1635: The Wars for the Rhine (Ring of Fire Book 24)

I liked it, but I'm a longtime Ring of Fire fan who's read all of the books, some many times, and subscribed to Grantville Gazette starting with issue 1.. Heavily dominated by downtimers and the nobility, with minimal involvement of uptimers familiar to ROF fans. If you like Virginia DeMarce's contributions to the Ring of Fire series, you'll like this. Definitely not the place to start the series. If you've read more than 8 of the books, give it a try. I'm glad I read it (in two sittings), and probably won't reread it for a long time.

Like many other reviewers, I am a passionate fan of Eric Flint's 1632 universe. Unfortunately, as he expanded the universe by permitting others to contribute not only stories, but complete books, the quality of some of the submissions suffered. This work is among those less fortunate works. The story is disjointed, the character development shallow, the action viewed usually from a great distance, and the entire setting is sadly devoid of much drama. The best part of the book, as with some other disappointments in this series, is the superb amount of historical detail packed in to it. Unfortunately, the fascinating historical tidbits do not offset the work's faults. When one learns, as I did (belatedly), that this book was assembled from various short stories Pedersen has written for the various 1632 anthologies, the faults become more explicable--but unfortunately, not less forgivable. All in all, Pedersen's writing does not quite descend to the level of unreadability that Virginia de Marce achieves, but The Wars for the Rhine is fairly far along on that sliding scale of disappointment, and I, for one, will not be reading any more books with her name as either sole or joint author. I give this two stars instead of one simply out of respect for the historical research clearly undertaken to write it.

The most boring of all the Ring of Fire books. No depth, characters are shallow, plot is almost nonexistent. I have read the other 20+ books, and the 68 to date GG anthologies, many times over. This one really wasn't worth my time or money at all. I was very disappointed. If it had been a paperback I would have thrown it across the room, but since it was digital on my pad I couldn't have the satisfaction. Who is responsible for this book being released without a good editor to make sure it was decently written?

Just as most of us here who even bother to read reviews,you probably already LOVE the series, just like myself.... BUT.... this book leaves a LOT to be desired.The overall concept is there, however, the story NEVER really took off, and thats depressing, cause it COULD have been much better.Just so you are all aware of what I myself find to be the "Hallmark" books in this series,1632 (The original is the original without it, you have no CLUE whats going on)1634 (The Baltic war, a GREAT read, combining just enough REAL history, with what you can imagine happening in the NEW universe)1636 (Commander Cantrell in the West Indie. THIS story, was a great read as well, and solidified Cantrell, as a character that is going to be AS strong, as ANY Major character in the series)And the Kremlin Games (What started as a story designed to bring a lot of "Fan Fic" into a complete story, turned into a Remaking of what you would want and EXPECT to happen, in a "Backwards country, 200 years behind the "Progressive" 163X Western European counterparts.)

A good addition to the 1632 series in my honest opinion. I will say that I have read nearly all of the 1632 series and most of the ROF series as well so I wasn't as lost as others when reading this book. I would like to advice those that haven't read the main 1632 storyline or any of the ROF series to not start with this book as it will leave you confused. I believe that is the book main drawback. I loved the characters in the books and their interaction with one another, sadly as you can see with the other reviewers, this was considered a drawbacks but I like it. Their is a lot less action in this one than other books in the 1632 series but it more than makes up for it in other areas. I'd honestly recommend this to anyone who loved the 1632 series and have read some of the ROF series that been published.

When it first came out, this book suffered because it was very late. The main narrative was a full year ahead of it.Having recently reread it alongside the other 1635 books, I have concluded that it simply isn’t in the same tier as those. It is difficult to keep track of what is going on, and it does not add to my understanding of the other books. The political ramifications are quite easily summarized in other books when you need to know who controls what territories.A decent book. It is a perfectly fine member of the series, but you could easily choose to skip this one.

If there is a story here someplace, I couldn't find it. I guess the author had something in mind while writing the book, but it was lost in the never ending cast of characters introduced, saying a few words and then moving on. The author would have done better by simplifying the story and sticking to the main story line. That is if there was one. Having read the whole book I never found any reason for it to be written. I didn't advance the overall story at all. It's a book that could just as easily be skipped and the reader wouldn't have missed a thing.

I love the Ring of Fire series. Except for this book; I just couldn't trudge my way through all the meaningless information to find the actual story. I felt like the author did a lot of research on the characters, but limited herself to their family trees and acquaintances. It read like a genealogical treatise narrated by Ben Stein. Examining the etymology of ennui was more exciting.

I have loved this series but this book is the weakest yet. It becomes a boring read with an endless and repetitive list of long names so that any enjoyable plot is lost. I gave up on it, which is a first.

Probably the most entertaining series of books in the last decade. I have read over 20 of the novels / short story collections / spin off's and I am eagerly awaiting the next installments.

Dull addition to the canon,

Anette Pederson has crafted a good story, from a group of different storylines.

A fascinating insight into a complicated situation. It makes the current North American political situation look normal. It is a great read and filled in some blanks for me from a different book in the series. There’s a great many characters to keep track of but the writer made it interesting and easy to do so. I hope to see more from this writer.