Ackerman, Elliot
Entry updated 13 May 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1980- ) US soldier, journalist and author, whose eight years' service as an American Marine (much of it spent in Afghanistan) is reflected in his nonfantastic first novel, Green on Blue (2015). Waiting for Eden (2018) focuses on savagely wounded survivors of the war in Iraq through the first-person narration of one who did not survive [for Afterlife here and Polder below see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under links below]. Ackerman is of sf interest primarily for the Next World War sequence beginning with 2034: A Novel of the Next World War (2021) with Admiral James Stavridis, in which a Near Future naval War breaks out between America and China; in the even darker sequel, 2054 (2024) with Admiral James Stavridis, America is portrayed as riven by successive Pandemics, irreconcilably oppositional politics, loss of world influence to countries like Brazil, India and Nigeria, and is about to lose the race to "control" the Singularity, a failure manifested in the assassination by remote-control, through a form of Genetic Engineering, of the American president.
Halcyon (2023) is an Alternate History tale set during the second term of President Al Gore; the protagonist, suffering personal stress, finds himself living in the eponymous Polder, where the scientific search for Immortality has succeeded. Halcyon turns out to be occupied by the Secret Master figure of its original owner, who had been thought to have died decades earlier. His influence on the world is not, perhaps unexpectedly, meant to be read as necessarily malign; and Ackerman's underlying conviction that America must find a reconciled polity for all to adhere to, or splinter apart, clearly shapes the tale. [JC]
Elliot Ackerman
born Los Angeles, California: 12 April 1980
works
series
Next World War
- 2034: A Novel of the Next World War (New York: Penguin Press, 2021) with Admiral James Stavridis is [Next World War: hb/]
- 2054 (New York: Penguin Press, 2024) with Admiral James Stavridis [Next World War: hb/]
individual titles
- Waiting for Eden (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2018) [hb/Adrian Samson]
- Halcyon (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2023) [hb/]
links
- Elliot Ackerman
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Encyclopedia of Fantasy: Afterlife; Polder.
previous versions of this entry