Mind Blogging. Mind Boggling.

I saw this book at an airport. One of the reviews I read online described it as a 'potboiler, in that there is minimal character development'. Ahh- a clear aspect of what a 'potboiler' is- something that's not always been clear to me.

However, I think there is a decent amount of development around the key characters, in the backdrop of a global war between US and allies vs China and allies that breaks out in 2034. The author is a retired Vice Admiral, so a lot of the action is on the sea. The crux, as you would imagine in any future war, is Cyber attacks by China that incapacitate some US weaponry. This is also the underlying premise of the book "Ghost Fleet" published in 2015.  

Cyber war is increasingly a hot topic of public discourse and debate, and the 2021 "FT/Mckinsey book of the year" (a good source of non fiction books over the years for me), was the book "This is how they tell me the world ends". That book is also on cybercrime. This book 2048 is also published in 2021.  

I found the book interesting in parts, and if you feel like reading a book on war and geopolitics, then this is a good read. If you don't feel specifically like reading something in this genre, you can avoid. I won't go into more details, because it's a thriller and any more words from me will spill some beans.  

Labels: Books

# posted by Ashwin Ravikumar @ 7:20 PM