1632 (The Assiti Shards) [Paperback]

Eric Flint (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Assiti Shards | Publication Date: January 30, 2001

FREEDOM AND JUSTICE -- AMERICAN STYLE

1632 And in northern Germany things couldn't get much worse. Famine. Disease. Religous war laying waste the cities. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy.

2000 Things are going OK in Grantville, West Virginia, and everybody attending the wedding of Mike Stearn's sister (including the entire local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America, which Mike leads) is having a good time.

THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED....

When the dust settles, Mike leads a group of armed miners to find out what happened and finds the road into town is cut, as with a sword. On the other side, a scene out of Hell: a man nailed to a farmhouse door, his wife and daughter attacked by men in steel vests. Faced with this, Mike and his friends don't have to ask who to shoot. At that moment Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the middle of the Thirty Years' War.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

When a cosmic accident transports a West Virginia community back in time and space to 17th-century Thuringia, the citizens of Grantville find themselves thrust into the midst of the bloody and savage conflict that history books would call the Thirty Years War. Surrounded by warring armies and burdened by the prospect of diminishing resources, Grantville residents, under the leadership of a council that includes a union leader, a doctor, and a teacher, proceed to turn their new world upside down, beginning the American Revolution a century and a half before its time. Flint (Mother of Demons) convincingly re-creates the military and political tenor of the times in this imaginative and unabashedly positive approach to alternative history. A solid choice for fantasy collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In Flint's novel of time travel and alternate history, a six-mile square of West Virginia is tossed back in time and space to Germany in 1632, at the height of the barbaric and devastating Thirty Years' War. Repelling marauding mercenaries and housing German refugees are only the first of many problems the citizens of the tiny new U.S. face, problems including determining who shall be a citizen. In between action scenes and descriptions of technological military hardware, Flint handles that problem and other serious ethical questions seriously and offers a double handful of memorable characters: a Sephardic Jewish family that establishes commercial and marital ties with the Americans, a cheerleader captain turned lethal master sniper, a schoolteacher and an African American doctor who provide indispensable common sense and skill, a German refugee who is her family's sole protector, and, not least, King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Not, perhaps, as elegant as some time-traveling alternate histories, Flint's is an intelligent page-turner nevertheless. Roland Green --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Baen (January 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671319728
• ISBN-13: 978-0671319724
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (216 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Flint is the co-author of three New York Times best sellers in his Ring of Fire alternate history series. His first novel for Baen, Mother of Demons, was picked by Science Fiction Chronicle as a best novel of the year. His 1632, which launched the Ring of Fire series, won widespread critical praise, as from Publishers Weekly, which called him an SF author of particular note, one who can entertain and edify in equal, and major, measure. A longtime labor union activist with a Masters Degree in history, he currently resides in northwest Indiana with his wife Lucille.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good "displaced in time" story. Not wonderful, February 27, 2000

By 

M. Broderick "mikebinok" (Oklahoma City, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1632 (Hardcover)

Basically, this book is about a coal-mining town in West Virginia which is mysteriously transported to Germany at the time of the Thirty Years War. This theme has been developed before, going back to Mark Twain (or maybe further). To my knowledge, S.M. Stirling was the first major writer to move a whole community back to another time, with his Nantucket Series, and now Eric Flint seeks to get his version in. I am a fan of this genre, so I expected to enjoy this book, and I did. One way that it is different from most of these stories is that it focuses on the "little people"--The movers and shakers of this book are not professors or military officers or big-time politicians. The hero is a failed boxer who is a minor union official. On the other hand, the book is filled with affectionate praise for King Gustavus Adolphus. Gustavus Adolphus was a real historical figure, and if you don't know who he is, don't worry, you will know when you finish the book! I enjoyed the book, think most who are interested by this idea will enjoy it. Only criticism I have are that too much time is spent with the time travellers offstage, describing the Battle of Breitenfield, a real historical battle. Some may be disappointed that a minimum of time is spent describing clever technological improvisations--These seem to be a staple of this genre, but there isn't much of it here. If you enjoyed this book, I'd look up H. Beam Piper's LORD KALVAN OF OTHERWHEN, S.M. Stirling's ISLAND IN THE SEA OF TIME, and L. Sprague deCamp's LEST DARKNESS FALL.

52 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First-Rate!, January 22, 2000

By 

S. M Stirling "Steve" (Santa Fe, NM United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1632 (Hardcover)

I love time-travel stories... particularly when they're done well. In "1632" Eric Flint shows solid research, believable characters and gripping action, all combining in a tasty stew. He makes his people -- both 21st-century West Virginians and 17th-century Germans -- live and breathe. The plight of the castaways will keep you glued to the page, and the action will bring you to the edge of your seat. Bravo! Buy this book!

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine example of a venerable plot device, February 6, 2000

By 

C. S. Schofield "The Crank" (Frenchtown, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 1632 (Hardcover)

Time travel stories have been a staple of Science Fiction essentially forever. The plot device of a modern man displaced into a historical era is a popular one, and traces its immediate lineage to Mark Twain's A CONNETICUTT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT. While always great fun these stories tend to push the bounds of credulity when it come to the introduction of modern technology, and they frequently fall apart toward the end for that reason. 1632 manages to remain faintly plausable throughout. Just how historically reasonable its plot may be is open to question, but it manages not to jar the reader too badly while he is engrossed in the tale. The characters are mostly well drawn, with the exception of one cardboard cut-out whose presence does not materially detract from the book. the action is brisk and (at least to my non-military eye) believable in context. Most importantly the book is just plain fun to read. The author has a good command of human emotion and motives, as well as seeming to know his history.

If this sub-genera is one that you like I heartily recommend this example. If you are unfamilliar with the whole time-traveler gig you could do much worse than this book as an introduction.