1633 (novel)

infobox Book |
name = 1633
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = First edition cover
author = David Weber & Eric Flint
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = 1632 series
genre = Alternate History, Novel
publisher = Baen Books
pub_date = August 2002
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback) & ebook
pages = 608 pp (1st ed, HC)
673 pp (1st ed, PB)
isbn = 1st ed, HC:
ISBN 0-7434-3542-7
1st ed, PB:
ISBN 0-7434-7155-5
preceded_by = 1632
followed_by = Ring of Fire (anthology) and
"In the Central European thread: (direct sequel)"

"1633" is one of "the first" two co-developed and closely related sequels to the novel "1632" in the best selling science fiction series created and edited or co-written by historian–writer Eric Flint.

"1633" is co-written with New York Times best selling author David Weber and hit the best selling list itself about a month after its release. "1633" is the second major novel in the series and together with the anthology ROF-1|i, the two sequels begin the series hallmarks of being a shared universe with collaborative writing being very common,

1632 loose ends

The trouble with absolutes, is they go absolutely wrong! EF's announced a contract for three single author novels in the series [as of Oct 2007]

in all the works but for the lead novel,

as well as one—far more unusual— which mixes many canonical anthologies with its works of novel length. This in part is because Flint wrote "1632" as a stand-alone novel, though with enough "story hooks" for an eventual sequel ("More on this in "History below."), and because Flint feels "history is messy", and the books reflect that real life is not a smooth polished linear narrative flow from the pen of some historian, but is instead clumps of semi-related or unrelated happenings that somehow sum together where different people act in their own self-interests.

Premise

The series begins in our Modern era on May 31, 2000 during a small town wedding when the small West Virginia town of Grantville trades places in both time and geographic location with a nearly unpopulated countryside region—holding but a few burning farm buildings complete with murdered peasant farmers [Cite 1632|ch=Prologue|q=|pp=pp. 2-3] — within what would become Germany during the convulsions of the Thirty Years' War.

Flint's goal was to explore an ensemble protagonist with limited resources (the town of 3,000 and everything else that was in the six mile circle struck by the Assiti Shard) and then to project its impact and influence on history.

In the event, the town comes to be lead by the charismatic former pro-boxer 16char|Mike Stearns who decides on the third day that the correct course for the town to follow is to be inclusionary, to welcome the many refugees from the wars ravaging Germany, and to branch out and grow as quickly as possible—to launch the American Revolution "150 years early", and found a "NUS!32". The Grantvillers undertake to defend south central Thuringia with the aid of a cavalry detachment from king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden's 16inst|Green Regiment, and 16batl| |p=fights several battles which convince various polities to join the NUS.

By early 1632, their informal alliance with Gustavus and with Jews, their manufacturing capabilities, and their defeats of Catholic armies draws serious and well designed concerted efforts to attack the "republican cancer" growing in Thuringia, and Grantville itself is 16batl|Battle of Grantville|p=attacked teaching Stearns that he needs a protector to "buy time", even as the "up-timers" have determined that to retain as much technology as possible they need to "gear down" to a nineteenth century technology base while their modern equipment is still operable.

"1633" continues where "1632" left off. Most of the novel details various political machinations of the new "United States" and the attempts of Cardinal Richelieu to nullify the threat posed by the technological advantage the up-timers have given to Gustavus Adolphus and his "CPoE". Richelieu completely changes France's foreign policy and forms an alliance aimed squarely at the NUS and Gustavus called the League of Ostend. In the new year Stearns sends emissaries looking for allies, some of whom end up behind enemy lines as they already belong to the secret League of Ostend, which announces it' presence in the 16batl|Battle of Four Fleets. The Dutch Republic nearly falls and Stearns' emissary voluntarily stays behind, becoming trapped in the 16batl|Siege of Amsterdam.

At this point, the series starts to diverge greatly from the actual history of the 17th Century, in no small part because the news of a town from the future brought spies and emissaries, and a fair number of encyclopedias and history textbooks found their way into European courts. One theme of the series is of down-timer leaders trying to change, hasten or head off their histories while the acts of ordinary citizens going about their day to day affairs and of the leaders of Grantville effect more fundamental societal and political changes.

History

With plans to write several other novels spanning several years before even turning to the thought of a "1632" sequel, speculation about the possible directions the neohistory might run toward in a sequel, however ran rampant and essentially took over his author-to-fan web chat sub-forum (name is a play on words keyed to his first novel) "Shadow of Demons" in early 2000, at Baen's Bar, and quickly lead to a separate forum "1632 Tech Manual" which focused on the likely historical developments and technological evolution in the neohistory established by the ending of "1632".

That frenzied enthusiasm led to other hallmark of the series, its extremely accurate historical research with a goal to be as realistic as possible given the departure point established by Flint in the well researched first novel. Part of that is Flint's native bent and masters degree in history—his only prior series displays the same depth of historical research— part Virginia DeMarce's doctorate and specialty, and a large part the collaborative mind-melding that occurred in "1632 Tech Manual" and the self-styled "Loyal Minions" who make up the offshoot groups: the 1632 Research Committee and 1632 Editorial Board, both of which came into play by 2003. With all that support, it was pretty difficult to not write a sequel, and when he opened the universe "early" specifically to other writers for short stories that would ROF-1|i|s=establish canon and David Weber (with whom he was collaborating on a project in Weber's best selling fictional universe then offered to co-write in the series—the two shoved other projects aside and churned out this book.

A mix of methodology

In the series the major novels carry the majority of internationally significant events, but the characters who perform the action are all too likely to have been introduced in one of the "ground-eye view" short stories which build deep background and form a backdrop for the overarching story lines. Flint is on record of stating "history is messy" but is not the stuff of the linear narrative cleaned up, categorized and written into a history book— and that he wanted t capture some sense of how individual actions on the behalf of one's own self-interest actually form the essence of history, not some idealized superman controlling the throttle and steering wheel at the heart of changing events.

To a great extent, the short stories are fundamental to the main novels in the series, introducing characters and development which play again later in the longer works. Much of writing in Ring of Fire (anthology) (ROF) annedated this work, and events in this novel were correlated with the stories in that which in many cases, cover events and personalities referenced in this at the least, moreover, there is not a single story in the anthology which happens after the start of this book, they all take place ahead of its exposition—the temptation to get the best selling Weber's marquee name on the series was simply too good a marketing move to ignore for the late Jim Baen, at least taken together with the gamble it would have been to produce an anthology as the second book in a series.

One ROF story, "In the Navy", by Weber is a direct prequel to a main plot element in this book and its plot threads' direct sequel .

Premise

Characters in "1633"

:In the following lists, " [Art.] ←" indicates an article link, as to a historic figure, or that the character is important or notable enough within the series for an article. The longer name link accesses a list article giving some details as to the character or historical character is utilized in the fictionalized universe.

Historical figures

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Fictional characters

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Miscellaneous

Notes and references

*The full text of the novel with David Weber is available on a CDROM bundled with many later Hardcover works in the series including "34TBW" and from the Baen Free Library (see below).

1633 Release details

*eBook/CDROM version (June 2002) Baen DOI: 0743435427

*1633 2002, USA, Baen Books (ISBN 0-7434-3542-7), Pub date August 2002, hardcover (First edition)

*2003, USA, Baen Books (ISBN 0-7434-7155-5), July 2003, paperback

Notes