1632
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1632
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1632
by
Eric Flint
In Flint's novel of time travel and alternate history, a six-mile square of West Virginia is tossed back in time and space to Germany in 1632, at the height of the barbaric and devastating Thirty Years' War. Repelling marauding mercenaries and housing German refugees are only the first of many problems the citizens of the tiny new U.S. face, problems including determining who shall be a citizen. In between action scenes and descriptions of technological military hardware, Flint handles that problem and other serious ethical questions seriously and offers a double handful of memorable characters: a Sephardic Jewish family that establishes commercial and marital ties with the Americans, a cheerleader captain turned lethal master sniper, a schoolteacher and an African American doctor who provide indispensable common sense and skill, a German refugee who is her family's sole protector, and, not least, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. |
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1633
by
Eric Flint
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David Weber
Veterans of Flint's 1632 will see its strengths in its sequel right from the beginning, in which Rebecca Sterns charms Cardinal Richelieu with the gift of a Siamese kitten. The same formidable historiography, wit, balance (there are few stupid bad guys--well, England's Charles I), intelligently ferocious women, and mouth-watering displays of alternate technology are again on view in the context of showing a time-displaced U.S. fighting to survive. Being a democracy trying to spread the concept when half your allies and most of your enemies are monarchies, and even the allies look askance at freedom of religion, can be ulcer-producing. Once the princely counteroffensive is well begun, though, even former crabbed elitist James Simpson's naval background can be relied on. What wonders an Annapolis grad, a German mercenary in an ultralight, and volunteers with speedboats and limpet mines can perform against opponents who have barely imagined such things! If it takes too many pages for some, others will turn every one and cry for more, which the authors intend to provide. |
