Andrew Dennis (1) (1971–)

The Galileo Affair is where the Ring of Fire series really begins to show its promise. With a much tighter cast of characters and plot than its predecessors, we're able to get a deep, rather than a broad, look at the setting and really develop some fun plot threads. It's vastly less focused on military matters (I like David Weber fine, but I'm just not as interested in guns as he is) and the Stone family is a nice counterpoint to the otherwise fairly idealized blue-collar main characters.

On show more that note, the fact that the Stones were created by Mercedes Lackey for a short story and then rolled into this novel (as well as the use of scenes written by an experienced pilot in some of the other books in this family) is just a fascinating use of intellectual resources. This series wins a lot of goodwill from me by being collaboratively-if-not-communally written in a way that I believe is unprecedented in modern fiction. show less

First a quick note: Goodreads calls this "Assiti Shards, #3" but in the recommended reading order this is in pos 6 or possibly 5 (1634 Ram Rebellion can be read before this one without any real loss).

In the widely sprawling fictional universe conceived by the book 1632, we have now reached Venice and the catholic church. President/Prime Minister Stearns sends his best medical people and best priests to represent USE (United States of Europe) in Venice, the most powerful, reachable, catholic show more state that isn't already actively hostile.

While the adults teach medicine the Stoner children hear about Galileo being imprisoned and make plans for a big jailbreak.

I find the book less convincing than I would like. Of course the base premises are not really plausible with a whole town transplanted 350 years backwards in time, but I think that humans will remain humans, and this book seems more like slapstick at times, and humans are way too one dimensional. That was a criticism I had of the first book in the series, and of a few other Eric Flint books, but then there were a few that were better. This is worse again.

So while I still enjoy seeing the universe evolve, the path there can become tedious.

2.5 stars. I ended up with 2 to differentiate it from other books in the series. show less

This is the either the third or fourth book in the Ring of Fire alternate history series where a small town in West Virginia is transported back in time to the thirty Years War and to Thüringen in Germany. This volume of the series finds the united States of Europe sending an ambassador to Venice with the goal of initiating trade agreements to provide supplies to the USE. In addition, they also send people who can share medical and pharmacal experience with the Italians. As in other books show more in the series, the West Virginians manage to attract members of the opposite sex with enormous success.

The big begins slowly delving into the intrigues of both Venice and the Catholic church. Around half-way through the book, the pace picks up as a group sets out to free Galileo from his trial by the Inquisition. show less

(Amy) These books really are a boatload and a half of fun, and I have yet to be significantly disappointed with a single offering from this shared universe, which is quite an achievement. There are some technical aspects (writing-wise, not technology-wise, and damn does there ever need to be a less clumsy way to differentiate that) that bug me, but I'm willing to overlook them due to the general awesome of the whole thing. I mean, it may have been some years since I've been active in the show more SCA, but the sensibilities that sent me there in the first place are still alive and well in my head, and the idea of turning the actual Middle Ages (well, OK, it's sort of Renaissancey by this time period, but that counts) into The Way They Should Have Been is -- well, let me just say that I have no problem with blatant Wish Fulfillment Fiction from time to time. (Which is good, because there's a lot of that in SF.)

Anyway. This novel takes place in Venice, wherein some of Our Uptime Heroes are undertaking to educate some of the most learned doctors of the time about the value of sanitation. Side plots include, yes, the trial of Galileo. For people who have read previous books/stories in this series and are cranky about the tendency of the characters to deliver As You Know, Bob lectures about assorted historical points, well, it doesn't get any better here, but as I said above, I'm willing to overlook it. Also, I could wish the one sex scene had panned to the fireplace a bit sooner than it did - not that I'm a prude, but it was just remarkably awkwardly depicted.

All that said, looking forward to my next visit to the Assisti Shards multiverse, which will be in the form of another Grantville Gazette.

( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/zenos-library/2009/07/these_books_really_are_... ) show less