1634: The Galileo Affair

I've been making my way through the first volumes of the "Ring of Fire" series this year. Overall, its been a pretty enjoyable experience. I usually find the short story collections a bit better overall than the full novels but I have to say that I really enjoyed "1634: The Galileo Affair" by Eric Flint and Andrew Denis. The story starts what is the Italian line of the series and its features two of my favorite characters: Father Larry Mazarre and Tom Stone the hippie / pharmaceutical magnate. I have loved many of the theological discussions in the Ring of Fire and Father Larry's dilemma as a post Vatican-II Catholic priest in Counter-Reformation Europe some of the more interesting explorations in the series. What makes this novel work is that it is tightly written, keeps its focus, and its genuinely funny and moving in parts. It is cut above the other volumes in the series I've read so far and I am excited to see where the next volumes in this leg of the series go.

3.5 Starting off as one of the more tedious offerings of the series the novel does pick up considerably in the second half, even building up some serious suspense. Title and cover are somewhat misleading, but that is not so bad. What's more irksome is that the series really doesn't expand its representation. Yes, it was written in the earlyy 2000s, but would it kill the authors to have a handicapped or queer person in this? We do finally get some more black representation with Sharon Nichols, but it is also a bit fraught with her being pursued for her exoticism - or so it seems at first. The Italian Buster Keaton troupe of mechanics / revolutionaries don't help in this regard.

Really the only memorable "up-timers" are the saintly priest and the not-much less saintly Hippie pharmacist. The "down-timers" are generally better represented with some double- (or even triple-) faced conspirators, clever and not so clever clergy, diplomats and one memorable Quixotic old swashbuckler.

Really had to work to get through the first half (long train rides help), but the second half almost made up for it with the plot-turns and some hilarious schemes. Hope the series will improve, though.