2054

A Novel

I only realized after I completed this that it was a sort-of-sequel to another book in my TBR pile, 2034. I wonder if I would’ve liked it better if I’d read that first, because it’s apparent that some of the characters it fixates on from the past were a part of that one. But it’s just kind of … all over the place. It’s about the Singularity? Except not really.

It tries to weave a political thriller without taking sides in the current political climate, for which I can of course understand the impulse, but what you’re left with is a political thriller with no politics. I think I was supposed to like that Castro’s party was ousted from power but I had very little reason to because there were very few actual “political” things happening. And actually, a military coup is not something to aspire to—unless, I guess, you’re a former Navy yourself. Re-reading the blurb:

Combining a deep understanding of AI, biotech, and the possibility of a coming Singularity, along with their signature geopolitical sophistication, Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis have once again written a visionary work.

This is just hilarious. There’s no deep understanding of any of those things in this novel. It’s very surface-level kind-of-sci-fi. And “geopolitical sophistication”? Yeesh.

I’m kind of curious to read the other just because I want to know how it colors my experience of this book, and this one was at least easy enough to get through that it wouldn’t take too much to give the other one a shot.

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