Rome has never fallen to the barbarians. The eternal city has stood for 27 centuries. Its empire has ebbed and flowed, from weak emperors who submitted to their co-emperors in Con­stan­tino­ple, to mad ones who drain the treasury, to conquerors who spread the might of Rome across the globe.

The premise is in­ter­est­ing, but the execution is weak. The book is written in a Mich­eneresque style: a series of disjointed chapters set decades or centuries apart. The viewpoint characters usually have some connection to the emperor of the time. Reviewing the front matter moments ago, …continue.

Another book from the 1632 series and a direct sequel to 1634: The Galileo Affair. For­tu­nate­ly, this one is much better than Grantville Gazette III.

The Americans from the future have es­tab­lished an embassy in Rome, as well as a tavern catering to the rev­o­lu­tion­ary-minded elements. Cardinal Borja, head of the Spanish In­qui­si­tion, is enraged by the ac­com­mo­da­tion reached by Pope Urban, and he foments unrest leading to an attempt to overthrow the pope.

Fairly en­ter­tain­ing with a coherent plot and engaging characters. The first half moves slowly as …continue.

The popular 1632 series is a shared universe of alternate history, where the small town of Grantville, West Virginia has somehow been trans­port­ed in a Ring of Fire to central Germany in 1631, during the middle of the Thirty Years' War. The towns­peo­ple adapt fairly suc­cess­ful­ly and im­me­di­ate­ly and ir­rev­o­ca­bly change the course of history, thanks to their advanced technology.

The Ring of Fire has spawned an active community at 1632.org, leading to a great deal of fan fiction, developing plot lines, fleshing out major and minor characters, …continue.