A review by leons1701
1636: The Cardinal Virtues by Eric Flint, Walter H. Hunt

3.0

The Ring of Fire series has become something of a giant sprawling mess (almost like real history, which was of course, the point) to the point where it's very easy to miss several books and not always be sure what's going on. Fortunately, anybody who's read more than a book or two in the series won't have much trouble with The Cardinal Virtues (although I'm pretty sure I missed how Sherrilyn Maddox got injured and ended up rehabbing in France, it's not something I really needed to know to understand the story). This book is also likely to be a fairly crucial turning point going forwards, certain political realities may have changed significantly by the end of this book. Set primarily in France, this is a tale of intrigue in the French court which of course means the titular Cardinal is Richelieu, who gets a rather different (and probably more realistic) portrayal here than the one most people are familiar with from the Three Musketeers.