F#¢& 163x

Changing tack once again, today a book review!  The 163x series by Eric Flint.

 

So here’s a quick statement on my entertainment medium philosophy.  If you get enjoyment from anything: music, TV, movies, or whatever, you are doing it right.  These preferences are a matter of taste; and even though the interwebs prove me wrong every day, you cannot argue matters of taste.   Unless it is to bash the Star Wars prequels.

First, what this series is not.  It is not good prose.  Eric Flint is a storyteller not a wordsmith.  He’s no William Faulkner that’s for sure.  I like compelling stories, and the artistic method in how they are told is secondary.  To the point that I really enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, and Dan Brown wishes he could write like Eric Flint.

Second, it’s an archetypical alternate history story.  A scrappy bunch of future people travel back in time and use their advanced technology to defeat a horde.  This was done previously in The Lost Regiment, and done since then with Destroyermen and Safehold.  I’m a sucker for these kinds of stories; they ask questions I really like, such as how does technology shape politics?

The original book was pretty standard fare for the genre.  Flint did pick an exceptional time to drop Grantville into; Germany during the 30 years war.  Not only do we put a 20^th century American town, complete with a couple hundred year tradition of religious tolerance right into the Counter Reformation, the setting includes fantastic historical characters:  Richelieu, Wallenstein, Gustav II Adolphus of Sweden, Cromwell and many, many others.  It’s a rich setting for supporting characters.

Third, the book took a turn along the lines of a rock and roll concept album with the sequels.  Everything turned collaborative.  This started with the very next book, Ring of Fire I, a short story anthology.  Flint recruited help from David Weber, Mercedes Lackey and others to help fill out the story.   Flint’s goal was to have other authors forge the story, instead of fitting snippets into a story line already completed.  This was followed up by co-author collaborations on nearly every follow up book.  Furthermore, all the fan fiction stories that typically get laughed at, were examined and the best stories put into an anthology series called Grantville Gazette.

 I found this fascinating, and I was hooked.  I really wanted to know how a communal writing project would work.

How it worked was…mixed.  'Ring of Fire I' was great, and I really enjoyed the first Grantville Gazette too.  The collaborations with David Weber were very, very good too.  The “Italian Arc” with Andrew Dennis while not as good as the core story was at least readable. 

The anthologies at this point started leaving a lot to be desired.  This is just speculation on my part, but I assume that the good authors got busy with their own projects so couldn’t contribute to RoF II.  The solution was to promote the best authors from the Gazette.  What ended up happening is both titles started being inadequate.  I found nothing compelling written in RoF II or any Gazette after #3 (in fact I have stopped reading the Gazettes altogether.)

Speaking of inadequate, the weakest author whose name is attached to 163x is Virginia DeMarce.  I find this pretty frustrating, because her books do have some story points that affect the world at large.  But getting to these profound changes usually involves reading 300 boring pages.  I really want a 163x Cliff notes.

To sum up, the core story is still pretty good.  The Italian tangent is readable, and I am looking forward to the English Tangent.  The anthologies are tertiary now.  They aren’t well written, they aren’t compelling, and there are too many being produced.  Read the Wiki for anything DeMarce has her name on.