5 Stars
Eric Flint's "1632" begins with the small mining town of Grantville being ripped from modern-day West Virginia and dropped in the middle of Germany, in the year 1631. 'How?' you ask? Who cares? Flint gives some far-future science fiction explanation. Most of the town's residents conclude that the 'Ring of Fire' is simply an Act of God.
But the question of how Grantville comes to seventeenth century Germany is not important. All that matters is what happens once the heavily armed town finds itself thirteen years into the Thirty Years' War, one of the most destructive religious conflicts in the history of Europe. Surrounded on all sides by hostile countries and marauding armies, mere survival is the town's chief concern. Grantville's modern weapons might be -- barely -- sufficient to hold off the ragtag bands of looters and mercenaries roaming the countryside. But if one of the major powers striving for supremacy over Central Europe decides to crush the town, Grantville will not be able to resist them on its own.
So the residents of Grantville decide to fight fire with fire and kick off the American Revolution a century and a half ahead of schedule. Grantville's only hope of survival lies in finding allies willing to tolerate democracy and religious pluralism, while at the same time recruiting those of their new neighbors who are sick and tired of being slaughtered by their aristocrats or for their religion. The early seventeenth century, with (on the one hand) feudalism and religion discredited by bloody warfare, persecution and oppression and (on the other) modern theories of representative government and rule of law just beginning to rear their heads, offers the slim possibility that Grantville will be able to pull through.
All this makes for a fast-paced and highly entertaining story. Flint, before this book best known for military science fiction, spends a lot of time on battle scenes, but still tries to focus on the power of ideas and ordinary people to change the world. Character development is better than normal for the genre, though still not great. Some characters, especially the sinister industrialist Tom Simpson, remain one-dimensional. Flint, who got a Master's Degree in African history before spurning the ivory tower to go into union organizing, often interrupts the narrative with brief history lessons, which I personally found interesting.
Although "1632" was originally written as a stand-alone novel, it was so popular that Flint was convinced to expand the story into a full-blown alternate history series, which continues in "1633" (coauthored with David Weber) and the "Ring of Fire" anthology. This means that even though there are more volumes for those who enjoy "1632," this book still comes to a satisfying conclusion and can be read on its own, without commitment to the larger series. Those who are still uncertain should know that Baen offers the book for free on its Web site, so the curious can check it out. There's really no reason not to.
(8 June 2004)
