Reviews for 2084 : a novel of future war
Publishers Weekly
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Novelist Ackerman and former NATO supreme allied commander Stavridis continue to offer chilling global forecasts with their grim yet gripping third geopolitical thriller (after 2054). By 2084, the U.S. and China have fallen from grace on the world stage: civil unrest in the U.S. leading to Florida’s secession and the long-term effects of China’s child-limit policy have created a power vacuum that’s been filled by India and Japan. To combat the Indio-Japanese alliance, the U.S. and China have formed a military alliance called the Consortium, which is fiercely opposed by the Reparationists, a group of nations demanding that the former world superpowers pay for their role in accelerating climate change and making life near the equator unviable. Through a mosaic of perspectives—including those of ex-marine Julia Hunt, now serving as a diplomatic envoy; Reparationist commodore Joko, whose family perished in a 2074 Indonesian superstorm; and crisis manager Jake Shriver, who’s long felt divided between his American and Chinese heritage—Ackerman and Stavridis stage a harrowing global conflict that pits military might against an appetite for justice. As always, the authors spin geopolitical anxiety into exciting, discomfiting genre fiction. The result is equal parts haunting and entertaining. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (May)
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From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
The third outing in Ackerman and Stavridis' consistently excellent near-future series, following 2034 (2021) and 2054 (2024), depicts a horrifying climate war. As the world's waters have risen, and extreme storms are a constant, the nations most affected demand reparations from the biggest polluters: the U.S. and China. The two superpowers form an uneasy alliance of convenience, the Consortium, to oppose the Reparationist forces, which are led by Nigeria, Brazil, and Indonesia. Still recovering from previous wars (depicted in 2034 and 2054) and riven with internal strife, the Consortium opposition to resettlement and restitution enrages the equatorial Reparationist countries. Cycling among the perspectives of a multigenerational cast of largely familiar faces from 2054 and descendants of those from 2034, the story moves forward at a lightning pace. While the AI system featured feels almost quaint given recent advances, the underlying climate plot keenly considers the potential catastrophic geopolitical effects of climate change. Featuring brutal and riveting battles that emphasize the human cost of war on such a massive scale, this is another probing and compelling novel from this productive pair.
