China Attacks - 2024

Early Release, Part I

By: Chuck DeVore

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

China is growing increasingly bellicose. From massive practice runs for an invasion of Taiwan, to deadly encroachments on the sovereign territorial waters of the Philippines, to reckless encounters at sea and in the air aimed to intimidate American and Japanese forces operating in international waters and air space, it seems war might erupt at any moment.

For decades China has been "hiding its strength and biding its time" as former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping counseled. No longer. Under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the People's Republic of China has engaged in a massive naval, air, and missile build up while significantly expanding their nuclear arsenal.

Yet, in some ways, China is weak. Xi Jinping's crackdown on business has so as to assert the CCP's dominance in all spheres of Chinese life, has harmed the economy and caused youth unemployment to soar. It seems China may not be able to have both guns and butter.

This puts Xi in a corner. Does he back down and allow the economy to stir back to life, potentially losing face? Or does he lash out, looking for battlefield victories to stir China's national pride?

Regardless, the world today is more chaotic and uncertain than it has been in decades. America is led by a president in cognitive decline. American institutions are in turmoil. Europe is focused on Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. America lost credibility with the bungled evacuation from Afghanistan while America's slow and incremental response in providing military aid to Ukraine signaled weakness. And the nations of the Indo-Pacific, alarmed at China's militant rise and its revanchist aims, look with uncertainty to America and wonder if they can trust the U.S. to have their back as China's demands escalate.

In this environment, the smallest provocation may signal the start of the largest conflict the world has seen since World War Two.

lacks character

Although I have 900+ titles in my library I usually don't do reviews; but this was my first experience with Virtual Voice so thought I should.

I always prefer a book read by it's author, I feel it better conveys the story.
.. Using a Virtual Voice feminine narrator for the preamble by Chuck DeVore was just a bad choice; my brain fought to reconcile what he was saying with the voice I was hearing.
.. The story was OK, but a bit flat.
.. The Virtual Voice feminine narrator for the story didn't work for me. Most characters were male so the lack of symmetry just didn't work for me.
.. Overall the Virtual Voice narration hurt the book. A good narrator improves the story; Virtual Voice added no nuance in it's read leaving the story flat.