1634: The Bavarian Crisis

This review is deliberately vague in order to avoid spoilers.

If a good series of books is like a road leading you on a thousand-mile adventure, The Bavarian Crisis is the tar that holds the road together. It's sticky, messy, doesn't taste good, and stinks in hot weather. It's still necessary to keep the road together, and is just as important as the cobblestones, asphalt or bricks that also make up the road. It doesn't make it smell any better.

The story takes place in the time period surrounding the events of 1634: The Baltic War, and where that story takes place primarily in northern Germany and the Baltic Sea (hence the name), this book takes place in central and southern Germany. Many major characters from the 163x series make appearances and the story revolves around two of them -- Veronica Dreeson (wife of Grantville's mayor and grandmother of Gretchen) and Mary Simpson (wife of Adm. Simpson). An enormous cast of new down-time characters also join these two well-known characters in the story, which revolves around a series of weddings.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this novel is a romance -- or as close to it as mainstream alternate history comes. Throughout the novel, several plots and subplots intertwine and affect each other, but the primary element can be considered to be Don Fernando (leader of the Spanish Netherlands) and his search for a wife to help him create a third branch of the Hapsburg Dynasty, ruling over a united Low Countries.

The story is full of rich historical detail and information, and while that's normally a fact to be applauded, it is more than a bit overwhelming in this case. Anyone who hacks his or her way through the novel will no doubt come away full of facts about European diplomacy, minor nobility, and royal customs of the 17th century. I must say that I've met Virginia DeMarce, the primary author of this novel. She's an enormously intelligent woman, extraordinarily knowledgeable about 17th Century Germany, and her Ph.D. is put to goo use here. The problem is one of too much information. While background about the archduchess of such-and-such is nice in small doses, there is far, far, far too much of it here, particularly for readers new to the series, and even readers with knowledge of previous books, but who have no formal historical background.

I could only work my way through the first half of this book with difficulty, and the last third is much the same. I'm happy to say that events move somewhat more quickly in the middle third, but it's a quickening only from geological speed to glacial. Adding to the problems of too much information is the fact that the plot simply isn't exciting.

It's a difficult task to make a royal marriage interesting, and Dr. DeMarce should be congratulated for attempting to tackle the subject. It's something that the 163x series really needed to address in order to be a complete representation of the 17th century, and DeMarce can't be faulted for failing in a difficult problem. Most of the (limited) military action that takes place during the course of the story happens off-stage, and as readers, we only get to see the after-effects of surrenders and confrontations. There's no blow-by blow descriptions of large-scale combat, and readers who require explosions to be entertained likely will not finish this book, let alone enjoy it.

There are frequent allusions to other books of the series, adding to the difficulty of the text. New readers may very well be turned off the 163x series for good. But for enthusiastic fans of the series, this book connects vital holes in the overall scope of developments in Europe. I simply wish it wasn't so boring in doing so. With limited action, virtually no suspense, the lack of the definable climax, and an overload of information, this book will likely find very few fans, even among aficionados of the 163x series. My hope is that the eARC I read will receive several rounds of editing before the book is officially published in October. A splash of Flint action, coupled with an editor carving out the thicket of unnecessary information can save this book. If it doesn't happen, I'm afraid the tar pits will claim more victims.

Overall rating: D+

Summary: A dragging plot, too much excess information, no action, and the lack of a definable climax make this book an ordeal to get through. Even hardcore fans of the series will likely be disappointed, though a few may appreciate the tying of loose threads following The Baltic War.