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Grantville Gazette #8
Grantville Gazette VIII (8)
NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING SERIES. The eigth anthology of tales set in Eric Flint’s phenomenal Ring of Fire universe—all selected and edited by Flint.
The most popular alternate history series of all continues. When an inexplicable cosmic disturbance hurls your town from twentieth century West Virginia back to seventeenth century Europe—and into the middle of the Thirty Years War—you'd better be adaptable to survive. And the natives of that time period, faced with American technology and politics, need to be equally adaptable. Here’s a generous helping of more stories of Grantville, the American town lost in time, and its impact on the people and societies of a tumultuous age.
Edited by Eric Flint and Walt Boyes, the editor of the Grantville Gazette magazine from which the best selections are made, these are stories that fill in the pieces of the Ring of Fire series begun with Flint’s novel 1632. The setting has become a political, economic, social and cultural puzzle as supporting characters we meet in the novels get their own lives, loves and life-changing stories. The future and democracy have arrived with a bang—an historical explosion with a multitude of unforeseen consequences.
About Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire series:
“[Eric] Flint's1632 universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians.”—Booklist
“[Eric Flint] can entertain and edify in equal, and major, measure.”—Publishers Weekly
The most popular alternate history series of all continues. When an inexplicable cosmic disturbance hurls your town from twentieth century West Virginia back to seventeenth century Europe—and into the middle of the Thirty Years War—you'd better be adaptable to survive. And the natives of that time period, faced with American technology and politics, need to be equally adaptable. Here’s a generous helping of more stories of Grantville, the American town lost in time, and its impact on the people and societies of a tumultuous age.
Edited by Eric Flint and Walt Boyes, the editor of the Grantville Gazette magazine from which the best selections are made, these are stories that fill in the pieces of the Ring of Fire series begun with Flint’s novel 1632. The setting has become a political, economic, social and cultural puzzle as supporting characters we meet in the novels get their own lives, loves and life-changing stories. The future and democracy have arrived with a bang—an historical explosion with a multitude of unforeseen consequences.
About Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire series:
“[Eric] Flint's1632 universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians.”—Booklist
“[Eric Flint] can entertain and edify in equal, and major, measure.”—Publishers Weekly
496 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2006
24 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
About the author
Eric Flint
255 books877 followersEric Flint was a New York Times bestselling American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works were alternate history science fiction, but he also wrote humorous fantasy adventures.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 6, 2024
Again just read this for the Kudzu Werke stories. Again think this should be marketed as historical fiction and would sell better.
June 25, 2018
I don't really have a great deal to say about this volume, it's pretty standard middle-of-the-road Ring of Fire short fiction, some good, some ok, some meh, nothing really awful, but I didn't really feel like any of these stories really stood out. Anyway, brief overviews time!
Descartes Before the Whores by Eric Flint - Carrico's awesome duo of Magdeburg detectives, Gotthilf Hoch and Byron Chieske, are ordered to look into the apparent kidnapping and ransom of famed philosopher Rene Descartes instead of looking into the sudden disappearance of a number of whores. Amusing enough stuff, a few too many cart before the horse puns for my taste, but I'm not really a pun fan, so I'm biased. 7/10 stars
Historically Well Preserved by Virginia DeMarce - the uptime Episcopalians of Grantville annoy the Archbishop of Canterbury in exile into getting them a bishop and funding. A decent story, but not much more than that. 6/10 stars
Bank On It by Griffin Barber - a Genoan nobleman plots to cause chaos in Geneva and undermine their attempt to set up a modern bank which leads to a USE observer intervening. Not much prior to this has touched on Switzerland in the RoF, and the protagonist is amusingly devil may care if somewhat cynical. 7/10 stars
Jacob's Ladder by John Zeek - a would-be thief is given a chance at a new life by a CoC agent. Most interesting for its discussion of what a sensible revolution should desire. 7/10 stars
Bibelgesellschaft by Bjorn Hasseler - an ecumenical group seeks to find high quality early copies of the scriptures for translation and forge working relationships between various Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican organizations in the process. I found the subject matter and the unusual Anabaptist protagonist both intriguing. 8/10 stars
The Heirloom by Robert Waters - a bitter old widow who misses life up-time decides to fulfill her husband's wish and return an amulet he received in World War 2 back to the place where it originated. I liked both the stories and how they mixed together and the feel-good ending was classy. 8/10 stars
Sole Heir by Terry Howard - a small-town cobbler dies, leaving only his daughter as his heir and his former guildmate's sons, who had relocated to Grantville, and made out like bandits in investments, consider how best to see to the girl's needs, particularly since one of them was practically engaged to her. This one dips deeper than most in this collection into the culture of late medieval Europe and the intricate web of neighborly, guild-occupational, and familial networks that bound people together. Other than that the story is good, but mostly for the amusing differences between various characters' expectations and reality. 7/10 stars
Aerial Donkeys by Herbery Sakalaucks - a railway disaster between Grantville and the coal fields to the west brings together a young train conductor and a young woman training to be an engineer, and USE Army's tacrail, which is called in to investigate the source of the accident and to find some way to recover the valuable locomotive that is now stuck in the middle of a pond. A solid story with enjoyable characters and a dash of mystery and tech-related problems. 8/10 stars
Buddy by David W. Dove - it's about a dead pet dog, I didn't read it. I just don't do dead pet stories. I get too emotional over something that isn't real.
Transit by James Copley - a Catholic engineer and a Lutheran minor noblewoman fall in love as a result of him working to survey a new railway station and him ending up helping to coach her through algebra. I kind of forgot about this one, but nothing really bad about it. 6/10 stars
M. Klein Fashion Dolls by Caroline Palmer - a downtime dollmaker wants to make something that can compete with the Barbies which have become such a craze among the nobility and has to learn how to embrace new production techniques while fending off an undesirable suitor's father's efforts to force her into his clutches. Sort of like Sole Heir but I didn't find it as interesting, though the ending is funny. 6/10 stars
Orlando Delivers by Sarah Hays and Terry Howard - a Jewish courier attempts to cross the alps with a valuable text purchased by a Grantville collector and faces considerable challenges along the way and ends up saving a family. Another solid addition to the collection from Terry Howard. 8/10 stars
Stockholm Syndrome by A.P. Davidson - Grantville's only Bahai believer and his wife are relocated to Stockholm to help make the Swedish national bank something other than a joke (those bronze "coins"... yikes!) and gradually fall in love with the city despite its... problems. Given how much of the series has to do with Swedes, it's strange how little actually takes place in Sweden and it's interesting to get a bit of a taste of the expatriate community in Sweden in the 17th century. 7/10 stars
Boom Toys by Kim Mackey - an up-time chemical engineer working for the Republic of Essen is asked to create TNT for the Republic's Army but a disaster convinces her to aim a little lower (and much safer). It was ok, but pretty stock "we let things get out of control" industrial accident sort of story. 6/10
Mitzi the Kid by Kevin H. and Karen C. Evans - influenced by western novels and up-time ideas on farming granges, a rural Polish farming community organizes itself to deal with a group of Cossacks who decide to prey upon them. I liked the transposition of a basic wild west story into southeastern Poland as the mix of characters types and situations fit surprisingly well, also one of the rare glimpses in the series into how exactly the common Polish people have been affected by the RoF as most of Poland's presence in the series has been its unfortunately mulish King's determination to lock horns with Gustavus Adolphus and various members of the nobility engaged in fighting that war (or getting shanghaied into fighting for Gretchen Richter). 8/10
The Arrow by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett - a would-be downtime aeronautical engineer develops a design for a scout plane with George of Saxony as his sponsor and has to deal with all manner of technical issues with making an aircraft from scratch in the 17th century. This feels sort of like the story "The Monster" in a previous edition which introduced the Jupiter, an aircraft which has featured repeatedly in main series novels. I wouldn't be surprised if a variant of the Arrow showed up in the next book as a surprise contender for the USE's effort to introduce a fighter aircraft to give it a real anti-air capability to counter Murad's airship fleet. Moreover, as a long time aviation nut, this was right up my alley, so it easily drew me in, even if the main character is a slimy piece of work. 8/10 stars
The Society of Saint Philip of the Screwdriver by Rick Boatright - an ecumenical safety council (led by short story regular Father Nicholas Smithson) attempts to serve as sort of an OSHA-type organization, studying the systemic and technical sources of industrial accidents and attempting to orchestrate not just solutions but healing. An interesting idea and decent execution. 7/10 stars
The Cartesian Way by Mark H. Huston - ironically, this is actually a prequel to the first story in this collection as this follows Rene Descartes as his life is impacted by the Ring of Fire, he leaves Amsterdam to avoid entering a relationship that would've led to the death of his child and leaves behind his interest in mathematics as he sees that his counterpart in our universe has left little for him to achieve in that field. Instead he seeks to unlock the mysteries of uptime philosophy and becomes a bit obsessed with it, leading eventually to a need to leave France. An elaborately conceived concept which also provides us a glimpse into France's super-science Academy, it's slightly undermined by being the second Descartes story in the collection. 7/10 stars
It's Just a Dog by Walt Boyes - no, it isn't a dead dog story (WOO!), instead when the Duke of Weimar discovers that up-time there was a breed of dog known as Weimeraners bred by one of his successors, he insists that his huntsmen breed a comparable dog, which is harder than it sounds since all they have to go by are pictures in a calendar. A fun (if pedestrian) story with a likeable protagonist in the Adolf humble can-do apprentice huntmaster. 7/10 stars
St. George Does It Again by Kerryn Offord - I think this must be a sequel to another story, but I'm pretty sure I've never read it, as later in the story it mentions how the main character saved some people from a rabid dog and received a St. George medal for it. Basically, an up-time guy ends up in a one-night stand with a down-time Finnish girl as a rebound when the guy she really liked got married. Thereafter he's deployed off to the Polish War and she finds out she's pregnant, which basically forces them to get married despite the fact that she doesn't think she loves him at all, and he's aware of that fact. I actually liked this one most for its rehashing of some of the darker moments from 1634: the Eastern Front from a different perspective. 7/10 stars
The Maltese Crux - the elderly knight Jean Baptiste Lascaris de Castellar is given a mission by the Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (aka the Maltese Knights) to recover a Maltese Falcon that has apparently disappeared. Jean discovers a sinister plot that might endanger all of Christendom. After Richelieu has enjoyed a bit of a character rehabilitation in recent books, here he returns to the role of Machiavellian manipulator, inspired by some Dashell Hammett. Given the importance of Malta (much like Vienna) to the containment of Turkish military power to southeastern Europe, it's a bit surprising that this is the first story to touch on the state of the island and its famed knights, particularly with Murad IV seeking to prove that he can win the battles that history said the Ottomans couldn't and the failed Siege of Malta has gotta be high on his list, so I'm glad to see some development on that quarter (I'm still hoping for a 1637: Admiral Simpson in the Mediterranean book from Chuck Gannon, though we've heard nothing about a follow up to his 1636: Commodore Cantrell etc. in ages and this seems like just the sort of background that needs to be developed for that story (I digress, but the brief list: 1. How's Malta doing. 2. What sort of blue water naval capability does the USE/Union of Kalmar have at its disposal ca. late 1636. 3. Have the Spanish fortified Gibraltar, if not GRAB IT! (if they have, try and grab it anyway) 4. Is the Venetian Navy modernizing. If so, what do they bring to the table and are they part of METO (if not, why? are they nuts! Murad beats METO and central/south Europe is Turkish... for a long time). 5. What's Murad been doing to modernize his navy. (steam might be a problem with the engines he's been using as I'm not sure they're scaleable to ship size, but the Mediterranean is perfect for simple naval mines as it's chock full of natural choke points) 6. Is Crete still held by the Venetians.). ANYWAY, while not a terribly original story, it had enough world-building and whetted my palate for a greater focus on confrontations with the Ottomans in the Mediterranean in the future of the series to earn 8/10 stars.
So basically, nothing I hated but nothing that really knocked my socks off either or surprised me all that much. Still, I'll take anything that gives me more Ring of Fire stories.
Descartes Before the Whores by Eric Flint - Carrico's awesome duo of Magdeburg detectives, Gotthilf Hoch and Byron Chieske, are ordered to look into the apparent kidnapping and ransom of famed philosopher Rene Descartes instead of looking into the sudden disappearance of a number of whores. Amusing enough stuff, a few too many cart before the horse puns for my taste, but I'm not really a pun fan, so I'm biased. 7/10 stars
Historically Well Preserved by Virginia DeMarce - the uptime Episcopalians of Grantville annoy the Archbishop of Canterbury in exile into getting them a bishop and funding. A decent story, but not much more than that. 6/10 stars
Bank On It by Griffin Barber - a Genoan nobleman plots to cause chaos in Geneva and undermine their attempt to set up a modern bank which leads to a USE observer intervening. Not much prior to this has touched on Switzerland in the RoF, and the protagonist is amusingly devil may care if somewhat cynical. 7/10 stars
Jacob's Ladder by John Zeek - a would-be thief is given a chance at a new life by a CoC agent. Most interesting for its discussion of what a sensible revolution should desire. 7/10 stars
Bibelgesellschaft by Bjorn Hasseler - an ecumenical group seeks to find high quality early copies of the scriptures for translation and forge working relationships between various Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican organizations in the process. I found the subject matter and the unusual Anabaptist protagonist both intriguing. 8/10 stars
The Heirloom by Robert Waters - a bitter old widow who misses life up-time decides to fulfill her husband's wish and return an amulet he received in World War 2 back to the place where it originated. I liked both the stories and how they mixed together and the feel-good ending was classy. 8/10 stars
Sole Heir by Terry Howard - a small-town cobbler dies, leaving only his daughter as his heir and his former guildmate's sons, who had relocated to Grantville, and made out like bandits in investments, consider how best to see to the girl's needs, particularly since one of them was practically engaged to her. This one dips deeper than most in this collection into the culture of late medieval Europe and the intricate web of neighborly, guild-occupational, and familial networks that bound people together. Other than that the story is good, but mostly for the amusing differences between various characters' expectations and reality. 7/10 stars
Aerial Donkeys by Herbery Sakalaucks - a railway disaster between Grantville and the coal fields to the west brings together a young train conductor and a young woman training to be an engineer, and USE Army's tacrail, which is called in to investigate the source of the accident and to find some way to recover the valuable locomotive that is now stuck in the middle of a pond. A solid story with enjoyable characters and a dash of mystery and tech-related problems. 8/10 stars
Buddy by David W. Dove - it's about a dead pet dog, I didn't read it. I just don't do dead pet stories. I get too emotional over something that isn't real.
Transit by James Copley - a Catholic engineer and a Lutheran minor noblewoman fall in love as a result of him working to survey a new railway station and him ending up helping to coach her through algebra. I kind of forgot about this one, but nothing really bad about it. 6/10 stars
M. Klein Fashion Dolls by Caroline Palmer - a downtime dollmaker wants to make something that can compete with the Barbies which have become such a craze among the nobility and has to learn how to embrace new production techniques while fending off an undesirable suitor's father's efforts to force her into his clutches. Sort of like Sole Heir but I didn't find it as interesting, though the ending is funny. 6/10 stars
Orlando Delivers by Sarah Hays and Terry Howard - a Jewish courier attempts to cross the alps with a valuable text purchased by a Grantville collector and faces considerable challenges along the way and ends up saving a family. Another solid addition to the collection from Terry Howard. 8/10 stars
Stockholm Syndrome by A.P. Davidson - Grantville's only Bahai believer and his wife are relocated to Stockholm to help make the Swedish national bank something other than a joke (those bronze "coins"... yikes!) and gradually fall in love with the city despite its... problems. Given how much of the series has to do with Swedes, it's strange how little actually takes place in Sweden and it's interesting to get a bit of a taste of the expatriate community in Sweden in the 17th century. 7/10 stars
Boom Toys by Kim Mackey - an up-time chemical engineer working for the Republic of Essen is asked to create TNT for the Republic's Army but a disaster convinces her to aim a little lower (and much safer). It was ok, but pretty stock "we let things get out of control" industrial accident sort of story. 6/10
Mitzi the Kid by Kevin H. and Karen C. Evans - influenced by western novels and up-time ideas on farming granges, a rural Polish farming community organizes itself to deal with a group of Cossacks who decide to prey upon them. I liked the transposition of a basic wild west story into southeastern Poland as the mix of characters types and situations fit surprisingly well, also one of the rare glimpses in the series into how exactly the common Polish people have been affected by the RoF as most of Poland's presence in the series has been its unfortunately mulish King's determination to lock horns with Gustavus Adolphus and various members of the nobility engaged in fighting that war (or getting shanghaied into fighting for Gretchen Richter). 8/10
The Arrow by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett - a would-be downtime aeronautical engineer develops a design for a scout plane with George of Saxony as his sponsor and has to deal with all manner of technical issues with making an aircraft from scratch in the 17th century. This feels sort of like the story "The Monster" in a previous edition which introduced the Jupiter, an aircraft which has featured repeatedly in main series novels. I wouldn't be surprised if a variant of the Arrow showed up in the next book as a surprise contender for the USE's effort to introduce a fighter aircraft to give it a real anti-air capability to counter Murad's airship fleet. Moreover, as a long time aviation nut, this was right up my alley, so it easily drew me in, even if the main character is a slimy piece of work. 8/10 stars
The Society of Saint Philip of the Screwdriver by Rick Boatright - an ecumenical safety council (led by short story regular Father Nicholas Smithson) attempts to serve as sort of an OSHA-type organization, studying the systemic and technical sources of industrial accidents and attempting to orchestrate not just solutions but healing. An interesting idea and decent execution. 7/10 stars
The Cartesian Way by Mark H. Huston - ironically, this is actually a prequel to the first story in this collection as this follows Rene Descartes as his life is impacted by the Ring of Fire, he leaves Amsterdam to avoid entering a relationship that would've led to the death of his child and leaves behind his interest in mathematics as he sees that his counterpart in our universe has left little for him to achieve in that field. Instead he seeks to unlock the mysteries of uptime philosophy and becomes a bit obsessed with it, leading eventually to a need to leave France. An elaborately conceived concept which also provides us a glimpse into France's super-science Academy, it's slightly undermined by being the second Descartes story in the collection. 7/10 stars
It's Just a Dog by Walt Boyes - no, it isn't a dead dog story (WOO!), instead when the Duke of Weimar discovers that up-time there was a breed of dog known as Weimeraners bred by one of his successors, he insists that his huntsmen breed a comparable dog, which is harder than it sounds since all they have to go by are pictures in a calendar. A fun (if pedestrian) story with a likeable protagonist in the Adolf humble can-do apprentice huntmaster. 7/10 stars
St. George Does It Again by Kerryn Offord - I think this must be a sequel to another story, but I'm pretty sure I've never read it, as later in the story it mentions how the main character saved some people from a rabid dog and received a St. George medal for it. Basically, an up-time guy ends up in a one-night stand with a down-time Finnish girl as a rebound when the guy she really liked got married. Thereafter he's deployed off to the Polish War and she finds out she's pregnant, which basically forces them to get married despite the fact that she doesn't think she loves him at all, and he's aware of that fact. I actually liked this one most for its rehashing of some of the darker moments from 1634: the Eastern Front from a different perspective. 7/10 stars
The Maltese Crux - the elderly knight Jean Baptiste Lascaris de Castellar is given a mission by the Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller (aka the Maltese Knights) to recover a Maltese Falcon that has apparently disappeared. Jean discovers a sinister plot that might endanger all of Christendom. After Richelieu has enjoyed a bit of a character rehabilitation in recent books, here he returns to the role of Machiavellian manipulator, inspired by some Dashell Hammett. Given the importance of Malta (much like Vienna) to the containment of Turkish military power to southeastern Europe, it's a bit surprising that this is the first story to touch on the state of the island and its famed knights, particularly with Murad IV seeking to prove that he can win the battles that history said the Ottomans couldn't and the failed Siege of Malta has gotta be high on his list, so I'm glad to see some development on that quarter (I'm still hoping for a 1637: Admiral Simpson in the Mediterranean book from Chuck Gannon, though we've heard nothing about a follow up to his 1636: Commodore Cantrell etc. in ages and this seems like just the sort of background that needs to be developed for that story (I digress, but the brief list: 1. How's Malta doing. 2. What sort of blue water naval capability does the USE/Union of Kalmar have at its disposal ca. late 1636. 3. Have the Spanish fortified Gibraltar, if not GRAB IT! (if they have, try and grab it anyway) 4. Is the Venetian Navy modernizing. If so, what do they bring to the table and are they part of METO (if not, why? are they nuts! Murad beats METO and central/south Europe is Turkish... for a long time). 5. What's Murad been doing to modernize his navy. (steam might be a problem with the engines he's been using as I'm not sure they're scaleable to ship size, but the Mediterranean is perfect for simple naval mines as it's chock full of natural choke points) 6. Is Crete still held by the Venetians.). ANYWAY, while not a terribly original story, it had enough world-building and whetted my palate for a greater focus on confrontations with the Ottomans in the Mediterranean in the future of the series to earn 8/10 stars.
So basically, nothing I hated but nothing that really knocked my socks off either or surprised me all that much. Still, I'll take anything that gives me more Ring of Fire stories.
December 12, 2018
Not the greatest of Grantville Gazettes. A pretty typical mix of character and tech-based short fiction, but I felt this collection suffered from the weakness of the first two stories. Eric Flint's "Descartes Before the Whores" seemed to be a vehicle for repeated versions of a pun; for god's sake, Flint, if I wanted that I'd re-read the Callahan books! Also that story took place chronologically AFTER the other Descartes story ("The Cartesian Way"), but appeared before it in this book, I think only because Flint was the editor. Bad form, old man. The second story was by Virginia deMarce, who is probably my least favorite RoF author. As a result, GG8 got off to a slow start for me. Also IMHO, David Dove's "Buddy" didn't fit - the entire story is set around a dog dying of old age and is very depressing. Most of the book, however, is a decent mix of short fiction in the RoF universe: some intrigue, some adventure, some character development, and the usual GG stories set up around specific technologies (in this book aeronautics, doll making, dog breeding, munitions, railroads, and shoemaking). "The Heirloom" had an interesting twist, with almost half the story set in uptime WWII Germany. As in most cases, GG8 featured the typical schlock-y cover art (although points for use of the Bender figurine on the tavern wall). A low 3 stars.
December 2, 2018
Pretty good collection of stories that follow the Ring of Fire. Liked the Falcon
January 3, 2026
Slowly clearing out my backlog of 1632 books. This collection of stories provide an interesting melange of viewpoints and short tales. There is crime solving, romance mixed up with heroism, reshaping of historical figures and some that are just plain fun reads. If you are into the 1632 universe, you will want to read this collection.
April 21, 2020
Another wonderful collection in the 1632 universe, with much comment on Rene Descartes. Highly recommended to anyone who likes this series.
June 27, 2025
Please take note that this is Grantville Gazette VIII, the print edition not Grantville Gazette 8 the online edition. I went through as a Goodreads Librarian and manually separated these since they have very different written content, but some idiot went through and combined them again.
Sigh.
One of the best short stories in a while, "Bibelgesellschaft" gave me hope that this would be a better collection than the last two. For the most part, it was except "Cartesian Way" not only retcons an earlier short (Descartes before the Horse), but also was clearly written by somebody who knows absolutely nothing about the philosopher/mathematician's worldview and life. If you are going to read this collection, skip this story.
Sigh.
One of the best short stories in a while, "Bibelgesellschaft" gave me hope that this would be a better collection than the last two. For the most part, it was except "Cartesian Way" not only retcons an earlier short (Descartes before the Horse), but also was clearly written by somebody who knows absolutely nothing about the philosopher/mathematician's worldview and life. If you are going to read this collection, skip this story.
August 24, 2018
The Grantville Gazette VIII, by Eric Flint and Walt Boyes is another fun entry into the strange and wonderful world of 1632 origins. The ever spreading influences of Grantville are changing everything so that nothing will look like we thought that our world would be.
As usual, the Grantville Gazette stories are individual stories and vary in length. I love them although some appeal to me more than others. In this issue “Stockholm Syndrome,” Descartes Before the Whores”, and “The Society of Saint Philip of the Screwdriver”, were some of my favorite stories.
Once you are into this new universe you can see all the stories as interconnected, influenced and changing by the city of Grantville.
As usual, the Grantville Gazette stories are individual stories and vary in length. I love them although some appeal to me more than others. In this issue “Stockholm Syndrome,” Descartes Before the Whores”, and “The Society of Saint Philip of the Screwdriver”, were some of my favorite stories.
Once you are into this new universe you can see all the stories as interconnected, influenced and changing by the city of Grantville.
March 19, 2019
This is a short fiction collection drawn from the online version of the Grantville Gazette. The print version has no hope of including ALL of the stories because the print publishing schedule is so slow. So, the last few print versions, by necessity have been best of collections.
That said, at least two of the stories in this book brought me to tears because they were THAT good. Some I wondered why they were chosen and most were solid, well-told stories.
On balance, I highly recommend this collection to all fans of alternate history, fans of differing levels of technology and how they coexist, and just fans of good stories!
That said, at least two of the stories in this book brought me to tears because they were THAT good. Some I wondered why they were chosen and most were solid, well-told stories.
On balance, I highly recommend this collection to all fans of alternate history, fans of differing levels of technology and how they coexist, and just fans of good stories!
July 25, 2023
I stopped reading 1632 books for a while after Eric Flint died. I'm back. This book is the second in my reading binge of 1632 books I haven't read yet. I have read most. I really like these books for the real like people who inhabit this alternate history. Good absorbing stories. Several I had read before, and they stand up well. Several became books in longer form as put out by Ring of Fire Press, so it was good to see the original concept. Very good selection of stories.
January 28, 2021
Kudos
The heirloom by Robert Roberts is property the most emotional piece of ligature I have ever read. For the last 5 years the ring of fire series has been my favorite and this short story is my gem. Winerich 159@google.com republic of Vietnam Aug69 Aug70
The heirloom by Robert Roberts is property the most emotional piece of ligature I have ever read. For the last 5 years the ring of fire series has been my favorite and this short story is my gem. Winerich 159@google.com republic of Vietnam Aug69 Aug70
September 28, 2023
Contains stories from the Ring of Fire/1632 universe. They reflect how the incursion of Grantville into the seventeenth century has effected everyone and everything.
June 9, 2018
Excellent short stories, this is a collection of the best from the magazine. My only confusion was the that the two Descartes stories felt like they were in the wrong order.
June 19, 2018
Very enjoyable return to the 1632 universe.
June 19, 2020
I started to list my favorites but I would just end up with the Table of Contents. Of course, this was a best of Grantville Gazette Volumes 31-45 and it lived up to expectations.
June 24, 2021
Great selections
This volume is a best of collection of short stories and does an excellent job of bringing together the different perspectives of Grantville.
This volume is a best of collection of short stories and does an excellent job of bringing together the different perspectives of Grantville.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews