1634: THE BALTIC WAR

A Baen Book

Written by Eric Flint & David Webber

Copyright 2007 by Eric Flint & David Webber

Cover art by Tom Kidd
Maps by Randy Asplund




In 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint and David Webber, a book in the alternate history shared universe 1632 series, the book takes place in the year 1634. Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden, and Emperor of the United States of Europe, prepares to counter-attack the countries of France, Spain, England, and Denmark who are threatened by the power of Sweden and the time-lost Americans of West Virginia.

The Baltic War wraps up the story of the captive Grantville diplomatic mission who were being held in the Tower of London while a commando unit is sent in by Mike Sterns to rescue them. While I have heard of the Tower of London, I never knew that the Tower of London was so famous for being a prison before I read this series of books. What is great about the 1632 books is that there is a lot of history and geography for this time period that I am learning from, even if it does deal with an alternate history.

I liked the fact that Admiral Simpson is building the USE Navy's ironclad ships. I appreciated the ironclad ships and their use in the book a lot more than I have ever had in Civil War history books. Often times Eric Flint writes a story based on what the artist has drawn for Flint's cover - and I got the feel of the cover through Flint's writing. It was also fun to see the captured USE naval officer Eddie Cantrell being seduced by the Danish King's teen aged Daughter, while a peasant German soldier wondering if he can develop a relationship with a social worker from the future was very romantic to read about.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Grantville Gazette III

Baen Publishing Enterprises

Edited by Eric Flint

Copyright 2007

Grantville Gazette III, a magazine anthology set during the 1632 cross-time alternate universe, edited by Eric Flnt, is the third in the series of the Grantville Gazette magazine anthologies that contains both short fiction and non-fiction articles.

For the fiction in the book, the stories dealing with the ordinary 1632 characters were much more interesting than the stories dealing with the "uptime" characters, mostly because these ordinary characters have to deal with the ramifications of the uptime technology and ideas. The non-fiction articles are very informative as to how to integrate modern industrious technology with the 1632 technology.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.