1612

by Harald Johnson

Picking up after the conclusion of 1609, Book 2 of this series—1612—continues the story of New York City's birth.
It's three years later, and Dancing Fish and his Manahate band face new threats, not only from fur-greedy Dutch traders, but from someone close at hand. A rivalry between two Native adversaries boils over, but there's one enemy they seem powerless to defeat. And in the middle of it all: a dark-eyed beauty who has to decide between following her heart or her family's wishes.

If you like historical fiction in the style of Ken Follett, James Michener, or Edward Rutherfurd, then you'll enjoy Harald Johnson's series of short books ("novellas") — based on true events — about the birth of New York City and the island at its center: Manhattan.

155 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 18, 2016

About the author

Harald Johnson is an author of both fiction and nonfiction, a publisher, and a lifelong swimmer—who actually swam nonstop around New York’s Manhattan island. His debut novel (NEW YORK 1609, 2018) was the first-ever to explore the birth of New York City (and Manhattan) from its earliest beginnings. He followed that with the three books of the NEANDER time-travel trilogy (2019, 2020, 2021), and then the modern suspense thriller EL NORTE (2022). THE TWILIGHTS is his sixth novel (and twelfth book).

Harald lives with his wife deep in the woods of central Virginia.

Reviews

[Winifred Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

1612, like 1609, is a well-written gripping story in a rich historical setting. But even though I enjoyed the book, I didn’t find it as compelling as the first one. Here Johnson focuses even more on Dancing Fish, the young native who worked as an interpreter for Henry Hudson in the first book. Dancing Fish is in conflict with another young man of his tribe over a young woman. He’s also struggling with issues of conservation regarding the beaver trade with the Europeans. I realize Johnson is having to imagine most of what happened back then, so I don’t want to be too critical. The characters are well-drawn. There was lots of suspense to keep me reading. I really liked seeing the spiritual, social, and political customs of the native community. But I felt the part about conservation was sort of anachronistic, colored by our perspective, and not a likely concern of the natives at the time. Also, the conflict over the woman seemed too small, too ordinary, to be the driving force on this big historical canvass. I was more interested in the small pox epidemic. And did the traders really teach the Indians the concept of buying on credit?