1634: The Baltic War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 1634: The Baltic War | |
.jpg/300px-N06-1634-_The_Baltic_War_cover_(Src-eflint_dot_net).jpg) |
|
| Author | Eric Flint and David Weber |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Tom Kidd |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | 1632 series |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Baen Books |
| Publication date | May 1, 2007 (eb) & (hc) November 1, 2008 (pb)[1] |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) and e-book |
| Pages | 448 pages |
| ISBN | ISBN 141652102X e-book ID: SKU: 141652102X |
| Preceded by | 1633 |
| Followed by | 1634: The Bavarian Crisis |
1634: The Baltic War is the long awaited direct novel sequel to 1633 in the collaboratively written shared universe 1632 series by its two best established authors, David Weber and Eric Flint. Flint has stated it is really the second half of one big novel.[2] A sequel to both the first-of-type sequels, Ring of Fire (anthology) and 1633 (novel), it had to await schedule co-ordination by the two best-selling authors, which proved difficult and delayed the work in the eyes of fans by nearly two years. It continues the 'Main' or 'Central European plot thread'[2] centered on the newly organized United States of Europe (USE) birthed in Central Germany under the protection-by-arms of Emperor Gustavus Adolphus (in the previous novel 1633) and in particular, the role of the citizens of Grantville, now of Thuringia, and the capital city of Magdeburg have to play on the world stage in the alternate history collection with its hallmark deep and careful historical research. With the stability imposed by the protection of Gustavus's armies, up-timers began migrating to other locales in the neohistories world as the year 1633 closed. This is no where so evident as in the titles of the series main works:
- 1634: The Galileo Affair —details the experiences of an trade and diplomatic embassy sent to the Most Serene Republic of Venice, attempting on the one hand to gather in strategic raw commodities via Venice's still viable but weakening trade strength, but also to seek allies, for Venice has stood in opposition to Austria before, and the USE has been isolated by the League of Ostend. Inadvertently the embassy's youth element comes to folly leading to a later sequel set in Rome, while the Pope decides to take the uptimers measure personally, and summons the USE Ambassador, priest Larry Mazzarre, to the Vatican leaving the embassy in the hands of the grieving Assistant Ambassador Sharon Nichols.
- 1634: The Ram Rebellion —details the experiences of an administrative team sent to run the captured Catholic properties in the province of Franconia, enforce religious freedom and toleration, and incidently, in their spare time deal with several small armies holed up behind stout fortifications that Gustavus's army conveniently bypassed. Along the way, the peasants revolt, so as Europe looks on askance at the American administration, they are "living in interesting times".
- 1634: The Bavarian Crisis —details the experiences of two unlikely "tough old biddies", Veronica "Ronnie" (Richter) Dreeson and Mary Simpson who as wife of Grantville's Mayor, and wife of Admiral John Chandler Simpson just have to be up to something in the mindset of Europe's spys, spymasters, and political figures when they take a trip into the Upper Palatinate on personal business. In the ensuing unintended consequences several plots run into and jinx one another so that the two become embroiled in the escape from a awful marriage-to-be between the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor and his biggest ally, the new-widower ruling the Archduchy of Bavaria. While that sequence runs amuck, an agent and his son set out on a search for the two prominent Grantville ladies, who "have gone missing" in Franconia; other Americans are seducing the Cardinale-Infante of Spain, Don Fernando away from loyalties to his brother, King Philip IV of Spain, and Mike Stearns and his spymaster get into the mix along with an embassy sent to Switzerland—which happens, in the end, to summon one of Gustavus's armies under the redoubtable General Horn for a rescue as a nominally French mercenary army invades.
This "second half novel" neatly wraps up two plot threads left hanging in Flint and Weber's 1633 (2002): the resolution of the captive Grantville diplomatic mission that Charles I is holding in the Tower of London, and how Admiral Simpson's awkward looking fleet of ironclad warships managed to get out of the Elbe past the Imperial Free City of Hamburg to affect the lifting of siege of Luebeck. The book also details ground battles as the Americans have been busy upgrading Gustavus's army into a highly trained professional army at the expense of the mercenaries so prevalent in the era.
[edit] About the 1632 series
The novel was written as a stand-alone experiment but soon under pressure to produce a sequel, became a shared universe series and a exercise in collaborative fiction "on steroids" growing at six or more book length works per year. Having captured an immense following and taken advantage of a nurturing publisher with a dynamic author-to-fan talk forum to collectively brainstorm about the ramifications of the excellent historical research and premise in the novel 1632, the over-scheduled creator Eric Flint decided the best course would be to get some help and solicited manuscripts for what became Ring of Fire while concurrently co-writing with best selling author David Weber the first novel sequel 1633. By the middle of 2004 all the books currently in print were outlined and slotted into niches in the series—which to the dismay of fans suffered delays while the two lead writers tried repeatedly to synchronize their schedules close enough to write 1634: The Baltic War, which lead a parade of titles where the release was held up least plot details be ruined. Subsequent titles will likely not suffer similar delays, but the number of titles released in a given year is limited by agreement between Flint and the publisher.
[edit] Main (Central Europe) thread
- Novel: 1634, 2000.
- Novel: 1633, 2003.
- Anthology: Ring of Fire, 2004.
| Preceded by 1633 (within plot thread) 1635: The Cannon Law (in publication order) |
1634: The Baltic War | Succeeded by 1634: The Bavarian Crisis |
|
|||||||||||
[edit] References
- ^ Baen Publishing online schedule. Retrieved on 2008-05-29.
- ^ a b Flint, Eric (Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 03:18:37). Well... It's more complicated than that (1632 Tech Manual "Essay" archived at 1632.org now). Retrieved on 2007-10-21. “THE BALTIC WAR is the direct sequel to 1633. Truth be told, it's actually the second half of the same novel. I originally plotted that story as one novel, not two.”
