β Scribed by Birmingham, John
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
At the start of Australian author Birmingham's stellar debut novel, a United Nations battle group, clustered around the U.S.S. Hillary Clinton (named after "the most uncompromising wartime president in the history of the United States"), is tasked in the year 2021 with stopping ethnic cleansing by an Islamist regime in Indonesia. When an experiment goes horribly wrong on a special ship doing research on wormholes, most of the battle group is deposited in the middle of the U.S. fleet on its way to Midway in 1942. The WWII carriers and supporting vessels attack a Japanese Self-Defense Force ship, triggering devastating computer-operated defensive fire from the 21st-century fleet. While the action sequences are outstanding, this book really shines in depicting the cultural shock that both navies experience. The Clinton group reflects a multicultural society that finds the racist and sexist attitudes of 1942 America almost as repugnant as those of the Axis powers, while the mere thought of non-whites and women not just serving in uniform but holding command drives many Allied officers and civilian officials apoplectic. The author also subtly shows the ways in which 20-plus years of the War on Terrorism have changed our attitudes. Unlike many alternate histories, the novel avoids the wish-fulfillment aspect inherent in the genre. This is the first of what should be a hugely (and deservedly) successful series.
Review
"This is an excellent combination of near future military SF and alternate history, and a riveting story to boot."βEric Flint, author of 1632 and 1634: The Galileo Affair
"This book has everying: time travel, the British royalty, things that go boom, and unrelenting action. Read the opening at your own risk: you won't be doing anything else until you finish it."βSean WILLIAMS, co-author of Heirs of Earth and Star Wars: Force Heretic: Reunion
From the Trade Paperback edition.
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
Book I of the Axis of Time Triology
A young blind woman is snatched and transported to a primitive world of magic and capricious gods where she's transformed into a Seer; a golden-eyed being with awe-inspiring powers. Now all she has to do is learn to wield them. And if she's to save those she loves from the horrifying evil that lurks
England 1422:** **Owen Tudor, a Welsh servant, waits in Windsor Castle to meet his new mistress, the beautiful, lonely Queen Catherine of Valois, widow of the warrior king, Henry V. Her son is crowned King of England and France and while the country simmers on the brink of civil war, they fall in