I was sort of dreading picking this up, and half expected to not finish it given its length of 500+ pages. But the writing drew me in immediately as the main characters are introduced. The âeventâ occurs pretty quickly and follows the townsmen as they discover they â⦠don't think we're in West Virginia anymore, Toto.â (which is a quote from the book.)
Then we are given a brief but somewhat confusing history lesson about Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus and the war ravaging Germany at the time. (I looked up this period on Wikipedia for more background, and portraits of some of the historical characters, although this hit me with what I thought was a sort of spoiler, so take care.) Then we return to the modern town and follow how they adapt to the whole mess.
There is a little too much of the romance involved between modern and 1632 characters as we follow along on how the âAmericansâ plan to survive in their new world. I skimmed over some pages telling us about the July 4th parade and the first wedding in the new world â neither of which moved the plot along, but helped pad the book. I also skipped over the long and tedious descriptions of battles, and came to the realization that my initial feeling was in fact correct and this was way too long and filled with unimportant details and romantic couplings, and did I mention battles?
If you are familiar with the Butterfly Affect, you might wonder, as I did, how killing hundreds of men who might have been great, great, great, great, great grandfathers of 20th century people would change the world that the Americans came from. Maybe even cause many of them of German ancestry to not exist. I kept expecting some of the modern characters to simply disappear as their ancestors were obliterated.
Since there are many sequels available I assume readers find out how this new United States impacts history, but I don't plan to find out.
Again, if you are into the 30 Years War, go for it; but Wikipedia will get you quicker to reading the next book on your list.
Then we are given a brief but somewhat confusing history lesson about Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus and the war ravaging Germany at the time. (I looked up this period on Wikipedia for more background, and portraits of some of the historical characters, although this hit me with what I thought was a sort of spoiler, so take care.) Then we return to the modern town and follow how they adapt to the whole mess.
There is a little too much of the romance involved between modern and 1632 characters as we follow along on how the âAmericansâ plan to survive in their new world. I skimmed over some pages telling us about the July 4th parade and the first wedding in the new world â neither of which moved the plot along, but helped pad the book. I also skipped over the long and tedious descriptions of battles, and came to the realization that my initial feeling was in fact correct and this was way too long and filled with unimportant details and romantic couplings, and did I mention battles?
If you are familiar with the Butterfly Affect, you might wonder, as I did, how killing hundreds of men who might have been great, great, great, great, great grandfathers of 20th century people would change the world that the Americans came from. Maybe even cause many of them of German ancestry to not exist. I kept expecting some of the modern characters to simply disappear as their ancestors were obliterated.
Since there are many sequels available I assume readers find out how this new United States impacts history, but I don't plan to find out.
Again, if you are into the 30 Years War, go for it; but Wikipedia will get you quicker to reading the next book on your list.
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