ZB7 ( )

One thing in a book that relies on so much historical fact and then supposition, is the attention to detail. Do we think that the American and Japanese fleets can return from the area of Midway with damaged ships, settle into harbor in less than seven days and start stripping the new weapons from the future this quickly? Can we see these two fleets returning to their home ports and all the combatants returning to the complacency of routine so quickly?

Can we see the events that take place in the book in one day in Pearl really happening in that one day?

Can we see a fleet coming from the future and deciding that the Japanese who history tells us would gladly end the war for oil and had hoped that the USA would craft such a deal after the devastation of their initial onslaught are such a horrible enemy that they need to be defeated and that the limited ammunition that the people of the future should be expended on them?

If all the great minds of the fleet could know about the attrocities of the Bataan death camps, and the sex slavery of the white women captives, why did they miss this analysis of the Japanese High Command. If the US had sued for Peace, the Japanese would have stopped their war.

This then would leave the visitors from the future with enough firepower to destroy all the ships in an entire nations fleet, to pursue the real meglomaniacal ruler of the age, Hitler. How can one weigh the atrocities of the Japanese, verse the atrocities of the US (I can hardly wait till Birmingham with all the discussion of race and sex values of the WWII White superiority structure examines what the US did to Japanese Americans in such places as Manzanar, but I can only think that we may not see that discussed at all.)

Getting rid of the Nazi high command (not German, but the Nazi's) would be a service to the world that any time traveller worth hald his salt could be proud of. It would be a blessing for the world. How many died in concentration camps, 11 Million? (The German with the son with the cleft palette sees it cleary-his son will be toast) How many died from Hitlers murderour assault into Russia where the attrocities of the Nazis rival those of the Japanese protrayed in the book.

One thing that is bothersome is that we know that war is black, white and mostly gray. Certainly one can not preach a moral superiority in war. The US killed how many thousands at Hiroshima and Nagasaki? So trying to show righteous indignation over the Japanese attitude to war and not give the US any faults seems to be an imbalance in morality.

What does that have to do with the story...

Everything... The attitudes expressed in all the modern characters doesn't gel because of it. They end up more self righteous then the white naval officers of 1942... Then with the time continuity thrown off and some things so making no sense (If you have a temporal event, great, and if you have it cenered so it is a circle, fine, but then to have everything conform to that circle so the heroes (you know, the US) ends up with the greater amount of power, and the bad guys end up with a little bit, but only because then the circle has to not be a circle, though everything was in the circle... That is a part of physics that doesn't make sense just for a plot device, bad form...) ( )

This, part two of th trilogy, is set some months after the events of part one. Set during World War Two The cultural differences between the Allies and theMultinational taskf orce from our near future stranded there is becomeing more and more apparent to both sided. and social stress is becoming a real problem. Amongst others Hoover of the FBI is gunning for the uptimers.
The plot moves along nicely, there is plenty of action and good background reasearch. Stalin it seems is not happy at the predicted. fall of Communism and the Axis use this to get the Russians to change sides. unsupriseingly the missing ships of the Task force start showing up in the enemies hand.

however the writing does struggles to be competent at times. with poor or hackneyed turns of phrase, for example at one point someone was blown to his feet and The characters continue puppet like to do exactly what John Birmingham tells them. At one point beyond all reason Churchill carefully explains to a group of British officers that the reason Britain must not be occupied by the Germans is because this would deny Americans a foothold in europe! ( )

http://rivkat.livejournal.com/124986.... ( )