Rating: 
Summary: Most Enjoyable
Review: Being an Aussie I'm probably a little bit biased but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The only problem that I have with it is that its a big call to say that the allied fleet would appear right in the middle of the Midway task force, its a big ocean but hey, it had to appear somewhere I guess and it made for a ripping story. I can't wait for the next in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Make Weapons of Choice your book of choice
Review: Finally got to read some over Christmas. I was a huge SF fan when younger and can honestly say not since the first Riverworld book "too your scattered bodies go" by Philip Jose Farmer has a book grabbed me and caused me to have to read every minute i had spare. I will not bore you with detailed reviews other than to say this is very well written, crisp, tight prose, great concepts, minute ideas and inventions thought of, right down to the brief yet shocking history of Pres Clinton. What can i say, if you like SF, AH, or a good action/war yarn this should appeal to all......i loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not all technology, has people stuff in shades of gray!!!
Review: I picked this up thinking it would be another "Boys Own" alternative history fantasy that operated at a "candy floss for the male techno mind" level - which I enjoy as pure escapism.
However, it turned out to be both techno stuff and social collisions, which is unusual for this genre.
Reading all the reviews here helped as I now agree the author is pointing out that both 2020 and 1940s mindsets have their +s and -s (he has kept in mind the quote "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there", L.P. Hartley).
In the end I was reading more for the social collisions and less for the technology stuff.
As regards the complaints about such things as the aircraft carried named "Hilary Clinton", the author is Australian and indulging in irony which can be,according to author Bill Bryson, confusing to North Americans (PS good to see the author contributed a "review" as well!).
I gave this 3 stars as I want to see how the rest of the series works out and if the author can sustain the good beginning.
Rating:
Summary: VERY good novel of this type
Review: I'm a fan of books like Eric Flint's 1632 as well as Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series and Stirling's Nantucket trilogy. This new novel by Birmingham is definitely among the better books of this type of alternate history/time travel. Yes, there are superficial strains of The Final Countdown in the story, but the consequences are carried much further.The character interaction is very good in this novel. The "feel" of the fictional and factual characters from 1942 and their attitudes towards war, society and ethnicity is extremely authentic. I want to stress there is nothing 'politically correct' about this book, and no 1980's Very Special TV Episode-style moments. Everything unfolds organically, realistically and in a way that will keep you interested. The previous poster mentioned something about 2021 society being an extension from 2004. I think this is part of why I enjoyed reading the book so much. One can project oneself onto the future Americans since they seem very similar to Americans today. Along that line, there are two events in this book regarding allied operations towards the Japanese that will immediately ring a bell and make this future-past fantasy resonate with the present. I won't give them away, but think about the very emotional response of today's US public towards the rescue of PFC Jessica Lynch (a single prisoner!), and the current controversy over Geneva Convention interpretation and the treatment of POWs/"detainees", particularly those who you know are guilty of very heinous, inhumane behavior. I don't know if the author intended to produce this sort of reaction in me, but it certainly was a good way for me to grasp the effects of the War on Terrorism on these 2021 Americans, compared & contrasted to the state of mind of our 1942 counterparts. There is the requisite technogeek wish-fulfillment when future tech is used against 1942 tech, but this book is so much more than that. There are some potential problems in projected plot from the end of this first part of a trilogy. For example, it's not clear how the author will keep up dramatic tension since it looks like the Axis will have a hard time of it, even with the "help" they've gotten. Since I've read books with worse contrivances and enjoyed them anyway (advanced space lizards who are damn near learning disabled anyone?), I am certainly willing to await future novels before judging this. In short, if you liked any of the books of this genre such as those listed above, you should definitely try this one out, and this book could well be enjoyed by non geeks as well, due to the issues about society the book raises.
Rating:
Summary: great new entry into the alternate-timeline genre
Review: I'm embarrassed to say that I picked up this book only because I noticed the tagline, "World War II - with an astonishing twist." Since the book was in the sci-fi section of the bookstore, I guessed it was an alternate-history type of book. However, I was so engrossed in the story that I ended up spending an hour and a half reading through the first 250 pages of the book at the bookstore, and I eventually bought it (partially influenced out of guilt, hehe). The book extends the current "war on terrorism" into 2021, then takes a task force of that violent, future time and drops them into 1942. The imagination of the author far outstrips anything like the movie "The Final Countdown". Imagine what would happen if laser-guided, wide-area cluster munitions were unleashed upon early 20th-century fortifications, supported by attack helicopters and other combined arms. It's simultaneously frightening and compelling. Add to that a comparison of the social conditions of the 1940s with the multinational, multiethnic cultures of the 21st century, and you get an excellent book. I can't wait for the next one in the trilogy!
Rating: 
Summary: Promising start
Review: It didn't engross me as much as it did other reviewers; I bought the book a month ago and am still working through it; and I am a fast reader, would have finished it in a couple days if it grabbed me enough. However, it is a good book, and while I have not finished it yet, I am willing to check out the other books in the series when they come out. The book is pretty well researched and realistic, but the beginning has a bit too many characters and it takes a while for them to fall into place. I agree with one reviewer who said that the initial battle scene went on too long, I think that that was a factor in my not getting into the book as much.
All in all, I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes revisionist "what-if" fiction, it is a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Great Idea and Great Book
Review: It is one of the best alternate history novels i have ever read. I can not wait for book two to find out what happens. if the russians switch sides or not and if 1942 america can change its toon to cope with the multinational force.
Rating:
Summary: Potentially a Hugo winning series.
Review: Its books like this that make me think the Hugo awards should have a catagory for series. I won't know if this book deserves to be nominated for best novel until I see the second and third books. And its too late to nominate it then since it will no longer be eligable. Here's why I think this author may be doing something very important. He may be telling the story of what 20 years of the War on Terrorism does to our world. This novel is structured as a straight forward alternate history. What happens when a 21st century naval task force is transported back to 1942 in the pacific. But the meat of the story is the way mid 20th century Americans react to their 80 years later countrymen and allies and vice versa. Those Americans are not the same as us here in 2004. They are what we may become after 17 more years of an irregular war. I didn't catch this right away, it crept up on me. And I'm not sure if is an intentional story telling device. But, if this is indeed where the author is going then I can only compare him to C. J. Cherryh. Another writer who doesn't cut the reader any slack and tells an exacting and exiting story because of it. We may have the real deal here. I'm reccomending this to my friends and crossing my fingures that the next book doesn't descend into a generic thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing and Entertaining!
Review: Like other reviewers, I sped through the book in two days and can't wait for the rest of the trilogy! Not a perfect read: a few questionable plot twists and shallow/stereotypical character development. But these are quibbles. There's more than enough action, suspense, humor and fascinating human interaction to make it thoroughly enjoyable. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: An imaginative time-travel story
Review: Okay, let's start with the obvious: this is a fantasy story, not a science fiction story. In a science fiction story, real science is an integral part of the story. Real science has no connection to moving a fleet decades backwards in time. Nor is it supposed to, nor does it have to.
This book is very well written. I liked the opening scenes, where it slowly dawns on the leaders of the 1942 fleet that the newcomers have awesome weapons and are good shots. The author draws these scenes out to explain the confusion on both sides that becomes central to the rest of the book. The depiction of the contrast between the two worlds is great. Ask some people in their seventies about the America of their childhoods if you don't believe it.
More than that, I like the situation it poses: what would folks do if they were in the middle of a war and some newcomers showed up from several decades into the future? Not just one person that no one would hear about, let alone believe. But quite a few of them! The author showed plenty of imagination to come up with this plot, and I can't wait for the next book.
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