The most popular alternate history series of all continues. When a 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 have to adapt 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.

Featuring stories by Eric Flint, Tim Sayeau, Robert Noxon, Griffin Barber, Bjorn Hasseler, Clair Kiernan, Margo Ryor, Mark Huston, Robert Waters, Phillip Riviezzo, Jack Carroll, Terry Howard, Tim Roesch, Sarah Hays, Mike Watson, Iver P. Cooper, Kerryn Offord, Rick Boatright, Brad Banner, Anne Keener, Jackie Britton Lopatin, Bjorn Hasseler, and David Carrico.

NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING SERIES. The eighth 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.

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.

• Cardinal Richelieu, France's insidious master plotter and power behind the throne, learns of his prominent role in Dumas' not-yet-written novel The Three Musketeers (not to mention the several movie versions), and starts a search for the "real" D'Artagnan.

• Grantville is selling crystal radio sets so that Europeans can tune in to the Voice of America broadcasts, but the technicians from the future are at wit's end, trying to reproduce "primitive" early twentieth century broadcasting equipment by trial and error—until a trained library researcher shows up in town.

• Wilhelm Krieger, one of Germany's greatest philosophers, comes to Grantville to learn the philosophy of the future—and meets a contrarian cracker-barrel philosopher.

• The Dalai Lama of the seventeenth century receives a strange gift: an image of the Buddha which glows by a strange mystical force called "electricity."

And much more, including stories by the New York Times best-selling writers Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce, in the latest installment of this best-selling alternate history series.

About the Author

 Eric Flint is the author/creator of the New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series. His  impressive first novel, Mother of Demons (Baen), was selected by SF Chronicle as one of the best novels of 1997. With David Drake he has written six popular novels in the Belisarius series, and with David Weber collaborated on 1633, and 1634: The Baltic War, two novels in the Ring of Fire series, and on Crown of Slaves, a best of the year pick by Publishers Weekly. Flint received his masters degree in history from UCLA and was for many years a labor union activist. He lives in East Chicago, IL, with his wife and is working on more books in the best-selling Ring of Fire series.

A cosmic accident sets the modern West Virginia town of Grantville down in war‑torn seventeenth century Europe. It will take all the gumption of the resourceful, freedom‑loving up‑timers to find a way to flourish in the mad and bloody end of the Renaissance. Are they up for it? You bet they are.

Edited by Eric Flint, and inspired by his now‑legendary 1632, this is the fun stuff that fills in the pieces of the Ring of Fire political, 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.

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

Ed Piazza, the Secretary of State of the small United States being forged in war-torn Germany during the Thirty Years War, has a problem on his hands. A religious conference has been called in nearby Rudolstadt which will determine doctrine for all the Lutherans in the nation. The hard-fought principle of religious freedom is at stake, threatened alike by intransigent theologians and students rioting in the streets.

As if that weren't bad enough:

Virginia DeMarce's "The Rudolstadt Colloquy" is just one of the stories in the Grantville Gazette. In others:

In Loren Jones' "Anna's Story," a young German girl whose family was ravaged by mercenaries is taken in by an old American curmudgeon living on borrowed time.

"Curio and Relic," written by Tom Van Natta, tells a story about Eddie Cantrell before he wins glory and loses a leg at the Battle of Wismar. Eddie learns some lessons in life as well as marksmanship from a Vietnam war tunnel rat who is himself making a difficult transition to the new world created by the Ring of Fire.

In Gorg Huff's witty "The Sewing Circle," four American teenagers set themselves the goal of launching a new industry, waging an uphill battle against adult skepticism as well as the intrinsic difficulty of the project itself. Just to make their life more complicated, an ambitious seventeenth-century German blacksmith is angling to marry into their budding commercial empire and take it over lock, stock and barrel.

In addition to these stories, the Grantville Gazette contains factual articles written by some of the people who developed the technical background for the novels 1632 and 1633. And Eric Flint has assembled a collection of portraits of prominent figures of the seventeenth century who figure in the 1632 series, along with a commentary explaining who they were and why they were important.

The new United States in central Germany launches a one-plane Doolittle Raid on Paris, France. The target: their arch-enemy, Cardinal Richelieu. Meanwhile, an ambassador from the Mughal Empire of northern India is being held captive in Austria by the Habsburg dynasty. Mike Stearns decides to send a mercenary company to rescue him, led by two seventeenth-century mercenary officers: an Englishman and a Irishman, who seem to spend as much time fighting each other as they do the enemy.

Mike Spehar's "Collateral Damage" and Chris Weber's "The Company Men" are just two of the stories contained in this second volume of the Grantville Gazette. In other stories:

— a prominent Italian musician decides to travel to Grantville to investigate the music of the future;

— an American archer and a Finnish cavalryman become friends in the middle of a battlefield;

— a Lutheran pastor begins a theological challenge to the establishment based on his interpretation of the Ring of Fire;

— American and German detectives become partners to investigate a murder;

— and, in the first part of Danita Ewing's serialized short novel, An Invisible War, the new United States founds a medical school in Jena despite resistance from up-timers and down-timers alike.

The second volume of Grantville Gazette also contains factual articles which explain some of the technical background for the 1632 series, including articles on practical geology, telecommunications, and seventeenth-century swordsmanship.

In Virginia DeMarce's witty and touching "Pastor Kastenmayers Revenge", a Lutheran pastor gets even with the American who eloped with his daughter by scheming to gain new adherents through eight separate arranged marriages between Lutheran down-timers and American up-timers.

In other stories:

The same teenagers who launched the sewing machine industry in Volume 1 move on to conquer the financial world, in Gorg Huffs "Other Peoples Money";

Francis Turners "Hobsons Choice" tells the tale of the personal and theological impact of the Ring of Fire on rambunctious students and barmaids in the university town of Cambridge, England;

in Eva Muschs "If the Demons Will Sleep", a woman terrorized by the notorious Hungarian countess Bartholdy finds peace and sanctuary in Grantville;

in Wood Hughes "Hell Fighters", a Benedictine monk confronts an inferno and finds his orders new calling;

in David Carricos "The Sound of Music" and Enrico Toros continuing "Euterpe", Grantville becomes a magnet drawing Europes most ambitious young musicians;

and Danita Ewing concludes the short novel An Invisible War, which began in Volume 2.

The third volume of the Gazette also contain factual articles exploring such topics as the centrality of iron to the industrial revolution, the prospects for the mechanization of agriculture in the 17th century, and the logic behind the adoption of the Struve-Reardon Gun as the basic weapon of the USEs infantry.

In Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff's "Poor Little Rich Girls," we follow the continuing adventures of the teenage tycoons begun by Huff in "The Sewing Circle" (Gazette #1) and "Other People's Money" (Gazette #3). The focus in this story, however, is on the younger siblings—the so-called Barbie Consortium—and their down-timer associates and enemies.

Jose Clavell's "Magdeburg Marines" and Ernest Lutz and John Zeek's "Elizabeth" depict the early days of two military units after the Ring of Fire: a reborn U.S. Marine Corps trying to adapt to new circumstances, and the First Railway Company, formed to provide logistics using a combination of up-time and down-time methods and technology.

David Carrico's "Heavy Metal Music" continues the story of the interaction between up-time and down-time musicians that he began in last issue's "The Sound of Music."

In other stories:

—A German craftsman blackballed by guild masters gets a new start in Karen Bergstralh's "One Man's Junk."

—Grantville has to deal with the tragic accidental deaths of several high school graduates in Kerryn Offord's "The Class of '34."

—In Virginia DeMarce's "'Til We Meet Again," a widowed up-timer responds to her husband's death by joining the faculty in the newly-established women's college in Quedlinburg.

—Julie Sims' ex-boyfriend finds a new romance in Russ Rittgers' "Chip's Christmas Gift."

—in Dan Robinson's "Dice's Drawings," an American retiree finds a new life and maybe a new love in seventeenth century Germany.

The fourth volume of the Gazette also contains factual articles dealing with the development of an oil industry, advances in textile and garment manufacture, possible uses of biodiesel technology, and differing views on the prospects of creating a machine gun using the resources and technology available after the Ring of Fire.

The sixth rollicking, thought-provoking anthology of tales set in Eric Flint's phenomenal New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series—all inspired and edited by the creator himself, Eric Flint. A cosmic accident sets the modern West Virginia town of Grantville down in war-torn seventeenth century Europe. It will take all the gumption of the resourceful, freedom-loving up-timers to find a way to flourish in mad and bloody end of medieval times. Are they up for it? You bet they are. Edited by Eric Flint, and inspired by his now-legendary 1632, this is the fun stuff that fills in the pieces of the Ring of Fire political, 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.

 Because of the large size and number of images used in the Granville Gazette, the images are stored on the Web so they can be downloaded by those with an interest in them