Elliot Ackerman served in the Marine Corps for eight years, after which time he became a White House Fellow and then embarked on a career in writing. James Stavridis is a retired U.S. Navy admiral who's also written several books. I'm new to both authors, but judging by what I've seen online 2034 is the best known book either author has written thus far.
In 2034 the Chinese and U.S. navies finally confront one another after an altercation in the South China Sea. The U.S. Navy, discovering a Chinese ship in distress, find themselves under attack soon after, and from that point on the conflict escalates to include both the use of nuclear weapons and the invasion of Taiwan.
As this kind of book goes 2034 isn't bad. It's written with a certain succinctness, the characters are consistent, their motivations are clear, and the story builds to a gratifying conclusion. What disappointed me about 2034, however, is its lack of detail. Considering the careers of its two authors, you'd think that this book would be crammed with military details, but what it offers instead is a fairly bare bones story leading to (or almost leading to) World War III.
Another, minor complaint I have is that this book allows itself two "miracle exemptions." One of these exemptions, in the form of a Chinese superweapon, would have been acceptable, but adding to this another exemption, in the form of a "third force" which miraculously appears near the end of the novel, is stretching things a bit too far. Either exemption on its own would have been fine, but having both present in the same narrative strains its credibility.
If you're looking for a lighter tale of near-apocalypse I'd recommend this book. I got through it relatively quickly, and I never had any trouble figuring out what was going on. This said, those looking for a deeper, more believable dive into East Asian geopolitics will be disappointed by it. The authors, I think -- or at least the editor -- could have offered us something more substantive.
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