Final Impact (The Axis of Time) | 
 enlarge | Author: John Birmingham
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $3.71
You Save: $4.28 (54%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 38476
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 034545717X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780345457172
ASIN: 034545717X
Publication Date: December 26, 2007
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Product Description
“The action is nonstop, the characters very real–and very different from each other–and, to coin a phrase, it makes you think.”
–S. M. Stirling, author of Island in the Sea of Time
In the year 2021 a multinational fleet–experimenting with untested weapons technology–pitched through time, crash-landing in 1942. The world is thrown into chaos as Roosevelt, Hitler, Churchill, Tojo, and Stalin scramble to adapt to new, high-tech killing tools, and twenty-first-century ways of war.
For “uptimers” like Britain’s Prince Harry and the men and women who serve aboard the supercarrier USS Hillary Clinton, war is a constant struggle with their own downtime allies, who are mired in ignorance and bigotry.
As the Allies counter the Nazi assault and set off for the coast of France, Japan begins to buckle, soon every battle will be played out in a lethal dance of might and intelligence, unholy alliances and desperate gambles, and each clash will be fought with the ultimate weapon; knowledge from the future.
Thanks to the historical records, all sides know that two superpowers will emerge, while the losers will be pounded into submission. But time has shifted on its axis, so none know who will survive, or how peace will take hold in a world turned upside down. These are the questions that John Birmingham brilliantly answers in his critically acclaimed adventure of war and imagination.
Praise for John Birmingham’s Weapons of Choice
“Birmingham’s enthralling battleground mixes provocative historical fiction and socially conscious futurism.”
–Entertainment Weekly
“High-tech intrigue and suspense similar to the works of Tom Clancy.”
–Library Journal
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 Another great book October 3, 2008
This is another great book from John Birmingham. You should read the books in order. Well worth your money.
 A bit mundane, but I want to read more July 28, 2008
I like to read both alternate history (and historical displaements) and techno-military stories, so this one was right down my alley.
I found it entertaining with some interesting twists and conflicts, but overall it was a bit predictable and maybe formulaic. Of course, there are more books to come in the series, so there is no real conclusion.
Other reviews have given reasonable details of the book.
My rating is probably somewhat conservative. I might have found the book more interesting if I had read the first two in the "trilogy". The book was definitely good enough that I have already put those two in my cart to acquire and read them.
 Third book disappointing July 18, 2008
As with many authors, the difficulty of wrapping everything up has eluded Birmingham. Not nearly as thought-provoking or insightful as the first two volumes in the trilogy.
Most of the loose ends get tied, but in a pedestrian effort at knot-tying, not story telling.
Better luck w/ the next one.
First-rate Ending to a Superb Trilogy November 2, 2007
John Birmingham resists the temptation to tie up his excellent military fantasy into a neat little package. The altered time-line continues past the finish, issues unresolved, fates hanging in the balance, and the massive collision of 21st- and 20th-century technologies and sensibilities promising looming horrors--and thrilling potentialities-- unimagined in either original universe. Or not. I found my mind as busy at the end imagining possible futures as ever it was at the beginning, and that seems to me the very essence of excellence in speculative fiction.
I wonder if he will write further into this altered universe. Having enjoyed the trilogy so much, I might hope so. However, he need not, having left us with an as-yet-unimagined future unrolling before his engaging characters.
Started with a bang. Ended with a whimper. November 1, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I did enjoy the first novel quite a bit. Then the second one was a bit worse, but the third was pretty bad. Many other reviewers have touched on what went wrong. Here are two other points that I'd like to add:
1. Birmingham needs to learn how to finish a story arc. At any given point in time, I counted over 30 different threads to keep track of. Needless to say, there were a lot of loose ends he unsuccessfully tried to wrap up. For example, the murders of the officers was urgent and interesting when it happened at the end of book one. But it was long overdue and boring by the time he resolved it several hundred pages later at the end of book three with scarcely a mention in between.
2. What is up with his man-crush on Prince Harry? In real life, Harry is a drunken twit who prances around in a Nazi costume complete with swastikas, gets caught doing drugs and drunk in public repeatedly (recently caught snorting vodka), chickens out of actually going to Iraq with his unit, and this week is been questioned for shooting two rare birds (only 20 breeding pairs in all of England) for sport. This guy is a first class moron, yet Birmingham makes him the second coming of Rambo in the book.
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