 1632. It's like Island in the Sea of Time, except... pretty much the same. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. Okay, so this should be a short review, because I finished this book over a week ago. And, ever since I've been thinking of things to say about it, I've been trying to come at it from different angles, or maybe analyze it in a different way. But, no matter what I do, I just can't really think of all that much to say about this book. Like, it's not bad. I'd like to make that clear. I think it's fine overall. Just fine. Not great, not particularly bad. Just... it's fine. It's a decent little time travel story, which... yeah. Like, even now I can't even think of a way to really summarize it. It's just... it's fine. So if you saw my reviews on Island in the Sea of Time, then this will probably sound familiar to you. But, the story 1632 is about a town in West Virginia called Grantsville, which, through a freak accident, gets transported back in time to 1632, and it also gets moved to this spot in the middle of Germany, in the middle of the Holy Roman Empire, Thuringia, to be specific. And, so, if you're familiar with history, 1632 was right smack in the middle of the Thirty Years' War. So, everyone around them is fighting, and they're like, well, shit, we don't want to get caught in the middle of this. So, they... you know, using their modern technology, their modern firearms, they start to make themselves heard. They make themselves independent, and they sort of set up a little republic there, and... that's about it, really. So, in the name of fairness, I want to talk about what I liked about this book before I go into the stuff I didn't like. Uh, not that either extreme is really all that extreme. Uh, but, the stuff I liked, um, I thought that the main character was pretty good, or the closest thing to a main character we have. His name is Mike Stearns, and he's just a union boss. He... you know, he's just a miner before all this happens. But, he's able to, you know, gather people up, he's able to inspire them, he's like, okay, we gotta plan this shit, and so he basically becomes a leader of their new little republic. And, again, I don't have a lot to say about him, but, you know, he's a decent dude, uh, when he's talking about, you know, political things going into the intricacies of how political systems work, he's always in favor of, you know, democracy and all that. So, yeah, he's a decent guy. Uh, I also liked most of the battles. Uh, the only exception is the Battle of Breitenfeld, which happened in this book. It happens the exact same way as it did in real life, because by that point, the Americans haven't really, uh, made themselves known yet. And, it goes on for a really, really long time, just describing how everything happens, and it's, it's not very good. Uh, but other than that, I liked a lot of the battles, you know, because, in this, unlike in, uh, Island in the Sea of Time, which, that one, the technological disparity between the Americans and everybody else was so huge, they could have conquered the world if they really felt like it. Whereas, in 1632, not so much, because they had firearms and shit back then. You know, not very advanced firearms, and they, their tactics and their strategies and all that weren't great either. Like, they, okay, they were, they were fine for the time period, but trying to adjust to fighting newer weapons, it just wouldn't work that well. Uh, and so, yeah, it's not quite as much of a slaughter as it would be in the other one, uh, so they need to be smarter about it, the Americans, I mean, they need to be smarter about how they go about things. And so, I did like that aspect of the story, and I will say that the climax as well is way better than it has any right to be. Because, again, even if the Americans don't have as much of an overwhelming advantage as they did in that other series, in this one, like, they, they still do have a lot of advantages, and most armies aren't really a threat to them at all. Uh, but they're able to sort of circumvent that in the climax, and actually make it pretty tense, and you think, okay, who's gonna die? So, yeah, those three aspects, I think, of this book are pretty good, I enjoyed them. As for the bad stuff, again, there's not too much of it, but it's pretty obnoxious. Uh, the sex in this is just, it, guys, it's, it's stupid, I hate it. So, without going into too much detail, there is a character, a German woman, who has been through a lot of shit in the war, and an American guy meets her and proposes like a day later, and then, neither of them are major characters, by the way. Even at this point, they're just sort of thrown in there. Which makes me feel like this book, the author signed a contract to make it a certain length, and he couldn't think of how to add interesting stuff, so he just started putting in subplots and characters that were really dumb, or, I don't know, I can't, I can't prove any of this, I just, I got that feeling. But anyways, uh, yeah, an American kid proposes to her literally a day later, and they have, you know, a wedding ceremony, and it just goes on and on and on, I don't care. And then, they spend like an entire chapter describing their wedding night, and how she is like, discovering how sex is awesome for the first time, and just, god, it is cringy. In, in fact, shut up phone, I don't know if the microphone picks that up, my phone went off. But anyways, uh, the, just the way women are written in this in general is fucking cringy as shit, because every time they're described, they're described as like the most beautiful woman ever, the most beautiful creature of all time, and, and like, you don't need to do that every single time. You can just, like, say, hey, she's pretty, and then leave it at that. And that's not too obnoxious, really, because it's not in all that much of the book, but it's really cringy and really stupid, and every time it happened, I just wanted to roll my fucking eyes out of my skull. Another thing which isn't necessarily bad, but I think should have been expanded on more, is the governing structure of Grantsville and the New Republic that they set up, because the thing is, in Island in the Sea of Time, the main plot of that was about William Walker, and how he defected, and was basically trying to take over Nantucket. Uh, well, sort of. He was trying to take over everything, but Nantucket was in his way, so we had to destroy them. Whereas in this, the Grantsville stays pretty, uh, you know, pretty united, all things considered. Like, there are some minor squabbles, uh, in terms of politics, but it never becomes armed, and it's never really all that bad. And so if you're gonna do something like that, I would really rather it be, I was gonna say political thriller, but not, not that, but just, I would rather you go into more detail about that, and don't get me wrong, there is some detail there. There's, they have a whole constitutional convention and all that to figure out, okay, let's, how do we, how do we do this? How do we set the shit up? But, I mean, there was so much more they could have done with it, and I am a little disappointed that they didn't, because, again, that was time that they could have spent and just removed all the obnoxious, awkward sex stuff. I don't have much else to say about this really, like, there are some minor points I could go into, but it just feels kind of pointless, you know. So this book, um, like I said, it's fine, you know, it has its moments that are pretty good, and it has its moments that are pretty bad, but overall it was positive, and I will say that it doesn't really sequel bait, you know, when it ends, it wraps up the story, you know, you can just read this one, and even though there's a whole bunch of sequels out there, I don't know if I'll ever get into them, but even though there's a whole bunch of sequels out there, you don't have to read them to know the story, like, you can just read this one and go, yeah, alright, that was good, and then that's the end of it. So, would I recommend this? Honestly, if the idea of a town traveling back in time and affecting history appeals to you, I might recommend Island in the Sea of Time over this, you know, even though that series had pretty severe problems, especially by the end, I just think it goes more balls to the wall with the concept than this one does, because this one does feel a little bit more like it's playing it safe, whereas Island, they just go crazy with it. So, yeah, not a strong recommendation, but, you know, if you're really hankering for some more of that type of story after you read Island in the Sea of Time, then I guess this one is not terrible. Thanks again to Des Brennan and all my other patrons. If you want to check out my page and maybe get some neat goodies, consider donating to me, and I'll see you later. Bye.