Designated Targets

Oct 27, 2024 9:27 PM

Author:John Birmingham

Designated Targets

The Second World War was turned on its head at the moment Admiral Kolhammer’s ultra-modern stealth warships were hurled back through time from 2021. But no one could have predicted just how much of a nightmare would ensue . . .

Only months after the Transition, the great powers scramble to develop the weapons of tomorrow. The year 1942 is now a world of crude jet fighters, monstrous attack helicopters, and unholy dirty bombs — a mongrel technology, born decades prematurely.

Then, in a radical rewriting of history, Japanese forces sweep into Australia, foreign agents begin a campaign of terror in the USA, and Germany prepares for an all-out attack on Britain.

The twenty-first-century forces must resort to the most extreme measures yet and face a future rife with possibilities — all of them apocalyptic . . .

Picking up from where he left off with Weapons of Choice, John Birmingham shocks and awes us with this gripping second instalment in the Axis of Time trilogy.

Reviews

'A gripping account of World War I - from tactics to strategy. The reader feels the horror of the trenches in France'

—— General Tommy Franks (US Army, Ret'd)

'The best novel about the Great War since Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front...compelling, authentic, and imaginative'

—— John Mosier, author of 'The Myth of the Great War'

'A riveting masterpiece revolving around the ghastly conflict that still profoundly defines the world we live in'

—— Steve Forbes

'Shaara has demonstrated that rarest of writing gifts, making literature read like history and history read like literature...he brings World War I to pulsating life'

—— Joseph Persico, author of '11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour: Armistice Day 1918'

'An epic account...a gruesomely graphic portrayal of the brutality and folly of total war...his descriptions of individual combat in the air and the mass slaughter on the ground are stark, vivid and gripping. He also offers compelling portraits of the politicians and generals whose strategies and decisions killed millions and left Europe a discontented wasteland'

—— Publishers Weekly

'Jeff Shaara's To the Last Man lets you live WWI in the air, in the mud, and in the councils of government in a way that makes you understand how the participants experienced it. Von Richtofen, Lufbery, Ludendorff, and Pershing come alive and their collective experience makes you wish you been there to watch it, but glad you didn't!'

—— John S. Grinalds, Major General, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

One of the finest novels of the last forty years

—— Mail on Sunday

This is literature at its very best: a book with the power to reveal the unimagined, so that one's life is set in a changed context. I urge you to read it

—— Time Out

So powerful is this recreated past that you long to call Birdsong perfect

—— The Times

A powerful novel that is difficult to put down

—— Independent on Sunday

My favourite novel of all time because it’s not just the most moving First World War story, it also has a wonderful romance

—— Kate Garraway , Daily Express

It broke my heart.

—— Matthew Lewis , Buzzfeed

Magnificent. A classic that everyone should have read.

—— Sandra Howard , Daily Express

A sweeping historical drama, it’s also erotic, poignant and tear-inducing. I read it and wept buckets. I don’t think anything else Faulks has written before or since surpasses the brilliance of this one.

—— Reading Matters

This is literature at its very best. A book with the power to reveal the unimagined, so that one’s life is set in a changed context. I urge you to read it.

—— Andrew Denham-Davis , DISCUS

While marked by poppy wearing and memorial ceremonies, the First World War is also sustained through family history, handed down from one generation to the next. No book better articulates the impact of this narrative than Stephen Faulks’ Birdsong.

—— Lucy Middleton , Reader's Digest

A truly amazing read

—— Gail Teasdale , 24housing

I’d never read such descriptive literature, and couldn’t sleep at night for thinking about what I’d just read. His [Faulks] portrayal of terror on the battlefield is so powerful

—— Anna Redman , Good Housekeeping

My all-time favourite book

—— Kate Garraway , Good Housekeeping

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