New Revised Edition With Additional Content

Music . . .
It's been said that musicians live for the next new sound. Well, the musicians of Europe were presented with the biggest new sound ever when the Ring of Fire brought the future back to 1631. What will the court musicians think when they hear Bach, Stravinsky, and the Beatles? What will the street and tavern musicians think when faced with Johnny Cash, Metallica, and Nirvana? Things don't go smoothly for Marla Linder and her friends.

And Murder . . .
The Thirty Years War was an 'interesting' time to be alive, in the proverbial Chinese curse sense of the word. Then Grantville arrived from the future, bringing technology and philosophies that set European civilization on its ear. But that's not all that came back with Grantville. Imagine trying to establish modern police procedures in a time where neither the powers-that-be nor the people underneath them provide much support. Up-timer Byron Chieske and his down-timer partner Gotthilf Hoch walk some mean streets and lonely roads.

Eric Flint and David Carrico serve up the latest entry in the best‑selling alternate history saga of them all, the Ring of Fire!

It is the year 1636. The United States of Europe, the new nation formed by an alliance between the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus and the West Virginians hurled back in time by a cosmic accident, is on the verge of civil war.  His brain injured in the war with Poland, the USE's emperor Gustavus Adolphus is no longer in command. Enter Swedish chancellor Oxenstierna, a leader of aristocratic reaction against democracy.  His goal:  to assemble the forces of the hidebound ruling class in Berlin and drown the revolution in a bloodbath.

In Magdeburg, the capital of the USE, Mike Stearns' wife Rebecca Abrabanel is organizing popular resistance to Oxenstierna's plot. As part of the resistance, the American musician Marla Linder and her company of down‑time musical partners are staging an opera that will celebrate the struggle against oppression. Princess Kristina, the heir to the USE's throne, is now residing in Magdeburg and is giving them her support and encouragement.

But another plot is underway‑‑this one right in the heart of the capital itself, and with murder as its method. The only people standing in the way are a crippled boy and the boxing champion who befriended him, and an unlikely pair of policemen. Can the American detective Byron Chieske and his down‑timer partner Gotthilf Hoch thwart the killers before they succeed in their goal?

Download the Reader’s Group Discussion Guide here.

Listen to the authors discuss the book here on the Baen Free Radio Hour.

TWO SHORT NOVELS SET IN ERIC FLINT'S BEST-SELLING RING OF FIRE SERIES from David Carrico, coauthor of 1636: The Devil's Opera, and The Span of Empire.

Time waits for no one, but for the residents of 17th century Europe the future comes calling—ahead of time! Due to a temporal disturbance known as the Ring of Fire, the 20th century town of Grantville, West Virginia, finds itself transported through time and space to Central Europe in the year 1632. The turmoil resulting from the event has massive repercussions for the up-time citizens of Grantville, the down-time citizens of Europe—and the world at large. Massive political and social upheavals take place. But change happens on a smaller, human scale, too.

In The Flight of the Nightingale, down-timer Francesca Caccini is inspired by the arrival of Grantville to seek a different destiny from what would have been her lot otherwise. And in Bach to the Future, Johann and his brothers commit themselves to preserve, protect, and promote their family's heritage from the future.

Two short novels, set in Eric Flint's best-selling Ring of Fire series, that shine a light on the overlooked corners of the Ring of Fire universe, where small actions can have life-altering consequences.

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2016.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2022.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

Flops by Michael Mersault
The Barcadian Wild by Tim Akers
Monsters in Our Midst by Wen Spencer
Window on Samovar by D.J. Butler
See the Fairville Oddity! by David Afsharirad
Man on the Moon by Elaine Midcoh
Trouble Is My Business by Mike Kupari
Dark Angel by David Carrico
On Cultivating a Chosen One by Christopher Baxter
The Bloody Dentist by Jacob Holo
Fire-breathing Dragon by Dan Koboldt
Xmas at ESL1 by Wil McCarthy

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2023.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

Black Box by Sean CW Korsgaard

The Quail Runs by D.J. Butler

Awakenings by Patrick Chiles

The Last Temptation of the Outsider by Simon R. Green

The Witch, the Woods, and the Elf Queen by Gregory Frost

The Insomniac by Brad Zeiger

A Lesson to Those Who Survive by D.J. Butler

Requiem - An Honor Harrington Story by David Carrico

What happens when the seventeenth century encounters Cthulhu and Nyarlathotep? What happens when the Elder Gods descend upon Magdeburg? When literary entrepreneur Johann Gronow discovers the stories of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe in the libraries and book collections of Grantville, he launches a magazine for the purpose of publishing translations of their stories. Der Schwarze Kater—The Black Tomcat—begins attracting attention immediately. From his very first reading of the first issue of the magazine, a young bookkeeper named Philip Fröhlich develops a passion to write those kinds of stories. And so begins the quest of every author—to satisfy the requirements of an editor and make that first elusive sale. As have millions of aspiring authors, Philip discovers it's not as easy as it looks. Time after time his submissions receive a rejection letter from Gronow. But Philip stubbornly keeps submitting, along the way discovering things about himself and the people around him that he never would have learned any other way.

Magdeburg, once destroyed by the imperialist army in 1631, has risen from its ruins under the United States of Europe, fueled by rapid industrial growth and an iMagdeburg, the capital of the newly-formed United States of Europe, has a dark and bloody history. Most of the city and its population were destroyed when the imperialist army ran amok after capturing the city in May of 1631. The ancient Gothic cathedral was one of the few structures that survived more-or-less intact.

Once the Swedish king Gustav Adolf drove out the imperialists and established the USE, Magdeburg began to recover—and then grow at an astonishing rate. New industries inspired by the technology of the time-transplanted Americans of Grantville are turning the city into a boom town, with immigrants from all over central Europe pouring in.

A boom town is full of hope and aspiration—but it’s also a place that generates its own darkness and chaos. The city’s fledgling police force is scrambling to get control over the growing crime and violence. Sometimes it succeeds—but often it doesn’t. And such failures bring down the might of the city’s powerful revolutionary Committees of Correspondence, whose leader Gunther Achterhof can match any criminal’s ruthlessness.

Musicians murdered, new and brutal religious cults arising, bombings and arson, spies and informers and those hunting them—these are only some of the ingredients in the reborn city of light and darkness.

A COMING-OF-AGE STORY LIKE NO OTHER: CHAIM CAAN, AN OBSERVANT JEW, FINDS HE MUST MAKE SENSE OF HIS PLACE IN THE WORLD WHEN HE DISCOVERS HE HAS BEEN TURNED INTO A VAMPIRE

Chaim Caan was just out for a night of fun, blowing off some steam the way a young man will. After the better part of a year spent in COVID lockdowns, he was ready to let his hair down at a night club. But the fascinating young woman he encountered that night left him with something to remember her by: she turned Chaim into a vampire.

Soon, Chaim finds himself thrust into a weird underground world of mysticism and enchantment as he navigates life as the newly undead, trying to reconcile his beliefs as an observant Jew with the new reality that has been thrust upon him.

He is forced to deal with a lot of change: to his body, to his mind, to his perceptions, to his relationships, and even to his world. He finds himself in parts of the world he had never dreamed of being in, and he finds himself doing things that he had never envisioned being a part of his life.

And if he can come to terms with these changes, this mild-mannered young man might just find himself a hero.

New detective and adventure stories laid in the Ring of Fire Universe.

Archibald Gottesfreund, a half-Scot/half-German mercenary, retired from that life after losing both his cousin Rory and part of his own left hand in a skirmish with brigands in northern France. Weary of that life, Archie rode east, looking for a new life, which he found in Jena when he met up with Master Tiberius Claudius Titus Wulff. After doing the master merchant a favor, he found himself enlisted to be Master Titus' chief agent and right hand man, a life he never expected.

Over the years, Master Titus' business affairs and his passion for books alike provide many adventures for Archie. Two of the best are presented in this volume.

A new novel in New York Times best seller Eric Flint's science fiction Jao Empire series.

It has become clear to both the Jao and their human and Lleix partners that if they are going to defeat the Ekhat who have been terrorizing the galaxy for eons, they need more allies. To that end, Preceptor Ronz, guardian of Earth and greatest living strategist of the Jao, has harnessed the energy of Earth's humans to create and send out an exploration fleet under the command of Caitlin Kralik.

But after a long search, all the expedition has found are dead worlds and now‑extinct intelligent species slaughtered by the genocidal Ekhat. Do they continue to search down the galactic arm in which Earth and the Jao worlds lie, or do they make an astounding leap in another direction? With friends like Gabe Tully, Tamt, Wrot and Caewithe Miller supporting her, Caitlin makes her decision.

Meanwhile, the Ekhat, as murderous and destructive as they have always been, have a new generation of leaders growing into power who are even more implacable than those who have gone before them. The Ekhat have not forgotten the Jao, nor the damage they have done over the years to the Ekhat purpose. It's up to the Jao‑human‑Lleix confederation and the new allies they make to survive the onslaught and turn the tables on the Ekhat.