Axis of Time
4 primary works • 5 total works
Book 1
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. . . .
Book 1
Book 2
The Second World War was turned on its head at the moment Admiral Kolhammer’s ultra-modern stealth warships were hurled back through time from 2021. But no one could have predicted just how much of a nightmare would ensue . . .
Only months after the Transition, the great powers scramble to develop the weapons of tomorrow. The year 1942 is now a world of crude jet fighters, monstrous attack helicopters, and unholy dirty bombs — a mongrel technology, born decades prematurely.
Then, in a radical rewriting of history, Japanese forces sweep into Australia, foreign agents begin a campaign of terror in the USA, and Germany prepares for an all-out attack on Britain.
The twenty-first-century forces must resort to the most extreme measures yet and face a future rife with possibilities — all of them apocalyptic . . .
Picking up from where he left off with Weapons of Choice, John Birmingham shocks and awes us with this gripping second instalment in the Axis of Time trilogy.
Book 3
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.
