1632 is Eric Flint’s attempt to answer/explore a scenario that has intrigued a fair number of science fiction writers and fans for years: just how well would the modern world stack up if put in the middle of older times? I’ve read a few stories along these lines over the years, though this may be the most grandiose in scale of all of them. The basic plot of these tales drops a time traveler or two in the 1880s or the U.S. War of Independence or some such period where they use a superior knowledge to amaze ancient rubes and assume an exalted place in a previous time. Flint’s version does something similar, but 1632 drops the entire town of Grantville, West Virginia in the middle of Europe’s 30 Years’ War. And while the town’s technology and know-how do amaze the locals, most are savvy enough to assimilate the newfound knowledge from the future into their lives.

Unknown to the residents of Grantville, extraterrestrial art causes an circle of land around the town to be transported to the middle of Thuringia, Germany, in 1631. Nearby soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire have just finished sacking Magdeburg, killing tens of thousands of people. Now some are attacking farmhouses in the countryside just outside the ring of fire boundary between transported United States land and rural Germany.

Inside the town, the residents see smoke from these burning houses and head out to investigate, finding men with flintlocks and sabers raping a farmgirl and torturing the farmer. Being red-blooded American members of the United Mine Workers Association (U.M.W.A.), they intervene to save them. Their superior guns allow them to prevail easily.

Quickly, Grantville decides to establish a new United States and export a modified American law to as much of the countryside as it can convince to join them. 500 pages of the story then details the political and military adventures of the new United States as it challenges the Holy Roman Empire and makes alliances with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (already in Germany opposing the Catholic armies). In addition, Flint writes about the personal lives of some of the key residents of Grantville, both those who were transported with the ring of fire as well as some of the earliest recruits to the new nation.

The book is a very easy read. Flint includes lots of descriptions of everything: historical details, settings, action, people, and more. So you get lots and lots of information, though mostly it doesn’t feel too much like an info-dump. The pieces of information build on each other, but in a fairly sequential fashion. I didn’t have to refer pages back to integrate previous information with new revelations. The characters and their motivation are written about at the surface. Flint tells you who they are, what they look like, what they are doing, and what their motivations are. This isn’t a knock; it means that a reader can follow the story without having to read between the lines.

Flint pushes a union-left (I just made that term up, I think) version of the American psyche. Grantsville residents believe in America and the U.M.W.A. They brook no version of royalty nor elitism. Good old boy workers (mostly white) are just as capable as anyone else. They are upstanding, protecting the downtrodden and each other. Who better to bring the Bill of Rights to the peasants of central Germany?

Flint’s Grantsville has mostly moved past such things as racism. The men in charge don’t quite yet believe in women as equals, but they are open to the idea in select cases (the crack shot cheerleader, the smart Jewish refugee, the German prostitute with a steely heart). Everyone has a can-do attitude. Sometimes people disagree, but in Grantsville someone in an argument always backs off so that the disagreement can be resolved amicably, even if they still think they are right. Everyone in Grantsville has the good of the town at heart.

Flint writes in the afterword that he wrote the novel for a couple of reasons (in addition to the obvious ones). One is that he is tired of pervasive cynicism. Thus the overwhelmingly positive portrayal of Grantsville’s West Virginians and of their allies in the Thirty Years’ War, including Gustavus Adolphus. You can think, but his writing isn’t going to leave the reader with any substantially mixed messages. There are plenty of bad guys, but few of them get the privilege of having their perspective shown and none get shown as having rational reasons for what they do. Most of them get slaughtered in gory fashion. Flint also writes that he had to hold himself back from giving too many characters their just desserts. I have mixed feelings about all this, but more on that later.

The other stated reason he wrote the book agrees with my sensibilities more unambiguously. He didn’t think blue-collar workers get their due in literature today. The decision-makers in 1632 consist mostly of mine-workers, enlisted veterans of Viet Nam, teachers, and even students. While occasionally kings and generals make appearances, the scale of much of the battles described is such that captains and the like arre in charge. I think Flint is right, though I’m not sure how well anyone would really do in such a fish out of water scenario as is portrayed. You don’t become a seasoned military leader overnight, as happens in 1632.

And while I appreciate Flint’s attempt to be positive, I think that makes for an inaccurate picture. Would Americans really be so accepting of blacks and foreigners? I don’t think we’re there. Would American imperialism be so altruistic? Our history says no. And even when I accept those as given, would our can-do attitude really have such a smooth ride in a hostile environment? I’m skeptical. See, Grantsville never faces anything that even appears to actually threaten them until well after page 500. Armies of thousands? Easily dispatched. Lack of food stores for the winter? Surrounding countryside gladly supplies it. These Americans succeed like no others.

I was able to ignore my qualms for the duration of the story though. The narrative moves everything along fast and well enough that qualms can be dismissed for a time. But even if having a mixed picture of people is cynical, I think I prefer that generally speaking. Sometimes a person needs a little bit of escapism though. This version is harmless enough and fun reading.

Title: 1632
Author: Eric Flint
Cover creator: Larry Elmore
Series: The Ring of Fire; 1
Imprint / publisher: Baen
Format: Mass market paperback
Length: 592 p.
Publication date: February 2008 (originally 2000)
ISBN-10: 0-671-31972-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-671-31972-4