Just Finished Reading: Designated Targets by John Birmingham (FP: 2005)

It has now been several months since the 21st century battle fleet ‘emerged’ into the Pacific Ocean in 1942. Despite their best efforts both futuristic technology and knowledge of the future has made its way into both Allied and Axis hands. True to their different natures both sides have handled this information differently. The Americans are using the knowledge to make money – by buying companies destined to be important in the years ahead and by contracting future stars of song and screen – whilst the Russians, Germans and Japanese use the information to eliminate their present and future enemies and anyone associated with them with abandon. On both sides plans for war winning weapons are pushed ahead with foreknowledge and access to previously undreamt of computing power. But now both the Axis Powers and the Soviets know they are living on borrowed time. They know that their present dominion has, in the future they now have access to, become no more than a warning from history. Dedicated to change that forever the Japanese attack and invade Australia and the Germanys, now at least temporarily at peace with the Soviets, launch an all-out attack on England with jet fighters and long range missiles. If they can just hold off the Allies for 6 months they believe they can develop nuclear weapons which would give them the power to hold what they have already gained. 21st century Admiral Philip Kolhammer, USN has other ideas. Not content with simply defeating the Axis Powers he is determined to shape the world so that the future he came from will not come to pass - If only he can defeat the three most dangerous adversaries on the planet whilst keeping contemporary conspirators at bay.
 
As you may remember I really enjoyed the first book in this series of alternate WW2 novels. This volume was no exception – it rocked. The combat sequences are impressive enough and are much more than the predictable ‘my guns are bigger and more advanced than your guns’ sort of way. OK, there’s some of that going on (rather inevitably) but it’s so much more. But what really impressed me, even more than in the first book, was the thinking about the economic, cultural and psychological effects of having a bunch of people from the early 21st century and, much more importantly, knowledge of what is going to happen in the years ahead – scandals, deaths, criminal investigations, biographies written after death that now come back to haunt people still alive and much more besides. The author has given this whole other aspect of the impact of time travel a lot of serious, serious thought and has come up with some things I had never considered and much that I wholeheartedly agree with. It seriously impressed me and raised the whole book to a much higher level of quality and enjoyment.

I am also always impressed when an author can create numerous characters – of box sexes – and make them all real. As you might expect a few of the minor characters where effectively place holders and stereotypes but on the whole they lived and breathed which was all the more interesting in contrasting 21st characters and ‘Temp’ (contemporary) ones. Again the relationships, mostly confused, seemed to be very real and completely realistic, although the percentage of Temps who are out and out racist, sexist and/or homophobic still sticks in my craw somewhat – though reading accounts of WW2 recently seems to have confirmed this attitude at least in some cases.

I’m definitely looking forward to the third volume which I expect to be equally dramatic and equally surprising in many ways. Highly recommended for an exciting and thoughtful experience even if you’re not usually a reader of SF.