The Thirty Years War continues to ravage 17th century Europe, but a new force is gathering power and influence: the Confederated Principalities of Europe, an alliance between Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians from the 20th century led by Mike Stearns who were hurled centuries into the past by a mysterious cosmic accident.
While the old entrenched rulers and manipulators continue to plot against this new upstart nation, everyday life goes on in Grantville, the town lost in time, with librarians, firefighters, and garbage collectors trying to make do under unusual circumstances. And what better place for an undercover spy from France than working with the garbage collectors, examining 20th century machines that others throw out and copying the technology (though he wishes one device—the paper shredder—had been left behind in the future).
There are more sinister agents at work, however. One of them, Ducos, almost succeeded in assassinating the Pope, but his plan was ruined by quick action by a few Americans. Now, the would-be assassin not only has a score to settle, but has also decided on two excellent targets: Grantville's leader Mike Stearns and his wife Rebecca. . . .
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Product ReviewPage after page of "meanwhile back at the ranch." I'm sorry but this sort of thing needs to be confined to the Gazette and not to novels. We don't care about all that behind the scenes junk when we're sitting down to read a novel in the series. We want to know what happens next and how the plot of the overall series moves forward. I kept jumping over bits to see if anything momentous was about to happen and found I had to just go back and plod along as best I could. The politics didn't really make sense to me either.
If you've read the series and the magazines, then you probably need to read this in case material from it gets used in future books but, if you're a newcomer to the series, don't make this your first read under any circumstances because you won't really get a good idea of how good the series is.Posted on
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Product ReviewAs far as Virginia DeMarce and Eric Flint books go this wasn't bad. It sure is better then the Ram Rebelion. Of course, when you read it, it's glaringly obvious which parts are written by Eric and which are by Virginia. But I think that both Virginia's writing style and Eric and Virginia's cooperation are getting better. It's still not as good as Eric's books with Andrew Dennis and David Weber. But it's not bad, a bit soap-operish, but that's to be expected that's what Virginia DeMarce always writes.
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Product Reviewa big disappointment. not even close to the usual quality of the assitti shard books.
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Product ReviewThe 1632 novels are the meat and potatoes of the 1632 universe or alti-verse, however the latest contribution to the series is more like trail mix than a substantive meal. 1635: The Dreeson Incident has some nuggets of meat but the majority is the dross that is tossed aside when panning for gold, it is the substance that I've come to expect in the Grantville Gazette's a lot of personal relation ships and story's that could have and should have been left to that medium. I've (probably foolishly given this release) come to expect the 16xx books to have major character and historic events continued and expanded upon, not a bunch of personal and unimportant character development and events in there lives that is best left to the gazettes as filler for behind the curtain information to the main story. This book was a disappointment as far as continuing Major events.
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Product ReviewI read the ARC over the weekend. I enjoyed some, probably most, chapters, but the book as a whole left me feeling a bit let down.
The CoC action against anti-Semites and witch hunters should've been a book in its own right but gets written almost as a foot note. It's an earthshaking event that somehow becomes an afterthought to the election. The Nathan Prickett approach to marriage (1) simply makes no sense and (2) doesn't really seem to be part of the main plot at all. (3) What did happen with Christian of Denmark and Princess Kristina and their double medal ceremony? (4) I really am unsure who was working for Ducos and who was working for de Rohan and why Dumais gets off scot-free after organising a conspiracy tat leads to the death of Henry Dreeson. (4) I have no idea why anyone felt the need to conceal how Holloway died. He was a criminal fugitive. He opened fire on civilians. The civilians acted in self-defence. Construing that fact situation as anywhere near manslaughter is an absurdity.
The political science underlying the book is incomprehensible. Mike Stearns decides the election date. Gustavus Adolphus decides whether or not to go to war with Saxony. One assumes the Crown Loyalist parliament is unlikely to confirm Our Mike as a general, so apparently that's exclusively in the emperor's gift. This means Gustavus Adolphus is Elizabeth II (actually even less powerful than Elizabeth II) wen it comes to elections and the prime minister, but in matters of foreign policy and war Gustavus Adolphus is more powerful than Bismarck or Wilhelm II. And just for the record, when Tony Blair became prime minister he did not hold a giant party in Buckingham Palace. The German middle class and peasantry (1) elect a Crown Loyalist parliament because that's what their betters tell them to do and then (2) sit on their hands while their betters are slaughtered by the CoC in places like Mecklenberg. And to cap it all, Our Mike more or less arranges his own defeat by postponing the election in order to achieve the supremely important goal of not having to enter a coalition, even though h's entered a coalition in SoTG with the Rams.
As with most books in the 1632verse this was fun to read, but afterwards when you think about the plot you start to notice rather large holes. I hope some day the authors re-issue it as 2 books with proper weight given to the CoC insurrection.Posted on