2054
A Novel
-
-
4.2 • 5 Ratings
-
-
- £3.99
-
- £3.99
Publisher Description
‘Don’t venture into the future without having read this book’ ANDREW ROBERTS
It is twenty years on from the nuclear war between the US and China that brought down the old world order, and the American president has held power for over a decade. Suddenly, he collapses in the middle of an address to the nation. A cover-up ensues, the administration announces his death and the country descends into civil war.
Everything points to a remote assassination made possible by a radical leap forward in artificial intelligence. The trail leads to an outpost in the Amazon rainforest, the last known whereabouts of the tech visionary who predicted this world transforming breakthrough. As the world’s great powers struggle to outmanoeuvre one another in this Great Game of scientific discovery, an American crisis threatens to spiral into a global one.
2054 is an explosive thriller and a real-world cautionary tale about the path we are on, from two former military officers and award-winning authors who have seen the future.
‘A compelling, terrifying and totally plausible thriller of future world history and calamity’ SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE
‘This kind of fiction can induce a kind of sublime awe at the complexity of the global networks in which we’re enmeshed’ HARI KUNZRU, THE NEW YORK TIMES
‘A satisfying combination of two very different things: “chilling vision of things to come” and “page-turning beach read”’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former Marine Ackerman and retired Navy admiral Stavridis follow up 2034 with another top-shelf thriller about near-future geopolitical turmoil. The decade-long rule of American president Angel Castro, whose American Dream Party has weakened both the Democratic and Republican parties to the point of near-extinction, ends suddenly after he collapses during a public speech. At first, Castro's administration covers up the incident, digitally altering images to make it seem as if he only stumbled. When Castro dies a short time later, however, the deception is exposed, exacerbating political tensions across the country. As the U.S. teeters on the edge of civil war, tech leaders privately struggle with concerns that Castro's death—the result of a mysterious growth on his heart—may be connected to a nascent biotechnology that can alter human cells via remote gene editing software. If so, the incident may mean that humanity is approaching "the Singularity" long predicted by technologist Ray Kurzweil, in which human and machine merge "into a single consciousness." White House aides, doctors, tech experts, and military personnel attempt to track down Kurzweil for guidance while keeping the existing shards of American democracy intact. Spreading the narrative's focus over many characters and nations, Ackerman and Stavridis paint a sweeping and resonant portrait of a world faced with a powerful technological advancement it doesn't fully understand. The results are genuinely chilling.
