It is 1999. The small (fictitious) town of Grantville, West Virginia, is celebrating the wedding of the sister of the local miner's sindicate boss, Michael Stearns. The celebration happens with normality (save for a few small disagreements with the groom's parents, who do not approve their son's choice) when a ring of fire of several kilometers of diameter surrounds the town for a few seconds... and the town disappears.
It is 1631. Germany is a jumble of hundreds of principalities, dukedoms, counties, archbishoprics, free cities and other dominions of diverse consideration, and part of the Holy Roman Empire. Currently, the Empire is going through one of its worst times, the brutal Thirty Years' War, which is devastating nearly all the territory due to the great battles that are being fought within and the rape, pillage and burn from the many, many mercenaries and other soldiers that are fighting. Suddenly, at the end of May, smack dab in the middle of Thuringia, a large town appears as if by magic, with houses built with materials that look nothing like wood, and who speak a language that only some can identify with the one used in a certain island nation to the northwest of France where King Charles I rules...
Yes, an american town has just been transported in time and space from the later 20th Century United States to Germany in the middle of the 17th Century. And, whoo, boy, this is going to change the course of history in ways no one could actually begin to imagine.
Welcome to the novel saga 1632, written by American Eric Flint, and one of the best examples of how an ISOT works in literature.
The arrival of the Americans to the region completely revolutions everything. The first expedition, launched in order to understand what the hell is going on, Mike Stearns and a few friends save several people's lives, including that of two members of the powerful Sephardic Jew Abrabanel family, and, later, Mike convinces his fellow Americans to create a new nation, based on the idea of the United States, more than a century before the American Revolution beings. However, the advances Grantville brings to the past (better weapons, medicine, communication systems, technology, books) are not enough to offset the clear numerical disadvantage they are in, so they need allies, and soon the looks turn to the King of Sweden, Gustav II Adolf, a (for the time) progressive king, who accepts the alliance offer.
Of course, the "local" people (also called downtimers, comparing time with a current you can go up or down) are surprised by Grantville's society and the advances they bring, but the Grantvillers (uptimers) are equally surprised to find out that the downtimers are not as backwards as they expected (for example, one of the Abrabanels they saved reveals that he knows eight languages, can get by in another three, and does not consider this an accomplishment).
However, not everything is easy for the uptimers: Grantville soon collects as many enemies as allies due to what they represent for the still aristocratic society in the time and place. At the beginning it is not as chaotic, as the uptimers have much modern weaponry and other things, but as the ideas brought by the uptimers expand through Europe, whether it is because Grantville is trading with the ideas or because there are spies that have managed to infiltrate the city and steal information to use it in their favor, the scales begin to balance, and there are many situations in which Grantville's enemies manage to use modern technology against them or another nations.
The first changes in history happen very soon: Gustav II Adolf, who was fated to die in November 1632, manages to survive in the book thanks to the Americans' presence in several vital battles that take place some time after their arrival. Radio becomes an almost indispensable element in the main European courts (save for the Spanish one, which does not bring the new technologies to their country), not only to listen in, but also to communicate. Grantville's schoolbooks become some of the most desired objects in the world, particularly history books, as many kings wish to use them to find out which are the troubles that would have happened/will happen in the future and prevent them from taking place.
As any other good story, there must be an antagonist against whom the main characters fight, whether it is with weapons or wits, and, in here, that person is Armand Jean du Plessis, better known as the Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu. Richelieu, although he would have loved to ally with the Americans (and, in fact, Eric Flint said that the only reason it did not happen this way was because he needed an intelligent adversary for the uptimers), decides to do anything to strengthen the current aristocratic regime in France, even if it means going against the uptimers.
Not everything is politics, fortunately for the readers. Just the first book (1632) has four well-described battles, although not too long (that's what happens when you put modern weaponry against early gunpowder weapons). Many of Grantville's inhabitants manage to make a name for themselves in the society that is being formed by the mix of Americans and Germans, such as an old hippy that makes modern waterproof dyes that make him rich and medicines he sells at cost (making him something akin to a saint in the eyes of the downtimers), a cheerleader that becomes the most lethal sniper of the time by blowing up the enemy officers' brains, a Dungeons & Dragons player who marries a downtimer he rescued at shotgun point and who eventually becomes a general, a kid who at the beginning of the books is still in high school and later is so rich that he can support an entire national economy on his own...
The end result is a very interesting and fun book saga, full of small historical and cultural jokes that can always bring a smile out of the reader (such as Richelieu's attempt to decide whether he prefers Charlton Heston or Tim Curry as the one that has best portrayed him in a film), while it does not lose its nerve when it comes down to showing the great sociocultural differences between 20th Century America and 17th Century Germany (the Americans feel disgusted with the violence that is so common to the time, particularly among the mercenaries, while for the downtimers the ideas of freedom and equality are strange and, depending on their social status, accepted or not.
Apart from the novels, the saga has several short stories, some written by Eric Flint, some by other writers, some by fans that have wanted to contribute to the story. I am trying to see if I can find these stories some time soon, but nothing so far. Well, I'll continue looking.
Last thing to say is that 1632 is part of a "multiverse" known as "The Assiti Shards Universe". The Assiti Shards are an invention of Eric Flint he uses to start up their novels, and their importance is that, when they are thrown against a planet (such as Earth) they move parts of it in time and space exchanging them, in such a way that, in the place where Grantville once was, the Americans that were left behind found an unknown and strange terrain that only one researcher managed to possibly identify these places as part of old Thuringia.
See you next Tuesday, and I hope you like these books!
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