1636: Seas of Fortune (The Ring of Fire)

After reading this book I find it difficult to understand the gushing five star reviews presented here. It is poorly organized and poorly written. The character development found in most of the other books in the series is lacking and to say that the characters are shallow is to say something nice about them. You don't agree? I suggest you go back and reread one or two of the first books. The plot? After the first couple of hundred pages I gave up looking for one. Suggestions for one appeared here and there but they were soon forgotten. 1636: Seas of Fortune adds nothing to reputation of the series. I do not recommend it to anyone.

I love the Ring of Fire series and have read all of the published books. That said, if you are not a follower of the series, do not start with this book, it is the weakest entry of the series. The ROF series has a lot of officially blessed fan fiction published in the Grantville Gazette. These stories are canon, but do not greatly effect the main story threads. Some Gazette stories have been assembled into novel length and offered by Ring of Fire Press. That is where this book would normally belong. It is a series of short stories arranged in chronological order. It is close to a serialized story, but shows signs of the sections being written as stand-alone short stories, not chapters of a greater story. It is not a novel. This severely limited the depth of the story. The fact that it is published as a ROF book means it is now part of the main story thread. It deserved a rewrite of the original short stories to create a true novel with more coherence and depth.

not as detailed and developed as other books in series. characters were not well rounded seemed flat. I expected better

This book really consists of two collections of connected short fiction—what Cooper calls a “braided” narrative. Both collections deal with the impact of the Ring of Fire on the Western Hemisphere, though at least by the end of this book the two thrusts haven’t met each other. The first one—collectively “Stretching Out”—deals with European efforts to acquire rubber from the Ama-zon area. It features Henrique, a Jewish Marrano who’d emigrated to Brazil before the Ring of Fire but gets in trouble with the Inquisition and flees first up the Amazon and its tributaries and then down the tributaries of the Essequibo to its mouth in what today is Guyana, and a Dutch-Swedish expedition that sets up a base close to present-day Paramaribo where they start looking for rubber trees. All sorts of other things happen, including Henrique and his African manservant, Mauricio, ending up at the Dutch-Swedish colony along with a shipload of freed African slaves. The other collection, titled, “The Rising Sun,” deals with a Japanese program to settle the West Coast of North America, using primarily Christians would otherwise have been executed. Both collections are well-written and quite enjoyable, though they don’t have any great impact on the “main line” 163x stories that Flint controls more closely. Definitely worth getting if you like the series.

No plot,no character development,no continuity and a totally unsatisfactory read. In all honesty I do not know how this book ends.I tried to finish it but gave up in disgust and threw it across room.

1636: Seas of Fortune (2014) is the fourteenth SF Alternate History novel in the Ring of Fire series, following [[ASIN:1451639287 1636: The Devil's Opera]]. The initial volume in this sequence is [[ASIN:1416532811 1632]].

The story is divided into two plotlines. The first takes place mostly in South America. The second takes place in Japan and the west Coast of America.

In the previous volume, Oxenstierna had claimed the regency over Princess Kristina, leadership of the Union of Kalmar, and acting Emperor of the USE. It was this latter claim that concerned Rebecca and Ed. The Ox had established a court at Berlin to oversee the USE.

Mary had visitors calling upon her household. Ed and Rebecca had come to ask her help in making Magdeburg seem more important than Berlin. Although Mary was not a politician, she readily understood that this was one move in keeping Oxenstierna out of USE affairs.

After her visitors left, Mary and Lady Beth started planning arts and cultural events that would improve Magdeburg's popularity. They decided on a preliminary schedule. Then they started pulling in artists of several sorts.

One of the major activities in the works was an opera about King Arthur of Camelot. They asked Marla to help plan the music. Marla grabbed this opportunity to set aside her grief and work on something interesting.

In the novel, Henrique Pereira da Costa is a young Portguese gentleman living in Belem. He has an unfortunate stutter in his own language, but not in foreign tonguses.

Maurico is a mullato slave. He was born to a slave girl of the da Costa family and grew up as Henrique's playmake and friend. When his father died, Henrique manumitted Maurico.

Maria Vorst is a twenty-six year old Dutch women from Leiden. She is an illustrator of plants and animals. She is studying in Grantsville.

David Pieterszoon de Vries is a Dutch sea captain and explorer. He initially tries to establish a colony in North America. Is failed for several reasons, including the sponsors. So he turned his attention to South America.

Tokagawa Iemitsu is the Shogun of Japan. He is the effective ruler of the nation.

Sakai Tadakatsu is a senior councillor of the shogunate. He is a close advisor of the shogun.

Date Masamune is the Daimyu of Rikuzen. He is also known as the One-Eyes Dragon.

Date Iroha-hime is the eldest daughter of Masamune. She is married to Matsudaira Tadateru, an uncle of the shogun.

Date Munesane is the sixth son of Masamune.

Date Chiyo is the youngest daughter of Masamune.

Yamaguchi Takuma is a Japanese villager. He is married to Mizuki and has xxx children.

Yamaguchi Hiraku is the seven year old son of Takuma and Mizuki.

In the first part of this story, Henrique has orders from his family to find rubber trees within the Amazon valley. He and Maurico have shown drawings of the tree and its leaves to the indians, but none have seen anything like them. The Henrique realizes that the indians don't preceive drawings as representations of three dimensional objects.

After Maurico makes clay models of the leaves from clay, some indians recognize the tree. Henrique makes diagonal cuts on the trunks and the sap flows down the tree. He coats a paddle with layer after layer of sap and produces latex. They have found the right trees.

Henrique and Maurico contact other indians in the area and start paying them for the sap. They soon have enough latex for an initial shipment to Lisbon. His family in Portugal will test the quality of the latex.

Then Henrique comes home one afternoon and finds a large cracked vase on the floor. He checks the vase and finds the secret compartment revealed. A silver candelabra is missing and so is his housekeeper.

Henrique starts packing. When Maurico returns early from an errand, Henrique urges him to also pack. The candelabra will identify him as a hidden Jew. The inquisitors will impound all his possessions -- including Maurico -- as a heretic.

Henrique and Maurico head up the Amazon. Henrique also dyes his skin brown like a native. Soldiers actually questioned him during their search, but continues upstream.

Maria is becoming frustrated by her brother. He is very critical of her activities, but is not doing much more than needed to live as a gentleman. Maria complains about her brother to her Grantsville friends.

Maria starts using her knowledge and skills to gain her own goals. She wants to visit South America and produce an illustrated book on the plant and animal life. She meets de Vries in Grantville while he is looking for investors.

Maria convinces de Vries that she is not a delicate flower and he hires her as his science officer. They sail to Suriname with a load of colonists. They find an English colony in the area, but it agrees to cooperate.

In the second part of this story, Takuma watches his son take his community membership test. Mizuki leads Hiraku to the starting point. Hiraku cries at the sight of the Christian symbols, but walks over the them with his mother. Takuma tells his wife that they will have an atonement service in two days.

The shogun is having problems with his kirishitan subjects. Portuguese priests had converted many Japanese to Christianity before the ban was issued and are still covertly coming into the country. Then he learns about the Shimabara rebellion that would occur in 1637.

Many kirishitan are killed within Japan. Tadakatsu advises the shogun to use the lesser form of punishment and merely exile them outside the country. The shogun agrees, but wants them all out of the country by 1637.

Masamune is selected as the grand governor of New Nippon in North America. A ship is sent to Texada Island to search for iron ore. The First Fleet is sent to the California coast.

The Ieyasu Maru crews finds itself a little further north than they intended. Sailing south past five islands, they discover Vancouver Island. They see a wreck of a junk and land nearby to check for survivors. The ship has been cleared of useful items, but is obviously Japanese..

Then the indians see the Ieyasu Maru and paddle out in a very large canoe. The sailors capture the indian chieftan and negotiate for the survivors. Then they sail further south.

The Sado Maru carrying Tadateru and the gold miners waits outside the Golden Gate for the fog to lift. After a few days, it is left behind while the rest of the fleet sails on to Monterey Bay. Finally, the fog lifts and the Sado Maru sails into the Golden Gate.

Unfortunately, the Sado Maru is caught in the tidal flux in the Golden Gate and wrecked. Tadateru sends his wife with a few samuarai to the southern end of San Franciso Bay. He takes two boats to the northern end and searches for the gold fields.

Meanwhile, the other ships reach Monterey Bay and find anchorage in the southern part of the bay. Masamune settles several villages around the coastline. The colonists begin to fish, hunt and plant their seeds.

These tales follow the early establishment of Dutch and Japanese colonies in the New World. Both colonies encounter American Indians as helpers and hostiles. Both colonies are somewhat successful, but are still not self-sufficient.

The two plots are each braids of lesser tales. Each braid is a separate storyline. Like [[ASIN: 0375760377 Haiwaii]], however, each storyline has related tales with common locales and characters.

The wreaked junk reminds the reader of one speculation concerning pre-Columbian settlement of the west coast of America. This notion involved Chinese junks being blown off course onto the western coastline and the crews being stranded. The timeline for such accidental voyages is earlier than this story, but junk designs had not changed for centuries.

These plots spreads the Grantsville influence even further. The next installment in this sequence is [[ASIN:1476736782 1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies]].

Highly recommended for Cooper fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of early colonies, indian affairs, and a touch of romance. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

Now Mister Flint, how about moving the basic story ahead to 1638? Or does your saga end in 1637?

This adjunct to the 1632 series turned out to be marvelous. South America, Caribbean, and Japanese. Friend lived in Japan and that helped further for the third tale. I like this book.

I found the first part good. the second part was a bit complicated harder to follow.

Fine service.