'2054' is a political thriller about civil war, misinformation and AI

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

2034, the first novel by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis, chronicled a nuclear conflict between China and the U.S. Now, their sequel 2054 takes a look at the country two decades later. The President is suddenly assassinated giving a speech, which sparks a flood of conspiracy theories, digitally-altered images and horrifying technological discoveries. In today's episode, the authors speak with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about the relationship between technology and American institutions, and how destruction is sometimes an inevitable part of progress.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The authors on the pod today have written a
0:07.1	political thriller where the president gets assassinated, the country's at the brink of war,
0:11.4	technology is gaining wild power over us, and yet they spend a not insignificant portion of this
0:18.1	interview talking about optimism. The writers are Elliot
0:22.2	Ackerman and admirable James Trevetus. They both have a lot of experience in different parts
0:27.0	of the military and are out with a new book titled 2054. It's a sequel to their previous book,
0:33.0	2034, which was a similarly tense geopolitical thriller. And they talked to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about how they wrote this book with the
0:41.2	resilience of American institutions in mind.
0:44.4	That's ahead.
0:46.1	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:51.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show
0:56.3	Sources and Methods. NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:01.3	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:04.9	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:10.6	The new novel, 24, takes place, you guessed it, 30 years from now, by which point
1:17.8	the authors imagine the U.S. will have survived nuclear war with China. Meanwhile, here
1:23.9	at home, a civil war looms, and civilization is hurtling towards something called
1:29.5	the singularity. The authors of 2054 are Elliot Ackerman, a Marine Corps veteran who served
1:36.1	five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hey there, Elliot. Hey, nice to be with you. And also Admiral Jim
1:43.0	Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.
1:46.6	Admiral, welcome back. Good to be on the show with you, Mary Louise.
1:50.1	So this latest novel, this latest collaboration between the two of you, opens with the assassination of the president of the United States and a cover-up, their White House
	...

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