Book Review: Axis of Time Trilogy

The premise of the Axis of Time Trilogy written by John Birmingham is that a physics experiment sends a 21st century multinational force of warships back in time to the Battle of Midway in 1942 and are stuck there in the middle of World War II. Suddenly as both the Allies and Axis get access to advanced technology from the year 2021 as well as the history of the original timeline, the shape of the war changes.

This was a bold undertaking by the author. In essence he had to simultaneously create a new "world" of the soldiers and sailors from the 21st century task force and re-create faithfully the "world" of the Second World War. Both had to be different yet believable to be accepted in the mind of the reader, and then he had the monumental task of accurately portraying the subsequent clash of cultures when the "worlds" collide.

To add to the magnitude of the task, he challenged himself by writing from the point of view of not only regular characters from both times but also major historical figures such as Roosevelt, Churchill, Himmler, Yamamoto, Beria to name a few.

And all of this had to be done in a way that did not make it feel forced or unnatural. It had to feel like ordinary people in extraordinary situations at the same time as bringing larger than life names into the realm of characters. In this, John Birmingham succeeded. I hardly ever found myself thinking that any character, historical or otherwise, was acting oddly for the purpose of plot development. From the initial event to the trilogy's conclusion, the characters felt real.

My complaint with the books lies in the pacing of the story. At times entire major events happen "off-camera". Huge battles, important character events, significant plot points, many of them occur and you start a new chapter or book catching up to these items. For example, the first book is about the experiment that sent the 21st century fleet back and the initial ripples of that event, and ends on an operation that they participate. The second book opens several months and major events later. For the first chapter I was very confused until I caught up. There are several other incidents.

Now I understand the author was faced with some serious difficulties in writing a story that stretches out over 3 years and has numerous battles and happenings. It felt like he made a list of everything that was going to happen and then picked two thirds of them to write and left the other third to simply play catch up. But I felt it hurt the series overall.

In the end, I enjoyed the trilogy and would suggest it to friends looking for something different.