Towards Mecca » Book(s) review: Eric Flint’s 1632

I wanted to share with you this series of books I’ve been devouring for the last year or so. It’ll seem like I’ll be revealing some spoilers here but that’s not the case.

1632 by author Eric Flint is the first book in an expending series known as the Ring of Fire. It’s a feast for history and technical buffs. To make the introduction short, it’s about a small (about 2000 souls) West-Virginian town being thrown back from the year 2000 to the middle of the Holy Roman Empire (Germanies) smack in the middle of the Thirty Years War.

For those who lack background in this war, it was a turning point in Europe. Its conclusion, the Peace of Westphalia, was the cornerstone of the balance of power in Europe up to World War I.

At first I was skeptic about the presentation: I was afraid it would end up with a gang of rednecks imposing the ‘American Ways’ to a powerless Europe. How wrong I was

!Flint’s rendition of the 1630’s Europeans is realistic and historically accurate. The first military contact of the Americans with their new reality is decisive against 17th century soldiers but Europe quickly figures out those ‘Up-Timers’ are only very good mechanics, scientist and engineer. Although they acknowledge the Americans technical superiority they never consider as gods and are fully aware of their limitations due to their extremely limited manpower.

From there the story weaves itself around diplomatic, religious, sociological, technical, artistically, medical, psychological and many other subjects. Hundreds of different characters, both historical and fictional, walk the halls of those epic tales. You end up seeing the events from the point of view of the powerful such as the Cardinal Richelieu and Oliver Cromwell, the artists such as Rubens (‘alternate’ paintings of Rubens and other artists of the time are often used as book covers), to the lowly peasants and merchants of the time.

History buffs’ minds will be blown by the enormity of the future consequences of changes that happens in those books. Since many history books from the Americans found their way into the hands of ‘Down-timers’, many of them take steps to prevent future ‘downturns’ or to change the course of history for themselves, their country, or their family. For examples you can see:

Charles II of England learning about the upcoming English Civil War and taking steps to prevent it by recruiting more mercenaries with French money (see below) and imprisoning future ‘traitors’ such as Cromwell.

The Cardinal Richelieu, realizing the future importance of the North-American continent managing to get England to turn over all their American possessions to France in exchange for a lot of money.

Gustavus II of Sweden surviving the battle he was supposed to be killed in, changing the tide of the Thirty Years War.

Also buffs in nearly all subjects will be delighted to see their subjects of interest being given a clear and realistic depiction.

The survey and exploitation of natural resources like coal, oil and many minerals necessary to the Americans.

Communications through ham radio and the legacy phone system left in town.

Constructions of a military force, including finding and mass producing weapons that can be easily made in that time period (breech loaders are way too hard to mass produce) including some Civil-war alike ironclads.

The creation of a working government, economy, medical and education system.

The deployment of novelties like piano, ballet, and of course televisions/movies to the artistic world of the 17th century.

The revolution in theology with the refutation of witchcraft and the Catholic church facing the conclusion of both Vatican conclaves centuries in advance.

It just never stops because of one very important thing: the Fans.

Indeed Eric Flint has given free reins to the fans of his series to create stories based on the Ring of Fire background. Those he likes the most actually get published and, most importantly, become ‘cannon’. By that I mean that those ‘fan fictions’ become a real part of the story of 1632 and Eric Flint has to take the events in those stories into account in his own (i.e. if someone dies in a ‘cannon’ fan fiction then he cannot use that person in his own story anymore).

Final but important point is the humor. I laughed so hard so many times that my ribs still hurt. The amount of ambiguity that the Ring of Fire brings into history never stops. From the philosopher Hobbes being exposed to his counterpart in Bill Watson’s cartoon Calvin and Hobbes to their new currency showing a painting of Johnny Cash the fun never stops.

If you like history, if you liked other alternate-history series like the Tosev Timeline or the 191 Timeline you want to read this. Please, at least try the first one, I assure you that you’ll get hooked to it in no time.