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1634: The Baltic War | Rating | |
| B | |||
| Eric Flint and David Weber | |||
| 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 United States of Europe is preparing for war against the League of Ostend — Spain, France, England, Spain and Denmark — old enemie who have banded together to destroy the upstart nation with ridiculous ideas of freedom of speech and religion. But war comes in many flavors. There's the ironclad fleet that Admiral Simpson is desperately trying to finish before the offensive begins. There is the band of ambassadors and emmisaries held in the Tower of London — and band sent to help them escape. And there are a host of diplomatic efforts going on with crucial personages around Europe. But there are unexpected wrinkles added to any conflict, and one involving a modern town transported back to the seventeenth century is most definitly no exception.
One of the most prominent things I noticed about this novel was that there were a lot of asides right in the middle of things. Far too many. The book is actually more tangential explanation than actual plot. A page here to describe a character, a page there to explain some facet of history or politics or technology, and it adds up. Sometimes it's interesting, sometimes not, but either way it was too darned common.
The Ring of Fire series is getting very large and broadly focused. There's a large cast of characters, with interests from London to Denmark to Germany. The list of characters included with the book helps somewhat — or would, if it wasn't placed at the back of the book, where most won't notice it until they're done reading. It would perhaps have been a good idea to incude a summary of events to start the book out with, also. Much as I generally detest them as clumsy makeshifts, they're better than letting readers wallow in confusion as they try to recall all the disparate plot elements that came in books before. What set upo this battle or that scheme, not to mention who every is, can take some time to recall, and the story is rather frustrating as a result.
It doesn't help at all that this is a much more direct sequel to 1633 than any of the other books with 1634 in the title — not to mention 1635: The Cannon Law — all of which were published well before this one. I had truly begun to despair of ever finding out what happened in London, and the other issues left unresolved there. While I'm glad none of it was forgotten, the long interval and the handful of books published in the meantime made it a little difficult to simply pick things up from where they left off.
By the time I reached the book's second half, though, enough had transpired to remind me of the essentials, and I could enjoy the story on its own merits. That was also about the time the authors stopped laying groundwork and started making things happen, too, so there were plenty of merits to be fount. Flint and Weber are both excellent authors, the latter particularly well known for his accounts of battles. There's several of those, here — mostly naval engagements (Weber's specialty) but one on land as well — plus a few other interesting scenes that ould fit in nicely in a James Bond film, had they been set in the seventeenth century. The authors do them all justice, too, making them exciting and tense while never dropping any of the details.
By then, the political machination — on all sides — were beginning to show their results, as well, both for good and ill. These were no less exciting to watch, if a bit less dramatic. The characters whose thoughts and opinions readers see again make it understandable and relevant. And their personalities, all too human in their desires and quirks, usually make it fun to watch as well.
1634: The Baltic War would undoubtably have been better served by following 1633 directly, but by no means is it undreadable. Unless you haven't read that and 1632 at all, anyway, at which point you deserve all the confusion you've just brought upon yourself. But even having read its true predecessor so long ago, I found myself able — after a while — to make sense of things. This is truly the book I've been waiting for, and some portions I read with a positive glee. It's probably safe to say other fans of the Ring of Fire series will feel much the same way.
I definitely am not going to shelve it in the order it was published, though!
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