1632
Eric Flint
608 pages
published in 2000

I wanted to read this book because it has the same central concept as the Island in the Sea of Time series by S. M. Stirling. As well as because I was curious what kind of writer Eric Flint really was. He had been around rec.arts.sf.written for a while, somewhat bellicose and abrasive, especially on the topics of editing and writing novels. He seemed to think his credentials as a published writer and editor automatically meant he was in the right. (to be fair, he often is.)

Now I have to praise Flint for at least one thing, because he is the driving force behind the Baen Free Library. Baen had already published online versions of their books via their webscriptions, but this time they provided them for free. A sort of sample of the books they publish. And amongst the books on offer was 1632.

The central concept of 1632 as I said is the same as that of S. M. Stirling's series: a small US community gets thrown back into time for some unexplainable reason and has to survive in a hostile world. The difference lies in that this time, the community is a West Virginian mining town, instead of the yankee island of Nantucket and the time they're thrown back to is historical instead of prehistorical: 1632 Germany, right in the middle of the Thirty Years War.

But apart from that, there's also a big difference in focus. Where Stirling gave equal time to other concerns beside warfare in at least the first of his Island books, Flint chose to almost exclusively write about the war for survival Grantville has to fight. When other concerns crop up, like determining the political structure of Grantville, these are quickly and perfunctorily dealt with. 1632 is pure mil-sf, which means the main plotline is the series of ever bigger battles Grantville has to fight to survive.

This is not necessarily a bad thing of course, but I do feel this has warped the book too much. Few of the various characters struck me as much more then a somewhat fleshed out stereotype. There's Mike Spearn, the popular but modest leader, Rebecca Abrabanel, the love interest and her father, who for 17th century Jews of Spanish descent seem to be awfully close to 20th sentiments, there are the villains, who practically sneer their way through the pages. The one character that really convinced me was Gustav Adolf, who is plucked straight out of history and in one of the chapters dealing exclusively with him, Eric Flint almost becomes lyrical when writing about Adolf's greatest battle.

Apart from the characters, what irked me the most about the book is the simplifications of history. All the good, Grantville supporting historical characters seem to be 20th century people in drag, calmly accepting Grantville morals and attitudes towards religion and women frex. There's no sense of the very important role religion played in almost everybody's life. These were people fighting decades long wars about their religions, but here they seem to have no more religious feeling then your average Unitarian. Not to mention the way in which the Catholics are portrayed as the bad guys, almost solely responsible for the whole Thirty Years War, which is just plain wrong. Or the "Rah rah America" tone of the book, with the backward Europeans being shown the One True American Way of Truth, Justice and Democracy...

But this doesn't mean 1632 is a bad book or has no redeeming features. If you like mil-sf, you will find this a rollicking, fast and fun read. But first you have to turn your brain off.

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