Disclaimer: I couldn't finish this book, so this may not be a completely fair review. That said, I have to say that this is one of the worst books I've read in a long time. There are no real characters, just caricatures. The mine workers/town folks are heroic, pure blooded, sound Americans, and almost everyone else is shady or evil. The blessed Americans will save the world from evil!

I really enjoy alternative histories, and generally I liked this book. However, Flint is a better researcher than he is a storyteller. The characterizations are a bit hackneyed, the dialogue is often stilted, and the point-of-views switch around confusingly. I'd give this book a mild recommendation.

This was a fun frolic in an alternative history. Could not put the book down once started. A start to a fun new series. I have already gone out and purchased the rest of the series.

I'm a big fan of alternate history novels, and this is one of the first I read.

It's an upbeat what-if tale that explores what could happen if a town in West Virginia suddenly appeared in Germany in, of course, 1632 AD.

The characters are diverse. The heros are earthy types that I can personally relate to. From Swedish king Gustav Adolf to Jewish refugee Rebecca Abrabanel to expert markswoman and high school cheerleader Julie Sims, I really related.

The central idea of a blue collar American town in war-ravaged Germany four centuries back was intriguing. I am writing this after reading the book for the second time, and I have to say that sitting here in Baghdad, I was struck by what author Eric Flint had to say near the novel's climax regarding the foolishness of building a fortress America and exporting our ideas militarily.

What makes America great is freedom. Our ideas about freedom are ever changing, and they change for the characters in this book as the plot unfolds. You owe it to yourself to read this delightful and ultimately optimistic tale of American greatness and bringing hope into a hopeless world, despite often daunting odds.

Extraordinarily poor characterization. Fortunately BAEN books has this in it's free library. Though it's not really free as it cost me time that I can never get back. Once you get past the fact
the characters have no character (calling them cardboard is an insult to the hardworking paper industry) you have to wade through tedious revisionist history. It’s not just that the authors try to ram their pet ‘theories’ of history (Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare, for example) but that they do it so badly. And for a series based on time travel and history, the entire story is completely devoid of any slight hint of feeling of the period. Not a single smell, taste nor touch of the past,
simply 20th (or 21st) century men and women dressed in funny clothes with an occasional snippet of ‘dialect’ all pasted on the characters like a decal on a plastic model.


For some examples of good story telling try:

The Goblin Reservation
by Clifford D. Simak

(A much better take on the Shakespeare/Oxford controversy since Simak has both wit and talent)

The Devil in Velvet
by John Dickson Carr

(Again, better story telling, better history. A nice look at the period and a view of Cromwell from the point of view of the Royalists. )

Any of the Paratime stories by H. Beam Piper of course.

The Guns of the South
by Harry Turtledove

(One of the better of the ‘modern’ alternate history stories.
Give his WWII series concerning Japan/Hawaii a miss. Seems rushed. Very superficial)