1634: The Galileo Affair

March 29, 2004
After the emotionally draining tragedy that concluded Flint and David Weber's 1633
(2002), Flint (The Philosophical Strangler
) and newcomer Dennis provide a more lighthearted interlude in Renaissance Italy. Grantsville, a West Virginia mining community that a black hole transported back to the Thirty Years War, now forms the kernel of a fledgling democratic Germany. An embassy to Venice is led by Grantsville's only Roman Catholic priest, whose revelations about Vatican II meet a surprisingly unhostile reception. When the pope appoints this priest advocate for Galileo at his trial for supporting the Copernican theory, teenagers from uptime, combined with local Italian sympathizers, are convinced by Cardinal Richelieu's agents to stage a rescue mission whose assured failure will discredit the Americans' efforts. In many ways this reads like a Tom Clancy techno-thriller set in the age of the Medicis with the Three Stooges thrown in for seasoning. In the tradition of Italy's commedia dell'arte, the rollicking plot serves to bring two lovers together despite formidable obstacles. It's refreshing to read an alternate history where the problems of two people do amount to a hill of beans, which isn't surprising, since all the installments in this popular series to date have focused as much on ordinary people as on kings and generals. The closing chase sequence is literally a riot.

July 1, 2004
Adult/High School-Fans of 1632 (2000), 1633 (2002), and Ring of Fire (2004, all Baen) will find that while 1634 is long on political intrigue and romance, it lacks the fast-paced military action that was the highlight of those books. It's also clear from the ending that another one is in the works. The back story is the continuing adventures of the citizens of the small mining town of Grantsville, WV, transported to 17th-century Germany, then in the middle of the Thirty Years' War. This fourth installment centers around a trade mission to Venice that leads into an attempt to free Galileo from his trial and house arrest by the Inquisition. That Galileo turns out to be crotchety and unpleasant instead of a noble defender of truth only adds to the mix. This is a good choice for fans of alternative history, although those who prefer the more serious work of Harry Turtledove may find it too upbeat for their taste. Also, familiarity with previous titles is a must as the authors place readers right in the middle of the action.-Sallie Barringer, Walnut Hills High School, Cincinnati, OH

Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2004
Flint and a new collaborator take his successful alternate-history saga to Italy and, once again, shift focus to a new set of protagonists. Tom Stone travels to Venice to found a modern pharmaceutical industry, with some modern notions of financing introduced by his wife and Sharon Nichols. The latter, the most subtly drawn character, finds in Venice a vision of the future different from the one she conjured after her lover Hans Richter's death. Stone's boys ride and otherwise travel to the rescue of a Galileo much less endangered--and much less agreeable--than they have been led to believe, nearly causing a diplomatic disaster while behaving rather like the Keystone Kops. Meanwhile, Father Mazzare has to deal with the church hierarchy in a way that justifies his faith and brings on stage some of the complexities of seventeenth-century theology. If readers may be the better for having the shared-world anthology " Ring of Fire" (2004) at hand, they won't be the worse, nor less delighted, for plunging into this volume without it. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)