Customer Reviews
Dissappoining part two of 1633 - By: Michael A., 16 Nov 2008 
I am a big fan of David Weber & 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 & women sacrifice themselves for King & 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 yearsin 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 workin Africa or Asia.
Unfortunately, even if one suspends disbelief, the book fails to impress. Both Weber & Flint tend to write a particular type of story, & 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 & a majority of the 1000 pagesin the book is spent on characters lecturing one another & contemplation of the situationin 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 - & 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 actionin the Tower of London storyline is fine, but there is never any feeling that the protagonists arein any real danger, & for a book that revolves much around the political, the motives of Stearns are surprisingly selfish. The romantic Danish storyline contained no romance & the willingness of supposedly political master-mind Stearns & Admiral Simpson to precipitate a major political crisis to save Eddie Cantrell is just unbelievable. The other romantic story-linein 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 weaknessin 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 jarringin the "good" guys utilization of the Brownshirt-like Committee of Correspondence.
This book is essentially the conclusion of 1633; & to its credit it ties up most of the loose end from that story. Sadly, the most interesting story linesin 1634 are the one's that are left open-ended: the future of Oliver Cromwell & Turenne are left for future booksin the series. While the story contains occasional flashes of the brilliance that made 1632 an interesting read & 1633 tolerable, 1634 book is a disappointing addition to the series.
Battles and Betrothals all round! - By: Mr. B. Troke, 07 Sep 2007 
First let me say that this is a good book, even a very good book. It's full of action, plot & character development & 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, & its predecessor is the nature of Oliver Cromwell depicted within. The recurring theme has been that many view him as a religious fanatic & thus find his inclusion & demeanour quite uncharacteristicin their eyes. However I would argue that Eric Flint & David Weber merely agree with the interpretation of Cromwell favoured by most historians not of a highly reactionary & right wing background. That whilst he was a deeply religious man, even to the point of zealotry, he was notin fact whooly defined by this, & wasin 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 tamein comparison, & one ever at odds with his own interpretation of providence. Nowin my opinion Flint & Weber hint at this, showingin Cromwells brief appearances his ingrained background as a member of the minor gentry (courteous, educated & polite), yet also showing how he is wrestling with his horrific treatment & lossin relation to God & providence. It will be interesting to see how they develop him further, & how he reacts to the American up-timers social-liberalism & importantly their own views on religion whichin 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 Catholicsin London to freely use the embassy chapels of the Catholic powers.)
Anyway, enough of that,in closing its a very good book.
Not Invented here - By: Mr. M. J. Casson, 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 placein 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, butin general service with the Prussian Army decades before the Sharps, & 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 & 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 & poorly educated what does this say about West Virginia making up the largest proportion)
