2021 Reading: Q1 update, Part 1

I’ve made a good start to 2021, finishing 13 books in two months (…and then I went through the past 7 weeks without completing another one!). The first dozen represent a healthy mix of genres – 4 sci-fi (including a trilogy), 3 non-fiction (including a famous biography), 1 crime novel (part of a series that’s become a guilty pleasure) and 5 dramas. In the first part of this update, I’ll cover off the sci-fi and non-fiction books.

Historically, the sci-fi genre has been dominated by male authors, with R.M. Meluch perhaps the only female sci-fi writer whose work I have read and enjoyed previously. However, in the past few years, there have been many more works published by female sci-fi authors and I’ve read books of Becky Chambers, Jennifer Wells, Cherie Priest, Emma Newman, Sue Burke and Kameron Hurley. I can now add Nancy Kress and Mary Robinette Kowal to that ever-growing list:-

• The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal (2018): In my year-end book update, I mentioned reading the first novel in the Lady Astronaut series, titled The Calculating Stars, which won both Hugo and Nebula awards for best sci-fi novel. The sequel, The Fated Sky, starts off in 1961, with Dr. Elma York now a seasoned astronaut, regularly ferrying cargo and passengers to the Lunar base. Meanwhile, there are new challenges to the rapidly accelerating global space program managed by The International Aerospace Coalition; racial politics raises its ugly head (specifically South Africa’s objection to an Asian leading the first mission to Mars) and there are attacks on IAC assets by an extremist organization which believes that governments should be focused on improving conditions on Earth rather than reaching for the stars. Not surprisingly, Dr. York as the popular public face of the space program is in the spotlight, having to chose between her conscience and the realities of work politics…and she doesn’t always make the right decisions. Nevertheless, she now finds herself commanding the inaugural mission to Mars, on board one of three ships that set off in October 1962 on a 320-day voyage to the red planet. The second half of the book deals with the events of this journey, ranging from the mundane (a blocked toilet) to the life threatening (a crew-wide infection resulting from contaminated food). The end of the book sets up the exploration and colonization of Mars. With the novelty of the alternate history of space travel having worn off in this second book, I found it less enjoyable and Dr. York’s character flaws a tad irritating. That probably explains why I haven’t rushed out to read the third book in the series, The Relentless Moon, which was published last year. But I’m sure I’ll get around to it soon.
• Tomorrow’s Kin (2017), If Tomorrow Comes (2018) and Terran Tomorrow (2018) by Nancy Kress: Collectively referred to as the Yesterday’s Kin trilogy and based off veteran author Kress’ Nebula-award-winning 2014 novella, the first book kicks off as a first-contact novel with a twist – the ‘aliens’ are biologically human (mostly), whose ancestors were taken from Earth centuries ago and settled on another planet. They have now arrived on Earth seeking help from our scientists to avert a catastrophe on their home planet. The three novels chronicle the experiences of biologist Dr. Marianne Jenner over a period of decades, with the plot including family politics, xenophobia, terrorism, interstellar travel, a pandemic, a megalomaniac billionaire and socio-cultural conflict! Collectively, the three books present an epic multi-generational story that I devoured in just 6 days. Highly recommended and currently available on Amazon at an amazing bundled offer of $2.54 for Kindle.

The 3 non-fiction books covered very different topics:

• First Women by Kate Andersen Brower (2017): The author is a journalist who has created a niche for herself as an expert on the private lives of White House denizens. I had read Ms. Brower’s first publication, The Residence (2015) and found it reasonably interesting, feeding my curiosity about the goings-on in that famous building. This second book, as the title indicates, describes the personalities and experiences of Presidential spouses, starting with Jackie Kennedy through to Michelle Obama. While the book does cover interesting historical ground and provides insightful glimpses into the stressful lives of First Ladies living in the public eye, its narrative structure was not particularly intuitive for me and I struggled to read more than half a chapter at one sitting.
• Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup (1853): It was not an easy decision to start reading this book, considering I had already watched the award-winning 2013 film and knew that the subject matter would not be pleasant. Nevertheless, I’m glad I did, because it’s important to keep reminding oneself of this scourge of humanity, one that almost every culture in the world has practiced or condoned at some point of time or the other. One can only marvel at the bravery and fortitude of Mr. Northup in surviving his ordeal and shudder at the thought of the millions of other slaves who weren’t fortunate enough to be liberated.
• Dirt: Adventures with the Family, in the Kitchens of Lyon, Looking for the Origins of French Cooking by Bill Buford (2020): It took a couple of chapters for me to settle into the author’s somewhat disorganized (to my mind) approach to life, specifically his initial attempts to set up a high-end cooking assignment for himself in France. But what a fascinating journey Bill Buford takes us on in his five years in Lyon…observing, learning and experiencing its gastronomical sub-culture at close quarters. No doubt, Mr. Buford’s time as an editor at The New Yorker and his close association with the leading French chefs of New York opened the doors for him to connect with famed Lyonnaise restaurateurs like Paul Bocuse, Mathieu Viannay and Jean-Paul Lacombe. But ultimately, it is his talent and dedication (and the commitment and support of his wife Jessica Green) that led him to securing kitchen stints at some of the most famous restaurants (and a bakery) in the city. I already had some insight into the brutal and uncompromising world of American kitchens from my reading of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, but French restaurants appear to be much harsher. Frankly, it’s impossible to condone the snobbishness, xenophobia, racism and bullying in the kitchens of high-end restaurants, and to justify these in the name of gastronomic excellence. This book has been an eye-opener, and while the descriptions of the food preparation are mouth-watering, it has robbed me of any desire to actually dine at these types of Michelin-star restaurants.

In part 2 of my April reading update, I’ll cover off the 5 really intense social dramas and 1 enjoyable crime novel.

Best Reading of 2020

I have read 28 books in 2020, a mix of non-fiction, graphic novels, science fiction, crime and social drama. Five of these were published this year, while most were published within the past few years and a few are classics several decades old that I’ve only got around to reading now.

The five books from 2020 were all quite good and worth mentioning:

• The Last Emperox by John Scalzi: This is the third and highly satisfying conclusion to the action-packed “The Interdependency” space opera trilogy which I’ve briefly referred to in a post a year ago. In the far future, the human race has built a galaxy-spanning empire called The Interdependency, with faster-than-light travel made possible through a mysterious network of wormholes called The Flow. The various human colonies are sustained by intergalactic trade which is controlled by a number of Houses (not dissimilar to those in Frank Herbert’s Dune series), all under the rule of a benevolent Emperor. When the Flow pathways start collapsing one by one for reasons unknown, it sets off a series of political machinations, as one of the Houses (House Nohamapetan) tries to overthrow the Emperor and monopolize whatever resources it can. Through the first two books, I became highly invested in the lead characters – the recently crowned Emperox Grayland II, Lord Marce Claremont, the son of the scientist who predicted the collapse of the Flow, and Lady Kiva Lagos, the foul-mouthed but brilliant member of House Lagos, which is loyal to the throne. Together, these three must foil House Nohamapetan and save the empire!
• The End of October by Lawrence Wright: Widely reviewed when it came out in April, due to the uncanny similarities with the ongoing global Covid pandemic, Pulitzer-winning author Lawrence Wright’s fast-paced global thriller contains many plot points that will seem all too familiar to us today, although Wright started work on the novel well before the pandemic hit. The factual, journalistic writing style is very accessible, and will appeal to anyone who has enjoyed books by Frederick Forsyth, Michael Crichton, Dan Brown or Tom Clancy. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Netflix or a major studio picked up the rights to the book, although I suspect no one will be in the mood to see something so close to reality for some time yet.
• Afterland by Lauren Beukes: This is South African writer Lauren Beukes’ fifth novel, and continues her run of speculative fiction, which has previously covered the sub-genres of time-travel, cyberpunk and contemporary magic. Afterland depicts a world three years into a pandemic which has wiped out virtually all men (a very similar premise to the graphic novel series Y: The Last Man). The few remaining human males are kept in government facilities as a precious resource, for experimentation and of course, procreation. The novel focuses on a 12-year-old boy Miles and the desperate efforts of his mother Cole to keep him out of the hands of the US government and gain safe passage to the mother’s native South Africa. The story is primarily written as a road trip/thriller, but Ms. Beukes uses the narrative to shine a light on gender dynamics, specifically the psyche of this preteen boy forced to disguise and behave as a girl, having to get away with the subterfuge while constantly surrounded by women.
• The New Wilderness by Diane Cook: This is Ms. Cook’s debut novel (she had previously published a collection of short stories) and was long-listed for the Booker Prize this year. In the near future, nearly all available land has been urbanized and people live in polluted cities. One small community is given permission by the government to participate in an experimental project, living a nomadic life in the last available stretch of wilderness, with strict rules in place to minimize the impact of human habitation on the pristine land. The story chronicles the evolving social dynamics within this community, as experienced by one of the families, comprising a woman Bea, her partner Glen (one of the originators of the project) and her young daughter Agnes. It is a depressingly realistic depiction of how social niceties progressively disintegrate when people are faced with the harsh realities of survival and scarcity. If ever we needed encouragement to preserve our current way of living through sustainable practices, this story should do the trick!
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: I am a big fan of Ms. Clarke’s debut novel from 2004, the dark and extraordinarily inventive, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. This year she released her second novel, Piranesi, another work of astonishing creativity and world-building. The novel is named for its title character, and is presented as a series of Piranesi’s diary entries over a period of years, while living in a place called The House. There is only one other person in the House, who Piranesi refers to as the Other. Like peeling the layers off an onion, the narrative slowly reveals who Piranesi is, and how he came to be in the House. I couldn’t say more without giving away it’s extraordinary plot. Unlike Ms. Clarke’s first novel which was a brick at 782 pages, this is a brisk read of only 272 pages. I cannot recommend this novel enough, especially for fans of fantasy/speculative fiction.

Piranesi (2020), a novel by Susanna Clarke

Among the other books I read, the four non-fiction books were all outstanding:

• The Body by Bill Bryson (2019): I have long been a fan of Bill Bryson’s travelogues and memoirs since I first read A Walk In The Woods in 1998, but hadn’t read anything of his since 2007. The Body is a remarkable guided tour of the human body that is equally informative and entertaining.
• The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben (2015): Originally published in German, this is an insightful book based on Mr. Wohlleben’s observations of trees and forest ecologies, accumulated during his career as a forest ranger/manager. This is a fascinating read for any lover of nature who wants to know more about the synergy that exists among different types of trees and between trees and other living beings in the forest. There’s a strong link between this book and a novel I read this year, Richard Powers’ Pulitzer-prize winning The Overstory (which is an amazing work of fiction, but I haven’t included in this list of my favourite books of the year as it was just a little too abstruse for me).
• The Seine: The River That Made Paris by Elaine Sciolino (2019): Journalist and author, Elaine Sciolino’s loving ode to the river Seine is a true delight, deftly weaving together information about the history, geography, food and commerce of Paris and other parts of France through which the Seine flows. This fascinating book describes how the Seine has played a role in the evolution of the French people and during the same time, how the people living on its banks have literally changed the course and nature of the river.
• Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light by Mort Rosenblum (2006): In Ms. Sciolino’s book about the Seine, she makes a reference to Parisian chocolatiers and in that context, to Mort Rosenblum’s book on chocolate. Naturally, that became the very next book I read! Although less structured and more subjective than the book on the Seine, it was no less informative and entertaining. Rosenblum takes us back to the history of chocolate as a highly valued ceremonial drink among the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec cultures of Mesoamerica, to its “discovery” by Europeans in the 16th century and subsequent transformation over the next three centuries to the globally popular confectionery product it is today. He also throws light on the sad plight of many cacao growers in Latin America and West Africa, who earn a pittance in comparison with the prices commanded by the finished product around the world.

And that brings me finally to the notable books of fiction I read this year, but not published in 2020:

• The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz (1956/57): Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988 and this multi-generational story of an upper middle class Cairene family during the period between the two World Wars is perhaps his best-known work. The first book in particular, Palace Walk, is virtually unputdownable, so fascinating is the story of respected merchant Al-Sayyid Ahmad ‘Abd al-Jawad and his family who live in central Cairo. Al-Sayyid Ahmad lives two lives; a pious but tyrannical patriarch at home, a beloved companion and voracious lover when out in the evenings with his clique of friends and courtesans. So imposing is Al-Sayyid Ahmad’s character in Palace Walk that the lives of his sons and grandsons pale in comparison in the subsequent books. In particular, I found the long conversational passages involving religion and politics among the youngsters of the al-Jawad family to be quite tedious. Nevertheless, taken together, the books are full of melodrama, humour, irony, pathos and tragedy, providing an unvarnished insight into the cultural, political and religious topography of Cairene society in the early 20th century. An interesting bit of trivia – the books were translated into English only in 1990, and the editor assigned by the publisher Doubleday for the translation was none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (2013): I’ve written a full review of this book soon after I read it in April this year. There’s no doubt this will remain one of the best works of fiction I have ever read.
• In The Market for Murder by T.E.Kinsey (2016): This is the second of the Lady Hardcastle Mysteries that I’m reading and I’m certain it won’t be the last. British author Tim Kinsey has so far written seven of these ‘light-hearted’ murder mysteries featuring Lady Emily Hardcastle and her intrepid maid/assistant Florence Armstrong, set in the early 1900’s. Having served the British government in some secretive capacity abroad, Lady Hardcastle rents a cottage in the country and settles down for a quiet life. But her natural intelligence and sense of adventure draw her into helping the local police when a serious crime is committed. I love these “countryside” crime stories, like James Runcie’s Grantchester Mysteries and Louise Penny’s series of 16 novels involving Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Enjoying these stories does require some suspension of disbelief as it’s quite difficult to imagine such a high murder rate in these small villages!
• The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (2018): This novel is the second work of fiction I’ve encountered in the past year which presents an alternate history of the US space program in which women play a much more significant role – the other is the web series For All Mankind on Apple TV+. The premise of Ms. Kowal’s novel is much more extreme – in 1952, a meteorite smashes into the coast off Washington DC resulting in calamitous loss of life, but also triggering an extinction event predicted to take place over the next 50 years, due to the greenhouse effect caused by the vaporization of millions of tons of water. This threat results in a global effort to accelerate the colonization of outer space. After initial resistance, women are grudgingly accepted into the astronaut corps and the novel chronicles the experiences of mathematician and pilot Dr. Elma York as she becomes a “Lady Astronaut”. Dr. York is a very human protagonist, determined, capable and intelligent, but not heroic in the conventional sense. Eventually, circumstances and her own sense of obligation to humanity, cause her to take on increasingly significant roles in the International Aerospace Coalition. Ms. Kowal has written one short story and three novels in the Lady Astronaut series and I’ve already started on the sequel, The Fated Sky.

That concludes a rundown of the best books I’ve read in the past year; there’s something for every interest – space opera, murder mystery, dystopian, alternative history, fantasy, family drama and non-fiction.

2 books in 3 days!

After struggling through two-thirds of Cloud Atlas and ultimately keeping it aside for another day (I can’t bring myself to admit that I might have abandoned it!), I started off on another episodic award winning novel, Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt. This book addresses a fascinating premise – “What if successive epidemics of the Black Plague had wiped out almost the entire population of Europe by the 15th century?” We end up with an alternate history in which Islam conquers all of Europe and becomes one of the 3 major global powers along with the Chinese and the Indians; the non-existent Europeans never colonize the Americas (although the Chinese do occupy parts of it), leaving the indigenous population to flourish and form a democratic league of Native American nations. It all sounds very interesting, but somehow KSR’s long-winded style of writing unfettered perhaps by the lack of a tougher editor led to a novel that I felt was a couple of hundred pages too long.

Anyway, I finally finished the book last week after labouring through it off and on for several months. As I said, I immensely enjoyed the premise and the overall ebbs and flows of alternate history, but not so much the writing style. I therefore felt that I had to move on to something much simpler as a follow-up. So I settled on a book that I should have read 3 decades or more ago – the Newbery medal winner from Hugh Lofting, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. I had watched and tremendously enjoyed the Rex Harrison musical as a child and several years later, the reasonably entertaining Eddie Murphy vehicle from 1998. I had assumed that the Rex Harrison version from 1967 was true to the source material. While almost all elements from that movie are indeed taken from the books, I discovered that the good doctor himself is physically quite different from the version portrayed by Mr. Harrison. He is rather short and round compared to Rex Harrison’s tall and strapping build. It was an enjoyable experience to reacquaint myself with all the human and animal characters, to compare and contrast the plotlines of the book with variations in the 1967 movie. Needless to say, as a children’s book of only 200+ pages length, I was able to finish it in little more than a day.

I then switched immediately back to science fiction, this time picking up Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson, one of my favorite scifi authors. Mr. Wilson’s books tend to have extraordinary events take place in an everyday world, such as the disappearance of Europe in Darwinia, or the appearance of mysterious stone monoliths in The Chronoliths or the disappearance of stars from the sky in Spin. All these books have been award-winners and Blind Lake itself was nominated for a Hugo in 2004. It deals with a government research facility which has created a telescope powered by a quantum matter device. This device allows scientists to remotely observe an alien civilzation on a distant planet, almost like a ‘candid camera reality show’. One night, the research base goes into ‘quarantine mode’ for unexplained reasons and is effectively shut off from the outside world. The rest of the book deals with uncovering the reasons for the cut-off while following the lives of the people trapped inside. It increasingly becomes clear that these events are connected with some sort of quantum feedback coming from the observed world 51 light years away.

Blind Lake turned out to be a page-turner much in the vein of Mr. Wilson’s other books. With both Darwinia and The Chronoliths, I felt that the author was much better at setting up a jaw-dropping premise than he was at bringing it to a satisfying and coherent conclusion… almost as if he loses his patience after all the heavy lifting in the first half of his books and wants to somehow end it quickly thereafter. Blind Lake suffers from a bit of that, but nevertheless ended up being a very satisfying read.

Doubly satisfying was the fact that I had managed to finish 2 books in 3 days and can now think about which book to move on to next. Options include Ransom Riggs’ Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (scheduled to be released as a movie in 2015) or a Jack Reacher novel or Philip K Dick’s alternate history novel The Man in the High Castle.

Which book to read? – Kim Stanley Robinson to the rescue!

I recently finished Hugh Howey’s Wool Omnibus, which combines his 5 self-published short stories into a single book. The first (and shortest) story is probably the best, as it sets up an intriguing premise and ends by making it even more intriguing! The success of that story led to a longer sequel, which led to an even longer one and so forth. Mr. Howey clearly felt the obligation to flesh out his characters and add increasing levels of story detail in each successive story. A lot of that additional detail is welcome, but sometimes I felt that I just wanted him to get on with it. In a sense, that is a positive commentary on how engaging the story was and how desperately I wanted to find out how our world had come to this post-apocalyptic state of affairs.

Anyway, after I finished Wool, I decided to start on Howey’s follow-up trilogy called the Shift series. This is part of the “Wooliverse” and all the stories (including the upcoming book titled Dust – which apparently will tie up all the loose ends) are referred to as the ‘Silo series’. Well, the first of these Shift novels, called First Shift-Legacy tells us how the apocalypse happened. The story is structured in 2 streams – one taking place in the lead-up to the apocalypse and the other stream taking place several decades into the apocalypse, showing life in one of the Silos. I was looking forward to a continuation of the story in Second Shift, but I was disappointed to see that there were a new set of characters and I was not really in the mood to invest into that, so I have opted out of reading it for the time being.

I then spent a day desperately trying to start off on a new book, but unable to figure out what sub-genre I wanted to get into. My choices included Hugh Howey’s own young adult scifi novel called Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue, Kim Stanley Robinson’s latest scifi epic 2312, C.J. Cherryh’s award winning scifi novel Downbelow Station (named by Locus magazine in 1987 as one of the 50 best scifi novels of all time) or S.M. Stirling’s post-apocalyptic novel Dies the Fire which describes a world in which electricity and gunpowder cease to exist (the ongoing J.J. Abrams TV series Revolution is a poor rip-off of the concept).

I sampled each of these books, trying out the first couple of pages to get a feel for the writing style and the tone of the story. Ultimately, none of them seemed to appeal to me. Just as I was at a loss, I realized I had another book by Kim Stanley Robinson with me, the very highly acclaimed The Years of Rice and Salt; I knew this book had something to do with the Dark Ages and the Black Death, so I didn’t think it would satisfy my ‘scifi craving’. Nevertheless a quick scan through a wiki entry revealed that it is in fact an alternate history novel, chronicling a period of several centuries right up to our current time. It builds on a scenario wherein the Black Death killed off 99% of Europe’s population thereby shifting the balance of global power to Asia over the next 700 years.

Suddenly this seemed both interesting and relevant to me, so I’ve started off on the book earlier today and raced through the first 20 pages (700+ to go). It certainly has me hooked and I can now rest at ease, knowing my reading needs are taken care of for the next few weeks! It will be my 6th K.S Robinson book after the excellent (and politically dense) Mars Trilogy and the less memorable Icehenge and Memory of Whiteness. It’s a busy month at work, so there’s no telling how long I’m going to take to finish it. I hope I’ll have the energy to write about it once I’m done.

Axis of Time: John Birmingham’s excellent time-travel military thriller

In typical time travel stories like The Time Machine or Back to the Future or TimeCop, the protagonist goes back or forward in time and has to use his brains and skills to get back ‘home’ to his original timeline. The populace at large remain unaware of the time-traveller’s presence and at best there are a few people or a love interest who help our intrepid hero in his task. Even in the case of a Star Trek IV, where it’s not one person, but an entire spaceship and its crew who arrive from the future, they still manage to keep their presence a secret.

That is certainly not the case in Australian novelist John Birmingham’s Axis of Time military sci-fi trilogy, which was published over the period 2004-2007. I finally got hold of the books – Weapons of Choice, Designated Targets and Final Impact – and read them back-to-back over the last 3 weeks.

In Weapons of Choice, a US-led multinational naval battle group from 2021 is accidentally flung back in time to the middle of World War II, literally arriving in the midst of the US fleet heading for the Battle of Midway.

Unlike the time-travel novels mentioned earlier, there is no question here of the protagonist quietly sneaking around the past. Instead, their arrival – subsequently referred to as ‘Emergence’ or ‘Transition’ – becomes worldwide public knowledge within a few days and threatens to change the course of the war. Also, as Admiral Kolhammer of the 2021 battle group discovers, their trip to the past is a one-way affair, with no hope of getting back to their own time and their loved ones lost forever.

While it would appear that the Allied forces have gained a significant advantage by suddenly having access to advanced military technology from 70 years in the future, a couple of ships also experience spatial displacement along with the time shift, and land up in the clutches of Japanese forces and the Soviets. In a matter of weeks, the technological advantage of the Allies has been neutralized to a significant extent, with both the Germans and the Japanese desperately trying to adapt and adopt the future technologies. In addition, the Axis Powers throw men and materiel at the Allies in mass-scale suicide attacks in the hope of exhausting their limited supply of future weapons inventory.

The course of the war takes many twists and turns which are quite different from our own reality, but as they say, the more things change the more they stay the same, and by mid-1944, the end result broadly looks the same as it did in our timeline. The Allies win the war, but are faced with a long-drawn Cold War with a Soviet Bloc, which appears to be even stronger than it was in our reality.

And indeed, what turns out to be more potent than the advanced weaponry carried by the 2021 battle group, is the information carried in the libraries of these ships…the Americans, Germans and Soviets are all able to accelerate their nuclear programs, with one of the nations even getting into bio-warfare…men like Stalin, Hitler and J. Edgar Hoover are forewarned of their enemies and respective fates…enterprising con-men in the early days of the Emergence are able to sign-up future stars like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe on long-term contracts…a number of companies, including movie studios race to patent their own products from the future…General Eisenhower and Lt. John F. Kennedy who are both fighting in the war, are faced with the uncomfortable public knowledge of their future Presidencies, along with the attendant uncertainty of whether their futures will still play out in the same way…most significantly, the Germans realize that their undoing in the original time-line was their ill-advised assault on the Soviet Union and Hitler quickly brokers a cease-fire with Stalin.

For the people of 1942, what is more shocking than the technological advancement of the 21^st century time-travellers is the changes in society of the ‘up-timers’. When the American naval officers from the 1940’s come on-board the ships from the future, they are appalled to see a multi-ethnic fighting crew including women in leadership positions…or to paraphrase one of the characters, “they’ve got Negroes, Spics, Kikes and Broads running their ships”. Indeed, many of them wonder if this is the future that they are fighting for, while the 21-ers struggle to control their disgust and frustration with the segregation and sexist attitudes from the past.

Overall, the books are a fast-paced read, but also have a great deal of emotional depth. While Mr. Birmingham excels at descriptions of battle scenes and the use of 21^st century technology, he is equally adept at diving into the personal lives of the large cast of characters. There are also some light touches with a number of references and ‘in-jokes’ related to scifi novels, novelists and other famous people from the present.

Thematically, this trilogy is very similar to Harry Turtledove’s alternate history Worldwar Series published in mid-90’s, which feature an alien invasion of Earth in the midst of World War II. In those stories, the arrival of the lizard-like ‘Race’ introduces advanced weaponry into the terrestrial conflict and also leads to unlikely alliances. Another series with a thematic similarity is Eric Flint’s 1632 series, in which a small American town is mysteriously trans-located through space and time into the midst of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) in Central Europe. In fact, both these series are referenced in the Axis of Time books.

I can certainly imagine the Axis of Time trilogy being adapted one day into a big-budget TV mini-series. The battle scenes would have the savagery of Saving Private Ryan while the personal stories of the men and women fighting the war would have the dramatic intensity of movies like From Here to Eternity.

Meanwhile, Mr. Birmingham has continued in the same vein of speculative fiction with a new series starting with the novel Without Warning, in which the bulk of the US population mysteriously disappears on the eve of the 2003 Iraq Invasion. While I thoroughly enjoyed the Axis of Time, I think this new series is too similar in theme and risks branding the writer as a one-trick pony.