Weapons of Choice

Axis of Time, Book 1

By: John Birmingham

Narrated by: Jay Snyder

Length: 20 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

The impossible has spawned the unthinkable. In 2021, a quantum military experiment goes horrifically wrong. A multinational taskforce of ultra-modern warships is suddenly transported back in time to 1942...right into the path of the U.S. naval battle group bound for Midway Atoll.

History is rewritten in an instant as the future smashes into the past, and high-tech hardware goes head to head with World War Two technology. In the chaos that ensues, thousands are killed, but the maelstrom has only just begun. The veterans of Pearl Harbor have never seen a helicopter, or a cruise missile - let alone nanotechnology, ceramic bullets, and F22 Raptor stealth jetfighters.

Allied and Axis forces are then caught in a desperate struggle to gain the upper hand - each hoping to tip the balance with a fist full of 21st-century firepower. What happens next is anybody's guess - and everybody's nightmare.

Listen to the entire Axis of Time trilogy.

©2005 John Birmingham (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Very good, interesting angle.

The narrator was fantastic!

The battles were pretty much what you would expect.

The cultural head butting was the most interesting part.

Excellent rendition of an amazing story

Audible gets it right again ! (Maybe all the criticisms worked)

I still hear Hidaka's imperial voice, Kolhammer's sad, yet straight shooter's voice, President Roosevelt, Dr.Einstein's joy and Duffy's playful seriousness.

I was literally watching a movie.

Everything was perfect, and with a little background score, it would have been wonderful.

Thanks Audible.

I was hooked by the dedication to detail.

Narrator did a great job bringing the book and characters to life for the novel. I would say sometimes the author spent TOO MUCH TIME explaining descriptive details. I really felt like he was trying to write poetry moreso than a. sci-fi novel. The technology was just believable enough to keep the story within the realm of possibility.

I'm interested to read the next novels .in this series.

Interesting concept, poor final product

I wanted to like this book but I can't get past the representation that everyone from 1942 is a vicious, hateful racist and sexist. I'm sure there were plenty who were, but it gets in the way of the interesting concept of "what if?". Every single character from 1942 is predictably militantly and violently bigoted.

It was only $4.95

Would you try another book from John Birmingham and/or Jay Snyder?

If all he writes is science fiction, NO

What was most disappointing about John Birmingham’s story?

In the first 5 minutes I heard the term USS Hillary Clinton. Right then I knew the author was a moron.

Would you be willing to try another one of Jay Snyder’s performances?

maybe

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

didn't get past 15 minutes

Any additional comments?

I don't read science fiction but it sounded like an interesting idea. Other people seemed to like it so it was probably me. As soon as I heard the name above it was over for me.

Too much of everything

Yes I realize this is a combination of the past and future but I became overloaded with the political correctness, e.g., a super aircraft carrier named the USS Hillary Clinton et al. The narrator could not go from male to female voices with so many flashbacks I lost track of past or future, male or female, what ship we were on etc. I pulled the plug when there seemed to be no end to the emesis on board one of the ships; I was ready to vomit myself.

Half way through part 1 of 3 I kissed off my purchase fee. I have downloaded over 1300 books from Audible and I can not remember the last time I gave up on a book, save your money, this one is just not worth even the member price.

This was a pitiful attempt to remake a classic;The Final Countdown & starring Kirk Douglas, Katherine Ross and Martin Sheen while dodging plagiarism.

I Tried My Best to Like It

I'm sorry. I LOVE science fiction. Even crappy science fiction. My wife couldn't understand how I could like the Battlestar Galactica TV series in the 70's but I did. This book has a terrific premise, the juxtaposition of two hugely different worlds in terms of technology and warfare capabilities, and all the issues associated with the "Butterfly Effect", etc. But it SHOULD NOT BE THREE VOLUMES!!
It was 4 hours and 30 minutes, I mean FOUR HOURS AND 30 MINUTES, before the original combatants even caught on that they were fighting allied forces from a different time zone; the reader could see that that could be resolved in 60 minutes or less. It sucked all the joy out of a wonderful sci-fi premise by trying to be a sci-fi novel and a romance novel and a good beach read and a story that would never make it into the Best Seller list. It killed me to have to call it quits after about 6 hours invested, because I wanted, I actually wanted, to know what happened but I was unwilling to give another 12 hours I would never get back to go through all three volumes. If volumes II and II were superb, the fault of the author is that I will never find out. The narration, by the way, was terrific. No problem there. It's just a very low class thriller that started with a great idea and ruined it with side stories of petty criminals and insignificant characters that were of such meager literary value, and zero sci-fi value, that I had to fast-forward to bypass them. That is unconscionable in a great novel. Just my opinion, I could be wrong. . .

Just awful.

too much political correctness, USS Hillary Clinton??Barf!I want my money back!!!My Ears burn! Uggg! Uggg!

Tedious plot development, worse reader

Fairly poorly done sci-fi, but what really kills it is the tedious enuciate - each - word - painfully - laboriously reader. Worse, the gent doesn't even pronounce nautical terms correctly!! I list to a LOT of audiobooks but couldn't make it through this one!

realistic SiFi

buying the next in the series