Grantville Gazette II [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: MELIA PUBLISHING SER
• ASIN: B000GNT4S0
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Essential Miscellany to "1632", October 18, 2006

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tertius3 (MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grantville Gazette II (Paperback)

Grantville Gazette II follows the unusual format introduced in GG (I): short story and novela fictions that explain or will impact the big picture of the novels in the same "world of 1632" series. And following them with several factual articles laying out narrow technical details of the "1632" world that is faced by modern West Virginia townfolk who were suddenly transported back four centuries to Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. The series is now also called the "Ring of Fire" after the manner in which these "up-timers" arrived in "down-time" Germany. "Assiti Shards" is somehow connected to it, but has no present meaning.

The longest story here is about the reform of medical education in Germany as it existed in the 17th century. A fierce academic struggle ensues to meld it with modern "miraculous" knowledge that has, unfortunately but predictably, run out of its modern supplies and lacks the industry to easily replace them. While clearly off the "main line" of the grand political confrontations presented in the novels set in the "1632" world, a story like this illustrates the great value of the GG anthologies. Inclusion of such details would clearly bog down the already big novels, far beyond the many necessary asides on historical matters they already contain. Yet these short stories answer the very questions that are asked by fascinated readers of the series. In fact, the articles, and stories, are submitted by readers online, and edited to conform with and advance the overall saga. The series is an intellectual adventure in Alternate History, full of yes, how would I have done that, moments. The stories are also fun when recognizable European "real" people of those distant times pop up, like Galileo or Cromwell.

Although not excessively militarized, these stories often have the prose of military fiction: can-do, go-get-em, optimistically cynical, capsulized, declarative prose. Nothing wasted on evocative description, ambiance, atmosphere, flawed characters, or fancy words. Nor are they in the least amateurish, strongly edited by Eric Flint, who has become the choreographer of the series.

I would expect more anxiety and desperation in these stories, and the series. Surely there was constant danger around these "colonists" from another time. Humor is laced through the stories, okay, but the characters also seem little worried by the harsh forces around them. Maybe short stories cannot be expected always to acknowledge those wider problems, but the later novels also lack this element of suspense. The uptime Americans and their allies don't seem to lose even the little schemes or conflicts. The enemies are obviously "bad," often over the top evil, while the good guys cleverly triangulate the fundamental forces, but of course are never sneaky. They are suitable paragons for teenage readers. All the good W. Va. union men who lead Grantville act like they only manipulate situations and never busted a head. One never has the sense of grit, dread or awe one finds in Bernard Cornwell's books of continental conflict.

In GG factual articles are presented in a more or less accessible style. Allthough they can be skipped by those interested only in the "action," at no loss to understanding the action, they provide a depth of research that the authors of the fiction observe and that enlarges the novels in particular. For example, there is a wonderful discussion of the obstacles the up-timers will have finding their essential modern ores and minerals in medieval Germany. That article reviews the new geological setting of Grantville, and what its inhabitants could potentially find to sustain the industries necessary to withstanding and overcoming many hostile political and economic forces. "Wonderful" at least to natural scientists among the readers. However, it becomes clear that the manpower, skills and knowledge needed will have to involve the recruitment of native local people if the 3500 Americans have any hope of surviving and flourishing, and then bringing democracy and wealth to millions in Europe. These considerations will constrain how and when characters will make guns, bullets, containers, ships, and railroad steel, and why we won't see metal aeroplanes any time soon--even if these ground facts are not explicitly written in to future stories. I hope in future the GG will present some actual short biographies of the leading historical down-timers. Of course authors wouldn't want to give away what might be coming up in future stories (although those must increasingly vear from the historical record, mustn't they, now that up-timers have contaminated "our" history).