Rating: 
Summary: Resolve Something Please!!!
Review: 1632 was an excellent novel in the tradition of the Islander series or the classic Lest Darkness Fall about present day people who unexpectedly end up in the past. 1633 was a decent follow-up and I would like to see where all this is going (now that the sequel beast is out of the bag). Unfortunately, 1633 is way too much a bridge novel, neither beginning nor ending in its own right.I understand that 1633 is meant to be a midpoint in a series but it would have been helpful is at least one of the plotlines got resolved. Instead everything is left up in the air. Rebecca and company are still in Amsterdam, Melissa and company are still in the Tower, Gustav and Mike are still facing a huge war with sulky German princes as allies, and finally the commoners seem to have gotten something, but it is totally unclear what.
Surely in 600 pages Weber and Flint could have resolved or at least moved forward one of these lines. Instead nearly everything that happens in this book happens in the first third and the reader is frustrated by the sheer length with so little effect. So for 1634 and beyond...move it along!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A Horrible Disappointment
Review: "1632" was a great book. While the plot device is as old as alternate fantasy--see "Sideways in Time" by Murray Leinster--the characters were not only interesting in themselves but also true to type in the way they dealt with their changed circumstances. In "1633" however, they seem sadly out of their depth. Furthermore, if there is to be one book for each remaining year of the 30 Years War, this is going to be a very LONG series, which explains why there are so many unresolved plot lines in "1633" which show no hope of being resolved before several more volumes of this series have arrived. Basically, though,my dissatisfacton lies in my answer to a question posed by an earlier reviewer--are the characters of rednecks from 20th (or 21st) century West Virginia strong enough to stand up to the intrigues of 17th century politics? My answer--and I live among similar people--has got to be "No". This is, of course, a mere personal opinion and therefore not of general application suitable for a book review, but it makes the whole premise of "1633" (and "1634","1635 and "1636" when they appear) increasingly remote from what I believe is possible. As a result, I cannot get involved with or care about the protagonists any more than I could about Batman or Superman (or the characters in all the many "Star Wars" books), or about the situations they get themselves in. There are very few authors, like David Eddings, who can sustain a series over five or ten books. Even J.R.R. Tolkien stopped at three.
Rating:
Summary: Please spare me politcal intrigue!
Review: I downloaded 1632 from the Baen website and devoured it in a few hours. I was drawn into a book and story that had me caring about the characters and cheering for their accomplishments. I assumed 1633 would bring more of the same but I was wrong. Perhaps the partnership with David Webber is to blame, but I found myself skipping pages when the plot strayed from what I considered to be the major storyline, to long and, at least for me, uninteresting discussions on 17th century politics. I'm sorry guys, but most of us are not reading this series for the politics. Tone it down, and the next books will draw in the readers.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW! Dude please write alone!
Review: 1632 was awesome. 1633 was horrible. It was a very hard read and was a depressing purchase.
Rating:
Summary: A Struggle, Tedious, Difficult , Possibly Worth It
Review: To be honest the collaboration of David Weber and Eric Flint in this sequel of the fantastic "1632" may not have been a disaster but it sure is close. Taking up where "1632" left off "1633" tries to follow the development of the tiny American culture that has been forcibly grafted into 17th century Germany. "Tries" to follow is the operative word! This is one of the most convoluted and unnecessarily complex storylines that I have seen in years! It was a real struggle to get through the first 2/3 of the book, I can't remember how many times I almost gave up in shear boredom! One of the problems is the first volume "1632" really concentrated on characters and not plot, the opposite is true for "1633" and it shows. Even the well developed characters from "1632" are somehow defocused and mutated almost beyond recognition. Little action except for the very end, not much romance, very little character development and unnecessarily complicated plot, not much positive, well the cover art was better than "1632" but that's about all. Since this seems to been just another volume in a larger series you may want to read it for continuity if nothing else, but wait until there actually is another one. You wouldn't want to waste your time if this is the last. NOT RECOMMENDED unless you really think you must and even then, hay it's your time buddy!
Rating: 
Summary: Time Travel and Alternate History--Winning Combination!
Review: 1633 is the sequel to the excellent book 1632, which tells the riveting story of a modern day West Virginia town suddenly cast into the Germany of the past (guess what year?). This one was written in collaberation with David Weber, but I detected no break in the excellent writing style. 1633 takes the story further and develops the political alliances and relationships between the Americans and the Europeans. The naval war battles are graphic. I found it easy to fall into this story, and felt like I was there myself. That's the best test of good writing for me--complete absorption in the plot and characters. I can't wait for the promised 1634--the Baltic Wars. I highly recommend this book...there's something for everyone in it!
Rating:
Summary: Decent, but not as good as 1632
Review: Eric Flint's 1632 had charm and originality going for it. The sequel features more of the same, except that David Weber now has lead credits and has taken a somewhat heavy hand to the series. It's still readable, but whereas 1632 was a labor of love by Flint, you get the idea that 1633 was just another paycheck for Sr. Weber. Pity.
Rating:
Summary: A DISAPPOINTING SEQUEL
Review: Although I loved 1632, and found it to be a unique sci- fi story, 1633 is a weak sequel. Those of you looking for sci fi content will not find any. The book was boring - very little action. Most of the book is about the backroom political maneuverings in Europe. You can skip fifty pages here and there and you will not feel like you missed anything.
Rating: 
Summary: fun, but danger lurks ahead
Review: This book was very fun to read and I liked it enough to give it four stars. What prevented the fifth star was length and context. The authors tried very hard to give us hope in 1632 but they failed to lay the ground work in 1633. Politicaly the ground will hold but militarily and more importantly Economicaly will they survive? I have my doubts. Building the ironclads is needed because the will insure the lines of supplies for the military and the flow of raw materials for the developing industries. How are the industries doing? We can't tell here. The Military builders are doing good but from whom do they get the material? How are they brought in. The expendature of time and wear on the building of roads was needed but to pull off a Industrial Revolution one needs to know how it started. My impression is that the U.S.A. is trying to push a nineteenth century economy on a engine that can only produce a eighteenth century economy. Railroads powered the 19th century and still are a vital component of the modern economy.(don't beleive me? Watch how fast congress makes railroads operate after a strike has been declared. The last time it could be measured in hours, not days.)Now personaly I like railroads but the railroads have their own problems with labor and they are still not resolved. On a different subject, The lack of corperations will be need to be resolved. The power of a corp. is vastly greater than a single individual because they can bring more people to bear on a problem than a single problem. Also a corperation pays taxes on what is left after paying all their bills were as a person pays the government first. How does the U.S.A. collect its taxes? We don't find out and probably never will but I suspect that mugging the tax man is a very profitable endevor. While having every one organized is great there will be many resources wasted due to duplication and contrasting needs. The little economic information that we are told could cause the whole house of cards to colapse. Fun but what a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: a finely crafted sequel
Review: This is a rare sequel in science fiction. Not only did I find it to be as enjoyable as the first book, but it manages to surpass my low expectations for a collaborative venture. Instead of another hackneyed collaboration I simply could not tell when one author stopped writing and the other picked the story up. For this alone, the book deserves high marks. Further, the scope of the book expands dramatically showing the consequences of the sudden appearance of the Americans in European politics. As a result of this, the book does become quite wordy as one character or another has to explain the importance of historical characters and events to others (including the reader). Fortunately, though, Flint and Weber manage to pull it off, without bogging the book down with heavy-handed exposition. In the end, I guess the best review I can give is this: When I finished the book, I wanted to read it again and found myself eagerly awaiting the rest of the series. Not bad for an impromptu series.
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