Designated Targets by John Birmingham

Designated Targets by John Birmingham, (New York: Random House; 2005), 429 pages.

Designated Targets by John Birmingham is the second book in the series of three novels in the so-called “axis of time” series. The premise of the series could be summarized in the form of a question: “What do you get when a 2021 military experiment transports an American-led multinational naval armada `back through time to 1942, and relocates the armada to the middle of the U.S. naval task force heading towards Midway Island and the battle of Midway?” John Birmingham answers this question over the course of the three novels. The first novel covers the immediate impact of the emergence of the 2021 naval armada in 1942, and the race by allied and axis powers to apply the knowledge of the future, and “fast track new technologies.”

In this second volume the impact of the emergence of the technology and history from 2021 begins to change the course and prosecution of the war, and affect daily life. And why wouldn’t it: if you were engaged in a war and suddenly came into possession of weapons from the future and the history books from the future, wouldn’t you use these resources to your advantage? Much of this book focuses on this issue.

Armed with knowledge of weapons and technologies of the future, the axis and allies attempt to develop those weapons to ensure victory (in the case of the allies) and change the result (in the case of the axis).The race is then on the develop these new technologies before their time, weapons as varies such as the AK-47 through to the ultimate weapon, the atomic bomb. Savvy businessmen indentify sign up as then unknown musicians and actors that will in the future become stars. On the military and tactical level, we see a new history develop. It is new in that knowledge of future and its technologies changes the present. For example, we know from Weapons of Choice that the Battle of Midway die not occur. In Designated Targets, new campaigns emerge, like the Japanese invasion of Australia and later Hawaii, plus the important role of a ship from the future in protecting Great Britain from Axis invasion.

As this alternative history emerges, the reader must surely be asking, how this is all going to work out. Surely, he won’t let the axis nations get the atomic bomb before the allies? Things are now different: events that we know to occur have not occurred in this alternate history, and events in the alternate history only occurred there, not in reality, if you know what I mean. It also must raise in the reader’s mind the logical contradictions in alternative histories and time travel stories. Fortunately, Birmingham’s storytelling is so engaging, fast paced and action packed that we ignore the logical chasm over which be has built his story because it is such an interesting and fascinating story. Nonetheless we are left wondering that surely the allies must win? To his credit, Birmingham doesn’t let us know. The book is so engaging that we put aside all these concerns because we want to how the Second World War ends now that Birmingham has shaken everything up. Birmingham story creates a lot of interest in just how these events are going to play out, but to find out the answer, we have to read Birmingham’s conclusion to the series, Final Impact.