Review: Without Warning by John Birmingham

A fast-paced, fun piece of contemporary military fiction with heavy science-fiction (post-apocalyptic overtones).

SPOILERS ABOUND: READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

The book begins in 2003 with America poised to invade Iraq. For an entirely unrevealed reason, an energy field now covers nearly the entire continent of North America, killing every inhabitant and rendering the area impossible to enter. For all intents and purposes, the United States is now gone. All that remains of America is Alaska, Hawaii, part of Washington state, and the large numbers of military personnel and equipment in the Middle East. Needless to say, much of the world descends in chaos as a result.

The book follows the experiences of several characters as they deal with this situation, including a female counter-terrorist operative operating in France (possibly the weakest sub-plot, but also the only one involving significant combat scenes); some smugglers operating off the western coast of Mexico; an embedded journalist in Iraq (a typical all-American guy, though poorly developed); a city engineer in Washington state; a general at Gitmo; and a political operative and smooth-talker on vacation in Hawaii. Characterization is limited -- I'd say that's the biggest weakness of the book -- as is combat, for the most part. There's plenty of action and the plot proceeds a rapid clip, however, so it's certainly not boring. Technobabble is kept to a bare minimum, so if you have an allergy to Tom Clancy, you'll be fine here.

The book ends on a revelation, one year after the event that started the book, that will once again fundamentally change the setting. It's an interesting twist and I look forward to seeing how the sequel proceeds from this point. Do not, however, look for an answer to what caused this catastrophe -- you won't get one in this first book in the series. At this point, it's purely a "what if" thought piece; you should be aware of that before you begin reading, since I suspect that may irk some readers.

I recommend the book as a fun read. Even though I received an ARC of this book for free, I enjoyed it enough that I will likely pick up the sequel.

3.5 stars out of 5

Review copyright 2009 J. Andrew Byers

Review: 1633 by Eric Flint

Here's a follow-up review for the sequel to yesterday's book.

1633

1633 is a fun book, but it's slightly less enjoyable than the original (1632). The basic plotline -- a small West Virginian town is transported to Germany during the Thirty Years' War and must survive and attempt to civilize Europe -- remains the same. A few new characters are introduced, though some of the protagonists from the first book get short shrift (e.g., Julie Sims) this time around.

The book is probably about a hundred pages too long, and it goes into unnecessary detail on the creation of the (new) U.S. Air Force and Navy. Military hardware nuts will love that added level of detail, but for the rest of us, it's superfluous. An inordinate amount of time is spent on the initial flight training of a couple of new pilots and the construction of the first ironclads. That would be fine if, for example, the ironclads ever saw action in the book -- they do not, however. Presumably, Flint will have them play a significant role in one of the sequels. Flint still uses way too many lengthy expository passages for my taste (even more so than in 1632). That's a real weakness.

You get the impression from reading the book that Flint sees 1633 as being just an opening chapter in a much larger story rather than as a coherent, stand-alone book. While many "epic" series suffer from this problem (I hesitate to even begin to compare 1633 to a Robert Jordan book), I do wish that 1633 had been a little more self-contained.

All that being said, 1633 is an enjoyable read, and if you enjoyed the first book in the series, you should definitely take a look at this one, you won't be disappointed.

3.5 stars out of 5

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers

Review: 1632 by Eric Flint

1632

This is a fun, though not at all believable romp. I'm a big fan of alternative history, so I was naturally drawn to this book (and the series as a whole) by all the attention it's received. 1632 is definitely an enjoyable book, and I'd recommend it to science fiction fans in search of a relatively light read.

You're going to have to seriously exercise your suspension of disbelief when reading this book during a number of passages, but that's at least somewhat understandable. After all, it wouldn't be much fun if the protagonists all died off from diseases, couldn't communicate with the locals, or found that they couldn't support a modern level of technology using only the infrastructure of a small West Virginian town.

Flint has a couple of bad habits as a writer that really come through in this book: first, it's very clear that a couple of his major characters are his favorites, and these characters are invariably going to make all the right decisions, always succeed at whatever they do, rapidly become accomplished statesmen and military strategists, and are, in fact, moral paragons -- to an unbelievable degree -- even in the face of extremely difficult and unfamiliar situations. And second, Flint's writing style could use some editorial polish. He uses too much exposition (admittedly, the Thirty Years' War is an extremely complex period and requires a great deal of explanation, but there's got to be a better way of pulling it off than this) and he has the bad tendency to reuse trite phrases, sometimes every few pages. This gets annoying at times. The characters (mostly modern day West Virginian coal miners) also use a level of vocabulary and sentence structure that real people just don't use in conversation unless they're Boston Brahmins. People just don't speak in half-page long paragraphs, nor do they use words like "pean" in ordinary conversations.

All that aside, read this book, you'll likely enjoy it if you're at all interested in the "Baen Books" style of light, military-oriented science fiction adventure novels.

I'd also recommend S. M. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time series, which is probably a little more engaging than 1632.

4 stars out of 5

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers