4.25 Hard to rate this one. One the one hand, it's just my kind of setting, a little American mountain town flung into the Thirty Years' War, on the other hand the focus shifts constantly from the brutally military to the romantic love at first sight (never my favourite trope). It also seems to lack the psychological realism that deals with both cultural displacement (on both sides) and the horrors of war (for most characters that is).

But it is obvious that this book is a labour of love and even if it's sometimes painfully different from the America of today, the belief int the decent, ingenius, welcoming America is something that can be a balm. It's clear from reading that the author was involved in the labour movement and maybe that makes such a different from all the vainglorious military novels (be they SF or fantasy) that so often predominate.

Even if they are larger than life the characters are also charming, relatively diverse (for the time) and interesting enough to make you read on and on, even if there's not that much happening for witde swaths of the book. I can certainly see why it spawned such a huge series. There's always another "But how this that happen?" or "How did they solve that problem?" lurking around the corner. It's also quite lovingly researched and who cares if it's "Thüringerwald" and not "Thüringen Wald"? German cases are stupid anyway.

Apart from a couple of minor quibbles about pacing and focus (and love at first sight), I thoroughly enjoyed the read and will go on with the series. If Steve Jackson is about to turn it into a GURPS setting, there must be something to it. Be warned though, if you don't like alternate history, multiple viewpoints, quite a few gory battle scenes (though thankfully not overly long) and political discussions, this might not be for you. In short, if you love Turtledove or Sprague de Camp's 'Lest Darkness Fall', you'll like this one too.