1633 (novel)

2002 novel by David Weber and Eric Flint

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1633

First edition cover

Author| David Weber & Eric Flint
Cover artist| Dru Blair
Language| English
Series| 1632 series
Genre| Alternate History, Novel
Publisher| Baen Books

Publication date

| August 2002
Publication place| United States
Media type| Print (hardback & paperback) & ebook
Pages| 608 pp (1st ed, HC)
673 pp (1st ed, PB)
ISBN| 0-7434-3542-7 (1st ed, HC)
ISBN 0-7434-7155-5 (1st ed, PB)
OCLC| 49525790

Dewey Decimal

| 813/.5 21
LC Class| PS3573.E217 A615 2002
Preceded by| 1632
Followed by| Ring of Fire (anthology) and
1634: The Galileo Affair
In the Central European thread: (direct sequel)
1634: The Baltic War

1633 is an alternate history novel co-written by American authors Eric Flint and David Weber published in 2002, and sequel to 1632 in the 1632 series.[1] 1633 is the second major novel in the series and together with the anthology Ring of Fire, the two sequels begin the series hallmarks of being a shared universe with collaborative writing being very common, as well as one that, far more unusually, mixes many canonical anthologies with its works of novel length. That is because Flint wrote 1632 as a stand-alone novel, though with enough "story hooks" for an eventual sequel, 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 up how different people act in their own self-interests.[citation needed]

## Premise

[edit]

The series begins in the 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 within the Holy Roman Empire during the convulsions of the Thirty Years' War.

Flint's goal was to explore the short- and long-term effects of placing a single American town, complete with modern culture, technology and modes of thought, in certain periods of history.

The town elects the charismatic former pro-boxer Mike Stearns as president, and he quickly decides to provide refuge for those displaced as a result of the constant fighting, to branch out and grow as quickly as possible—to launch the American Revolution "150 years early", and found a "New United States". The Grantvillers undertake to defend south central Thuringia with the aid of a cavalry detachment from king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden's Green Regiment, and 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 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 late nineteenth-century technology base while their modern equipment is still operable.

## Plot summary

[edit]

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 "Confederated Principalities of Europe". Richelieu completely changes France's foreign policy and forms an alliance aimed squarely at the NUS and Gustavus called the League of Ostend. Mike 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 its presence in the Battle of Four Fleets. The Dutch Republic nearly falls and Stearns' emissary voluntarily stays behind, becoming trapped in the Siege of Amsterdam.

At this point, the newly created timeline start 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.

## A mix of methodology

[edit]

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 to 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 (ROF) antedated 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.

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 1634: The Baltic War.

## Characters in "1633"

[edit]

List of 1632 characters (fictional)

## Reception

[edit]

Publishers Weekly gives a positive review and praised the authors, Flint "for at showing how the new converts can make even the 'old Americans' uncomfortable in their zeal to achieve the blessings of 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,'" while Weber "helps smooth out characters who were stereotypes in the first book."[2]

Booklist gave a mostly positive review saying that "if it takes too many pages for some, others will turn every one and cry for more, which the authors intend to provide."[3]

The reviewer for the School Library Journal wrote that the book is "cleanly written, with an enormous cast of interesting characters...with constant action and the hint of danger."[4]

Library Journal gave a positive review saying that the authors "take historic speculation to a new level in a tale that combines accurate historical research with bold leaps of the imagination."[5]

1633 was listed on the Locus (magazine) Hardcovers Bestsellers List for three months in a row during 2002, topping at number 2,[6][7][8] and also later on the Paperbacks Bestsellers List for a single month in 2003 at number 1.[9]

## Release details

[edit]

* eBook/CDROM version (June 2002) Baen
* 2002, US, Baen Books (ISBN 0-7434-3542-7), Pub date August 2002, hardcover (First edition)
* 2003, US, Baen Books (ISBN 0-7434-7155-5), July 2003, paperback

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Uchronia: The Assiti Shards (1632) Series". www.uchronia.net.
2. ^ "1633". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 249, no. 31\. August 5, 2007. p. 57\. ISSN 0000-0019.
3. ^ Green, Roland (August 1, 2002). "1633 (Book)". Booklist. Vol. 98, no. 22\. p. 1937\. ISSN 0006-7385. Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Alternate Link via EBSCO (institutional library access).
4. ^ Brink, Paul (December 2002). "1633 (Book)". School Library Journal. Vol. 48, no. 12\. p. 173\. ISSN 0362-8930. Archived from the original on April 14, 2014. Alternate Link via EBSCO (institutional library access).
5. ^ Cassada, Jackie (August 15, 2002). "1633 (Book)". Library Journal. Vol. 127, no. 13\. p. 151\. ISSN 0363-0277. Archived from the original on April 14, 2014. Alternate Link via EBSCO (institutional library access).
6. ^ "Locus Bestsellers, October 2002". Locus. October 2002.
7. ^ "Locus Bestsellers, November 2002". Locus. November 2002.
8. ^ "Locus Bestsellers, December 2002". Locus (magazine), December 2002.
9. ^ "Locus Bestsellers, October 2003". Locus. October 2003.

## External links

[edit]

* An excerpt of 1633 (novel) is available for download or reading online at the Baen Free Library here Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. The whole novel can be found here[permanent dead link‍].
* 1633 title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

* v
* t
* e

Assiti Shards series by Eric Flint

1632 series|

| Main series
novels|

* 1632 (2000)
* 1633 (2002)
* 1634: The Baltic War (2007)
* 1635: The Eastern Front (2010)
* 1636: The Saxon Uprising (2011)
* 1636: The Ottoman Onslaught (2017)
* 1637: The Polish Maelstrom (2019)

|

South European
thread|

* 1634: The Galileo Affair (2004)
* 1635: The Cannon Law (2006)
* 1635: The Papal Stakes (2012)
* 1636: The Vatican Sanction (2017)

Russian thread|

* 1636: The Kremlin Games (2012)
* 1637: The Volga Rules (2018)
* 1638: The Sovereign States (2023)

India thread|

* 1636: Mission to the Mughals (2017)
* 1637: The Peacock Throne (2021)

Stand-alone
novels|

* 1634: The Bavarian Crisis (2007)
* 1635: The Dreeson Incident (2008)
* 1635: A Parcel of Rogues (2016)
* 1636: The Devil's Opera (2013)
* 1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies (2014)
* 1636: The Cardinal Virtues (2015)
* 1636: The Viennese Waltz (2015)
* 1636: The China Venture (2019)
* 1636: The Atlantic Encounter (2020)
* 1637: No Peace Beyond the Line (2020)
* 1636: Calabar's War (2021)
* 1637: Dr. Gribbleflotz and the Soul of Stoner (2021)
* 1637: The Transylvanian Decision (2022)
* Security Solutions (2024)
* 1635: The Weaver's Code (2024)

Anthologies
and melded novels|

* Ring of Fire (2004)
* Ring of Fire II (2008)
* Ring of Fire III (2011)
* 1634: The Ram Rebellion (2006)
* 1635: The Tangled Web (2009)
* 1635: Music and Murder (2013)
* 1636: Seas of Fortune (2014)
* 1636: The Barbie Consortium (2014)
* Ring of Fire IV (2016)
* 1636: The Chronicles of Dr. Gribbleflotz (2016)
* 1635: The Wars for the Rhine (2016)
* 1636: Flight of the Nightingale (2019)
* 1637: The Coast of Chaos (2021)

Ring of Fire Press
novels

(full publication list)|

* Joseph Hanauer (2013)
* No Ship for Tranquebar (2013)
* Second Chance Bird (2013)
* Turn Your Radio On (2013)
* Essen Steel (2013) (was The Essen Chronicles)
* The Danish Scheme (2013) (was Northwest Passage)
* Bartley's Man (2016)
* The Muse of Music (2017)
* Love and Chemistry (2017) (was The Undergraduate)
* 1635: The Battle for Newfoundland (2018)
* Essen Defiant (2018)
* The Monster Society (2018)
* Letters From Gronow (2018)
* The Persistence of Dreams (2018)
* The Hunt for The Red Cardinal (2018)
* The Chrysanthemum, the Cross, and the Dragon (2018)
* The Legions of Pestilence (2019)
* The Legend of Jimmy Dick (2019)
* Up-time Pride and Down-time Prejudice (2019)
* The Trouble with Huguenots (2019)
* A Red Son Rises in the West (2019)
* Magdeburg Noir (2020)
* A Holmes For the Czar (2020)
* Fire on the Rio Grande (2020)
* A Red Son: Not Without Honor (2020)
* Tales From the Mermaid and Tiger: Engines of Change (2020)
* Things Could Be Worse: The Pastor Kastenmayer Stories (2020)
* Two Cases for the Czar (2020)
* Designed to Fail (2020)
* The Grantville Inquisitor (2021)
* A Matter of Security (2021)
* A Mission for the Czar (2021)
* Missions of Security (2021)
* Saving The Dodo (2021)
* The Horsewoman (2021)
* Mrs. Flannery's Flowers (2021)
* Security Threats (2021)
* A 1632 Christmas (2021)
* The Gourmets of Grantville (2021)
* The Marshals (2022)
* The Unexpected Sales Reps (2022)
* I Want to Be Your Hero (2022)
* The Private Casefiles of Archie Gottesfreund (2022)

Huff & Goodlett Press|

* A Diogenes Club for the Czar (2023)

Grantville Gazettes
and other magazines|

* Grantville Gazette I (2004)
* Grantville Gazette II (2006)
* Grantville Gazette III (2007)
* Grantville Gazette IV (2008)
* Grantville Gazette V (2009)
* Grantville Gazette VI (2012)
* Grantville Gazette VII (2015)
* Grantville Gazette VIII (2018)
* Grantville Gazette IX (2021)
* Grantville Gazette e-magazine (2004-2022)
* 1632 & Beyond e-magazine (2023-present)

Related lists|

* List of books in the 1632 series

Time Spike series|

* Time Spike (2008)
* Time Spike: The Mysterious Mesa (2018)
* Time Spike: The First Cavalry of the Cretaceous (2022)

Queen of the Seas
series|

* The Alexander Inheritance (2017)
* The Macedonian Hazard (2021)
* The Sicilian Coil (2021)
* The Carthaginian Crisis (2024)

Crossing series|

* The Crossing (2022)

Peterbilt series|

* An Angel Called Peterbilt (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Works by David Weber

Series|

| Dahak|

* Mutineers' Moon
* The Armageddon Inheritance
* Heirs of Empire

|

Furies|

* Path of the Fury
* In Fury Born

Multiverse|

* Hell's Gate (with Linda Evans)
* Hell Hath No Fury (with Linda Evans)
* The Road to Hell (with Joelle Presby)

War God|

* Oath of Swords
* The War God's Own
* Wind Rider's Oath
* War Maid's Choice
* The Sword of the South

Other series|

* Empire of Man (with John Ringo)
* Honorverse
* Safehold
* Out of the Dark

Shared universe|

| 1632
(with Eric Flint)|

* 1633
* 1634: The Baltic War

|

Bolo!|

* Old Soldiers

Starfire
(with Steve White)|

* Crusade
* In Death Ground
* The Shiva Option
* Insurrection

Standalone|

* The Apocalypse Troll
* The Excalibur Alternative
* Worlds of Weber

* Category

*[OCLC]: Online Computer Library Center number
*[LC Class]: Library of Congress Classification
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*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template