Customer Reviews

1634: The Ram Rebellion (The Assiti Shards)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

"1634: The Ram Rebellion" is, in the words of Eric Flint, "something of cross between a traditional anthology and a novel". All the stories, written by various authors, are threaded together into one central storyline: "liberating the peasants from the nobility". This book shows how the "Revolution" starts unremarkably and grows. With this book Eric Flint intended to show how a great moment in history can have very humble(and in my opinion: uninteresting) origins.

"1634: The Ram Rebellion" is an ambitious undertaking that has its roots on the Baen Bar website. "Regulars" of the website have had a major influence in the making of this book. Unfortunately, this where I believe the book fails; "too many cooks in the kitchen". I also believe that most of the readers of the "Ring of Fire" series, who do not "frequent" the Baen Bar website, will have a difficult time connecting this book to the rest of the series.

As this book is not a "traditional anthology", like "The Ring of Fire" or the "Grantville Gazette", skipping stories is not an option. I have read some of the other anthologies and I had skipped stories that I did not find interesting. Not reading all the stories contained in "1634: The Ram Rebellion" will keep you from understanding the whole story.

The pace of the book suffers. I found that I would get mired in the minutiae detailed in some of the stories. I also felt the book pulling me into several different directions with no clear direction. The overall feel of the book was rough and disjointed.

This book, like "1634: The Galileo Affair", is NOT a sequel to "1633". Both are side stories that do not continue the epic plots and grand machinations set down in 1632 and 1633. I question the validity of putting 1634 in these titles. The sequel to "1633" should be titled "1634". Adding "1634" to "The Galileo Affair" and "The Ram Rebellion", to me, seems dishonest. I can already imagine the titles of future volumes of side stories that sprout up like a many-headed hydra: 1638: The Hoof and Mouth Disease Gambit, 1639: Brillo's Bond Referendum, 1640: Blah Blah Blah.

"1634: The Ram Rebellion" is an attempt to bring a group of stories into one volume. But I feel this book is a case of "the lunatics running the asylum". The writers received alot of support in the creation of their stories via the Baen Bar website. Maybe too much support. I doubt that many people on the website have ever suggested that this book should not be published or that this volume of stories may not be popular or well-liked. If you dislike(or like for that matter) "1634: The Ram Rebellion" go to the Baen Bar website and let them know what you think.

To quote John Ringo, another popular Baen author, "I never "blamed" the author. In the case of books that simply shouldn't have been published... I blamed the publisher." I certainly agree.

Judging from the reviews, you will either love or hate this book. I found it to be, in a word, UNSATISFYING.

This novel has a novel stucture, not a novel event in this expanding series. Ram Rebellion is not part of the original plan for the "1634: xx" series of parallel novels, but a serendipitous product of stories submitted by avid online fans of the Alternate History initiated by Flint with his novel "1632." So, it is unevenly written, it jumps around, has an many characters as War and Peace (just kidding, I think), but isn't that a great and confident idea on editor Flint's part? Still, one gets a rare fictional look into the makings of a revolution, a concatenation of preconditions, accidents, happenstance, mis-planning, bold individuals, stupid opponents (really, obviously, evil ones), a good slogan, and luck. Up-timers like the modern West Virginians dropped back into a past world of 17th century war can't expect such success. Do you remember Pohl Andersson's story, I think it was, about a modern sailor thinking he can tell good ole Vikings how to build their long boats...? Here one has to keep straight a thoroughly multi-pronged nation building effort in Franconia, just south of Grantville, by the new "United States" working through peasants, principalities, cities, castle lords, religious-freedom commission, committe of correspondence, embassies, military advisors, garrisons, another state, and Noelle Murray (who knows nothing about pistols but is super at subversion). If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you need to go back and first read Flint's very satisfying "1632" and "1633" novels.

This "novel" gradually comes into focus through a series of short stories and jokes revolving around an ugly short-haired ram who has designs on modern long-haired ewes, against the modern breeder's wishes. Only after numerous stories illustrating the pre-existing political and economic situation in Franconia, does the main story of how Franconia will be democratized really get under way. I have no objection to this device, the "gathering storm" technique, since I prefer the short stories to the the concluding novel written by Flint and Judith DeMarce. Its sprawling episodic structure detracts from its suspense, drama, and climax.

While some may object to the combinations of short stories, broadsheets, sophomoric humor, novela, and novel here, I don't. Can you imagine what having to slog through a pedestrian novel like Flint and DeMarce's concluding section would be like, if it expanded to 400 pages to include the matters touched on in the shorter, prefactory pieces? Tired feet! I had a frustrating time tracking characters variously identified by their first or last name or title, and it took me a while to put "three" characters into, oh!, just one. Still and all, this "novel" is marking time as we await the return to a "real" novel that will use the principal series characters (hardly seen here) to advance the main story. Consider this one a parallel story of "1634" that documents one of the alternative ways of coping with the fractious European neighbors confronted by the "alien" Americans. (That also means there are some unexplained cross-references to other stories, even ones that haven't been written yet.) The other "1634:xx" books will surely have other structures, places, people, procedures, and prospects. Hopefully, a few will be less insistently upbeat and have some flashes of adult ambiguity, grimness, and desperate moments in them. It should be fun.

I am one of those rare birds who actually enjoyed 1634: The Galileo Affair. I thought this would be an interesting sequel of that type. When I first started reading, I was very upset that it appeared to be a mish mash collection and it certainly was an up and down read. The final part of the book finally took off and ended up being an above average read, but come on already! Eric, GET OFF THE COUCH, STOP making excuses for your partners and WRITE THE REAL 1634 SEQUEL! THE REAL FAN REBELLION IS COMING AS WE ARE TIRED OF BEING TEASED! Write it yourself if Drake is too busy. So much for the joys of collaboration. We want the real thing, not more delay!

Eric Flint is really trying the patience of those of us who want to be his fans and liked the first few books set in his 1632 universe. Because honestly, he's been over the year of 1634 enough times that we're ready to move on. There have been something like 7 different issues of the 'Grantville Gazette,' plus 'The Galileo Affair' and 'Ring of Fire,' all of which are essentially treading over the same ground again and again ad nauseum. Enough already.

The entire second half of this book was so boring that I just gave up with 2 chapters to go before the end. I didn't care about any of these characters and I didn't really understand what was happening anymore. It's just page after page after page with nothing happening.

By the way, this isn't actually a novel and it isn't by Eric Flint, strictly speaking. It's a collection of short stories and a novella edited by Flint and packaged into something that at first seems to pass for a proper book. He co-wrote the novella but the bulk of the book was not written by him.

The only reason to buy this book is if you are obsessed with reading each and every little scrap and sentence written about the 1632 universe. If this isn't you then don't waste your time. In fact, buying this book will only reward Flint and his publisher for feeding their readers warmed-over fan-fiction (again) instead of going to the trouble of writing a real book. Perhaps slow sales will encourage him to write an actual novel set in 1635 already. Hopefully this series will return to the promise held by the first 2 or 3 books.

Eric Flint and David Weber have promised that 1633: The Baltic War, the next "main line" novel about the adventures of Gustav Adolphus, Mike Stearns, and company will be out early next year. Until then, fans have been "making do" with the various side stories in The Galileo Affair, The Grantville Gazettes, and such.

This, is another side story, the adventures of the crew of Americans tasked with administering the region of Germany called Franconia, which Gustav handed them at the end of "1632".

Tasked with the nearly-impossible job of explaining to the various groups in Franconia that they were to spread the good word of "Mom, Apple Pie, Democracy, and Freedom of Religion," they discover in the middle of it all that, inspired by Thomas Paine, the peasents are revolting!

With a good sense of humor, a feel for the complexities of real life, and a good sense of politics, The Ram Rebellion is a worthy addition to the 1632 canon. That said, I and everyone else I know who are fans of the series are anxious for the main story line to get moving again. Those poor people have been trapped in the Tower of London entirely too long.

I'm not going into much detail re: the story or plot line, since several otehr reviewers have already done so. This book is obviously a "sidebar" to the main 1632 tale, and is pretty dry stuff.

My major criticism is the introduction of a whole new cast of rather meanigless characters. The publisher should have included a pull-out "scorecard" in one of the ends of the jacket. I found it difficult to read, since I was continually trying to figure out "who's who" in the story. Additionally, the whole tone of the book was FLAT.

Overall, I really like the 1632 Universe, and feel that the Grantville Gazette anthologies do a much better job of keeping up the fan interest in the series.

On the positive side, Ms. DeMarce handles the "German" aspect of the writing better than most other authors of this genre.

This novel was a real disappointment for me; I was expecting something more entertaining than I was given.

The Ram Rebellion is a parallel to the highly popular 1632 series. The book takes place roughly a few weeks after the Ring of Fire until just after The Galileo Affair. It is, as many have pointed out, a dry collection of works intended to be a filler book for the rest of the series. Unfortunately, it barely touches on the main series and instead, reads like a jumbled mish-mash of shorts worked out by various authors.

One of the biggest problems with this book is just that, the collection of stories. Each writers voice is slightly different, and after the second or thrid story, you get the impression that this book was put out to simply shut up the more vocal of the people who are demanding a sequel. The stories have a tendency to drag at points, and worse of all, there is a section called "The Brillo Letters" in the book which completely took me out of what little story was running.

The book does, however, improve towards the end, and not because it's the end. The actual story of the Ram Rebellion, by Virginia DeMarce and Eric Flint, follows along the more traditional 163x story ideas, "voice" and is highly enjoyable. It reminded me of the original book, in fact. So much that it, quite honestly, saved the book.

The stories, while independant shorts, were all linked to the story and appeared to be a long, pass the conch and let him speak type of book. This, in itself, is not a great idea. Only a masterful weaving of this tapestry could possibly pull this off.

I'm familiar with most of these writers featured in the book, having read their stories in the Grantville Gazette. This review is not a knock on their writing talents, since I have enjoyed nearly every one of their stories. It is more a problem with the actual layout and "flow" of the book. The book, as a whole, just doesn't flow.

Another big disappointment. We seem to be getting more and more filler books. I absolutely loved the 1st two (1632 & 1633). From then on this series has been going downhill. The Ram Rebellion is a dis-jointed series of short stories about goats, of all things. Made no sense to me and ended up just tossing it in the trash where, I feel, it belongs. Again-the first two books were absolutely spellbindin. I'll be much more careful (read all the reviews) before I get sucked into another turkey like this one. Only gave it one star because there is no zero star rating. I'm really dis-appointment because Eric Flint is one of my favorite authors. Nothing personal Eric, just business, but this is a real piece of junk.

I discovered Eric Flint's work when a friend loaned me 1632. I had not read much speculative fiction other than some Harry Turtledove and I have to say I loved it. Then I went out and bought 1633, it was another gem. Things skipped a bit with The Galileo Affair, just a little too much sermonizing. But this latest, The Ram Rebellion, just stinks. Most of the stories were written by obvious amateurs fascinated with sheep, cooking, agriculture and whatnot. Now those are all fine things, but I bought the other books to be entertained with action+fantasy+history, in that order, not history+agribusiness+feminism. I am going to read one more book in this series and if it does not improve I will swear it off for good.

I am a huge fan of Eric Flint, and generally love anything with his name on it. As others here have pointed out, though, one problem with this book is that, while his name is on it, most of the material was actually written by others.

That's not necessarily a bad thing; 1633, co-written with David Weber, was great. And I disagree with some of the other reviewers here that criticize the "Grantville Gazette" stories in general; some of those have been good, too. (For example, the tale about the introduction of the potato chip to down-timers was a hoot.)

But ... how can I say this diplomatically? While I think some of the writers in this compilation show promise, they are NOT Eric Flint or David Weber.

Next, I think this book is just too blamed busy. Instead of one or two lead characters, there are a million, whose names begin to jumble together (badly!) after a while. Trying to keep up with the zillions of different Margraves and Dukes and Counts becomes something worse than tedious, too ("wait a minute ... was he the Protestant who hated Gustav Adolph, or was he the Catholic who secretly worked with so-and-so ...?").

I think this book proves something else, and I hope Jim Baen is paying attention: just because the guys in Baen's Bar like something doesn't mean that it's a good story. Yes, those who are DEEPLY into the 1632 universe will sit in the Bar and discuss it for hours on end. No doubt they will thoroughly enjoy this book, which goes into ton after ton of detail about those Margraves and Dukes and Counts and how land leases work and all that.

But Jim? Those of us who just want a crackin' good read for an evening's diversion will find something like this horribly tedious. If I need a history textbook, I can go to the UAB student bookstore.

The art of good historical fiction is knowing what to LEAVE OUT. 100% historical accuracy and "nth"-level detail is for textbooks, not novels. Keep it light, keep it enjoyable, and keep the number of characters to the absolute minimum needed to tell the story.

Please?