1636: Seas of Fortune: Difference between revisions

| image = <!--Book pleasecover insert1636 image for coverSeas hereof -->Fortune.jpg

| country = [[United States]]

| language = [[English language|English]]

| genre = [[Alternate History]]<br />/[[Science fiction]]

| pub_date = 7 January 7, 2014

| media_type = Print ([[Hardback]]hardback & [[Paperback]]paperback)

| isbn = 978-1-4516-3939-1 (hardback)

'''1636: Seas of Fortune''' is aan compilationanthology of short stories written by Iver Cooper and set in the [[1632 series]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.uchronia.net/label/flinassiti.html|title=Uchronia: The Assiti Shards (1632) Series|website=www.uchronia.net}}</ref> The anthology was released in the United States on January 7, 2014. It is divided into two novellasroughly equal novella-length parts, ''Stretching Out'' and ''Rising Sun''. Each part ("braid") consists of several linked ("braided") short stories, seven in the [[1632case series]]of both''Stretching writtenOut'' byand Iverfive Cooperin ''Rising Sun''. The compilation was published in trade paperback in 2014 and in mass market paperback in 2015. The book received moderate toreviews,<ref>As negativeof June 1, 2015, there were 199 ratings on www.goodreads.com, with an average rating of 3.54 (5 point scale) and 90 customer reviews on www.amazon.com, butwith an average rating of 3.7. See also "Literary significance and reception" below.</ref> hadwith respectable sales.<ref name=locus /> ''Stretching Out'' is set in northern South America and the [[Caribbean]] while ''Rising Sun'' is set in Japan, in the North Pacific, region focusingand on Japanese religious refugees setting up in and aroundthe Sanwest Francisco Bay area in a loose historical parallelcoast of East Coast colonization ofNorth America by English settlers.

Six of the seven ''Stretching Out'' wasstories were previously released electronically in the online version of the [[Grantville Gazettes|Grantville Gazette]] in serial form, starting with Volume 11 and continuing in six installments until Volume 21. This sectionpart of the book ''1636: Seas of Fortune'' includes all of the online installments plus original material that had not been previously published. This novella containcontains two threads, one centering on Maria Vorst, a Grantville-trained downtimer who heads an expedition to what is now Guyana[[Suriname]] to set up a colony that could export rubber, bauxite, minerals, tropical products, and other natural resources that are not obtainable in Europe, but are necessary for sustaining Grantville's industrial development, and the other thread centers on Henrique Pereira da Costa, a Portuguese [[Marrano]] (secret Jew), and his half-brother indentureindentured servant Maurício, who initially are roaming the jungles of [[Brazil]] in search for rubber trees.

All of the ''Rising Sun'' isshort astories novellawere first published in this anthology. This part is primarily about the acceleration in expansion of the Japanese empire that is resulta ofresponse to the introduction of history books obtained from Grantville. The main storyline centers aroundon exiling of religious[[Japanese dissentersChristians]] to Northern California to found a colony in the vicinity of Monterey Bay that would exploit the resources of North America. Althoughand thealso novellahinder centersEuropean onexpansion into the Pacific. This colonization expedition wasis headed by [[Date Masamune]],. almostOnly halfthe offirst story (''Where the novellaCuckoo centersFlies'') aroundand eventsa occurringportion inof Japanthe thatsecond wouldstory lead(''Fallen toLeaves'') theare expeditionset in Japan.

The reviewer for SFRevu wrote that "This is a rare collection from a shared universe. There is a fairly low bar to entry as none of the action is truly dependent upon the main action of the Ring of Fire series... Cooper is exploring a part of the world that has been rarely mentioned."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=15021 |title=1636: Seas of Fortune by Iver P. Cooper |website=SFRevu |date=7 January 2014 |first=Bill |last=Lawhorn}}</ref> The [[Midwest Book Review]] writes "Both segues expand the Ring of Fire universe into new or previously limited geography and culture" and "built on real events enhanced by historical speculation but with a nice Grantville twist."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.midwestbookreview.com/mbw/mar_14.htm |title=MBR Bookwatch |periodical=[[Midwest Book Review]] |date=March 2014 |volume=13 |number=3}}</ref> Although he "strongly recommends" the book, the reviewer for the ''Fistful of Wits'' wrote that thehe book"had not expected appearsit to be "somewhata disjointed"series andof hasmostly ainterconnected "short story feelstories" and that, heas didn'tcould "feelbe expected in a collection of short stories like this bookone," it didn't toldtell the whole story of any of the characters involved." Nonetheless, he added that he "liked the settings, liked the characters, and liked where Cooper took them both."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fistfulofwits.com/2013/12/23/1636-seas-of-fortune-by-iver-cooper/ |title=1636: Seas of Fortune, by Iver Cooper |website=Fistful of Wits |date=December 23, 2013 |first=Henry |last=White}}</ref>

1636: Seas of Fortune barely missed getting listed on the [[Locus_Locus (magazine)|Locus]] Trade Paperback List in 2014, but did well enough to be labeled as a runner-up.<ref name=locus>{{cite news |url=http://www.locusmag.com/Magazine/2014/04/locus-bestsellers-april-2/ |title=Locus Bestsellers, April 2014 |magazine=[[Locus (magazine)|Locus]] |date=April 2014}}</ref>

{{reflistReflist|30em}}

{{1632 series|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:2014 American novels]]

[[Category:Baen Books available as e-books]]

[[Category:21st-centuryFiction Americanset novelsin 1636]]

[[Category:1636Alternate inhistory fictionanthologies]]