Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Battles and Betrothals all round!, 7 Sep 2007
First let me say that this is a good book, even a very good book. It's full of action, plot and character development and does a nice job of propelling the Ring of Fire story forward whilst opening up an already engrossing world even further with more possibilities. In parts it is damn well near impossible to put down as the suspense build momentum towards the end of the novel.
One of the things I've noticed mentioned about this book, and its predecessor is the nature of Oliver Cromwell depicted within. The recurring theme has been that many view him as a religious fanatic and thus find his inclusion and demeanour quite uncharacteristic in their eyes. However I would argue that Eric Flint and David Weber merely agree with the interpretation of Cromwell favoured by most historians not of a highly reactionary and right wing background. That whilst he was a deeply religious man, even to the point of zealotry, he was not in fact whooly defined by this, and was in fact a deeply complex figure wracked by his own deeply inherent social-conservatism which was at odds with his later religious radicalism. A radicalism which by our own standards would seem tame in comparison, and one ever at odds with his own interpretation of providence. Now in my opinion Flint and Weber hint at this, showing in Cromwells brief appearances his ingrained background as a member of the minor gentry (courteous, educated and polite), yet also showing how he is wrestling with his horrific treatment and loss in relation to God and providence. It will be interesting to see how they develop him further, and how he reacts to the American up-timers social-liberalism and importantly their own views on religion which in certain respects were no different from his own (As Lord Protector he maintained an informal freedom of religion so long as it did not hurt the country, as evidenced by the fact that he allowed Catholics in London to freely use the embassy chapels of the Catholic powers.)
Anyway, enough of that, in closing its a very good book.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dissappoining part two of 1633, 16 Nov 2008
I am a big fan of David Weber and have enjoyed a lot of Eric Flint's writing, which makes it all the more puzzling that I find their collaboration such tepid fare. Perhaps the problem is that they are just too similar as authors; both are at their best when writing about the bullets/cannon-balls/missiles flying while men and women sacrifice themselves for King and Country. Unfortunately, 1634: The Baltic War contains very little of that. Instead we get a book describing the politics of the north-western portion of the 1632 world.
I hugely enjoyed 1632 as a book; it was a fun, rah-rah Americans-travel-back-in-time to rip things up romp through alternate history. By this book, however, the premise of the setting has stretched to breaking point. The idea that 3000 people with technology from today could - in two years accelerate progress that took 250 years in reality is - to put it mildly - utterly ludicrous. Quite apart from the technological difficulties (solved every time thanks to Grantville essentially possessing a super-expert for every pertinent job), the societal difficulties would be insurmountable. I would recommend anyone who thinks otherwise, to volunteer for some down-to-earth aid work in Africa or Asia.
Unfortunately, even if one suspends disbelief, the book fails to impress. Both Weber and Flint tend to write a particular type of story, and the pattern (outnumbered but technologically superior forces defeating surprisingly competent leaders for an incompetent government) will be quite familiar to any reader of Weber. This time, the formula fails.
The story is split up into multiple sub-plots and a majority of the 1000 pages in the book is spent on characters lecturing one another and contemplation of the situation in order to bring the reader up to date on the "history" of the book. There are lots of passages where the "down-timers" use "amusing" Americanisms (clearly highlighted, so that the reader knows it). After several hundreds of pages of this, however, the Americanisms get old - and it would be more interesting to be told why we should care about the actions of the characters, than yet another passage demonstrating the impressive historical research of the authors.
The action in the Tower of London storyline is fine, but there is never any feeling that the protagonists are in any real danger, and for a book that revolves much around the political, the motives of Stearns are surprisingly selfish. The romantic Danish storyline contained no romance and the willingness of supposedly political master-mind Stearns and Admiral Simpson to precipitate a major political crisis to save Eddie Cantrell is just unbelievable. The other romantic story-line in the book seemed to exist solely to make a Narnia joke. The most interesting storylines, in fact, are the ones involving non-Grantville characters.
Much of that time, unfortunately, spent contemplating how brilliant the Grantville characters are. This returns to a common weakness in much of Flint's writings were the "good" guys can do no wrong while the "bad" guys are either incompetent or intensely admire the "good" guys. This becomes particularly jarring in the "good" guys utilization of the Brownshirt-like Committee of Correspondence.
This book is essentially the conclusion of 1633; and to its credit it ties up most of the loose end from that story. Sadly, the most interesting story lines in 1634 are the one's that are left open-ended: the future of Oliver Cromwell and Turenne are left for future books in the series. While the story contains occasional flashes of the brilliance that made 1632 an interesting read and 1633 tolerable, 1634 book is a disappointing addition to the series.
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5 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Invented here, 10 Jun 2007
Yet again Mr Flint shines through with the classic American "Not Invented Here" Syndrome (And don't get me started on his "Playing Fields of Eton" Diatribe.)*
Anyway back to this book, I suppose it was a faint hope but given that the story does take place in Germany someone, somewhere might come up with the idea for making a copy of the Dreyse Needle Gun. Not only the worlds first production Bolt-action Rifle, but in general service with the Prussian Army decades before the Sharps, and anyway a superior design, with the percussion cap contained within the cartridge.
I am not saying that this is not a good book, which it is, but perhaps someone should take their head out of their apple pie and exchange their colt 45 for a walther ppk
P.s Oliver Cromwell was a religious zealot - jut think about it.
*(Well the punchline is that people with glass armies shouldn't throw stones, Mr Flint should reflect on the US Army's manpower allocations, since during WWII the us infantry consisted largely of the least fit and poorly educated what does this say about West Virginia making up the largest proportion)
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