Final Impact: World World 2.3 by John Birmingham

As the final book in the Axis of Time trilogy begins events are coming to a rapid head.

It’s now 1944, two years after the events of Designated Targets. In Europe D-day has started a month early, the airborne invasion begins not with Men parachuting into france but rather crossing the channel in Huey helicopters, supported by Cobra gunships and preceded by napalm bombardments by jet fighters that have replaced propeller driven aircraft as the allies main fighters.

In the pacific the Allies have retaken Hawaii but their 21st century supplies of weapons have been depleted. Most ships have been refitted with the first of a new generation of weapons. Hopelessly dated by the UN standards advanced beyond belief by 1940s standards.

The super carrier USS Hilary Clinton returns to Sea refitted and at the core of a new taskforce including new destroyers and aircraft.

With the captured French stealth cruiser sunk with all hands nothing appears to stand in the way of the allies winning the war.

But Stalin has other ideas.

Choosing to re enter the War his forces quickly over run the Germans with jet fighters and their own versions of the AK-47. With suspicions mounting it is proven too late that Stalin has custody of the last of the missing UN Warships and the technological windfall it represents.

The Russians have the A-bomb and deploy it on a German held city as a display of their new military might.

Suddenly the future of the free world hangs in the balance.

Final Impact is a good finale to the Axis of time trilogy even if the eventual ending is somewhat open ended ( I don’t believe that the 21st century military would be allowed to resign from the armed forces and go into civilian life so easily) and what I think is a blatant attempt at setting up another series in the same universe.

Five out of five

Designated Targets: World War 2.2 by John Birmingham

Designated Targets is the second book in the Axis of Time trilogy.

When the international naval task force from 2021 appeared during the Battle of Midway in the accident which came to be known as the Transition everything changed.

Four months later the 2nd world war as we knew it is in disarray.

Russia has withdrawn from the War and has signed a cease-fore with the Germans. The once allies are now co-operating again in various areas of research. With knowledge of forthcoming events supplied by the Japanese both Hitler and Stalin purge their ranks of traitors real and imagined. Stalin has all those who would lead after him killed which leads to a revelation of a important fact that the allies are unaware and could lead to disaster.

Realising their mistakes the Japanese have moved their plans and invaded Australia. The bulk of 21st century forces are deployed to oppose them and desperate fighting develops as the Japanese start to wipe out whole towns.

But this slaughter is a mere diversion as the Japanese intended it as a means to deplete 21st century munitions. Using a French stealth cruiser that was captured by the Germans after it was lost during the transition, they launch a devastating attack and invade Hawaii.

With the flagship of the 21st century forces damaged and stripped for parts, returning to the USA the allied forces prepare for the bloody retaking of the islands.

To add to the confusion the Germans attempt to invade Britain even though their forces are not strong enough. Leading the defence is the HMS trident a 21st vessel, with a Captain and crew fighting to defend their country and be accepted as equals.

New technologies already starting to come into play years before they were due to, lead to a change in the balance of power but most importantly everyone now has access to the information needed to build the A bomb. It’s now not a case of who can build the bomb? But who will build it first?

Designated Targets continues the series in a very strong fashion and the cameos from historical figures continues apace. Several enterprising individuals start to sign up famous ‘stars’ years before they will become famous, such as Elvis and Marylin Monroe. One group of 21st Century Marines meet JFK still in command of a motor gunboat now renamed ‘The grassy Knoll’.

Tensions between the 21st century personnel and the people of 1942 continues to grow and seem to be heading for a conclusion that will not end well for anyone. Several characters also die making you realise no one is safe as the author happily kills them regardless of if their major or minor characters.

I will give Designated Targets 5 out of 5.

Weapons of Choice: World War 2.1 by John Birmingham

Scientists hey? Sometimes they should really know better and when to leave stuff alone. Unfortunately nobody told a group of scientists this in Weapons of choice the first book in the Axis of Time trilogy by John Birmingham and in 2021 a experiment by a research ship goes horribly, horribly wrong.

The scientists don’t live to realise their mistake, heck they don’t live long enough to realise anything has actually gone wrong but their experiment leads to a international task force of warships to be thrown through dimensions into a earth identical to our own.

But that’s not all, their also thrown through time as well arriving during the Battle of Midway in the Second world war. Due to a misunderstanding, with the ships crews incapacitated their AI’s wipe out most of the US Pacific fleet. In an instant the balance of power is changed.

The newly arrived UN warships can wipe out whole fleets single handed and they also know what’s about to happen. But their ammunition is limited and they can’t go home. The axis forces are hostile and their ‘home nations’ even more so.

But things aren’t as simple as they appear.

Some of the UN ships were scattered with some missing. The Japanese seize two, leading to one of the more memorable sequences in the book where a ship is discovered fused into the top of a mountain. Now all sides have access to records and technological date decades ahead of their own.

As some UN personnel despair, others thrive in the new circumstances and start to find their feet in this strange new world. But enemies are gathering on both sides determined not to let the UN forces destroy the status quo.

Weapons of choice is a very exciting ‘alternate history’ novel if a little slow to get going as it’s obvious the author is setting the scene for subsequent novels. The ‘real life’ cameos are quite amusing, from Prince Harry to Churchill, to an AI who speaks in ‘Posh spices’ voice.

Some of the novel does not make easy reading, especially the sexism and racism displayed by the 1940s characters, but only as we’re seeing it ‘through modern eyes’. So it does rings true to characters from that time as they considered it normal, the idea of a woman in combat is inconceivable to them.

So I would give it a four out of five and I’m interested to see where the Author will be going with this series and if he can keep up the high standard he has set in this novel.