1634: The Ram Rebellion

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1634: The Ram Rebellion
Hardcover anthology cover art.
Author Eric Flint, Virginia DeMarce, et al.
Country United States
Language English
Series 1632 series
aka Ring of Fire series
Genre(s) Alternate history novel, though organized as an anthology
Publisher Baen Books
Publication date April 25, 2006 (hc)
November 27th, 2007 (mmpb)
Media type Print (Hardback)
Mass Market Paperback
e-book
Pages 512 pages, 720 pages (pb)
ISBN (hc) ISBN 1-4165-2060-0
(pb) ISBN-10: ISBN 1-4165-7382-8
ISBN-13: ISBN 978-1-4165-7382-1
Preceded by In publication order:
1634: The Galileo Affair
(same timeline, different theatre)
Followed by In publication order:
1635: The Cannon Law (only semi-related events, 1st direct sequel to the Galileo Affair [Southern Europe] thread)
but has direct overlapping time relationship to the other sequels in the "main plot" thread:
1634: The Galileo Affair
and 1634: The Baltic War
and 1634: The Bavarian Crisis (This is most direct sequel)

1634: The Ram Rebellion is the seventh published work in the 1632 series, and is the third work to establish what is best considered as a "main plot line or thread" of historical speculative focus that are loosely organized and classified geographically.[1] The initial main thread is called the "Western and North-Central Europe thread" (encompassing northern and western Germany, Denmark, England, France, the Low Countries, Sweden and the Baltic; the second plot line, encompassing events in Italy, Spain, the Mediterranean region, and France, the "South European thread", and this book can be considered the starting novel of the "South-Central/South-East thread" being set in southern Germany, Austria, Bavaria, and Bohemia. This geographically organized plot thread actually began in Ring of Fire in Flint's novelette "The Wallenstein Gambit" which is set in Bohemia, Austria, and Germany, which tied into stories in various Grantville Gazettes.

Contents

The book is hard to classify as it is an oddity, as acknowledged by series creator Eric Flint in the forward; an anthology in fact, with several longer novelettes sandwiching seemingly unrelated short stories under a (hidden for a while) overarching story line that is capped off by a short novel that finally brings all the seemingly unrelated and disparate contents together in the latter part of the book. In a way, it is representative of the series as a whole which as a rule develops a story line with several groups of people tending their own affairs in divers places which affairs intersect and interact upon one another as each book progresses. Weber uses a similar technique in his best selling Honorverse series.

Readers thus are given an insight into and inkling of what motivates overt actions, a sense of the dilemmas faced by the various characters, yet the fun comes as the events unfold and interact in the neo-history Flint, et al. paint in each work—in most cases, the authors manage to not telegraph the outcome and surprise the reader by the unfolding of the revealed events. The Ram Rebellion, despite its odd parentage, is categorized by the publishing industry as a novel, and one of five (minimum) planned works set in the year 1634 in the parallel universe established in the first novel, 1632.

As the second of the (at least) five 1634 books, it was out barely three months before the first book set in 1635 1635: The Cannon Law in the series made it onto store shelves in the rapidly growing series. Historians Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce are the editors, as well as contributors of the essential story thread that make up the bulk this work, as they are the prime talent behind most of the 1632 based historical research, which is very well done. Paula Goodlett is an acknowledged contributor, and it is her short stories about an incorrigible and very naughty Ram (male sheep) which is constantly misbehaving and giving trouble to its owner (presented in this book in humorous vignettes) that inspired the title and the story theme. Down-timers outside the immediate sphere of influence of the New United States take to reading and dissecting up-timer tracts and literature such as Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and when reading the Ram humor pieces in up-timer newspapers believe the naughty Ram stories are allegorical suggestions inciting rebellion. 1634: The Ram Rebellion is currently available as an ebook, paperback, and a hardcover novel.

The overarching backdrop of the 1632 alternative-history universe (colloquially, the "1632-verse", or technically, the first "Assiti Shards Universe") is that the fictional town of Grantville West Virginia is transposed in time and space with a portion of 1631 Thuringia adjacent to the Thuringerwald and Harz Mountains. The 3000 Americans have a limited resource base, limited "Higher Technology" (a mere 369 years head start), limited man-power, and finite firearms and assets. They also have an attitude and decide to launch the American Revolution "150 years early" as stated in a speech by key protagonist Mike Stearns. Stearns turns out to have a gift for political maneuvering that would please Machiavelli, but his math and history needs some work.

Unlike most works in the 1632 series, much of this book is written from the standpoint of common people "in the street", including Germans trying to cope with Grantville, West Virginia, up-timers trying to cope with their new world around Grantville, and both trying to deal with the problems of two widely different cultures meeting in the new United States of Europe. These merging dynamics are the milieu shaping stories Flint felt necessary to include even though they are set in 1631—1632. Their impact extends throughout the book and into 1634, as well as across political boundaries and battle lines as the historical imperatives developed in this book extend into the direct sequel 1634: The Bavarian Crisis.

[edit] Story line premise

The premise posed in the series by historian/author Flint is what might happen if modern political thought backed by some modern knowledge and technology (rapid fire firearms, power plant, computers, modern library, internal combustion, flight, etc.) were to appear in one of history's most turbulently vile and Machiavellian periods.

Flint creates the fictional town of Grantville, West Virginia (modeled on the real town of Mannington, West Virginia) and drops it and its powerplant abruptly into the new time-space, through a side effect of an alien technology ("Assiti Shards"), transported back in time into the middle of the Thirty Years' War, in the German province of Thuringia during the middle of a wedding (accounting for the presence of a few characters not native to the town). Action, conflict, reaction, humor, and extremely interesting character development quickly follow in the fast paced tale as Grantville led by Mike Stearns, president of the local United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) suddenly have to cope with the raging war, its armies, language barriers, religious suppression (A pretext for the less noble Machiavellian affairs of state by the eras superpowers that killed millions)

There are many actual historical figures occupying prominent or supporting roles in the novels as they react to the ripples of change as they radiate from Grantville. The main article covering this aspect is currently 1632 characters and the series article.

[edit] The Ram Rebellion theme

[edit] "The Birdie Tales"

The two Larkin "Birdie" Newhouse tales along with two flashback vignettes by Flint begin the Ram Rebellion book, all four set in the weeks immediately after the Ring of Fire. In the Flint stories which are sandwiched around the Birdie tales, Mike Stearns goes back to school under the tutelage of The Schoolmarm from Hell, Melissa Mailey, also known as Melissa the Hun to the students "who thought she was basically okay—Mike himself had been one of them"[2]. Stearns has a problem, he has to get a handle on likely complications from the local population, as the stories are set just a few days after he is elected as Chairman of the Emergency Committee. Mz. Mailey is true to form however and he leaves her living room carrying several very thick history books on European history in the era, and muttering under his breath, "Point three, I almost wish I hadn't".

Birdie Newhouse has an immediate problem, he's a farmer with most of his farm's arable land 300 years off and a continent away. The stories by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett explore the alien land practices and ownership of down-time Germany as Birdie seeks to gain additional lands. Land sales are rare, worse, the lawyers are in control and there are three general levels of vested interest: The tenants, have certain rights and obligations over and above monetary rent while leases are generally for three generations or the lesser of 99 years. In between the owner in fact, and the tenants is usually a monetary transaction which gives the rents to any number of claimants—depending upon the finances of the landholding family. The claimants all have a say in the farm operation to some extent, as do the occupants of the farm villages, which also have the right to disapprove or accept new co-farmers, for the land is farmed co-operatively with another set of obligations and entitlements. Birdie can't just go an buy a piece of land, he has to buy it from three different and diverse groups of people... and get them all to agree to terms. As the story notes, seventeenth century Germany was a lawyers paradise.

[edit] "Enter the Ram"

Enter the Ram is the subtitle of the second part of the work ...

[edit] The Trouble in Franconia

With the example of future Grantville, a peasant revolt becomes a revolutionary movement in the fractured Holy Roman Empire south and east of Thuringia while the Machiavellian maneuvers in the neohistorical governments and various field armies now dance to counter-act those aimed at the Americans' new heartland. Up-timers, from the original USA space-time want the serfs to succeed and liberate themselves--but also know what a bloodbath the French Revolution became and various individuals act to help one and prevent the others. Avoiding that path will take all sorts of resources and efforts, and Americans from both uptime and down-time act resolutely to mitigate the problems, diplomacy to head off wars headed by authoritarians threatened by the new American ideals, and a deft appreciation of when not to fight and dangle an irresistible carrot instead.

[edit] 1632 as a Shared-World Series

1632, the first and lead novel in the complex series, is an upbeat science fiction alternate history novel. Originally intended to be a single story, it has grown into an open-ended series of seven published books with at least five books under advanced contract, plus three related ebooks likely to follow later in print.

Published about the same time Baen Books launched an author-to-fan forum (Baen's Bar), a thread quickly led to discussions of likely subsequent events. These aided Flint greatly with the need to research the likely outcome and limiting circumstances within the timeframe, and spurred creative juices from the shear diversity of viewpoints posted. The author invited other authors to 'play in his milieu', and help define it (as was done in C. J. Cherryh's Merovingen Nights series, based on her novel Angel with the Sword (1985)). The initial result was the novel 1633, co-written with David Weber, and the anthology Ring of Fire, modified to be consistent across all the storylines within both. Each helped shape the other in the early development of the shared world.

Before 1970, such joint efforts were usually side stories careful not to complicate the main storyline of the hosting author, but the growth of the "shared world" concept since then has accustomed authors wishing to do it to juggling planning and editing cooperatively. Flint, apparently thinking it new and unique, inadvertently went Old School, inviting not only other professionals but his fans to participate, as Marion Zimmer Bradley had done for her Darkover series many years ago (apparently he was unaware of how this eventually resulted in a plagiarism suit by a fan fiction writer which prevented the publication of one of MZB's own novels and made fanfic controversial). Fans wrote 10 book-length works (ebooks included) in less than four years (by April 2006), which is not notable in fan fiction, compared with those produced by popular movies. With a firmly established and outlined milieu, the storyline expanded into many threads. This complexity and participation is part of 1632's fan appeal, and its continuation.

As well, many short stories have developed under Flint's editorship, anthologies collected as integral parts of the milieu development (reminiscent of the 1970s "shared world" of the Thieves' World series edited by Robert Asprin). This permits in-depth looks at the milieu from the viewpoint of Flint's minor characters at movers and shakers of the main storyline (the Novels). Flint has said that some of these will become major characters in later novels.

[edit] The series thus far

Main article: 1632 series

1633 continues the story first in print, one of two co-developed and closely related sequels in the series. The other jointly developed work is an anthology called The Ring of Fire. The whole series interweaves anthologies with novels, where the former generally provide richer background, while the latter carry the many main story threads. There are, in addition, two different types of anthologies: Ring of Fire volumes that feature short stories by established authors, and Grantville Gazettes that feature fan fiction managed and edited by Flint. All published stories are thereafter canon for the universe.

In 1632 Grantville's residents have to face the reality of European religious wars and prejudices, limited manpower and resources and two camps one favoring a defensive isolationist posture headed by John Chandler Simpson and one very daringly American, the let's reach out and expand peacefully faction headed by union president Mike Stearns square off. Stearns wins the first round and becomes head of the emergency committee. He delegates drawing up a constitution to a subgroup which includes the towns only real politician, Mayor Henry Dreeson, and puts the rest of the committee to work organizing war refugee measures, mid and long term planning, and formation of military home defense forces. Soon, the up-timers are dealing with Alexander Mackay, a Scottish cavalry officer in the service of Gustavus Adolphus II, the king of Sweden and biggest defender of Protestantism on the continent. While the main war is fought elsewhere, MacKay's unit and the Grantvillers undertake the defense of several neighboring down-timer communities threatened by mercenary units employed by the Catholic League. The up-timers success in these actions and the purchase orders originating from Grantville, and the easing of the refugees situation in central Europe soon has local towns thinking about the novel offer to join the New United States (NUS) as the Grantvillers begin to call themselves. As time passes, the catholic authorities digest the news (and loss of army units) to the new power, and Cardinal Richelieu reacts negatively to the thought of Gustavus being aligned to a rich strong central Germanic power and conspires with Wallenstein to raid and destroy the Americans. This battle ends with Stearns realizing he needs a protector, and negotiating with Gustavus to establish the Confederated Principalities of Europe (CPoE) with the NUS as an independent republic in a confederacy of states, some conquered, his Sweden, and a few Germanic allies.

The CPoE is at war, as 1633 begins, and the New United States (NUS) state is its arsenal and paying for many of the bills. Gustavus survives past his OTL historic death in battle, and continues hammering the Catholic League forces so hard it dissolves. The novelette "The Wallenstein Gambit" plays a central role in this occurrence, and as the NUS sends out ambassadorial parties Richelieu plots additional actions resulting in the formation of a new alliance aimed squarely at Gustavus and the CPoE so the NUS can be dealt with. The alliance includes Protestant Denmark, Protestant England, Catholic Spain, Catholic Austria-Hungry, Catholic France and is called the League of Ostend. In England, the embassy headed by Stearns sister Rita Simpson is imprisoned in the tower of London without being allowed to present it's credentials to King Charles II. The Embassy leaving Paris for the Netherlands is set upon by pirates sent by the Cardinal, who all but declared the Ring of Fire the work of the devil and essentially declared war upon the 'New United States' and Confederated Principalities of Europe, although very suavely with a flare for urbanity.

The League of Ostend mounts a major naval action and invasion, where the Dutch navy is all but destroyed by the Spanish, English and French fleets—the battle beginning with the Dutch leading their French and English allies into battle against the Spanish—only to discover when fully engaged, the English and French had switched sides. This was a result of an idea Richileu's spies had gotten from Grantville—the English and French had "Sealed Orders" to maintain secrecy and prevent the League formation from reaching either the Dutch or the NUS. Rebecca Stearns had in fact figured out the realignment and had her warnings to the Prince of Orange ignored by the intermediaries advising the Prince. This redowned to her credit with him thereafter, but the result of the battle allowed a Spanish invasion to land behind his defenses, and in a few mere weeks, 80-85% of the Low Countries was reconquered by the Spanish, the Dutch under siege in Amsterdam, and its remnant fleet far away in the Caribbean islands seeking refitting. Meanwhile, as the fall of 1633 sets in, the combined Danish, English and French fleets sailed into the Baltic and Stearns and Gustavus scramble to defend the parts of conquered northern Germany as a combined Danish-French army also attacks by land, while Gustavus's forces are scattered defending against incursions along one border or another. The 'New United States' navy and nascent air force undertake the defense of the Baltic Sea port of Wismar in the Wismar Bay, as Gustavus needs at least one port in Germany to resist and get supplies and reinforcements from Sweden. He dispatches his most able counselor and advisor to see to the defense of Sweden itself and the raising of a relief army for the spring of 1634.

[edit] See also

NOTE: All the following eBooks are produced in multiple unencrypted formats on Webscriptions.net, including RTF suitable for most word processor  applications software.
Free but partial version of the Ring of Fire anthology, the co-sequel (with 1633) to 1632.

[edit] Miscellaneous

  • The Ram Rebellion spot-covers local events and a few related diplomatic discussions from a few days after the ROF (May-June 1631 in ) to October[3] in the fall of 1634—giving it the largest time footprint of the four—though narrowly focused. The short novel that concludes the work begins in late August 1633 and overlaps many of the shorter works earlier in the book. Two of the three other books set in 1634 refer to the events in the work (usually as the "troubles in Franconia") setting its canonical place in the "greater" neohistorical international politics covered in the other two works.
Preceded by
1633 (novel)
(in plot line thread)
Grantville Gazette II
(in publication order)		 1634: The Ram Rebellion Succeeded by
(Coincide in time with:)
1634: The Galileo Affair and
1634: The Bavarian Crisis and
1634: The Baltic War
(in plot line thread)
1635: The Cannon Law
(in publication order)
v • d • e
Ring of Fire/1632 series by Eric Flint
Main plot threads
Main series
1632 • 1633 • Ring of Fire • 1634: The Galileo Affair • 1634: The Ram Rebellion • 1635: The Cannon Law • 1634: The Baltic War • 1634: The Bavarian Crisis • The Anaconda Project  • Ring of Fire II • 1635: The Eastern Front  • 1635: Soldier of Bohemia
The Grantville Gazettes
Grantville Gazette I • Grantville Gazette II • Grantville Gazette III • Grantville Gazette IV • Gazette V • Gazette VI • Gazette VII • Gazette VIII • Gazette IX • Gazette X • Gazette XI • Gazette XII • Gazette XIII • Gazette XIV • Gazette XV • Gazette XVI • Gazette XVII
v • d • e
Flag of Thuringia    Urban and rural districts in the Free State of Thuringia in Germany    Flag of Germany
Urban districts
Rural districts

[edit] References

  1. ^ 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.”
  2. ^ Flint, 1634: The Ram Rebellion , p. 5, in "Cookbooks"
  3. ^ Flint, and DeMarce. The Ram Rebellion, 494 (of 496). “Magdeburg, October 1634”