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1635: The Cannon Law | Rating | |
| B | |||
| Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Ring of Fire | 1632, 1633, 1634: The Baltic War, 1634: The Galileo Affair, 1634: The Ram Rebellion, 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, 1635: The Cannon Law, Ring of Fire, Grantville Gazette | ||
The Spanish Catholic Church has a great deal of power, and is intimately tied to the monarchy. So when King Phillip IV orders Cardinal Borja to make the remaining years of Pope Urban VIII's rule a difficult proposition in retaliation for the altered outcome of Gallieleo's trial, it is nothing too unsual. But Borja has a tendancy to overstep his bounds, and is employing an agent notorious in certain circles for his spectacular failures. Nobody knows where the road Borja is paving leads, or even where he intends it to lead. But Frank Stone and Sharon Nichols of the United States of Europe are going to get themselves mixed in with the Cardinal's plans - whether they want it or not.
This is yet another book in Flint's Ring of Fire series, and by now key characters are spread around half of Europe. So there's a lot to keep track of, mostly in trying to recall who did what in past books and where things stand at the opening of this one. There's no recap, either, making this novel purely for those who have already read those earlier books. For that matter, it was something of an irritation for me, and I have read them. A recap would have been useful. On the other hand, it would also have been ten or twenty pages of concentrated exposition, which has its own set of problems. I can certainly see why the authors chose as they did, inconvenient as it may be.
Once I got my feet under me and recalled who all these people were, though, things went well enough. And unlike 1634: The Ram Rebellion, I was never confused. The story was smooth and easy to follow. I particularly enjoyed how nobody, including the reader, knows just what Borja is after. Even when the story shifts to give us a peek into the antagonist's lair, we learn little more than that his plans are proceeding apace, or that they've hit a snag. Far from frustrating me as it might have, though, it kept me reading. I wanted to know exactly what he was trying to accomplish.
The second half of the book, when Borja's schemes are beginning to gain momentum, is especially enjoyable. The stakes have gone up, as everyone knew they would, and suddenly Frank and Sharon are in real danger, as are a lot of other people. If Borja succeeds, it will destabilize Rome, the church, and all Europe - not to mention the USE. But the Americans have only a few dozen people at their disposal, and still no idea of his ultimate aim.
I'm really very glad Flint and Dennis brough the series back to some of the large, sweeping issues that concerned it when it began. The first two books, 1632 and 1633, were very fast-paced. Grantville was trying desperately to inject modern American ideals into a time and place not quite ready for them. Every page brought new plans and trials as they work on reinventing such things as gasoline engines, radio, and a steel-hulled navy, all while fending off attacks both political and military. Those two books were thrilling.
1635: The Cannon Law never quite reached that level, unfortunately. There are battles here, especially in the second half. But they are routine and conventional. There are no new weapons or tactics brought into play. This is in part because there are few technologies that the USE is capable of recreating that thasn't already been introduced. Further, the downtimers are no longer surprised or awed by anything the USE does pull out of its bag of tricks. They may not like the uptimers or what they do, but they more or less know what to expect. They've adapted. And frankly, I think a lot of the fun went out of the series once they did.
But the book is still a marked improvement over the last two. Those are generally concerned with minutae. At the end of the books, things really aren't all that much different from the state of things at the start. There aren't really any battles at all, conventional or not. None of that is true this time around!
This novel isn't completely immune to the pitfalls of those two, however. The first halff is almost all plotting and schemeing, along with some character interation. It's very, very political, in other words, and not mch actually happens. That changed by the second half, but for a while I thought I was reading a seventeeth century version of The West Wing. Politics and intrigue are all well and good, but some actual goings-on would have been appreciated.
Still, my issues are, by and large, not with the book in my hands so much as they are with the series it is a part of. It may be that Flint would have done better to end the series with the formation and (relative) stability of the United States of Europe. The goal had been accomplished. American values, and the citizens of Grantville, West Virginia, will survive. In one form or another. The trials and tribulations of keeping them alive and spreading those values further could have been left alone. Every country has those. But with Flint and his partners expounding on it in detail, there's no real way to end the series. There's no place to say, "All right, they've done it." The series isn't so much a story, at that point, but an alternate history - and there's no conclusion to that.
1635: The Cannon Law is a big step back towards larger issues, which could provide such a goal. Perhaps even the very same goal: survival of Grantville and the ideals it represents. It is definitely a marked improvement over the last few novels. I am still not sure the series can be saved from simply recounting an alternate history, but it gives me some hope.
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