{"title":"Elliot Ackerman","description":"\u003cp\u003eElliot Ackerman’s works traverse the tense landscapes of \u003cem\u003ecrime, thriller,\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003emilitary history\u003c\/em\u003e, blending gripping narratives with profound reflections on conflict and humanity. His storytelling invites readers into meticulously crafted worlds where drama unfolds against the backdrop of global and personal turmoil.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom speculative fiction that envisions future confrontations to intimate explorations of duty and sacrifice, Ackerman’s books challenge and engage, offering a compelling synthesis of action and thoughtful insight. Readers can expect narratives rich in suspense, moral complexity, and vivid characterisation.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"2034-by-admiral-james-stavridis-9781405966429","title":"2034","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'A rippingly good read'\u003c\/em\u003e - \u003cem\u003eWired\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn 12 March 2034, US Navy Commodore Sarah Hunt is conducting a 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSo 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 \u003cem\u003e2034\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'I could not stop reading 2034'\u003c\/em\u003e - Phil Klay, author of \u003cem\u003eRedeployment\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46499855073516,"sku":"9781405966429","price":24.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15860773482688.jpg?v=1748565686"},{"product_id":"2054-by-admiral-james-stavridis-9781405966467","title":"2054","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the acclaimed authors of the runaway \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestseller \u003cem\u003e2034\u003c\/em\u003e comes an explosive work of speculative fiction set twenty years further in the future, at a moment when a radical leap forward in artificial intelligence combines with America's violent partisan divide to create an existential threat to the country - and the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is twenty years after the catastrophic war between the US and China that brought down the old American political order. A new party has emerged in the US, one that's held power for over a decade. Efforts to tighten its grip have resulted in mounting violent resistance. The American president has control of the media, but he is beginning to lose control of the streets. Many fear he'll stop at nothing to remain in the White House. Suddenly, he collapses in the middle of an address to the nation. After an initial flurry of misinformation, the administration reluctantly announces his death. A cover-up ensues, conspiracy theories abound, and the country descends into a new type of civil war.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA handful of elite actors from the worlds of computer science, intelligence, and business have a fairly good idea what happened. All signs point to a profound breakthrough in AI, of which the remote assassination of an American president is hardly the most game-changing ramification. The trail leads to an outpost in the Amazon rainforest, the last known whereabouts of the tech visionary who predicted this breakthrough. As some of the world's great powers, old and new, state and non-state alike, struggle to outmanoeuvre one another in this new Great Game of scientific discovery, the outcome becomes entangled with the fate of democracy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCombining a deep understanding of AI, biotech, and the possibility of a coming Singularity, along with their signature geopolitical sophistication, Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis have once again written a visionary work. \u003cem\u003e2054\u003c\/em\u003e is a novel that reads like a thriller even as it demands that we consider the trajectory of our society and its potentially calamitous destination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46529085210860,"sku":"9781405966467","price":24.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781405966467.jpg?v=1749536484"},{"product_id":"sheepdogs-by-elliot-ackerman-9780241772539","title":"Sheepdogs","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo down-on-their-luck ex-CIA operatives get caught in a shadowy network working jobs for an unknown dispatcher - Sheepdog - in this rollicking thriller by New York Times-bestselling author Elliot Ackerman.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Skwerl, Cheese, Dickhead Mike, the White Russian-these characters are totally addictive. I couldn't put\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eSheepdogs\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003edown. A thriller and comedy in one, it's a wild ride' - HARLAN COBEN\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA sly, funny, action-packed thriller introducing an instantly iconic spy duo from the author of New York Times bestseller \u003cem\u003e2034.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSkwerl and Cheese are down on their luck. Skwerl, who is resourceful like a squirrel (Marines win battles, not spelling bees), used to work for the CIA's elite paramilitary wing. He was unceremoniously fired after a raid went bad in Afghanistan. 'Big Cheese' Aziz, a legendary pilot - his nation's Maverick - is equally hard up. So Skwerl recruits Cheese into an anonymous network of so-called sheepdogs, who operate in the shadowy moral grey zone between predator and prey.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTheir first mission? To repossess a private jet stranded on a remote Ugandan airfield. Their fee - a commission on the jet's $5 million value. But nothing about the job seems to add up. Their contact goes missing. Their handler is as mysterious as the real source of the money. And when the women in their lives get involved - one pregnant wife and one dominatrix - the stakes skyrocket overnight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the jungles of Kampala to a glamorous hotel in Marseille, from a veteran-run pizzeria in Kyiv to a Panera in northern Virginia, Skwerl and Cheese must navigate an increasingly tangled set of loyalties where no one and nothing is what it seems. Globe-trotting and page-turning, full of heart and humour, \u003cem\u003eSheepdogs\u003c\/em\u003e is a wild ride through the underbelly of modern war and intelligence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46547061145836,"sku":"9780241772539","price":37.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780241772539.jpg?v=1750031442"},{"product_id":"the-fifth-act-by-elliot-ackerman-9780008532710","title":"The Fifth Act","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eTimes\u003c\/em\u003e Political Book of the Year 2022\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA powerful and revelatory eyewitness account of the American collapse in Afghanistan, its desperate endgame, and the war’s echoing legacy.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eElliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and, later, as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August of 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. The official evacuation process was a bureaucratic failure that led to a humanitarian catastrophe. Ackerman was drawn into an impromptu effort to arrange flights and negotiate with both Taliban and American forces to secure the safe evacuation of hundreds. These were desperate measures taken during a desperate end to America’s longest war, but the success they achieved afforded a degree of redemption: and, for Ackerman, a chance to reconcile his past with his present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Fifth Act\u003c\/em\u003e is an astonishing human document that brings the weight of twenty years of war to bear on a single week at its bitter end. Using the dramatic rescue efforts in Kabul as his lattice, Ackerman weaves in a personal history of the war's long progress, beginning with the initial invasion in the months after 9\/11.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a play in five acts with a tragic denouement. Any reader who wants to understand what went wrong with the war’s trajectory will find a trenchant accounting here. And yet \u003cem\u003eThe Fifth Act\u003c\/em\u003e is not an exercise in finger-pointing: it brings readers into close contact with a remarkable group of characters, who fought the war with courage and dedication, in good faith and at great personal cost. Understanding combatants’ experiences and sacrifices demands reservoirs of wisdom and the gifts of an extraordinary storyteller. In Elliot Ackerman, this story has found that author. \u003cem\u003eThe Fifth Act\u003c\/em\u003e is a first draft of history that feels like a timeless classic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46553399066860,"sku":"9780008532710","price":26.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/161213482191.jpg?v=1750070021"},{"product_id":"2054-by-admiral-james-stavridis-9780241694961","title":"2054","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the acclaimed authors of the runaway New York Times bestseller \u003cem\u003e2034\u003c\/em\u003e comes an explosive work of speculative fiction set twenty years further in the future, at a moment when a radical leap forward in artificial intelligence combines with America's violent partisan divide to create an existential threat to the country—and the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe year is 2054. It is twenty years after the nuclear war between the United States and China that brought down the old American political order. The new American Dream Party has emerged in the US and held power for over a decade. Many fear the president will stop at nothing to remain in the White House. Suddenly, he collapses in the middle of an address to the nation. After a flurry of misinformation, the administration reluctantly announces his death. A cover-up ensues, conspiracy theories spread like wildfire, and the country descends into civil war.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA handful of elite actors from the worlds of computer science, intelligence, and business have a fairly good idea what happened. All signs point to a profound breakthrough in AI, of which the remote assassination of an American president is hardly the most game-changing ramification. The trail leads to an outpost in the Amazon rainforest—the last known whereabouts of the tech visionary who predicted this breakthrough. As some of the world's great powers—old and new, state and nonstate alike—struggle to outmanoeuvre one another in this new Great Game of scientific discovery, the outcome becomes entangled with the fate of democracy itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCombining a deep understanding of AI, biotech, and the possibility of a coming singularity, along with their signature geopolitical sophistication, Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis have once again written a visionary work. \u003cem\u003e2054\u003c\/em\u003e is a novel that reads like a thriller even as it demands that we consider the trajectory of our society and its potentially calamitous destination.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46604302909676,"sku":"9780241694961","price":38.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/663153482274.jpg?v=1751414985"},{"product_id":"2084-by-elliot-ackerman-9798217062737","title":"2084","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eGripping...\u003c\/em\u003e Ackerman and Stavridis stage a harrowing global conflict that pits military might against an appetite for justice... equal parts haunting and entertaining. \u003cem\u003e-Publishers Weekly, starred review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA gripping drama and chilling prophecy about the possible path to war for a planet devastated by climate change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn their novel \u003cem\u003e2034\u003c\/em\u003e, decorated military officers and award-winning authors Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis imagined a war between the US and China. In their follow-up novel, \u003cem\u003e2054\u003c\/em\u003e, they envisioned a breakdown in American politics fueled by a radical advance in AI. Now they make their boldest, most astonishing, and arguably most necessary leap—imagining the consequences of a climate war.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBy the year 2084, the world is divided into the equatorial countries that bear the brunt of the climate crisis—led by Nigeria, Brazil, and Indonesia—and wealthier countries like China and the US, beset by their own problems after a series of civil wars. Tensions between the two sets of countries have reached a breaking point, until finally the so-called Reparationist nations of the equator decide that only military force can bring them justice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA fascinating and disturbingly plausible extrapolation from current realities, \u003cem\u003e2084\u003c\/em\u003e, like other classics of the genre such as Kim Stanley Robinson's \u003cem\u003eThe Ministry for the Future\u003c\/em\u003e and Neal Stephenson's \u003cem\u003eTermination Shock\u003c\/em\u003e, deploys a global cast of characters, all protecting their interests as the fate of human civilization hangs in the balance. Individuals often seem small in the face of the forces that drive global change, but in the end human agency proves surprisingly decisive. Big doors can swing on small hinges. We have it within ourselves to write a different destiny, if only we can imagine it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233099329772,"sku":"9798217062737","price":38.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9798217062737-2084-1.jpg?v=1787725532"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/elliot-ackerman.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}