Weapons of Choice (Axis of Time, Book 1): A Novel of the Axis of Time

The very few minor flaws in this otherwise outstanding first effort are simply evidence that no one writes a perfect novel. Alternative history/time travel is a great genre when done right, but more typically is the province of one dimensional, shallow character development coupled with whiz-bangers that require a total suspension of belief and rounded out by plot devices that combine outlandish good fortune and timing with little or no actual relationship to the story line. Not so here. The story flows, the characters are real and the author has his social/technical act together. And, as a bonus, the dialogue has regular moments of humor, cleverness, insight and pain. WEAPONS OF CHOICE falls only a bit short in what the book calls the 'Transition', i.e. that actual temporal displacement itself. The deficiency is that more goes wrong--way wrong--than should be the case. It makes a certain amount of sense for the temporal displacement to have somewhat of a random and unfortunate impact on the time travelers. This is more than adequately captured, and in fact is overdone. The flaw lies in having the displaced fleet land smack dab in the middle of the June, 1942 U.S. Fleet en route to Midway to engage the Japanese invasion fleet. The Pacific Ocean is a damn big ocean and the transported Combined Fleet covered an area perhaps 25 miles in diameter. Its like trying to hit a quarter lying on a football field with another quarter and doing it from another dimension. Having the 1942 U.S. Fleet see and recognize just the lone Japanese Self-Defense Force ship that makes up a small part of the larger Combined Fleet compounds the flaw. This device results in immediate shooting between the two fleets, with the primitive 1942 Fleet giving a pretty good account of itself. Another of the Combined Fleet is split longitudinally, apparently to demonstrate the finite limits of the temporal displacement while yet another is molecularly blended with one of the contemporary U.S. Fleet. Too much of a bad thing, if you ask me. Although flawed in this respect, even this part of the book and the balance are extremely well done and it is a fun read. Other reviewers have noted the references to other AH greats, Stirling and Flint and also to Turtledove's World War series. I'll be the first to note that the references to space lizards by President Roosevelt is directed to Cmdr. Turtletaub, Harry Turtledove's precurser name. Best of all is the blending of cultures, socially, militarily and technologically. Some reviewers are turned off by what they see as a liberal bent. My politics are at least as conservative as most Texans and probably more so. Too bad the ideological blinders we see today on the hard Left are just as prevalent on the hard Right. The fact is, mid-century America was great if you were white and had a job, otherwise, it had its shortcomings. Putting a Mexican or a Black in a superior position to white males back then was beyond the capacity of many, if not most Americans to comprehend, much less accept. This is doubly true for women, and particularly minority women. Face it fellow conservatives, it was this way, no getting around it. Having said that, the author would do well to remember that the armed forces were integrated in 1950 (or a year or two before)and Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954. The country was open, at least part of it, to change, although certainly not the level of we have today or are certain to see in 17 years. The times, they were a changin' and they still are. These same reviewers are troubled that Hillary Clinton gets such favorable play. Have they followed her comments post 9-11? I will most likely never buy into most of her domestic agenda, but like Lieberman and Gephardt, and too few other prominent Democrats, she doesn't stutter in the least about the need to fight fundamentalist terrorism with everything we have. Like her or not, you wouldn't want her mad at you and I am pretty sure, as a senator from New York, she is not happy with the bad guys. Now, for the book itself: Birmingham picks up with near perfection on not just the extension of military and social evolution the present day suggests, but he also--and you have to really like this in a time travel novel--describes with what seems to this technologically challenged history major/trial lawyer an entirely plausible (insofar as these things can be plausible) time travel mechanism. Worm holes, singularities, quantum foam--apparently these are words that esoteric physicists actually use. I recognize that they are in English, but that is as far as it goes. One thing for sure, even for scientific illiterates, it reads well. Finally, for military history buffs, Birmingham has done his homework. If you ever wanted a great blending of near future with recent past in a military context this is it, bar none. Highly recommended and looking forward to the next two--too bad the ideologues can't lighten up.

Weapons of Choice is the first of a series which begins when a multi-national (Mostly American) carrier task force in 2021 on a United Nations mission in Indonesia is transported to 1942 and finds itself smack in the middle of the American fleet heading into battle near Midway. I put off reading this book for fear that it would be juvenile, simplistic, and poorly-written. I also braced myself for a smothering and cloying "politically correct" element along with cardboard black and white characters. However the author, John Birmingham, has pulled off a compelling and thoughtful tale of what might happen if people from different times were to meet. Of course, much of the book covers the effect of 21st century technology on World War II with some very imaginative scenarios. However, this is not a story of the future riding in on white horse and bringing light to a welcoming and backward world. For one thing those in the world of 1942 thought they were doing quite well until the visitors (invaders?) showed up! What makes Weapons of Choice especially interesting and a cut above many similar books is the interaction between the people of different centuries. To put it simply, they often don't like each other much. The time travelers arrived with a destructive bang that brought death and mayhem and inadvertently undermined the war effort. Secondly, the people of 1942 find many 21st century social mores and personal behavior shocking, disgusting, and immoral. Meanwhile the 21st century people justifiably see considerable bigotry, ignorance, and crudeness in the world of 1942. Weapons of Choice appears to be written from a moderately liberal perspective (starting with the super carrier U.S.S. Hillary Clinton) which has alienated some reviewers, but the people from the future have faults too. They mean well and wish to help the Allied cause, but many are rude, disrespectful, contemptuous and vulgar at times (the women especially), and on a high horse that begs to be toppled. After all, just because mid-twentieth century people are "ignorant" and backward does not mean they are stupid and do not learn fast. Meanwhile, the Japanese and Germans are aware of what has happened, managed to snag a bit of the future technology, and are determined to use it to change what they found out is their own bleak future. Weapons of Choice does have its problems. 2021 is simply too close to our own world of 2005. The weapons and technology seem too advanced for only sixteen years in the future. Secondly, although our own society is changing rapidly, the part of the world of 2021 the multi-national force comes from seems unreasonably accepting and tolerant of diversity of all sorts. In addition, what happened to the conservatives/religious right? Has it become irrelevant in only sixteen years? Finally the writing is very good for the genre, but don't expect great literature and character development. Despite these quibbles it should be remembered that this is a only a story and Birmingham has written something that will appeal to Alternate History, Time Travel, Science Fiction, and World War II buffs.

I loved every thingabout this book. The story line was great and so was the concept. I would recommend this book

John is a consummate story teller, and this is a great story. 2021 tech and morality butting heads with their counterparts from 1942. You'll love the story, you'll love the characters and you'll want more. Thankfully there is more.

...for a whole host of reasons. I'll be honest, I bought this having read about it on TV Tropes, and I think the line which sold me on it was 'time traveling, SAS Prince Harry'. Well you certainly get that! Beyond that however, this is a very well written book, and in terms of the ideas explored in across it's pages, fascinating. It does show it's age somewhat (like most books set 20 minutes into the future tbh), but even so it gives us a somewhat chilling vision of a world of 2021 as if the War on Terror had actually extended into an all up war that had rumbled on for decades (along with the consequences of such warfare on the world's militaries and the continuance of social trends of today), then goes ahead and juxtaposes that brutally with the martial and popular culture of the 1940s. Could have gone so wrong, so easily, yet it works brilliantly. Which leads me onto the other thing about this book (and it's sequels for that matter): it gives us a very close look at the social attitudes of the 1940s and the heroes of WW2. All too often, literature (and just about every form of media) tends to look back on that time as a golden age, where for the Allies, all was noble and grand, and where the figures were genuine all-round heroes of legend, whilst for the Axis, all was oppressive and evil, and all of their soldiers and scientists and leaders were utterly inhuman monsters. This book doesn't. It shows us it all, the heroism and the racism and the sexism, the heroes, the lunatics, the geniuses, and the... well, bastards. Even more refreshingly, it does that for both the Allied and Axis powers, and doesn't pull any punches for either of them. And yet along with all of that, it still manages to retain a sense of humour (such as that wonderful moment involving FDR, Eisenhower and a comment about how since he wasn't president yet, Eisenhower still had to work for a living), and despite the introspection, the action sequences are some of the best I've ever read. So, all told, this book it very much recommended.

Wenn man die zugegeben abenteuerliche Prämisse des Buches (Schlachtschiff-Verband aus dem 21. Jahrhundert wird aufgrund eines mißglückten Experiments in das Jahr 1942 versetzt) akzeptiert, ist die Axis of Time-Trilogie ein spannender Techno-Thriller, der angenehm an frühe Tom Clancy-Bücher erinnert. Der Twist, das Technologie aus dem 21. Jahrhundert beiden Kriegsparteien in die Hände fällt, mischt die Karten im 2. Weltkrieg völlig neu. Auch die Charaktere sind gut herausgearbeitet, und ein interessanter Subplot dreht sich um die alltäglichen Konflikte zwischen den konservativen Amerikanern der 40er Jahre und der multikulturellen, liberalen Crew aus dem 21. Jahrhundert. Der Humor kommt auch nicht zu kurz, sei verraten.

It's a great story, the one thing that brings it down is the absolutely dreadful accents the narrator tries to use. Especially his attempt at Australian. Would be better if he just used his normal voice.