2084 (2026) by Eliot Ackerman

Audiobook Review

2084 (2026)

by Eliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis

  2084 is book three in the series these two started back in 2021 with 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. 2054 followed in 2024 and now we are up to volume three, 2084.  As anyone might reasonably expect, it's a situation of diminishing returns.  2034, which basically is about a small-scale nuclear war between the United States and China, was gripping.  The scenario described was grounded in contemporary science and geopolitics, and when San Diego got nuked, I almost cried.  2054 moved away from the strengths of the authors (the experience of soldiering and naval battles) into the realm of AI: the plot dealt with the danger of the development of a "singularity."  I thought 2054 was pretty weak because it was pretty clear the authors didn't have a firm grasp on the science. 

  2084 gets back to basics in the sense that it describes a conventional war between "Reparationists"- the countries of the global south who need to rehome their citizens from parts of the earth which have become uninhabitable and "the Consortium" a coalition of China, US and parts of Europe.  Unfortunately, AI once again shows up in the form of a deus ex machina- an implausibly sophisticated computer program that emerges half-way through the book to make strategic decisions.  There are also some ridiculous plot points- like the Chinese navy running a surprise attack down the length of the Mississippi river without the United States government hearing about it.

  As always, there is no description of the world from any other perspective than that of military personnel, politicians and business elites- no information about what the real world actually looks like out there in 2084.  I'd guess that this is the last one, unless it makes a ton of money.

Jesus Boy (2010) by Preston Allen

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Jesus Boy (2010)

by Preston Allen

Miami, Florida

Florida:  11/21

    Interesting bildungsroman about an African American teenager growing up in south Florida.   The 1,001 Novels description says Jesus Boy is a comic novel, but I didn't find it very funny.   Rather, it read as expose about the foibles of the visibly religious, African American league, Florida division.   After the pressure-cooker race hatred of the deep south, it was at least refreshing to read a book about African American characters where racism doesn't play a major role (also absent, any white or latino characters.)  I find it interesting in books featuring religious characters about how infrequently they do anything besides go to church and cheat on their spouses, and Jesus Boy is no exception, with the plot centerpiece being a year's long relationship between the teenage protagonist (at the beginning) at a forty something widow of a wealthy and deceased elder of the church. 

   There are plenty of dark, hidden secrets, as one would expect going into a novel about a southern church. While I wouldn't characterize Jesus Boy as a satire, it did read as a critique of most, if not all, of the characters involved.   This was the rare 1,001 Novels: A Library of America that held some capacity to surprise and shock me. 

If I Survive You (2022) by Jonathan Escoffery

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

If I Survive You (2022)

by Jonathan Escoffery

Cutler Bay, Florida

Florida: 10/21

   I am CRUSHING the Florida chapter of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America.  This chapter is filled with 200 page volumes of inter-connected short stories from the POV of different ethnicities etc. Trelawny, the main protagonist of If I Survive You, is the child of two Jamaican immigrants- though, as depicted in this book, it is quite frequent for Jamaicans to go back and forth BETWEEN the US and Jamaica- something like the situation for other Caribbean groups, Puerto Rican's of course, but also Dominicans.  Most Jamaican immigrants come over on work visa's to do a specific job- illegal immigration isn't uncommon, but mostly immigrant Jamaicans are legal.   Trelawny is unusual in the context of African American culture in Florida because his father is mostly white.  The opening of If I Survive You is about life in high school as someone who doesn't fit in with white, black or latino ethnic groups.   The alienation is compounded when Trelawny goes off to the Midwest for college, while his brother stays behind to do post-Hurricane Andrew reconstruction with his Dad.  

  Mom returns to Jamaica after divorcing Dad, and Trelawny sinks into a non-ethnically specific post-college malaise recognizable to anyone, and lives out of his car as he tries to make a life for himself.  We also hear about other characters- the brother, a cousin and his father. 

River of Hidden Dreams (1994) by Connie May Fowler

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

River of Hidden Dreams (1994)

by Connie May Fowler

St. Augustine, Florida

Florida: 9/21

   I will say that I like Florida swamp country, which is a fair bit of Florida- I mean, pretty much all of it. The books set in swampland Florida make me want to seek out non-fiction about the area- I have The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean in mind. Fowler's protagonist, Sadie Hunter, is a woman of mixed Native/White/Black ancestry, with a link to the midwestern tribes that were imprisoned and re-educated, with her grandmother being a young woman who is "left behind" with white people- she was also the only child brought to the Florida prison.  The emotions are raw, and the choices are fraught.   River of Hidden Dreams also highlights the ethnic fluidity- up to a point- of northern Florida, which is like a racial paradise compared to the 19th century plantation economy of the delta. 

A Time to Kill (1989) by John Grisham

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

A Time to Kill (1989)

by John Grisham

Mississippi: 19/19

    I'm elated, finishing Louisiana and Mississippi in back-to-back weeks.  Florida is a real (metaphorical) breath of fresh air after reading so much about racial hatred and race-based injustice.  Fitting to end Mississippi with John Grisham, Mississippi best-sellingist author and all-around good guy.  Artistically, it's hard to say much about the man beyond pointing to his status as a perennial best seller.  He doesn't have the literary fictionish touch of Stephen King, and the court room thriller doesn't have the cache of detective fiction or police procedural.  And, with a net worth estimated at 400 million, I doubt he cares, or at least, he doesn't act like someone concerned with his literary legacy.

   A Time to Kill is, of course, his first novel, about a young-ish criminal defense lawyer in small-town Mississippi who is hired to defend an African American accused of gunning down the two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter.  It's the kind of crime that transcends racial prejudice, a fact which is key to the plot in many different ways.  For me, it was all very "busman's holiday"- reading about my day-to-day concerns of being a criminal defense lawyer.  I think, though, you can tell that Grisham wrote this book without an inkling that he would became a mega seller of popular fiiction.

A Free Man of Color by Barbra Hambly

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

A Free Man of Color (1997)

by Barbra Hambly

New Orleans, Louisiana 

Louisiana: 30/30

  I found the missing Louisiana title from the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America,  A Free Man of Color by Barbra Hambly.  What happened here is I read the wrong Barbra Hambly novel- Good Man Friday, both volumes from her series detailing the exploits of free man of color and surgeon, musician and private investigator Ben January.  Good Man Friday was cool because January went to Washington DC and ran into Edgar Allan Poe- the actual inventor of the detective story. The juxtaposition of the past of relative racial harmony and toleration and the (at the time of the story) new American regime, where white are free and black are not, provides much of the plot and narrative tension. 

Visiting Hours (2012) by Jennifer Anne Moses

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Visting Hours (2012)

by Jennifer Anne Moses

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Louisiana 29/30

  I am missing one book from Louisiana, and I can't figure it out for the life of me.  As far as I'm aware, Visiting Hours is the last book from this chapter of the 1,001 Novels: A Library of American project. Visiting Hours was last because I had to buy a copy- I was surprised didn't have this interesting novel about the grim lives of patients waiting to die in an AIDS hostel in... the 1990s? The early 2000s?  It actually really reminded me of Blackouts by Justin Torres, the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction winner, which concerns a man dying of AIDS (I think) in a New Orleans SRO.  

  I could have used more Bayou.  I'm really loving the swamp-lit of Florida, and Louisiana seems like a missed opportunity in that regard, maybe because the geographical location overlaps so completely with the Cajun population that one supersedes the other.   One other conclusion I drew from this chapter is that Hurricane Katrina did real damage to the city both physically AND psychically. 

Killing Mr. Watson (1990) by Peter Matthiessen

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Killing Mr. Watson (1990)

by Peter Matthiessen

Chokoloskee Bay, Florida

Florida: 8/21

    Killing Mr. Watson was the first of a three-volume series retelling the life of real-life villain Edward "Bloody" Watson, who looms over the history of this remote outpost of swampland Florida like a giant. The three volumes were eventually republished in a single volume called Shadow Country in 2008, and that book won the National Book Award for Fiction.  I checked out the Audiobook edition from the library- Killing Mr. Watson takes the form of an oral history, with 12 voices telling different versions of the same events, starting out with the more-or-less cold-blooded murder of Watson at the hands of a loosely organized "posse" of his neighbors.  Matthiessen, award-winning author that he is, knows how to handle both the human and natural elements- the swampy everglades being almost an equal attraction of the tale.

The Yearling (1938) by Marjorie Rawlings

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Yearling (1938)

by Marjorie Rawlings

Volusia, Florida

Florida: 7/21

   This 1938 children's book is set between Jacksonville to the north and Orlando to the south, broadly swampy but with high points called "islands" where people settled in the mid to late 19th century (The Yearling is set in the 1870's.)   The edition I checked out of the library was an illustrated version- the illustrator being N.C. Wyeth, father of painter Andrew Wyeth and phenomenally successful illustrator in his own right.   Like many so-called "children's books" from before the 1960's and 70's, The Yearling is really an adult book with a child protagonist, written "for" children, but in a way that hardly acknowledges that fact other than the plot of the book itself.   

  Rawlings rounds some of the corners off the harsher aspects of frontier life- she does describe the father-son duo gutting a deer, but omits the part, which I've learned from other novels, that involves being careful not to pierce the guts or entrails in order to avoid befouling the meat.   Describing it as "frontier boy raises baby deer to adulthood" doesn't really do justice to the detail of perspective presented.   The Yearling might be the best depiction of "back woods" life I've come across so far (but with Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas to come in the next chapter). 

Milk, Blood, Heat (2020) by Dantiel W. Moniz

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Milk, Blood, Heat (2020)

by Dantiel W. Moniz

2771 Monument Road, Jacksonville, Florida

Florida: 6/21

    Besides this novel and the other novel from Jacksonville on this list (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw), the only thing I know about Jacksonville is that it has a professional football team. Before the 1,001 Novels project I doubt I would have been able to pick it out on a blank map of Florida.  Looking at a map of Florida now, I would have thought is was closer to Tallahassee or Tampa Bay.   It doesn't come across well in Milk, Blood, Heat, a debut collection of short stories by an African American woman with links to McSweeney's, and the prose is that of a crisp stylist.  Moniz's characters are at the margins, though like other contemporary writers of literary fiction from all over the United States, the margins seem to be the place to be.  It was very refreshing to read an entire book from this chapter where race is explored in terms over than overt day-to-day oppression and stultifying racism.  I get the sense that Florida is more of a promised land than anything else for African Americans in the southeast, a refuge for those who wanted something than the Atlanta metropole.