From two former military officers and award-winning authors, a chillingly authentic geopolitical thriller that imagines a naval clash between the US and China in the South China Sea in 2034 – and the path from there to a nightmarish global conflagration

‘A rippingly good read’ Wired

From two former military officers and award-winning authors, a chillingly authentic geopolitical thriller that imagines a naval clash between the US and China in the South China Sea in 2034 – and the path from there to a nightmarish global conflagration

On 12 March 2034, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is conducting routine freedom of navigation patrol in the South China Sea. On that same day, US Marine aviator Major Chris ‘Wedge’ Mitchell is flying an F-35E Lightning, testing a new stealth technology as he flirts with Iranian airspace. By the end of that day, Wedge will be an Iranian prisoner, and Sarah Hunt’s destroyer will lie at the bottom of the ocean. A new, terrifying era is at hand.

So begins a disturbingly plausible novel, co-authored by an award-winning novelist and decorated Marine veteran and the former commander of NATO, a legendary admiral. Everything in 2034 is an imagination extrapolation from present-day facts on the ground, informed by the authors’ years working at the highest and most classified levels of national security. Sometimes it takes a brilliant work of fiction to illuminate the most dire of warnings: this cautionary tale presents a dark yet possible future that we must do all we can to avoid.

‘I could not stop reading 2034’ Phil Klay, author of Redeployment