Reading Wednesday: Two Free Portal Fantasies I Couldn’t Get Through

[rachelmanija]

1632, by Eric Flint.A chunk of a modern American town, including the entire local chapter of Mine Workers of America, is mysteriously transported into 1632 Germany. What those people need are red-blooded Americans with lots of guns

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[naomikritzer]

I was in the right mood for 1632 because I read the whole thing and enjoyed it. And then I read 1633. And after that I'd have had to pay for them or track them down at the library plus there was piles of it and I was a little mystified by the order...so that's where I stopped.

The thing that I found sort of fascinating was that it was totally a "noble outsiders civilize the savages!" story, but (kind of) guilt-free because the savages in this one are 17th century Germans. Are you engaging in colonialism if the people you're civilizing are essentially your own ancestors?

In the sequel, I was really pleased by the fact that at least some of the temporal locals were smart enough to figure out what had happened and react sensibly. So, for instance, Cardinal Richelieu goes to a lot of trouble to have one of his spies get him a history text, which he then uses to his advantage. The technologies also get picked up and spread fast, so the advantage the Americans have is thoroughly temporary.

On the downside, the most charitable description I can come up with for the characterizations is "generally two-dimensional."