Retrieve Weapons Of Choice (Axis Of Time, #1) Illustrated By John Birmingham Displayed In Manuscript

like alternative history, the whole "what if, . . " mindset. While we could never know, it's an interesting thought experiment to change something small or big in the past and try to figure out what the result would have been.


This book, published, is a mix of science fiction and alternative history since it begins jumpingyears into the future though judging from the technology it's more likeyears into the future, followed by moving that future back toand the second word war.


The result of this alternative history is a lot of clashes on both social and military levels so it's absolutely an interesting idea, The problem is that the author uses a lot of stereotypes to illustrate those conflicts and those stereotypes become nothing but the stereotype, No depth, nothing but surface,

One thing in particular grates me, To create interesting scenes the author had to gift some characters with a great deal of single minded stupidity, Stupidity of a kind that is incompatible with the positions they occupy, It just does not make any sense,

For people considering this and the series it starts, I can at least say that the end is better than the beginning, It's possible the rest of the series is better, Took me a little while too get into this, I originally bought the paperback version and struggled to get past the original translation event because the book was too bulky to carry around so i kept losing my thread between reading sessions as I've got to that age that when i open a book at bedtime i'm usually asleep before the page is done.
It's not that it was badly written but that once the actual translation event happens its just one event after another in very quick succession for about ard of the book.


Because i wanted to read this book i decided to give the Audiobook a go because i get far more time to listen these days than actually sit and read.
Just quickly i will say that Audible Frontiers produce some excellent audiobooks and this was no exception, Narration and production were brilliant as always,

I have to say that this book really surprised me, Given the titles and cover artwork i was expecting these to be technoobsessed books where the author has more fun with the toys they get to play with than with the characters and situations they create.
Don't get me wrong, the 'near future'st century technology is more than present here and its fun playing with the concept of extreme modern war machines pitted against early's ships, aircraft, vehicles and weapons but the author avoids the trap that obviously one modern carrier battle group could probably wipe out most's conventional nations armies before running out of ammo through some careful plotting and story writing.


Instead, once past the chaos and shock of the original translation event, the action is less dominant and the author get to explore what it would mean for a modern multicultural, mixed sex force to find itself in a still openly racist/segregated and in the case of the UK, still imperialist and patriarchal society.
Both to the people transported but also to the society in which they land, They get to a glimpse of the future or at least 'a future' and they are very uncomfortable with what this means, He spends much of the rest of the book having characters wrestle with the issues and begin to deal with consequences of such a culture clash.


His glimpses of the effect the translation is having on the Axis powers is our hint to where the books are going to go from this point forward.
Can't wait to download Designated Targets now,
An intense, exciting and oftentimes uncomfortable look at what would happen if a modern military force were to be thrown back in time into the middle of the Pacific in World War II.


Fascinating in both a military and anthropological sense, it's better than the best Tom Clancy I've read and I'm definitely going to see this series through to the end.
The idea that a spread of American torpedoes launched in early 'would all manage to run true, and would immediately destroy a supercarrier That kind of killed the immersion for me.
The initial battle manages to mix overwhelming technological superiority and injured/incapacitated humans and bad luck in such a way as to render the entire narrative less believable than the much more plausible explanation of close action from" guns aboard heavy cruisers scoring critical hits against ships optimized for missile defense.


I mean, seriously, a fuelair catapult taking a "kg" bomb hit causing crippling damage

Aside from that, the sense of time in battle sequences is disjointed at best, leaving the impression that large amounts of the ships just aren't doing anything while we watch the various protagonists.
There are seven heavy cruisers between TFand TFplus an absolute assload of dual purpose weapons on the American carriers are there seriously only one or two turrets engaging the Clinton after fifteen minutes Does no other tin can have a firing solution for their torpedoes How did anys aircraft get fueled and armed and in the air under fire in fifteen minutes

I didn't get to the political parts of the book, but I wish the author had plotted out the naval engagements a bit more carefully and with less reliance on widespread adoption of far future tech like combat AIs and armor suits and quantum computers in CIC.
I really, really wanted to see two intelligent sides working under limited information to figure shit out, not both sides receiving, in turn, the idiot ball why doesn't Spruance even try to organize a line of battle and get it between his carriers and the enemy surface units Why doesn't anyone attempt to communicate in the clear with the enemy, since we see very clearly thefleet broadcasting English voice comms in the clear shouldn't some of that be Morse, with possibly signal lamps.
I want smart viewpoint characters that aren't doomed to failure despite all the advantages in the world because the author needs them crippled to tell his story.
I flip flopped a lot in my opinion of this book during the first half until I ultimately gave up on it audio edition, There are some interesting ideas ruined by bad writing some groaners and unrealistic situations, I applaud the author's attempt to throw men and women together in a tense situation, separated byyears of societal evolution, But he really flopped it with too much of what I might call the "early, untempered, unbalanced 'woke' period of political correctness" that WILL, by the way, correct itself in time to being less insane.
Like financial equality for women in the workplace, and in balance, reversal of some very bad feminist legislation against men, These things are already sorting out a bit now,years after the heyday of Barack Hussain "I apologize for being American" Obama, But I digress badly My point is, this author took some early 'woke' nonsense and inflated it beyond reason, And that's funny coming from an Australian, Judging American culture. That's funny.

No but all that aside, my problem with the book is the technology, I didn't like the 'woke' crap, but can live with it and don't mind it, even when it's overblown, But the technology is just stupid, This book came out in, portraying military technology onlyyears later, and yet it's fantastical stuff more properly setyears further on, Such as the "Combat Intelligence" or CI, which is conversant and basically intelligent, taking initiative, No one would ever put powerful, devastating weapons in the control of a CI, The weapons are ludicrous for, I was expecting to read about Gerald Fordclass carriers,

Did this author even bother to do any naval research It seems he read a few books about Midway, because he mentioned the main players and the subjects of some biographies like "Dusty" Kleiss and Wade McClusky, but a ship named

after Hillary would be decades away, with the present hulls already christened CVN"Enterprise" is the only Fordclass ship to not bear the name of a president.
So, this author was writing about the year, more like, and set it toI don't get it, The ship armaments might as well be scifi,

So, I really was eagerly expecting to read about presentday with a slight "lookahead" naval technology clashing with WWIIera navies, Instead, we have Battlestar Galactica going back in time, Very disappointed. And yet another althistory series worth flushing, There are so few as it is,
This was my first novel by Birmingham, as he came highly recommended by sitelink goodreads. com/user/show/ a reviewer everyone should be following, This author had some big shoes to fill as I've been a voracious reader for thirty years,

This novel is equal to sitelinkRally Cry, sitelinkA Hymn Before Battle, and sitelinkIsland in the Sea of Time,

I looked over the weaker starred ratings as always, A noticeable sign again among those reviewers: they have read few if any "military" fiction, let alone "alternate history military fiction", Shame on you.

Some reviewers commented on racism and sexism as complete turn offs, And yet the characters displaying these brutish traits rings true for the's, The author didn't bludgeon the reader with this at least not in my opinion, Of course I didn't get hung up on it either, Historically in the United States during this time inequality was the norm, And not many decades before, much of the population could not even vote, Not every character can be Clint Eastwood riding into the rescue,

Addressing some of the review points about how this novel was plotted An action based novel is NOT going to have long sections of world building or lengthy character development.
They are not meant to, I wouldn't pick up a Harlequin Romance novel and then complain about terrible pacing/plotting from the author, quipping, "There is too much loveydovey emotional crap going on and not enough ass kicking.
" A review like that from me would be idiotic, I don't read romance novels, so I am not qualified to judge what makes a good romance novel,

If you like military fiction, you will like this novel, If you are a fan of Tom Clancy or Larry Bond, you will like this book, W. E. B. Griffin anyone Then you will like this book,

Many of the novels I have read in, came from recommendations here on GoodReads, I'm on the constant lookout for more friends with eclectic reading habits, Mostly so I can tap into your bookshelves and find my next breakout read, . .






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