Book Review: 1632 by Eric Flint

Despite the name Eric Flint’s 1632 is not one of those boring textbook like books about early modern history. 1632 is actually an amazing work of fiction. It follows a West-Virginian town that gets transported through time right smack into the middle of the thirty years war.

For me, the thirty years war wasn’t that special. If you were to compare it to other wars in that era, then the Thirty Year’s war didn’t really cut the sugar (that’s right I said sugar). Nothing amazing or miraculous happened during the actual thirty years war. The only thing that made this war a little different was that the Danes, Swedes and the Scots all fought against the Catholics during that one war, however compared to something like the war of Spanish Succession it isn’t really all that special.

At least not until you have the fictional town of Grantville jump into the fray with their new beliefs of liberty and freedom. With their modern weapons and knowledge of our present day technology, one small town shakes up all of history. The thing about 1632 is that unlike most books in the alternative history genre, it has a really humorous narration that tells you little known facts and details that makes the story so much more compelling and is actually character centred as opposed to events centred. It even has romantic story lines in the whole book, which just adds to the full effect

Overall 5 out of 5 stars