2054 (2024) by Eliot Ackerman & Admiral James Stravidis

 Book Review

2054 (2024)

by Eliot Ackerman & Admiral James Stravidis

  It was inevitable that 2034, Eliot Ackerman's 2022 hit, co-written with an Admiral, would spawn a sequel, but I am surprised at just so how fast Ackerman and Admiral James Stravidis cranked out 2054.  2034 was a book about a pretty conventional "war of the future" between the US and China, which culminates in the nuking of four cities- two in the US (San Diego and Galveston) and two in China (Beijing and I forget), before the Indians put a stop to everything.  The ending of 2034 foreshadowed a world where India is the emergent power, but 2054 picks up in a world where India has vanished from the world stage.  Whereas 2034 was genuine attempt to demonstrate World War III from several global perspectives, 2054 restricts itself to a plot centered in Washington DC, with brief excursions to places like Manaus, Okinawa and Lagos.  Futurist Ray Kurzweill and his idea of the singularity- the point where technological and biological intelligences fuze- is the central concept of 2054, which is on much weaker theoretical ground than the fairly conventional warfare of 2034.

    The New York Times reviewer point out, and I agree, that while an Admiral might be well equipped to add detail to a story involving nuclear missiles and an American naval assault of mainland China, there's no reason to think that he has interesting takes on the singularity or remote gene editing, both of which are only fuzzily explained in the course of 2054.   The description of a a quasi-illegitimate third term US President, whose untimely death (at the hands of a remote gene editor?) leads the cast of characters through a near civil war.   The rest of the world is an onlooker- China represented via a shadowy Nigerian businessman, India, Russia and Europe nowhere to be seen. 

  There is also a curious lack of climate related observations for a book that is set during the summer in Washington DC- which- people are always talking about the weather in Washington DC, so the idea that the country is being brought to the brink of Civil War and no one is complaining about how damn hot it is in DC in the summer just struck me as a shocking omission and suggestive of the lack of care that went into the writing of this book.