1636: The Atlantic Encounter (25)

1632 Universe/Ring of Fire #34

by Eric Flint, Walter H. Hunt

THE BEST-SELLING RING OF FIRE SERIES CONQUERS THE NEW WORLD! It has taken almost five years for the United States of Europe to stabilize its position in 17th-century Europe. Now it turns its attention to the New World, where the English have ceded their colonial claims to France. There are vast lands and rich resources across the Atlantic for any nations powerful enough to rule and control them—and equal incentive for other nations to block their path. The time-displaced Americans know about the future path that led to their own United States in North America, in the other universe they came from. But do they want to repeat that history as it was? Yes, they had democracy—but they are helping to create that in Europe. And they have learned the bitter prices paid for chattel slavery and the near-extermination of the native populations. Knowledge is power. Perhaps a new course can be taken. Accordingly, an expedition is sent to the New World to see just what might be happening there and what might be done. They are armed with their technology, among which are a radio and an airship. More importantly, they are armed with the knowledge of future history and their determination not to repeat the errors of their past. What could possibly go wrong?

Genres: Alternate History, Time Travel, Science Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Espionage, Urban Fantasy

464 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published May 25, 2021

About the author

Eric Flint was a New York Times bestselling American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works were alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures.

Reviews

[Daniel Shellenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as Ring of Fire side-novels go, the Atlantic Encounter was... middling. I gave it 4/5 stars, but that's really just 7/10 rounded up. It wasn't boring but it also was very limited in scope, and the story is beset with a lot of political baggage. The basic thrust of the story is that the up-timers send a small delegation to North America to get the lay of the land and to attempt to encourage cooperation of the various colonial and indigenous entities against the French, who are eager to establish a monopoly on the continent in hopes that by leveraging the continent's resources and potential, they can basically position themselves in America's place economically in the new timeline. I have three main problems with the book. The first is that it feels like pieces are missing. The delegation only tangentially encounters any natives in the narrative, though they claim to have spoken with such late in the story. Furthermore, the book raises the issue of black slaves in New Amsterdam (and makes a point of calling out the New England colonies for also having slaves), but when they get to Virginia, which was BY FAR the major importer of black slaves, the issue is neatly ignored, which seems strange. This leads into my second issue, there's a rather unpleasant bias in the authors' views of the various groups. The New Englanders are all made out to be useless bigots while the Marylanders and Virginians are enterprising and cosmopolitan. This is... one way of interpreting history, but it feels skewed to make Puritans look like hateful assholes, and while there were certainly some firebrands, quite bluntly, for the first two generations of their settlements in New England, the Puritans did a FAR better job of living at peace with their neighbors than the Virginians did, and they did it with the French and Dutch regularly pushing the natives towards war. This brings me to the third problem, which is that the book, which is regularly pushing the view that the key to a better future for the Americas is for the various groups to work together, completely ignores the real threat that devastated native American society: disease. In the first 50 years of the Puritans in New England, the Puritans fought 1 war with their neighbors, the Pequot War, in which perhaps 1000 Pequots were killed, and the survivors were enslaved by their rivals and the colonists. Bloody stuff, but in those same 50 years, whole tribes were completely annihilated by common European diseases. When Squanto was taken to Europe, he left behind a tribe, when he returned with the Puritans, he discovered that he was the last survivor of his tribe. Such was a fairly common event and life expectancy for the natives in the regions near European settlements were horrifically low during the 17th century. Tribes that had once had thousands of members were reduced to a few hundred. Now, here's the thing. This is something that modern medicine, brought back to the 17th century could do something about. Whole tribes could be saved from extinction, and it never even comes up in this book. This really bugged me because it's actually something that Herb Sakalaucks got into in his books (especially, 1635: the Battle for Newfoundland), and it would make sense for it to be part of the sell here to get the various native tribes onboard with the "let's all stand against the French" plan, but no. Ok, so given all that, you'd think that I would've dropped this down to 3/5, but there were things the story did quite well. I liked the main protagonists, the Chehab brothers, and their love-hate relationship felt quite genuine, and much of the supporting cast was enjoyable. For all that I didn't agree with some of its portrayals, its exploration of the state of North America in the mid-1630's was also very interesting, particularly the complexities of local colonial politics and their complicated relations with the mother countries. As a Ring of Fire book, it didn't really bring all that much future-shock to bear. The Chehabs have a semi-rigid airship that they brought with them for scouting, but that's pretty much it. All in all, it scratched my alt-history itch and I was mostly entertained, but I admit I was a bit let down, particularly because this one has been in development and basically finished for a LONG time; with all that time, I hoped for something a bit more substantial, but given that the semi-associated 1637: No Peace Beyond the Line is coming out in November, this is enough to tide me over.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read!

[Debrac2014 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this! I was very interested in how the early settlements were depicted!

[Kathryn Baron · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took me far longer than usual for my reading to gain momentum. I didn't start really wondering what's next? Until about 25% in. If it wasn't part of a series the book might have been DFN.

However, I did finish and it was ok. The characters are for the most part amiable. BUT really. The failure to deal with disease as then largest problem for the native Americans, when it's already been raised as a problem multiple times in earlier stories? Also no mention of slavery in Virginia?

File under fantasy not alternate history.

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series and this author never fails to deliver engrossing and entertaining novel.
This one is no exception.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the authors moving the saga forward. However I didn't particularly like the main characters and found the dialogue and plot developments fairly mediocre.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this was interesting, but mostly it was the main up-timer character realizing that his education about U.S. history wasn't helping him relate to how people lived in North America in the years following the Ring of Fire.

Up-timers Gordon and Peter Chenab are sent on a fact-finding mission to North America by Ed Piazza and his intelligence director Enrico Miro (who took over for Francisco Nasi). Once the Chenabs get on the boat, there is basically no mention of any other Grantville characters.

The story and third-person POV alternates between the Chernabs and an Alsatian who is serving as a spy for the French.

This is not focused on military issues, which was a nice change from some of the other 163x books.

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical to the series, the story is told from multiple points of view, but, unusually, many of these are of the "bad guys": Stephane Hoff (an Alsatian ex-thief and spy in the employ of Cardinal Richelieu), Servien (his handler), and Captain Dansin (officer in a French expeditionary force). It's not to say that they are all terrible people, but they ARE working in opposition to the protagonists. I felt like the book started pretty slowly, and honestly, I was more invested in Stephane's storyline. This book overlaps events in 1636: COMMANDER CANTRELL IN THE WEST INDIES. Less military stuff than many books of the series - this one is mostly diplomacy and exploration with some espionage. Low 3 stars.

[Marijan Šiško · Rating 4 out of 5]

Završio knjigu u dva dana. jedna iz ciklusa kontakta Grantvillovaca s Američkim kontinentom.

[Aristoj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing the good story of The Ring of Fire.
Good job.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A weakness in a shared universe is that some writers are just not as talented as others. Or their inspiration appeals to a niche audience. Either way, this book suffers from the same problem as a number of the recent novels (The China Venture, Mission to the Mughals, Seas of Fortune) - they're just boring. Nothing actually happens. If those particular settings aren't your jam then these books are not worth the time to read.

I have enjoyed the main line series, and quite a few of the other works. But I won't bother reading any more of this type.

[Douglas Berry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, at least this was better than the last one.

The problem here was that the novel didn't have much of a plot, instead, it was a series of encounters that read like a bad tourism video. The underlying concept is a not-so-secret mission sent by one of the states in the USE to scout out the situation in North America in search of allies against the French.

The characters are moderately interesting, although sorely underdeveloped, the situations are all pretty bland, and worst of all, absolutely nothing is resolved at the end of the book. It's just filled with missed opportunities for anything resembling dramatic tension.

As an example, there is one character, a spy for the French, who needs to follow the USE crew to Virginia. He decides to steal the identity of an indentured servant and travel in his place. We've learned that in the colony they are in, there is one man who has become a sport of crime lord. What I was expected was a scene where the spy, with almost nothing to his name, has to bargain for this favor and ends up making promises that might come back to haunt him later. Instead, it all happens off-stage. Even the book's climax is a letdown.

This would have been much better off serialized in the Grantville Gazette series.

[Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The next book in the 163X/Ring-of-Fire series includes a visit to the 17th Century Atlantic Colonies (New Holland, New England, New France, Maryland and Virginia). For these people most of the impacts of the future ideas transplanted into Germany are very much secondary and tertiary effects, particularly the ceding of English colonies to France as part of the rearrangement of power relationships in Europe.

I enjoy this series enough to have thought this was a worthwhile read at a time when I wanted distraction, but this isn't really one of the highlights of the series. The usual high interest of this series -- how the ideas of liberty and science coming 250 years early could change the world -- is here playing decidedly second place to the impacts of new opportunities for individuals (uptimers and downtimers alike). That made for an interesting adventure yarn, but not one that will stay with me like some of the others.

[BJ Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book is an interesting read, its historical accuracy is woefully lacking. Many of the major concerns of those early colonists and their Native American neighbors are completely ignored (like disease). Other major concerns that have been emphasized in other Ring of Fire novels are almost nonexistent here (like slavery in the Maryland and Virginia colonies). The way key historical figures (like Champlain) and groups (like the Puritans) are portrayed is incredibly ahistorical although it does lean heavily into modern misunderstandings of them. Obviously, very little research and background was done. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of this time period in North America will be consistently pulled out of the story by these inaccuracies. But hey, if someone has almost no knowledge of the early colonial period, I am all for them reading this book if it will spark an interest and cause them to dive deeper into the true history.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. I didn't love it. It follows minor characters (two uptimer brothers and a downtimer woman doctor) from the series acting as a fact-finding mission to North America and being followed by a French spy sent (indirectly) by their old nemesis, Cardinal Richelieu.

It all made sense in terms of the possible actions the American colonists would have taken if the King of England had turned his holding over to France... that is... misplaced fighting amongst themselves.

Any modesty issues? Well... the word "bullsh-t" was used a few times, but that was about it for vulgar language. Sex was discussed indirectly and in a mature manner.

I might read this book again, but only as part of reading the series again, or in need of background for a sequel.

[Kevin Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

An encapsulation of the entire premise of the series. A very small number of modern Americans stuck in the past try to make things better. The main characters use their knowledge to create a blimp and along with some friendly downtimers explore American as it was in 1636. The locals expect them to have the technological version of a magic wand to solve all their problems but their just isn't one. Instead we go along with the protagonists to see what life was really like. Exposing many of the flaws, prejudices and beliefs of those of the time. In the hands of an incompetent writer this would be dull but instead the story is full of life and political intrigue. Changes from other books affect the story which helps keep the book feeling part of a larger whole.

[Michael Gerardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enjoyable read in the "Ring of Fire" series. The up-timer interaction with early colonial Americans was fascinating, and brought home the oft-overlooked fact that the original colonies were very diverse and not always friendly. Their efforts to prevent the new 17th century from repeating the mistakes of our own timeline will hopefully bear fruit in future volumes. It was noted, however, that as time goes on there will be fewer and fewer up-timers left in the post-Ring world, so time is literally not their friend. Stay tuned.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gordon Chehab and his brother Peter are on a "trading" mission to North America to discover the state of the colonies non-French colonies there. Unfortunately, they have a spy on board and lose their radio due to a freak thunderstorm. There is an interesting Danish colony on Newfoundland, the suspicious Puritans, the complacent New Amsterdamers, wary Marylanders, and belligerent Virginians. And when a French fleet arrives, the the Challenger and its crew will have to make a choice - aid the resistance or flee. A nice addition to the Ring of Fire series.

[MAB LongBeach · Rating 3 out of 5]

A side story in the 1632 universe, in which a small West Virginia town was dropped into central Gemany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. An expedition is sent to North America to assess the situation, and to see if the scattered colonies can be brought together to oppose the French.

Well-written, well-plotted, with adequate characterizations. Not an essential part of the series, but fans will want to read it. Newcomers to the series wouldn't need much background to enjoy it.

[Ester · Rating 1 out of 5]

Booooring

It just felt like they tried to tackle too much with not enough character viewpoint. Most of what we saw was from the view of the early American settlers and none of them were traveling with the main characters. They stopped at a town. Met some people. Got told what was up and then went to the next town. Everything else in the story was just a footnote. This was a story compromised entirely of a collection of footnotes.

[Charles MacCracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually I consume a new Eric Flint writing in one or two days. This book did not grip me in the same way until I was about half way through. I was raised on the water and am well familiar with how quickly a storm can come up and how fast one needs to be to get to shore when lightening shows in the distance. The storm episode during the crossing of the Atlantic was a real stretch of poetic license. I will certainly continue to eagerly await Mr. Flint's new offerings. Thank you sir.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good storyline in a popular alternate history series. I found it interesting that the story centered on two primary characters that I don't recall ever hearing about before, with the bulk of the protagonists we usually see either peripherally connected or not mentioned at all. Plenty of intrigue but I personally did think that it ended too abruptly. But a worthwhile read in a good series!

[Larry Loughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another chapter to the ROF

I enjoyed the story, it was well written. My thought on finishing this book was "Is this one more unfinished story to add to the many in the ROF universe?" I really wish Flint would wrap up some of the many ROF storylines before he got involved in new ventures.

[Juliann Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worse of the series

Just too silly, lightning sneaks up on them? Beyond the normal silly meatballs and misunderstanding caused by uptimers. Obviously another series set in the new world to go along with the ones we have going on in Newfoundland, the Caribbean, and the Pacific northwest. If we had New stories more than once every three years that might not be so bad.

[Michael Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry but this volume was the least likeable of the series. It was BORING. Most of the volume seemed to be filler. Too much BLAH BLAH BLAH with little real content. Several characters were not needed and definitely acted a filler to stretch out the book. Not recommended for those who lke the alternate series.

[Ronald Spitzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable book in the Ring of Fire series. It goes into the east coast of the Atlantic North America and the early settlements and how they are bing affected by the Ring of Fire. Logical and ties in well with the events in Europe in this alternate history world. It stands alone, but also makes you want to read the next one, which likely will be published in a year of two.

[Mark Hazen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perhaps the weakest of the series

I love this series, but this one is the weakest in concept and execution. From the nearly illegible maps that do not correspond to the text through the lack of knowledge of the geography to the simplistic dialogue. Simply not one of Eric’s better efforts - it’s like it got pushed out without going to the editor.

[Allen McDonnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth the price

A nice summer read, scattered moments of action to spice things up but really a story exploring what has become of North America in 1636. This is the book many gave been eagerly waiting for as so little in the 1632-verse had taken place in North America in comparison to Europe and East Asia.

[Henrik · Rating 1 out of 5]

I usually like the books set in the 1632 universe, but this is an exception. It felt like there was no real story and that things happened more or less randomly. And the characters were completely incompetent at what they were doing. And I felt zero empathy with them. And and and ...
Do not read this book.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed virtually every book in this series. Even the ones I maybe didn't enjoy as much still contributed to living vicariously through this great drama. So much of my reading isn't precisely pleasure reading, but this series is one of a few exceptions. Thanks for transporting me to an alternate reality (though some say I pretty much live in one already anyway).