Love and Chemistry

by Jack Carroll

Sometimes it takes a lot of travel and a little chemistry to find love.

For down-timer Matthias Ehrenhardt it is certainly true. His life begins inauspiciously at the loss of his home and family but the plucky young man does not give up. Instead, he takes his chances at the new university to study engineering. Only one thing worries Matthias. He has loved the gentle Dora all his life and he suspects she loves him in return. But will her father let her wait for a penniless orphan who is dedicating himself to engineering? Up-timers may think highly of engineering but Dora's father is not so sure.

The education Matthias gets in engineering is almost as astounding as the one he gets living and studying wth the Up-timer students.

Love and Chemistry is the story of one young man's education in chemistry, life and love.

Parts of this novel originally appeared in The Grantville Gazette as The Apprentice.

325 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 22, 2017

Reviews

[Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

2022 bk 132.Another Ring of Fire series. The author attempts to blend history, chemistry, industrial mechanics, and romance together - and to a certain extent succeeds. I struggled with the long passages of explanation of higher math, industrial settings, and chemical experiments, things I know thrill the heart of the author. As a person more interested in the characters, well, there were times when it was hard to tell the forest from the trees. Before a character was firmly fixed in my mind the author would whisk us away to another scenario. Okay for a one time read and for some of the background into the need for the industrial / chemical engineering. I do hope to meet some of the characters again, especially if they become more firmly formed.

[LinHigley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a Chemist there depiction is spot on

I lost slot of sleep with this book .I was intransed with the story. Being a Chemist this is the first book to Gove a accurate depiction of the art. Very impressive.

[Leo E Sands · Rating 3 out of 5]

Throwback to an older sense of SF

I enjoy a certain amount ot tech in my SF. Being spacially and directionally dyslexic meant I was a horror in labs but with AP and CLEP test placements managed to avoid the normally mandatory college science and math(geometry!) requirements. My
extensive hard SF readisng had given me that much of an edge. But wading thru the intense tech minutia of this book threw me right back into the horror of labs. I now understand why so many SF readers (including my mother) detest the hard stuff and avoid it.

[Allen McDonnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthwhile read

This is a great addition to the 1632 series of novels any fan of the set will enjoy. While the formula of uptimer knowledge and downtimer skills working together is familiar the subject matter varies from book to book which keeps things interesting. I was actually expecting some overlap between this nivel and the Dr. Gribbleflotz vovel, but they neatly avoided that and explored other avenues of chemistry.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best of the non-main-line 1632 books

Good story, well-developed characters.
The authors presented the chemistry and machine shops as believable and interesting. The presentation of the German culture was well done as far as I can judge!
It is good sometimes to have books with no real bad guys! The style is reminiscent of Nathan Lowell.

[Magnús Friðriksson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book per say, but feels a bit rushed and one character that should have been followed during the book ended up as an afterthought and popped up almost in the very end.

With a little bit more work and rewrite, this could easily have been 4.5 stars.

[Randy Pursley · Rating 4 out of 5]

As described in the title, a love story with a lot of science and engineering mixed in. Good characters and nice plot.