Customer Reviews

1634: The Galileo Affair (The Assiti Shards)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This volume in the alternate history series based on Eric Flint's 2000 novel "1632" follows "Ring of Fire" and "1633," and is the first of several planned "1634: ..." books to be published. Even though "Ring of Fire" is an anthology, it should be read before "1634: The Galileo Affair," since stories in it introduce and develop many of the main characters (Father Mazzare, the Stones, Mazarini) and set up much of the plot. "1632" and "1633" should be read as well, of course.

At the beginning of "1634: The Galileo Affair," the new United States of Europe is not in the best strategic situation. Simultaneously at war with England, France, Spain, Denmark, Austria and various other polities, it is running short of allies - the Dutch Republic is in dire straights, while Bohemia has its hands full trying to break away from Austria. To try to break out of this encirclement and tap into Mediterranean trade, an embassy is sent to the Venetian Republic.

At the head of the embassy are Father Mazzare and Reverend Jones, along with Sharon Nichols and Tom 'Stoner' Stone, a nurse and chemist (respectively), who will be sharing their medical knowledge with the Italians as a demonstration of good faith. Accompanying Stone are his three teenage sons, who (following their hormones and the lovely Giovanna) quickly fall in with a group of incompetent but enthusiastic revolutionaries hoping to Americanize Italy. They are sucked into a wacky, hare-brained scheme to free Galileo from the Inquisition and take him north to Grantville and Freedom. This plot would probably be harmless were it not receiving expert assistance from a French agent provocateur under orders to discredit the USE. Meanwhile, the copies of the Papers of the Second Vatican Council and related twentieth century Catholic theology that were sent to Pope Urban VIII in "Ring of Fire" have been creating quite a stir in the highest ranks of the Church. The Pope is carefully considering what to do about Galileo, as well as the USE and its curious religious toleration.

"1634: The Galileo Affair" is quite a bit different from the other novels that have so far been published in the 163x series (and probably from those yet to be published, as well). This seems to be Flint's intention, and the reason he's writing the series with a large number of coauthors. In this volume, he is joined by English lawyer Andrew Dennis, with the result that military and political aspects of the story decrease dramatically, while more time is spent on romance and lawyerly discussion. Although I enjoyed the book overall, this is not my favorite approach.

Another notable feature of this volume in the series is that it ignores all of the plot threads developed in "1633," focusing entirely on Italy. According to Flint, "The Galileo Affair" is only the first of several books that will take place in 1634, each pursuing only one story line at a time, though all still tying in with each other. Currently five volumes are planned for this "1634: ..." 'story explosion' - "The Baltic War" (with David Weber), "Escape from the Tower" (Eric Flint solo), "The Austrian Princess" (with Virginia DeMarce) and "Bohemia" (a tentative title, with Mike Spehar) in addition to "The Galileo Affair." While some may be frustrated by the lack of connection to "1633," I personally feel that this approach is much preferable to the 'Robert Jordan method' of trying to cover every plot line at once and ending up not advancing any of them.

At any rate, if you enjoyed "1633" and "Ring of Fire," "1634: The Galileo Affair" should be worth checking out. If you're a fan of the series primarily because of Flint's military writing, the library may be the best choice.

I struggled a bit with how to review this novel. First, let me say it definitely does not stand well on its own, and it represents a pretty far departure from 1632.

Let's recap briefly. You've got 1632 where Grantville, WV from present day gets sucked back into time and deposited in the middle of Germany during the 30 Year War. This first book is really fun and I highly recommend. The focus is mostly about the people of Grantville and the initial folks they come into contact with.

Then you've got 1633. The focus is still mostly on the main characters from 1632, but the book is no longer just about the situation of Germany. The "battles" - political as well as physical - involve all of Europe. The politics and religion of the time begin to play a much larger role.

Ring of Fire is a departure from the linear story and is basically a series of short stories to lay the ground work for sub-plots and develop additional characters. It's actually quite good too.

Then you get to 1634: The Gallileo Affair. I'm a little on the fence on this one. There is very little about the major characters from 1632 - Mike Stearns, Rebecca and crew. The primary characters are the Stones (Grantville's flower children) and the local priests - Mazzare and Jones. The characters are good, but I still miss Mike and Becky, but that's okay. They can't be everywhere.

I really enjoy the detail and background of Venice and the Catholic Church. I'm not enough of a historian to know if its really accurate, but if its not it seems very plausible and it makes for a fascinating read.

My biggest complaint is that the primary story thread - freeing Gallileo (I'm not giving away anything here hence the name of the book) is carried out by a bunch of numbskulls.

Overall, its still an enjoyable read. Don't expect the fighting of the earlier books though. There's very little actual action in this story. No shortage of politics, diplomacy and religion though.

I'm hopeful that there will be a bit more action in the future releases that Mr. Flint is writing with David Weber.

There is a good reason Eric Flint's 163x series sells books. They are good fiction combined with an exceptional knowledge of history. In the first book, 1632, readers got a view of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, but hardly known to most Americans. The situation of a group of Americans stranded in the middle of the 30 years war was a great chance to focus on how American values of tolerance can affect others.
In 1633, the people from the era have learned all about the Americans, have managed to get books from the today, and are trying to change the flow of history. Cromwell is arrested and sent to the Tower of London before he ever thinks of revolt. Richelieu in France buys North America from the British and plans a new empire. There is betrayal galore.
In the new book (with several threads coming from the book of stories, Ring of Fire), a group of Americans is sent to Venice to build trade with the Ottoman Empire, make friends throughout Italy, but most importantly to deal with issues within the Catholic Church. Father Larry Mazzare, the one priest from current America, is the ambassador and he winds up in a deliciously interesting position: defense counsel at an Inquisition trial...for Galileo, who turns out to be not quite as heroic as pictured. The differing shades of gray indtead of clear black and white as representations of motives help make this a fascinating work. There are sub-plots galore and fascinating characters. Not all Americans are good, not all downtimers are evil or stupid.
I consider the series the best in all Alternative History although I also enjoy Turtledove and Stirling. The books are a treat for SciFi fans as well as for those who enjoy good history...even though it is a history that never existed.
I'm already reserving the next book in the series...a full year away.

As a huge fan of alternate history I've been a fan of Flint's 16x series. And in some ways 1634: The Galileo Affair stands up just as well as the three previous entries. It's obvious that the authors have done a great deal of research and, for the most part, the politics and ramifications of cross-temporal intermixing are believable.

However, there's something that REALLY bothered me about this book. When reading fantasy I need to be able to believe in the characters... to understand them within their context. In this book there was a glaring and repeated error in the dialogue and inner dialogue of the American up-timers.

They repeatedly thought, spoke and acted as if they were English.

Mr. Dennis is English and it was painfully obvious in many parts of the book that he had a strong influence throughout. Many times the American characters spoke with English slang, used English turns of phrase and interacted with other characters as if both were English. The contrast between the way the characters were written in the first three books was so dramatic that it became extremely distracting.

That said, I still think it's worth reading. There are some very funny passages in the book that make slogging through the distractions worth the effort.

Readers who have come to Eric Flint expecting complex characters, adult romance, political intrigue, varied backgrounds, and comedic action will not be dissappointed by The Galileo Affair.

The novel builds on the detailed background work that Flint has shared with the hundreds of participants in the 1632 series web boards on Baen's web site. However, Flint and Dennis choose to expand the stage of the 1632 series into early modern Venice and provide readers with a series of mis-understandings, and mis-directions and mis-stakes ;-) that rivals a Hal Roach movie.

Galileo was a lot of fun. If you come to it expecting alternate history to be turgid battle scenes and amazing near super-heros, you will be dissappointed. If you expect to see normal everyday people thrust into very unusual circumstances and making the best of it in their own unique way, you will be delighted. As always, Flint celebrates everyman, and provides us with the opportunity to put ourselves into another place and another time, with the hope that we might do as well as his "everyman" does.

If you have been reading the saga of Grantville, WV transported back to the Thirty Years War, you will already have read 1632 and 1633. You may not have yet read "Ring of Fire," a supplemental collection of short stories. Do so before you pick up "1634: The Galileo Affair." Many of the characters and plot lines in the new book depend on amplifications and stories from "Ring of Fire."

You will enjoy seeing some favorite uptime and downtime characters further developed, especially Tom Stoner and Sharon Nichols. You will, again, get a palpable sense of being there, for the book is well written and meticulously detailed.

1634 is also less miltiary-oriented than 1633, and, perhaps blessedly, has fewer competing plotlines. However, it is a shame that some of the themes and plotlines from 1633 were not wrapped up. If there are any weaknesses to the new volume, they are, first, that it is like a shotgun blast, scattering wider as time goes on, and, second, that the downtime characters seem too twentieth-century. People are people, but folk were by all accounts, a lot more unreasonable, smelly, and brutish in 1634 than they are portrayed here.

That said, the book is a fun romp and you won't be able to put it down. You'll reacquaint yourself with old friends, have a ball as a 20th century muckracking reporter goes wild in 1634, and root for the good guys the whole time. If you have started this series, you won't want to stop now!

It's an interesting and entertaining romp, with fun characters and good action.

If there's a problem, it's the same one I have with the whole series: the downtime characters are too 21st-century. And they have too much of a tendency to read a Grantville history book, or talk to a Grantviller, slap their foreheads and proclaim: "How could I have been so blind!" as they abandon or modify their beliefs. It's the same fault that L. Neil Smith's work has, although not to the same annoying degree.

People in the past were _different_. By our standards, they were mostly villains and thugs, and they really _believed_ in the things that made them burn witches and heretics.

Starting off slowly, with too much labyrinthine Byzantine politics, with time the book increases in pace and interest. It's not really a book about Galileo though- it's rather mistitled. The story is about the mission to Venice, and trying to establish USE presence in the country. Galileo's possible rescue is an undercurrent in the story really until the last 1/5th of the novel.

But the book is well written and engaging. It is especially pleasant to read an alternative history work that is *not* constantly focused on war and gruesome violence. I appreciated the strong correction of historical events on Galileo's trial not being about science or religion, but politics- something Stephen Jay Gould has written extensively on in Rock of Ages. The less engaging sections are pulled up by great twists in plot and unexpected but believable character developments. Flint writes in such a way that the reader believes that they are forewarned of looming disaster, for they have heard a character desperately hope for something greater- and then the result is what neither the character nor the reader expects.

I look forward to reading other works in this series, and recommend the series from 1632 throughout the 17th century.

1634: The Galileo Affair is the third novel in the Grantville series, following 1633. It also follows The Wallenstein Gambit and several other stories in the shared world anthology Ring of Fire. The displaced Americans of Grantville have weathered everything thrown at them, welcomed refugees from the Thirty Year War into their community, and have thrived as a people, despite (and due to) their common losses. Working together, Gustavus Aldophus and Mike Stearns have created the United States of Europe, finessing various princes of Germany into obscurity. Democracy has gained a foothold within seventeenth century Europe.

Their military successes have saved them from occupation by their neighbors, but their library has even more effectively changed history. Texts on the uptime histories of the seventeenth century have became very popular among the powerful personages of Europe ... and very disturbing to many of them. General von Wallenstein allied himself with the Americans after reading of his betrayal and death under the Habsburgs in the original timeline. Richelieu changed his tactics and personnel, if not his goals, after reading his own history. Charles I of England sent Oliver Cromwell to the Tower to save his own head (and thereby put him right into the hands of Melissa Mailey). And the rabbis of Amsterdam condemned a year old child named Baruch de Espinoza -- better known as Benedict Spinoza -- as a heretic and relinquished him directly into the hands of Rebecca Stearns.

The library also caused considerable turmoil within the Holy Roman Catholic Church with their religious holdings. Father Mazzare started the controversy by allowing Father Fredrich von Spee to read his own entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia, thereby stiffening the Jesuit's resistance to the Inquisition. Then Mazzare provided copies of the Papers of the Second Vatican Council and other documents to Monsignor Giulio Mazarini, which led the Pope to request a summary of Catholic theological reforms over the following centuries in the original timeline.

In this novel, the newly formed USE acts to open a trade corridor with the Middle East via Venice. Stearns selects Larry Mazzare to lead the delegation to Venice because of his current fame (or notoriety) among Catholics. Mazzare asks Simon Jones, the Methodist minister, to accompany him as a sign of religious tolerance and Father Augustus Heinzerling, SJ, goes along as Mazzare's assistant. Stearns also sends Tom Stone and family to assist with the production of pharmaceuticals, Sharon Nichols to aid in medical education (and to give her something useful to do while she is grieving), and Ernst Mauer to advise on public sanitation. Lieutenant Conrad Ursinus is sent as the Naval Attaché and advisor on shipbuilding and Captain Lennox is assigned as the Military Attaché and commander of the Marine Guard. Lieutenant Billy Trumble is sent as XO of the Marine escort as well as sports advisor (Billy and Conrad represent the baseball players and the Stone boys are pushing soccer).

An agent of the local Committee of Correspondence quickly establishes contact with the Stone brothers. Giovanna agrees to arrange a meet with the head of the local CoC and, after some confusion over the term "date" within this context, gives the boys some hope of a little socializing in addition to business. Of course, her youth and beauty has something to do with that aspect of the arrangements.

Larry Mazzare welcomes Benjamin Luzzatto to the new USE embassy and introduces him to the staff. Luzzatto is a Venetian Jew who has been selected as their local advisor by the USE spymaster Don Francisco Nasi. Although briefly disconcerted by the presence of a Methodist minister in the delegation, Luzzatto quickly recovers and, after a period of socialization, presents Mazzare and his senior staff with detailed briefing on the local situation.

Unfortunately, the official delegation is not the only party from the USE to arrive in Venice. Joe Buckley, investigative reporter extraordinaire, moves into the building next door. And, unknown to the USE delegation, Claude de Mesmes, comte d'Avaux and agent of Cardinal Richelieu, has moved into the French embassy and is beginning to implement his orders to disrupt trade negotiations between the USE and Venice.

In this story, the USE has several goals in Venice. First, they need trade partners within the Mediterranean and the Middle East to insure supplies of materials unavailable within Western Europe. Second, they need political allies within these regions. Third, they need religious allies to spread the doctrines of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state. Venice has the most potential as an ally within the Mediterranean and is also the best available conduit to the Middle East. Richelieu, however, is fully aware of the possibilities and the stakes, so his agents are going to work against the USE. Other enemies have been weakened by prior military and political successes by the USE, but haven't given up the fight; after all, assassins are relatively cheap compared to armies.

And then there is the Galileo affair. The Roman Catholic hierarchy has been severely disturbed by the religious concepts brought by the uptimers. Now the leadership is aware of the consequences of Church attempts to suppress scientific discoveries in the other timeline. So what is the Church going to do about Galileo this time?

-Arthur W. Jordin

The West Virginia town of Grantville, cast back into the midst of Germany during the 30 years war, has done pretty well for itself. Uniquely in a world where religion was a cause for war, Grantville preached tolerance. And, with the help of modern weapons and strategy and an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, they've been able to enforce their will--and peace--on a good part of what is now Germany. Even Austria, humbled by the rebellion of its great general Wallenstein, has backed off. Spain remains an enemy, but it has its hands full with the Netherlands. And France is too careful to risk its armies in the meat-grinder that the United States of Europe has become.

Still, there are more ways to defeat than the purely military and the Catholic powers dominate Europe despite the new United States. Prime Minister Stern realizes that he needs some accomodation with the Church and trade. Of the three great trading powers of 1634, England is an enemy, Holland has its own problems, but Venice is desperate for a chance to recover her past glories. Catholic Venice is, therefore, the prize in the latest game of Empire. And all sides send their best agents--the French to disrupt and discredit the Americans, the Spanish to protect themselves, and Grantville to get the materials and allies that it desperately needs.

Unfortunately for Grantville, its embassy includes some teenage boys who love adventure and who get caught up in the romance of rescuing Galileo from the inquisition. Never mind that Galileo was never especially badly treated, they become convinced that his rescue would be a glorious blow against entrenched power and for freedom. With a few pushes from the evil French, a hopeless plot becomes a very real danger--something that could destroy everything Stern and his allies have been working for.

Author Eric Flint, this time working with author Andrew Dennis has created a fascinating alternate history in his 1632 series. Rather than picking a single hero/king, Flint works from a community--a union town of coal miners and working people. It's a great idea and it works. The 1632 series is a powerful direction in alternate history. 1634: THE GALILEO AFFAIR continues in this tradition, picking up on minor characters from the earlier novels in the series or even from short stories written by others. Flint also manages to mix some romance with his military.

1634: THE GALILEO AFFAIR might have stepped too far in the direction of romance and away from the military. There are no battles in this book, few examples of the technological advances of the West Virginians (using the radio for clever speculation is the primary example), and a bit too much romance. All of which means that GALILEO isn't quite up to the standards set by the original 1632. It is, however, a well written and entertaining story. If you've read the earlier books, you'll definitely want to get this one. If you haven't, you'll want to get this one--and read the other ones first.