2034

Rating 2 of 5

2034 is Admiral James Stavridis war fantasy novel.

The summary of the Novel is that the Chinese kick the USA’s ass in a Naval conflict in the year 2034. Eventually Nukes are dropped and India emerges as a global power.

Honestly I think the war aspects of the book are total crap.
The book was written before the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. My opinion is that some massive battle between air craft carries is not at all how the war will play out. To much of the book read like a Navy mans fantasy of war where Aircraft Carriers and Submarines have primacy. After watching simple Ukrainian drones destroy the Russian black sea fleet I just don’t see things playing out that way.

The book also has this weird obsession with “cyber” magic where “specialized Chinese AI” hacks the us military rendering all their high tech weapons useless. It just all feels a little ridiculous to me. The climax of the book is a Marine pilot doing a kamikazi run in a “no-tech” F14 tomcat to drop a nuke on Shanghai in the tradition of Dr. Strangelove’s Major Kong At times I wondered if the book was joking or serious.

The characters in the book read just a little to much like arch types. They’re mostly fairly shallow and a little predictable. I did not really like any of them very much. Probably the Character with the most depth was Lin Bao. The Chinese Naval Admiral who has spent time in the USA.

The description of the Russian military is also poor. The Russians couldn’t mount a quick assault on Ukraine and the book acts like they’re going to slice right through Poland the most prepared of the EU NATO member states to fight them? Give me a break.

The fact that China crushes Taiwan in hours is also just silly. The Chinese haven’t launched a military offensive since 1979! And they’re just going to float across an Ocean and subjugate a country of 23 million people that’s been preparing for this conflict for more then 50 years?!?!

In the end 2034 is kind of a joke. Which is too bad.
I think that’s what makes me annoyed with it. The book could be really good, the Chinese could assert themselves as a dominate military force in 2034. Countries like Iran, Russia and India could have interesting roles to play out in that story the issue I see is that 2034 just has no clue how it would really play out and spends to much time in some Naval Admirals fantasy world.