Weapons of Choice (Axis of Time, Book 1) |  | Author: John Birmingham
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: eBooks
This item is no longer available
Rating:  153 reviews
Sales Rank: 5361
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 512
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
ASIN: B000FC1QBK
Publication Date: June 1, 2004
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
On the eve of America-s greatest victory in the Pacific,
a catastrophic event disrupts the course of World War II, forever changing the rules of combat. . . .
The impossible has spawned the unthinkable. A military experiment in the year 2021 has thrust an American-led multinational armada back to 1942, right into the middle of the U.S. naval task force speeding toward Midway Atoll-and what was to be the most spectacular U.S. triumph of the entire war.
Thousands died in the chaos, but the ripples had only begun. For these veterans of Pearl Harbor-led by Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, and Spruance-have never seen a helicopter, or a satellite link, or a nuclear weapon. And they-ve never encountered an African American colonel or a British naval commander who was a woman and half-Pakistani. While they embrace the armada-s awesome firepower, they may find the twenty-first century sailors themselves far from acceptable.
Initial jubilation at news the Allies would win the war is quickly doused by the chilling realization that the time travelers themselves-by their very presence-have rendered history null and void. Celebration turns to dread when the possibility arises that other elements of the twenty-first century task force may have also made the trip-and might now be aiding Yamamoto and the Japanese.
What happens next is anybody-s guess-and everybody-s nightmare. . .
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 153
 Really Great Book May 2, 2010
LV 702 (Las Vegas,NV)
One of the best books I've read. I couldn't put it down. Starts out with what seems like boring information, but you must read all the background information about the ships and the people involved because it will be useful later. I found myself turning back the pages to re-read the background info. It starts with a BANG! and never lets up. It mixes sci-fi with history and creates and alternate history and does a great job. I highly recommend this book and will get the next. My first purchase was a kindle freebie, but I'm hooked on the series will buy the rest.
Great book, and I could not put it down! February 26, 2010
Jerry & Heather (Iowa)
I don't normally read action or military books, but I couldn't resist this one because of the great concept. I wanted to see how the author would develop this plot, after an entire fleet is displaced into the past by a bad science experiment. I could not put this book down! I loved the little tidbits of "history" throughout the book, and it was really interesting to see the author's view on how certain things turned out after our current history. The characters were very well-described and felt real. The military aspects seem legitimate to me, but I'm not knowledgeable about a lot of that. The plot was interesting, and the book was very well written. Highly recommend this!!
 Decent novel, but 21st century morality imposed on 20th century war January 8, 2010
R. Harvey (London, England)
In full disclosure, I downloaded this novel when it was available as a free Kindle download, for which I want to thank Mr. Birmingham; it was a generous thing to do, and I enjoyed the time rreading.
This is a good alternate-history/timeline-jumping military science fiction story with a number of elements that make it it unique and a fun read. There are some blemishes, some of which are hard to get past, but overall do not distract from the enjoyability of the novel.
First, the good:
The novel is a lot of fun for the first 3/4's of the novel. There is a completely expected juxtaposition of a modern (2020) military force and a 1940's military force on its way to Midway. The mechanism by which this happens is given away in the first 50 pages or so, so it's no spoiler, and the fun begins after that anyway.
The weapons systems, military jargon, and general treatement of the way a naval warship works is authentic and well-researched, as is the stark difference between the 1940's technology and the more modern technology of "our future".
The pace is gnerally good, except that the initial battle is too drawn out, and suffers a bit from narrative jumps that are sometimes hard to follow, since the various ships have not been well introduced at that point.
It's a fun read, as I have already stated. I came away with no great insights, but it is a meat and potatoes sort of military science fiction novel, and I did not expect much in that respect.
The bad:
There were moments of discontinuity for me as American characters used British vernacular and slang. "Have a go", is one that stood out, rather than "have a try" which is the American colloquialism. Because I have lived in the UK for 6 years, I am attuned to this, and it stood out for me.
In addition, the debate in the book about understanding the culture and motivations of the Axis is a slice from modern-day GWOT (we can't call it that anymore, can we?). This doesn't seem to be working for us now. I guess it's just wishful thinking, but I would hope those working this problem 10 years from now would have caught on by then.
The imposition of 20th century morality and judgements on the 1940's era personnel was a little over the top in my opinion. What we are to believe is that there was more or less universal bigotry and visions of ethnic purity in the 1940's, which, as a child of two early 1900's parents, doesn't strike me as quite accurate. More to the point, military personnel who spent their time away from the U.S. were probably much less bigoted than usual, and certainly a little more understanding of cultural concepts than the people in this novel. The author would have us believe that almost no one from that era would meet this group half-way, either they completely abandon their cultural upbringing in favor of the new cultura mores of the travelers (hard to believe) or they would be completely and totally obstinate in their beliefs (also hard to believe).
Finally, I fail to understand why in his quest to create strong female characters, the females are almost universally cursed with male sex drives, including the drive for indiscriminate multiple sexual trysts. This required more than a normal suspension of disbelieve for me. This may be cultural; the female American reporters strike me in language and sexual aggression as more typical of British women. That may explain it, but a foul-mouthed harlot is still a foul-mouthed harlot. The author had no problem creating a criminal American character, and his motivations and thought processes were much clearer.
All in all, a good novel that should appeal to many.
Fascinating Concept December 13, 2009
Harry Hopkins III (Downingtown, Pa)
A fun reading and fascinating concept. John Birmingham hasn't disappointed again in this my second book under his authorship. The battle descriptions while enjoyable (read like a Clancy Novel) were a little long in some areas (like the first 100 pages), but the anachronistic interactions between the time travelers and residents of 1942 were not only entertaining and fascinating. The happenings and ideas from the plot line seemed very plausible and the hint of future plot directions make me excited about reading the next in this trilogy.
 It's....... "ok", but not for me December 6, 2009
M. Boxer
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I generally consider myself to be an alternate history fan. I've read Turtledove and Eric flint among others. I suppose the first thing that stands out about this book is that I don't think it really qualifies as alternate history as opposed to simply techno-military thriller and using, well it's isn't even "really" time travel per se but more the parallel universe premise a la Timeline by Michael Crichton, or 1632 by Eric Flint. That said I can see where others might like this book, but me personally, I must decline. The initial premise and the first meetings of the uptimer and downtimer characters takes way too long. I'd even dare to say that with the exception of the time travel event nothing really happens in the first hundred pages. I also felt the characters were not terribly likable. I only got about half-way through before I put it down.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 153
|
|
|
