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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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1634: The Baltic War
Review by James Brooks
Well, the series loved my many and hated by some is on the verge of releasing the latest installment of the 163x series, 1634: The Baltic War. Though the book isn't scheduled for final release until May, eARCs (electronic Advance Reader Copies) are available at http://www.webscriptions.net.Before I talk about the good and bad elements, let me give you an overview. Basically, the book continues the story of Grantville, a small town from West Virginia, thrown back in time to the middle of the Thirty Years' War. It's now three years since Grantville was transported, and the Swedish-led state built around the new town is facing a tumultuous series of battles against its multifarious enemies, the League of Ostend, an alliance of Spain, France, England, and Denmark. The book deals primarily with events along the Baltic coast, where the new American-built ironclads put to sea, have to run a gauntlet of fire, and eventually engage the Danish fleets that disrupt traffic between Sweden and Germany. As you might expect, there's plenty of action, and readers who have been disappointed with the lack of explosions in the last few installments of the series may be pleasantly surprised. So let's get into the good and bad. The Good: It's action-packed, and for people who tired of the small-town feel of The Ram Rebellion and most of the Grantville Gazette stories, that may be a welcome change. It's written by Eric Flint, so the writing is on the whole better than in any of the fan-written works. It's fast-paced, and gives an excellent overview of almost everything going on in northern Europe during this time. It flows quickly and is a quick read -- I was able to finish it in approximately 7 hours of reading, but I'm a fairly fast reader. It provides a lot of detail for people new to the series, and for people who have read everything written in the 163x series, it's definitely recommended. Easily the third-best book in the entire series, if not second. The Bad: If anything, the story may move too quickly. There are (at last count) four main plots, and numerous minor ones working in the book. New readers will be thoroughly confused, and you almost have to have read previous books to fully understand what's going on. Because of the many plots, each plotline gets a somewhat light treatment. There's not enough fleshing out of the various plots taking place. If you understand that this book is only one part of a whole series, it makes more sense, but it's still somewhat annoying. There was originally supposed to be a separate book dealing with the events in the Tower of London and the people imprisoned there, but that plot was folded into this book. I think it was a mistake to do so -- it crowds this book and makes you hurry through that story, which really deserves its own book. Another complaint is that it wraps things up too easily. The main plots -- that of Denmark, England, and France, are largely wrapped up at the end of this book, and I got the sense that Eric Flint seemed to be tiring of the whole thing. He seems to be simply setting the stage for the fan-written associate books to continue the Italian, Bavarian, and other plot lines without his assistance. Given that he's probably been consumed with this story for almost a decade now, it's understandable, but doesn't increase my enjoyment of this particular book. One final problem, though minor at this point, is that Flint seems to be falling into the Turtledovian trap of repeating dialogue and description. At points in the story, I had the feeling that I had read a particular line before. I would look back at previous chapters (Thank God for the search function) and find the same words or almost the same words having been in another section. Now, some of this may be due to the fact that the eARCs haven't been fully edited yet. But I fear that some of it is the fact that Flint doesn't seem to be trying as hard with this story as he did with 1632 and 1633. If that's the case, I almost hope that he leaves future books in the hands of his associate writers. Conclusion Overall, I thought the book was worth the $15 I spent for the eARC. I've followed the 163x series for a long time now, and have written pretty much everything in it. This book falls somewhere in the middle. It's worse than either 1633 and perhaps 1632, but better than any of the works that have been written by associate writers. If you read 1632 and 1633 and liked them, I'd recommend checking this out. Even if you didn't like the other 1634 books or the Gazettes, I still recommend this book. It's got more action and is generally more fast-paced, with less historical description. If, however, you haven't read any of the 163x books yet, I wouldn't recommend starting with this one. 1632, 1633, and the first Grantville Gazette are available free, however (http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm), so if you read those and find them to your liking, this should be the next book in the series that you read. If you're sitting on the fence about this series, or if you enjoy the books, I do recommend picking this installment up when the budget allows. It's not a must-buy, but you probably won't regret buying it. If you're not a fan of the series, wait until it's on sale. Even then, there's enough action and explosions to make it worth your while.
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