1634: The Galileo Affair (The Ring of Fire) 
asked by jbritt on November 17, 2006 1:03 PM
The Thirty Years War continues to ravage 17th century Europe, but a new force is gathering power and influence: the Confederated Principalities of Europe, an alliance between Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians from the 20th century led by Mike Stearns who were hurled centuries into the past by a mysterious cosmic accident. The democratic ideals of the CPE have aroused the implacable hostility of Cardinal Richelieu, effective ruler of France, who has moved behind the scenes, making common cause with old enemies to stop this new threat to the privileged and powerful. But the CPE is also working in secret. A group of West Virginians have secretly traveled to Venice where their advanced medical knowledge may prevent the recurrence of the terrible plague which recently killed a third of the city-state's population. At the same time, the group hopes to establish commercial ties with Turkey's Ottoman Empire, then at the height of its power. And, most important, they hope to establish private diplomatic ties with the Vatican, exploiting Pope Urban VIII's misgivings about the actions of Richelieu and the Hapsburgs. But a Venetian artisan involved with the West Virginians may cause all their plans to come to naught. Having read 20th century history books of the period, he has become determined to rescue Galileo from his trial for heresy. The Americans are divided on whether to help him or stop him-and whether he succeeds or fails, the results may be catastrophic for the CPE.
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This is the first-published "1634" novel in the "Ring of Fire" epic Alternate History being conducted by young Eric Flint. It follows on the brilliant initial "1632" and sequel "1633" novels. They must be read first or you won't care much for this novel. The "Ring of Fire" and "Grantville Gazette I and II" anthologies in the same series will also contribute your enjoyment of "1634." What is going on is an immense collaborative construction of a saga about the trial and tribulations understandably faced by a mining town from West Virginia that suddenly is whipped back intact to 1632 in southern Germany, into the middle of a war chewing up Europeans. While it was initiated by Flint, it has morphed into the work of many authors who are building all the background elements, like genealogies, for a consistent and constrained (no nuclear weapons in W. Va.!) "history" of how the up-time American cope with, and attempt to democratize, a Europe full of conflicts. This is an astounding endeavor, one unique in my reading experience. It looks like five or six "1634" novels will be produced, each taking up one geographical/topical thread of the overall saga, as Grantville attempts to expand its sphere of security.
"1643: The Galileo Affair" is a further embodiment of Flint's philosophy that history moves in many directions and places simultaneously, that it is made up of many threads of change, and the ones with now-famous people in them were not whole story. After the sprawling "1633" almost lost control of its multiplying story lines, this novel, and the other "1634" novels to come, will divy up the continent and will each be more tightly focused on a comprehensible set of problems, characters, and locales within the same year. Read them all and see the big picture after the fact. (What's going to happen in "1635" and later years as the saga of Grantville's citizens ramifies further? It boggles the mind.)
In this book we travel to Italy, with an American embassy from Grantville to Venice, led by humble religious leaders because only they can be spared from other desperate ventures. We do occasionally hear of other threads taking place elsewhere in the saga, but most of the pressing issues raised in "1633" are left in limbo. "Galileo" is particularly notable for the unusually prominent role played by religion in a fictional history, in an age characterized by fierce competition between Catholics and Protestant sects, and all the principalities and kingdoms flunting them, stirred up by marauding mercenaries. Since the detailed, or even general, nature of the affronts taken between the parties is completely obscure history to most of us, considerable digressions into creeds and legalisms are properly necessary. Nevertheless, they also abet the lack of "action," particularly the absence of battle action that readers would expect from Flint's earlier books, in this series and out. Oh, and the Galileo affair is not about the infamously terrible Inquisition of his beliefs we've all heard about. "Affairs" have other meanings.
It is even clearer that the target audience for this series is teenagers. A main sub-plot in this novel features a passel of addled teenage American brothers and their Venetian girlfriend and her family of revolutionarily inclined Stooges. Venice = Venus = Love, right? They cavort and stumble through an inane and picaresque conspiracy to free Galileo, who thought Earth wasn't the center of the Universe. What an indulgence of these brats. Meanwhile, the serious business of expanding the sphere of American influence so they can access essential trade items, like zinc, and withstand their French and Spanish enemies, is in the hands of a priest and a pastor from Grantville on embassy to Venice, the fading capital of Mediterranean trade (no, it is not "sinking" in this story; stinking, yes). The embassy engages in a great deal of religious discussion and maneuvering, eventually leading to a surprising opening to the Catholic church and the Pope in Rome. Teenagers will not particularly enjoy the disputation, but it will be much better than their sanitized textbooks and might seduce a few into understanding why separation of competing churches from the state actually is a vital principle of beneficial government.
I found the chapter-head quotations more confusing and irrelevant than helpful. The prose reads a bit more like military communiques than literature--but then I do like a better sense of place in novels. Don't confuse the reader with ambiguity: everbody is played mostly to type and is pretty obvious: subtle, gentle, foolish, steady, sneaky, dastardly, or so forth. It's fun to suddenly encounter historical people or the roots of modern words: Newton, ghetto, imbroglio, and so on. Clearly this novel is a side thread in the overarching saga of The Ring of Fire, but it develops one good character (Father Mazzare) and ends with considerable intimation and promise of an amazing development to come.
"1643: The Galileo Affair" is a further embodiment of Flint's philosophy that history moves in many directions and places simultaneously, that it is made up of many threads of change, and the ones with now-famous people in them were not whole story. After the sprawling "1633" almost lost control of its multiplying story lines, this novel, and the other "1634" novels to come, will divy up the continent and will each be more tightly focused on a comprehensible set of problems, characters, and locales within the same year. Read them all and see the big picture after the fact. (What's going to happen in "1635" and later years as the saga of Grantville's citizens ramifies further? It boggles the mind.)
In this book we travel to Italy, with an American embassy from Grantville to Venice, led by humble religious leaders because only they can be spared from other desperate ventures. We do occasionally hear of other threads taking place elsewhere in the saga, but most of the pressing issues raised in "1633" are left in limbo. "Galileo" is particularly notable for the unusually prominent role played by religion in a fictional history, in an age characterized by fierce competition between Catholics and Protestant sects, and all the principalities and kingdoms flunting them, stirred up by marauding mercenaries. Since the detailed, or even general, nature of the affronts taken between the parties is completely obscure history to most of us, considerable digressions into creeds and legalisms are properly necessary. Nevertheless, they also abet the lack of "action," particularly the absence of battle action that readers would expect from Flint's earlier books, in this series and out. Oh, and the Galileo affair is not about the infamously terrible Inquisition of his beliefs we've all heard about. "Affairs" have other meanings.
It is even clearer that the target audience for this series is teenagers. A main sub-plot in this novel features a passel of addled teenage American brothers and their Venetian girlfriend and her family of revolutionarily inclined Stooges. Venice = Venus = Love, right? They cavort and stumble through an inane and picaresque conspiracy to free Galileo, who thought Earth wasn't the center of the Universe. What an indulgence of these brats. Meanwhile, the serious business of expanding the sphere of American influence so they can access essential trade items, like zinc, and withstand their French and Spanish enemies, is in the hands of a priest and a pastor from Grantville on embassy to Venice, the fading capital of Mediterranean trade (no, it is not "sinking" in this story; stinking, yes). The embassy engages in a great deal of religious discussion and maneuvering, eventually leading to a surprising opening to the Catholic church and the Pope in Rome. Teenagers will not particularly enjoy the disputation, but it will be much better than their sanitized textbooks and might seduce a few into understanding why separation of competing churches from the state actually is a vital principle of beneficial government.
I found the chapter-head quotations more confusing and irrelevant than helpful. The prose reads a bit more like military communiques than literature--but then I do like a better sense of place in novels. Don't confuse the reader with ambiguity: everbody is played mostly to type and is pretty obvious: subtle, gentle, foolish, steady, sneaky, dastardly, or so forth. It's fun to suddenly encounter historical people or the roots of modern words: Newton, ghetto, imbroglio, and so on. Clearly this novel is a side thread in the overarching saga of The Ring of Fire, but it develops one good character (Father Mazzare) and ends with considerable intimation and promise of an amazing development to come.
reviewed by lovieduvie on November 25, 2006 9:07 PM
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Painful! Boring! Can't take it! The first two books 1632 and 1633 are awesome books and highly recommended. But this one has no serious plot and cannot really have a serious plot because the main storyline is still being written in a different forthcoming book. This book contains a barely amuzing diplomatic mission by side characters that if shortened would make a wonderful addition in Grantsville Gazzette (the author's collection of short stories about things that are not crucial to the main storyline). The side characters are two catholic priests, one protestant minister, the town's pharmacist/pothead and his three sons and some other inconsequential characters. Nobody on that mission is one of the main characters in previous stories and for a good reason. They are boring. There are no military confrontations, interesting inventions, or anything of consequence. You can skip it and wait for the main storyline book. Mr. Flint, please don't take us for granted. Otherwise, you will find yourself with Robert Jordan in the discount section of the bookstore.
reviewed by literary on November 29, 2006 4:35 AM
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I felt that 1634 was the weakest book so far in the series. The Stone family boys getting mixed-up in a plot to rescue Galileo from the inquisition, with a sub-plot involving an attempt to assassinate Pope Urban and have this blamed on the USE.
Sounds interesting, but as it turns out though there was no compelling reason to try and rescue Galileo. If this story was a ship, that would be a key point where it runs aground on a coral reef. So why bother trying to rescue him? Because one of the Stone boys (Frank) developes a crush on a cute girl while the family is on official business in Venice, her radical family happens to run the little CoC in Venice and they come up with the wild idea of rescuing Galileo, then convince Frank and others to participate in the plan. Rather than being an enthusiastic and competent participant in that plan Frank is depicted as more of a love sick puppy who knows the rescue is a risky and poor idea but he repeatedly allows his hormones to get in the way of cool reason when making decisions. If this story was ship that had run aground on a coral reef, with this the ship is taking on water and hopelessly sinking. At 600+ pages though, it's like watching the Titanic sink in very slow motion.
By the time I finished this book I seriously wished that Mr. Flint had used 1634 to continue where 1633 left off...focusing more on the stories already started related to the "uptimers" and their companions who were stuck in the Tower of London in England, under seige in Amsterdam, working on the ironclads, and so on.
Sounds interesting, but as it turns out though there was no compelling reason to try and rescue Galileo. If this story was a ship, that would be a key point where it runs aground on a coral reef. So why bother trying to rescue him? Because one of the Stone boys (Frank) developes a crush on a cute girl while the family is on official business in Venice, her radical family happens to run the little CoC in Venice and they come up with the wild idea of rescuing Galileo, then convince Frank and others to participate in the plan. Rather than being an enthusiastic and competent participant in that plan Frank is depicted as more of a love sick puppy who knows the rescue is a risky and poor idea but he repeatedly allows his hormones to get in the way of cool reason when making decisions. If this story was ship that had run aground on a coral reef, with this the ship is taking on water and hopelessly sinking. At 600+ pages though, it's like watching the Titanic sink in very slow motion.
By the time I finished this book I seriously wished that Mr. Flint had used 1634 to continue where 1633 left off...focusing more on the stories already started related to the "uptimers" and their companions who were stuck in the Tower of London in England, under seige in Amsterdam, working on the ironclads, and so on.
reviewed by jerseymike on November 29, 2006 10:11 AM
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I tried to read the book twice and both times I stopped before finishing. I am quite suprised that this is a bestseller as this book is a rather poor representation of the series. If it weren't for the fact that New York Times Bestseller is printed on the cover of the paperback edition I would never have believed it. But I do believe that a lot of people bought the book in order to enjoy the extremely satisfying story set down in the first 2 books and the various anthologies.
I have read most of the reviews and the readers seem divided on whether the book is good or bad. But I know exactly why some readers thoroughly dislike this book.
First, this book is focused on the United States diplomatic mission to Venice. This is completely unlike 1632 and 1633, in which both books span the length of Europe. Some readers think that concentrating the locale made the story easy to follow, but I had no problem following the story in the other books.
Second, the book is less action oriented and more cloak and dagger, with too much cloak and not enough dagger. The battles fleshed out in the former books were epic in scope. Strangely, the only action in the first half of the book is the end of a soccer match covered at the beginning of Chapter 7.
Third, this book centers around "second" tier characters. Mike Stearns makes only a few appearances, which was very distracting as I kept flipping ahead to find him and other more memorable characters. If the book had been titled 1634: The Adventures of Father Mazzare, I doubt it would have sold many copies.
Fourth, the plot was very shoddy and failed to keep me interested. I won't go into what parts I did not enjoy as this is most of the book. Oddly enough, there is a surprise plot development that is uncovered in the first page excerpt. Why?
Last, I believe readers were expecting so much more. 1633 left us at a major cliffhanger and had us jonesing for more. In short 1634: The Galileo Affair was just plain UNSATISFYING. This book could have been so much better or it should never have been written. I keep wondering why this story was even printed, as it continues almost none of the plots laid down in 1632 and 1633.
There were only a few humorous moments that kept me reading:
The quirks of Magda, the new Stone stepmother
The story behind the design of the U.S.E.'s printed money
The escapades of the Stone brothers, especially Frank
1634: The Galileo Affiar is the "Never Say Never Again" of the series(You Bond enthusists know what I mean). I think I can almost separate what Eric Flint wrote from what Andrew Dennis wrote. But I wish that I knew for sure, so that I knew who to blame for this dog.
I have read most of the reviews and the readers seem divided on whether the book is good or bad. But I know exactly why some readers thoroughly dislike this book.
First, this book is focused on the United States diplomatic mission to Venice. This is completely unlike 1632 and 1633, in which both books span the length of Europe. Some readers think that concentrating the locale made the story easy to follow, but I had no problem following the story in the other books.
Second, the book is less action oriented and more cloak and dagger, with too much cloak and not enough dagger. The battles fleshed out in the former books were epic in scope. Strangely, the only action in the first half of the book is the end of a soccer match covered at the beginning of Chapter 7.
Third, this book centers around "second" tier characters. Mike Stearns makes only a few appearances, which was very distracting as I kept flipping ahead to find him and other more memorable characters. If the book had been titled 1634: The Adventures of Father Mazzare, I doubt it would have sold many copies.
Fourth, the plot was very shoddy and failed to keep me interested. I won't go into what parts I did not enjoy as this is most of the book. Oddly enough, there is a surprise plot development that is uncovered in the first page excerpt. Why?
Last, I believe readers were expecting so much more. 1633 left us at a major cliffhanger and had us jonesing for more. In short 1634: The Galileo Affair was just plain UNSATISFYING. This book could have been so much better or it should never have been written. I keep wondering why this story was even printed, as it continues almost none of the plots laid down in 1632 and 1633.
There were only a few humorous moments that kept me reading:
The quirks of Magda, the new Stone stepmother
The story behind the design of the U.S.E.'s printed money
The escapades of the Stone brothers, especially Frank
1634: The Galileo Affiar is the "Never Say Never Again" of the series(You Bond enthusists know what I mean). I think I can almost separate what Eric Flint wrote from what Andrew Dennis wrote. But I wish that I knew for sure, so that I knew who to blame for this dog.
reviewed by anexpert on November 29, 2006 7:09 PM