Final Impact

Everything that I thought was weak in the 2nd book was magnified in this book. Too many things going on in too many different places, with confusing jumps in timeline. I felt the characterization was weaker than the other two books, in part because of all the action Birmingham tried to get through. I got the sense that for the author, the characters were not people in their own rights but plot points to hinge the story on -- a very weak writing tool that leaves me feeling ultimately very unsatisfied.

One thing I *did* like was the ending, oddly, as many had complained about the multiple loose ends. I thought that it was very indicative of the journey and the role of the characters - they were pulled out of their own time in which they show more had been fighting a war that has gone on for 20 years, with no end in sight. They landed in the middle of another war, and even at its end, their job was still not done.

Overall, I'm glad I read this series. It was a very unique premise that could have been done better, but still told an adequate story. I think the series could have been much stronger if it had been three books longer. There were things that happened off-screen in-between books that really should have been explored in the prose, and many events that would have had a more meaningful impact if they had been fleshed out more. show less

Not spoiler free.

If you've continued this far you'll be happy to know that JB has cheerfully and ruthlessly not deviated from his mission of messing with your expectations, as the end of this trilogy has produced a world much uglier then what was actually experienced. Multiple nuclear weapons have been used, Hitler & Stalin have behaved in an even more beastly fashion then they did in real life, and World War III seems scheduled to begin in 1950.

My main question at the end of the second book was just how Birmingham was going to wrap up World War II as a trilogy. The answer is to skip 1943 and end the war in 1944! This means that many stories that looked imperative in the second book are merely backstory here, and which ones I'm not show more going to give away.

All in all, this is one of the best alternate history series I've ever read and I look forward to seeing what Birmingham does next with his characters; be it prequel or sequel. show less

#3 of 3 all read within a couple of weeks on Kindle. Our multiple 21st century heroes continue to fight WWII as the story line diverges from the baseline truth. The characters also develop private lives and emerge as their own persons. Conflicts continue between historical and fictional characters and WWII ends in a slightly different way. I sure wish that the author had written another installment.

In this third instalment, things finally come to a climax. The Russians under Stalin have been busy and want to avoid the mistakes of the alternate history. That they are the first in this world to develop nuclear weapons seems to put them in the catbird seat. The American admiral from the future recognizes the Soviets as an even bigger threat than the Nazis and Japanese but passions are so inflamed over the latter that his warnings are not taken seriously until too late. The uptimers are in conflict with the downtimers (who appreciate the toys but don't want to play by "modern" rules) and it is a wonder that anybody really has time to fight a world war.

In the first two volumes, Birmingham did a good job of setting up conflicts and show more situations that the reader would reasonably expect to be solved by the third volume. They were but they were not done so in a particularly pleasing manner. What seemed like major story lines are solved with hardly a whimper and the war itself is ended almost on a note of anticlimax.

Having read the first two, this one was certainly worth the effort to finish but it could have been more. The story ends with the possibility of further sequels but now I am unsure if I would want to invest time in them.

Did I like the book? Yes. Was I let down by the ending? Yes. show less

Apart from the fact that there would appear to be a book missing here, this final installment in the Axis of Time series is as action packed as it's predecessors.

The action starts a couple of years after the last book finishes, with the allies commencing operation Overlord, striking at the Pas de Calais as the German forces already know that they should be invading in Normandy. The action sequences are all that you could ask for with that strange mixture of modern and past technologies that make you blink. However, there has been definite developments in our cast of characters that would make it appear as if there is a missing book between Designated Targets and Final Impact - it's almost as if Mr Birmingham realised he could easily show more have had another book between the two, but was, for whatever reason, constrained to limit the series to a proper trilogy (not like Douglas Adams's trilogy in five parts :-)). show less

#3 of 3 all read within a couple of weeks on Kindle. Our multiple 21st century heroes continue to fight WWII as the story line diverges from the baseline truth. The characters also develop private lives and emerge as their own persons. Conflicts continue between historical and fictional characters and WWII ends in a slightly different way. I sure wish that the author had written another installment.