It's not exactly surprising that 2034: a Novel of the Next World War (E. Ackerman and Adm.J. Stavridis, Penquin Press, 2021) begins in the South China Sea and ends there. What occurs in between takes the reader on a journey that is its own reward.

If you're looking for a beach read or just something to take your mind off the fact Bangkok isn't ready for prime time yet, this won't disappoint.

Spoiler alert: it doesn't end like you--well me, anyway--thought it would.

Review from the Los Angeles Times:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-03-04/admiral-james-stavridis-and-elliot-ackerman-team-up-to-write-global-thriller-2034

 

 

 

This seems to follow on the idea thought up, I believe, by the novelist Neville Shute. His novel On The Beach was written as far back as 1957 and imagines a group of Australians waiting out the arrival of the nuclear cloud following World War 3. I will say no more, other than I found it a gripping read a few decades ago.

Although it's been at least 60 years since I saw the film version of "On The Beach," I can vividly recall the final scenes.

What the two novels have in common is that nuclear war is far less likely to arise out of miscalculations than all too correct calculations that run their course in a doomsday, tit-for-tat scenario. Once a set of conditions are put into play--accidentally or intentionally--what follows can be nearly impossible to avoid.

And the South China Sea tops the list of most dangerous places on the globe today.

Filmed in black and white, here's the opening scene from On The Beach. "Dancing Matilda" is the movie's theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMzEWpKKOZs