John Birmingham: Weapons of Choice: World War 2.1

Reviewed by DAVID LARSEN

You're the commander of a 21st century naval task force, and you're about to have an X-Files moment. Antiquated ships appear from nowhere and attack you. You move to defend yourself, and after a short, sharp engagement, you make a couple of very unpleasant discoveries. One: you've fallen through a temporal anomaly, and it's 1942. Two: you've just wiped out most of the American Navy, who were on their way to the Battle of Midway.

Never mind, your ships are easily capable of winning it for them. Except ... it begins to look as though you weren't the only ones to fall through that temporal anomaly. The Japanese seem to have met some time travellers too, who've told them how the rest of the war will run. And not only have the Japanese passed on this information to the Germans, they've also whispered the phrase "Cold War" to America's Russian allies. It's 1942, and suddenly everyone knows the future. What happens next?

Alternate-history stories are a science fiction staple, for the very good reason that the questions they address are endlessly fascinating. What would have happened to the world if Hitler had died as a child? Or if Churchill had? Or Einstein? Or if several thousand 21st century soldiers — complete with comprehensive historical databases and up-to-the-minute military technology — had suddenly arrived in the middle of World War II? A good novelist could take these questions anywhere.

John Birmingham clearly knows this, but he's out to write a thriller. This is a book where the military hardware gets described in loving detail, the naval battles are painstakingly realistic, and the people are assembled from Hollywood spare parts. 21st century commander? Let's make him our token Jew, with a Holocaust survivor in the family. We'll have a tough-ass 21st century woman reporter, and give her a 1942 love interest; the first 21st century captain to meet the ultra-conservative 1942 military had better be female ... and Black ... and a lesbian ...

And in similar box-ticking fashion, the multiple social and historical issues arising from the "Today, meet Yesterday" scenario are Dealt With, allowing us to get on with the good stuff: war games. Birmingham ticks enough boxes to let you glimpse his story's vast potential, and that's his big mistake. Though it's only volume one of a trilogy, and the big set-piece engagements are clearly still to come, this is a cracking good military thriller. But it's haunted by the ghost of the book Birmingham didn't write. Real characters, allowed to bear the real weight of history, could have turned this into something unforgettable.

* Macmillan, $34.95