean everything is so gentlemanly in this book that I can see commanders from both sides sitting with families on the hills and with binoculars watching the sporty fire exchange in the fields below. For some weird reason Korea's and Japan are neutral - in what world is this taking place? Last year showed that US is more than willing to mobilize its allies all over the world to take the beating if required (literal and economical) for the US' greater good and we are to think that Japan would end up untouched especially after Yokosuka naval base starts being used by US Navy? Philippines, Australia? Please....

You might think me picky but this novel was advertised as story of the next world war but ends up as backyard scuffle between two superpowers. Very similar books by Clancy and Larry Bond, while ending always with US victory over whomever, are more based when it comes to casualties and overall destruction. This novel ends up as a pretty clean and limited war which unfortunately I do not see as a possibility of ever taking place.

Just take the force that ends the war - author's could as just as easily introduced aliens as a force to bring peace to our world. To imagine that both US and China could not handle this external force is so idiotic (I mean planes are flying over Shanghai airspace uncontested, missiles are firing only around the city like entire airspace to it in time of war would be uncontested????) but I guess author's just could not allow for Chinese to be seen as winners (since US forces in the book are pretty much neutralized when it comes to South China Sea). Nevertheless ending was ridiculous.

I understand that authors wanted to show waning of US power and raise of Asia's power so they chose the only nation they (as representatives of US and West) could live with to be their successor. But truly? We are talking about the country that borders with two powerful countries that have waged war with it more than once. And to expect their interference would not be followed by missile strikes to urban and control centers is [as you hear me say so many times] ridiculous.

Authors have missed the goal in my opinion. Instead of showing risk of war with nuclear weapon use they have showed it as a chess game with effect only on a very small area of he world - in the area of the world where inter-state tensions are extremely high and therefore escalation and spreading of war very likely. Truly missed opportunity.

World events aside, rest of the novel is a thriller following diplomats and soldiers trying to understand and handle the situation and this part of the book is pretty well handled. Author's managed to bring that feeling of tension and dread without drowning the reader into the volumes of technical data about weapons and technology.

Interesting book, but borders on fantasy. Unfortunately truly a missed opportunity to depict the true horror of war and thus act as a warning.

The authors are a distinguished retired admiral and a distinguished veteran and accomplished writer. Their premise, and ax to grind, is that the computerized weaponry that makes the US military so powerful is actually their Achilles’ heel. They show this by imagining an undescribed black box invented by the Chinese that can completely inactivate all “cyber” systems without inactivating their own but does not affect traditional radio signals. The story is gripping, but ultimately unsatisfactory, especially when the plot further astounds us by requiring that the Indians have easy access to all of our White House communications and also have dramatic stealth capabilities of which we were completely unaware. Other disturbing peculiarities are present, the misunderstanding of what a tactical nuclear weapon is, and a Chinese character who launches the weapons that destroy Galveston and San Diego but who seems to be a closet American patriot. I suspect that the work is that of two paranoid personalities and it beggars the imagination. I can imagine that atomic weapons might be used as the waters rise around us, but not in this way.

When I was a teenager, my guilty reading pleasure was books about nuclear war and its aftermath. 50 years later, every once in a while, I see a library book (fiction) about nuclear war, and I feel compelled to check it out. I need to stop doing that.

The authors of this one are military officers (current or past), so the book is written from a military standpoint, with stereotypical characters and very little regard for what happens afterwards. It's about a "tactical" nuclear war, which is apparently not as bad as a "strategic" nuclear war. I should probably not have chosen to read a book written by someone who thinks a nuclear war, if it's just "tactical," might be winnable. Anyway, a couple of months down the road after reading this I can't remember much about it, other than that I didn't like it. So, not recommended.

1 1/2 stars

I will note that on Amazon some reviewers who know more about military things than me said this is a good "cautionary tale," although why anyone would need a cautionary tale against nuclear war is beyond me. On the other hand, another reviewer said the book consisted of "a series of tit for tat actions that are...strategically moronic...{and} morally repugnant."

This is a moderately entertaining World War III scenario, which suffers from a pretty severe believability issue. Without getting too far into “spoiler” territory, the catalyst for conflict lies in the South China Sea. The U.S. and China have conflict there, triggered by use of cyber weapons. All of that is believable.

As the title suggests, the events occur in the near future, 2034. However, the geo-political landscape that exists is so far in the future as to be ridiculous. In particular, the relative standing of India is magnified to an absurdity. At one point, it is mentioned that India is making foreign aid payments to the United States. Really.

Now, India and China are the two most populous countries in the world. It is not unbelievable that both would ascend in relative geo-political power, especially China. However, to put India at or near the top of the heap in less than 15 years from today, ruins the premise of the book for me.

This book is interesting, and plausible in many ways. However, it is also a book. that fails to live up to its promise.

It starts with a cyber-attack, by China on the USA. From there on, it slides downhill. Given Elliot Ackerman's background in the defense services, I thought he would have been well prepared to write a truly gripping novel that brings in elements of 4GW and 5GW.

Instead, we ended up with a few cardboard characters, and the completely implausible prospect of India 'ending the war'.

What the book does demonstrate, however, is how small incidents can quickly escalate, and how other countries get involved in the mix.

Scary scenario, not much action, thin characters. Maybe 3-1/2 stars

Terrifying look at what was could like like in the next 15 years with China and the escalating geo-political conflicts that are coming.

2034: A Novel Of The Next World War (2021) by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis. This is an alert to all complacent policy makers of the U.S. and beyond. The possibility of a conflict between the nuclear powers looms before us. In 2034 that possibility plays out and the dire consequence is splashed across its pages.
The aggressor here is China and the greed it harbors for the South China Seas and Taiwan. They ploy is a burning ship which reels in the U.S. Navy on a mission of mercy. The trick is that the burning ship is nothing but a trap that, once sprung, leads to the destruction of the U.S. battle group while making it look as if China is merely defending itself from ongoing aggression and the unwanted invasion of its “territorial” rights.
The biggest weapon is the Chinese ability to mask its movements with a massive cyber attack on both the communications structure of the U.S. Navy and its government. That is the story of this book. Strip away all the countries involved in the world-wide conflict and this becomes a polemic about our great strength and our most vulnerable Achille’s heel.
The story told is dire but played out in such a way that it could happen. With today’s backlash over the “Trump” flu used as a xenophobic threat against the Chinese by our former president, it is sad that that country has to beheld up as the aggressor in 2034. Not to say that China, as well as Russia, are not our on going potential adversaries in the power play for being the dominant power on Earth. I only hope this book lights the proper fires for change in our reliance on computerized communications and leads to an expansion of cyber-protection methods being devised and implemented.