1634: The Ram Rebellion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1634: The Ram Rebellion is the seventh published work in the 1632 series, and is the third work to establish what is best considered as the third mainline thread of historical speculative focus in the 1632 alternative-history universe (colloquially, the 1632-verse, or first 'Assiti Shards Universe'). It is an anthology with several longer Novelettes and one of five planned works set in the year 1634 in the parallel universe established in the first novel, 1632 (novel). Historians Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce are the editors, as well as contributors of the essential story thread that begins in this work (See below: Authors Foreword).1634: The Ram Rebellion is currently available as an ebook and a hardcover novel.

As of this writing, the 1632 lead novel article contains a (draft) detailed description of the underlying history before the Assiti Shard event plunged the contemporary fictional town of Grantville, WV into heart of the conflict known as the Thirty Years' War. While in most of the works in this series where much of the story impact and attraction takes place in the halls of power inhabited by real historical figures, and their likely machiavellian realpolitik as the ideas and knowledge of Grantvilles residents impact the actions of historical figures— The first third of this book is written from the standpoint of the common man in the street, some of it Germans trying to cope with Grantville, WV, some of it from up-timers trying to cope with their new world around Grantville, and some of it a mix of both where the story focuses on the problems of two widely different cultures trying to adapt to each other in the new United States of Europe. These merging dynamics are the milieu shaping stories Flint felt necessary to include despite the fact they are all in the period 1631–1632, but their impact extends to the second two sections of the book and thus into 1634.

Contents 1 Story Line Premise 1.1 The Ram Rebellion Theme 2 1632 Launches a new era in writing 3 The Series Thus Far 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Story Line Premise

The reader engaging premise posed in the book series by historian/author Flint is what might happen in one of history's most turbulently vile and machiavellian periods if modern political thought backed by some modern knowledge and technology (rapid fire firearms, power plant, computers, modern library, internal combustion, flight... et. al.) were to land smack in the middle of the most troubled region during what might be aptly called 'The Real First World War'.

Flint creates the fictional town of Grantville, West Virginia (modeled on the real town of Mannington) and drops it and its powerplant abruptly into the new time-space, through a side effect of an alien technology ( The Assiti Shards), transported back in time into the middle of the Thirty Years' War, in the German province of Thuringia during the middle of a wedding (accounting for the presence of a few characters not native to the town). Action, conflict, reaction, humor, and extremely interesting character development quickly follow in the fast paced tale as Grantville led by Mike Stearns, president of the local United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) suddenly have to cope with the raging war, its armies, language barriers, religious suppression (A pretext for the less noble machiavellian affairs of state by the eras superpowers that killed millions)

There are many actual historical figures occupying prominent or supporting roles in the novels as they react to the ripples of change as they radiate from Grantville, WV. The main article covering this aspect is currently List of Fictional Characters .

[edit] The Ram Rebellion Theme

With the example of future Grantsville, U.S.A., a peasant revolt becomes a revolutionary movement in the fractured Holy Roman Empire south and east of Thuringia while the Machievillian manevers in the neohistorical governments and various field armies now dance to counter-act those aimed at the Americans' new heartland. Up-timers, from the original USA space-time want the serfs to succeed and liberate themselves--but also know what a bloodbath the French Revolution became and various individuals act to help one and prevent the others. Avoiding that path will take all sorts of resources and efforts, and Americans from both uptime and down-time act resolutely to mitigate the problems, diplomacy to head off wars headed by authoritarians threated by the new American ideals, and a deft appreciation of when not to fight and dangle an irresistible carrot instead.

[edit] 1632 Launches a new era in writing

1632 the tenth and lead novel in the complex series is an upbeat science fiction alternate history novel that was originally available only as a paperback by Eric Flint. While initially not a best seller, it has far eclipsed many such works as it continues in print and sales. Originally intended to be a single story, the novel is now the first of an open-ended series wherein there are at least five books under advanced contract beyond the seven books already published, plus an additional three related ebooks that are likely to follow later in print, and the popularity of the series continues to grow by word of mouth.

This explosive rate of growth is likely fueled by two factors:

1. Alternate history novels set in the past do not read like hard science fiction, but instead share settings with more in common to classics and mainline novels, thus appeal to a wider readership.
2. Conceived as a stand-alone novel published about the same time Baen Books launched an author to fan forum (Baen's Bar), the buzz thereon among Sci-Fi fans, quickly lead to discussions of likely subsequent events. These in turn removed the burden upon Flint to research the likely outcome and limiting circumstances within the timeframe. This in turn lead to the author to invite other authors to 'play in his milieu', and most unusually, to help define it; The initial result is the novel 1633 co-written with best selling author David Weber and the anthology Ring of Fire of which all material within was written in the same time period and modified to be consistent across all the storylines within both. Thus each helped shape the other and matured the early development of the milieu.

Such milieu-visiting efforts are usually side stories careful to not complicate the main storyline of the hosting author. Flint decided to take the uniquely bold step of inviting not only other authors but his fans to participate. This resulted in the explosive synergy resulting in 10 book-length works (ebooks included) in less than four years published before April 2006. With a firmly established and outlined milieu, the storyline expanded into many threads. This interwoven complexity is perhaps the heart of the reason 1632 succeeded in garnering so much attention, and its continuation (like real history) is readily appreciated by considering the series promises no less than five novels set in the year 1634 alone.

Added to this rich promise is the canvas of short stories that have developed under the benevolently generous editorship of Flint, anthologies collected (again uniquely) as integral parts of the milieu development, bricks in its growing wall and involving a wondrous in-depth look at the milieu from the viewpoint of Flint's interesting but complex minor characters with thought-provoking points of view of their own from movers and shakers of the main storyline (i.e. the Novels). Flint has promised that some of these will grow into major characters in their own right in follow-on novels. It was first published in New York by Baen Books in 2001 with ISBN 0-671-31972-8 . The full text of the novel is available from the Baen Free Library (see below).

[edit] The Series Thus Far

1633 continues the story first in print; one of two co-developed and closely related sequels in the best selling science fiction series the other jointly developed work is an anthology called The Ring of Fire. The whole series will interleave anthologies with novels, where the former generally provide a richer background to the latter, which may be thought of as carrying the main story threads, of which there will be many. That is, the storyline therein is entangled with the central themes and characters, but some characters have little or no appearances in other threads, the action being carried by other former 'minor' characters in one of the other works. These introductions and momentus behind a given mainline thread will frequently be seen in the anthology that set the table for the follow-on feast.

For main article and in depth discussion of series wide matters, see: 1632 series.

This material is organized in order of print publication, with no consideration herein until an ebook release reaches actual print publication. Such ebook cases are currently covered only in the blanket Wikipedia article The Grantville Gazettes — (Anthologies) ed. by Eric Flint; all available as eBooks, Volume I as PB edition, Volume II as Hardcover, Volume III scheduled release December 2006 as Hardcover, as well. Similar to the Ring of Fire, these stories are also shaping the general development of the mileau and future stories of same. The difference is ROF is a compilation of stories by established authors invited to contribute by Mr. Flint, while the GG-I—GG-VII anthologies are primarily written by new authors with occasional contributions by established writers. As noted by the authors forward quoted in full above, they are germane to the series of the whole as there publication by ebook establishes canon for the milieu and is incorporated into the copious 250+ page writers guide 'Virginia's Grid[1]' thereafter.

[edit] See also

NOTE: All the below listed eBooks are produced in multiple unencrypted formats on Webscription.net, including RTF suitable for most word processor  applications software.

• 1632 novel eBook — Baen Free Library  'free' eBook version of the 1632 original novel.

• 1633 novel eBook — Baen Free Library  'free' eBook version of the 1633 first novel sequel.

• Ring of Fire — Baen Books  'promotional sample chapters' in eBook format.

Free reading but partial version of the Ring of Fire (anthology), the co-sequel to the novel 1633.

• Baen Books 1632verse series Compendium of all 1632verse related books with links to Baen Books  'promotional sample chapters' in eBook format, or the Baen Free Library  'free' eBook version, as applies.

Copyright© 2006 by Eric Flint

[edit] External links

edit 1632 series
Web page links:	Comments and Content notes
Baen Books in the 1632 series	List of 1632 Series Books grouped by the series by Baen Books. Includes the first few chapters of each.
1632 full text	Full text of the novel 1632 from the Baen Free Library.
Baen Books catalog for Eric Flint	List of Eric Flint books published by Baen Books. Includes the first few chapters of each.
baen.com/library/eflint.htm	List of Eric Flint books available in toto in the Baen Free Library.
http://bar.baen.com/	Baen's Bar is an official fan-forum with several specific sections (sub-forums) dedicated to the 1632 universe. These are: 1632 Tech Manual, and 1632 Slush for manuscript submission (Slushpile in publishing: Stack of manuscripts for vetting) and 1632 Comments where Peer review feedback, suggestions, and comments on the slushpile submissions are posted. The two together form a collective collaborative workshop for wannabe authors.
http://ericflint.net/	Eric Flint's website, which has much about his work currently in progress or upcoming (in publication, in planning, under contract, in process) matters in the publication cycle.
http://www.1632.org	The official web site by Eric Flint's 1632.org on and about the 1632 universe and related matters. It is run by the 1632 Research Committee in conjunction with the 1632 Editorial Board. It includes the canonical references for the entire book series available for browsing and download by any participating in the collaborative writing process in the series. Eric's partners that are also professional writers use the same data. If you want to write a contribution to The Grantville Gazettes, this is a must-visit site. Additional Technical articles resulting from 1632 Tech Manual discussions and the Research Committee are also posted here.
klaus-leiss.de/1632Tech	1632 universe dedicated German Wikiproject organized to cross reference and encyclopediatize matters and characters pertaining to the 1632verse. Another must-browse site for would-be contributors to The Grantville Gazettes and students of Collaborative writing projects.
Fan Page collecting 1632 research	1632verse Commonwealth of Two Nations Resource Page - a webpage about Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1632 universe, but especially valuable for 1632 fans for its many period maps and links to other resources.

1632 parallel universe (1632-verse) series by Eric Flint, et.al.

Main threads: | 1632 | 1633 | Ring of Fire | The Galileo Affair | The Ram Rebellion | The Cannon Law | The Baltic War The Grantville Gazettes: | Grantville Gazette I | Gazette II | Gazette III | Gazette IV | Gazette V | Gazette VI | Gazette VII |