1632... ok 1635

[Number three]

I am most of the way through 1635:The Eastern Front. While reading it, there is some discussion of the Turks and I had one of those logic jumps... How would the Grantville attitude towards the Turks be different if the RoF happened September 12, 2001 instead of before it?

btw 1635:TEF is ok so far, not great but it is good to get regular POV time with Sterns and a few others.

 

[Tyr]

Interesting idea.
I think 12/9/01 is a bit early though, the anti-muslim idiocy has yet to solidify, put it a few months later though and...yeah.
The smart folk will still recognise the ottomans for what they are; a enemy of a enemy therefore a friend. And far enough away to be no real threat to Grantville anyway. And of course a thousand miles away idealogically from uptime jihadist nutters.
The more ignorant up timers though could be pretty damn anti-islamic...


1635:TEF...what plot line is that?
I like the main plot line, I've read that. I absolutely detested the canon law one though and found the ram rebellion pretty meh.

 

[loughery111]

There would be some differences among the conservative factions, but Stearns especially seems to have a good grasp of history and therefore understands that the Ottomans, and Turks in general, were a bulwark against extremism for much of their history. Also, that Islamic extremism really only came into its own in the Arab world when they were removed from power over much of it. Thus, I would imagine he would range between overtly sympathetic with some aspects of their government and annoyed at the way their Christians and Jews are treated.

 

[Number three]

TEF is as you would imagine related to Gustavus' advance to the east into Poland. The battle scenes are fairly brief. There is a fair amount related to the internal political situation in the USE.

I chose the early date because of the confusion. No true idea what happened, just anger and confusion. Was the ROF another part of the plot? etc.

 

[joea64]

As I recall, the POD for the 1632verse happened in the spring of either 1999 or 2000. There would already be a good deal of concern about radical Islamic fundamentalism (this would be after the _first_ WTC bombing in 1993, and bin Laden's attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Mike Stearns seems like a pretty well-informed person, so I'd be fairly certain that he'd at least have heard of bin Laden and might even know something about the divide between Shi'a and Sunni Islam. (If not, Francisco Nasi would definitely be able to bring him up to speed.)

I hadn't heard much about the book yet, so I'm glad to hear it's pretty good and that it's getting back to the main timeline. I did like The Galileo Affair/The Cannon Law, but I was quite disappointed in the last few books that Virginia DeMarce had coauthor credit on (The Ram Rebellion/The Dreeson Incident/The Tangled Web); The Bavarian Crisis was quite good IMO, but I think that was because of more active involvement by Flint. DeMarce is a crack researcher and a key member of the 1632 fan/writer community, but as a fiction writer, meh.

 

[Number three]

As I recall, the POD for the 1632verse happened in the spring of either 1999 or 2000. There would already be a good deal of concern about radical Islamic fundamentalism (this would be after the _first_ WTC bombing in 1993, and bin Laden's attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Mike Stearns seems like a pretty well-informed person, so I'd be fairly certain that he'd at least have heard of bin Laden and might even know something about the divide between Shi'a and Sunni Islam. (If not, Francisco Nasi would definitely be able to bring him up to speed.)

My thoughts though revolve around the shell shocked feeling around the country in the immediate aftermath. There is a strong sense of nationalism in Grantville, toss in the tramatic ROF and things could cut loose. The sharing of technoilogy, especially those related to war may have been more limited. A small segment of the world feeling cornered is much different from that same segment wanting to help and improve the world. The scene in the world that was left behind would be interesting as well.

 

[joea64]

Got Eastern Front yesterday, reading it right now. Will have more comments when it's done but I can say that while it's heavy on the high-level political maneuvers as opposed to pure action, it's much superior to the last few books in the series. Having Flint as sole author helps, though I still think his best 1632verse has been done with David Weber.

 

[The Doctor]

Loved the first two books, but all the rest just kinda bog the story down too much, and no one wants to disregard the fanfics and the following books to just discuss some long term ramifications of the ISOT itself.....

Really have a hard time following some of the middle ones, especially those by DeMarse. I stopped reading after the Dresden Incident book.

 

[Agrippa]

With regards to the OP (having only read 1632, 1633, and 1634: the Baltic War), my thought is that by 1635, after 3 years of frantic activity and constant warfare, a lot of the 9/11 shock would have worn out. That, combined with the inevitable realization that the Ottoman Turks were a very different animal from the modern day Middle East, should have allowed for somewhat normal relations.

Also, to slightly hijack the thread, I've got the Bavarian Crisis sitting on my bookshelf unread and I'm intrigued enough by the Eastern Front to pick it up. However, my concern with reading either of them at this point is the sheer number of plot threads going on in the Gazettes, the Ram Rebellion, and other works that I have absolutely no interest in reading. Is it possible to just read those two books and still have enough of an idea about what is going on?

 

[Number three]

The one thing you find is that the events of the subplots from the other books are mentioned in the main story arc. I think that you can get away with reading the Bavarian Crisis, but you might not enjoy it as much.