1632

Ring of Fire, Book 1

By: Eric Flint

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author Eric Flint has received glowing critical praise for his Ring of Fire alternate history series. In this first installment, a West Virginia town is transported from the year 2000 to 1631 Germany at the height of the Thirty Years’ War. Thrust into conflict, the town residents must also contend with moral issues, such as who should be considered a citizen.

©2000 Eric Flint (P)2012 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

“Gripping and excellently detailed.... A treat!” ( Publishers Weekly)

Another "Flintverse" of excellence.

I have read all of the Ring of Fire series over the past few years on Kindle. Now I am going to listen to the Audio books. Excellent performance by the reader, bringing the story to life.

Excellent!!!

A wonderful blend of Historical Fiction, SciFy, Fantasy, Romance & Mystery!!! I very much enjoyed Mr Flint’s World!!!

General storyline written by 12 year old

This was frustrating. I wanted to like it. It made me curious to learn more of the history of the 30-years war. The historical characters and plots surrounding them are not half bad. But the "modern" cast of castaway characters are just plain awful. People are divided up into the white hats and black hats. A black hat is BAD guy. Every motivation, every action, every word of the black hats is bad. The white hats are always good and right and true, oh, yeah, and they're all union dudes, so naturally anyone who has ever been a business owner (read: management) is BAD guy.

Contrast this approach with Harry Turtledove, "Southern Victory" series (also excellently read by George Guidall). In that series the reader is given a much more complete picture of characters -- a picture that demonstrates how characters are both good and bad; how they are often constructed by their experiences and upbringings. You might admire a character for certain aspects and just be furious at him for others. In comparison, this story falls flat.

Interesting, But Come On...!

I found the story line to be interesting with the small town being placed back in time with the ring of fire and really enjoy this type of fiction which places present day common everyday people in history that is known and have them find their way. But what I really had issues with were things that should have been dealt with but never mentioned. That's what was fun with Island in the Sea of Time by S. M. Stirling‎ where these types of problems were discussed and solved.

For example, the small WV town goes back in time and the author has an explanation. Ok, I can accept that. But come on, how many guns does this small town have? It's rather unrealistic that everybody gets a gun and limitless ammo. At least tell us where this is all coming from. It makes the story so predictable. I'm not sure if I'll make it to the next book. I'm taking a break and moving on to something else.

Meh.

Interesting concept, but some parts are too long in the tooth. The story is sometimes too bizarre and it makes it difficult to leave the walls of believability down. I won't be moving on to 1633.

the story should have a 7 star rating

If you could sum up 1632 in three words, what would they be?

brilliant reasonable alternative

What was one of the most memorable moments of 1632?

I loved the "tombstone" put on the mass grave of the murderous soldiers from the farmhouse skirmish.

What about George Guidall’s performance did you like?

This guy is a great reader.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book made me laugh, cry, and made me, want to read all of the books in the series, which I am doing now.

Any additional comments?

I truly wish Mr. Guidall would get busy and record all of the books.

Don’t believe the negative reviews

I have loved this book for years. Not only is it a good book in and of itself but it is the start of a vast and amazing universe. Is it perfect no. However it is fun and engaging. The story is fascinating and I love where the author takes the story. I have a couple of issues with the narrator swallowing the last syllables of some words but he does a credible job, and has excellent pronunciation of the names. I really don’t understand where all the hate comes from in the top of the review chain, it seems to me to be more than a bit petty and mean spirited.

Wow GREAT book!

I'll admit, I only purchased this because it was the deal of the day. Otherwise it would have sat in my wish list. Man am I glad I did! It's nice to see Appalachian (I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky) people portrayed in a positive light. The author did a great job - though no one I grew up spoke so "proper" lol.The narrator needed to give it a bit more hillbilly twang. I won't hold it against him since I love Guidall. What a great premise. Not to give too much away..............a small community in West Virginia is suddenly uprooted and thrown into Germany in the 1600's. The author set it up cleverly to get a mixture of people into the town. The hero of the story is attending his sister's wedding along with several out of town guests and pretty much the rest of the town. History is changed. I am off to purchase the other books in the series right now! Great listen. LOVED it!!!

wow, awesome idea for a series

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next in the series, I have enjoyed the premise of the book and how they are learning to live over 400 years in the pass

An Excellent Alternative History

If you could sum up 1632 in three words, what would they be?

Watch out Europe

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jeff Higgins - He has to grow up fast and move out of his geek world to survive in the new one.

Have you listened to any of George Guidall’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to any of Mr Guidall's other performances, but it seemed to me that there were times when he was trying to hard when it came bringing in accents to the story. Not being a professional reader, I am not positive what the expectations are, but some of his accents were simply too stereotypical for what is in this particular book and especially what is called for through the entire canon of the Ring of Fire series.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No real extreme reaction, having read pretty much the entire Ring of Fire series, I knew the story before I listened to it through this book. There is a difference to hearing the words as opposed to reading them from the page.