Ring of Fire II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ring of Fire | |
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 Baen Books Prepublication Ring of Fire II cover art. |
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| Author | Eric Flint |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | 1632 series |
| Genre(s) | Alternate history, Science-Fiction |
| Publisher | Baen Books |
| Publication date | January 2008 |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-4165-7387-9 (2008 hardcover) |
| Preceded by | 1634: The Bavarian Crisis |
| Followed by | likely, Grantville Gazette IV (more anthologies, unknown) |
Ring of Fire II is the second published eponymously named book of anthologies which includes the colloquial name for "The event" used by the characters in the series as part of the name—the event, being a space time juxtiposition of a small American town to Central Germany in May, 1631—right in the middle of the Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War. After six years of mixed names for the series, the publisher Baen Books, and creator Eric Flint seems now to have finally settled on Ring of Fire Series.
Created by editor-author-historian Eric Flint, the popular 1632 series, an alternate history series also boasts a e-zine of anthologies, The Grantville Gazettes, of which four were collected into print published works (Grantville Gazette IV was the last book Jim Baen purchased from Flint before his death, and is expected in 2008), and it may be the Gazettes manifestation as printed works has come to an end, and this volume is a "Best of" result of those.
The series is set in war torn Europe during the middle of the Thirty Years' War, at a time when religion was a pretext for war and authoritarianism held a hard hand around the throat of the populace. It is a unique model-shattering shared universe series with many stories by a variety of established science fiction authors, and new writers but all set in the universe initially created by Flint's science fiction novel 1632, and all of which involve Flint either as co-author or editor—by which means he maintains control of canon and overall overarching plot developments. The works involve an in depth look at the emerging modern world of the 17th century, when the superpowers of the day were Spain, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire, with emerging powers England, The Netherlands, the Swedish Empire, and France, while the Holy Roman Empire continued to stumble forward as a disorganized semi-state.
[edit] Premise of the series
The first novel, 1632 and resultant 1632 series share a common theme, which is to ask the "What if?" questions common to and characteristic of the science fiction genre: "What if a mysterious cosmic event occurred which exchanged a whole populated region of 20th century West Virginia with a matching portion of 1632 Germany?" Mix in a character focus repudiating the Great Man theory of history, making the whole town of Rednecked Hillbillies, hillbilly and German Rednecks your collective protagonists allowing plenty of scope for fast-paced parallel plot development, add two cups of calculating authoritarian noblemen who think social-class matters, a pinch of venile grasping clergymen, and a quart each of American law, American can-do elan, and half a pound of American attitudes and imagine the fun they'll have interacting in interesting times when High-Tech means just-invented flintlock rifles.
[edit] A unique departure
The initial Ring of Fire book was a notable departure in another way as well in that it heralded a new era in writing series fiction by being set in an authors' milieu shared with other writers, but especially and uncharacteristicly by doing so without being safely somewhere off to the side of the main story threads which are usually under the tight fisted control of the milieu creator, its author. When borrowing a setting authors sharing the milieu are constrained and careful to not mess up their host with trend setting, significant events that would be unwelcome in the host authors future planning for its maturation and development. Flint, in explanation, has self-styled himself as something of a gambler, he demonstrated that by ignoring convention and went the opposite way, deliberately asking the other writers to share in creating the main threads and plot lines of the milieu so that this work and the large second full novel in the series, 1633, were written contemporaneously so that story threads started here intermingle and generate matching action or background there, and vice versa.
Flint is on record that large portions of 1633 were adjusted drastically, even thrown out and rewritten as later submissions in the collected stories in Ring of Fire impacted the various and diverse story threads. For a fuller precise on this interesting and historic literary development see Assiti Shards series.
[edit] Stories in the anthology
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Table of Contents |
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|---|---|---|
| • Preface | by Eric Flint | |
| 1632-verse Fiction: | ||
| • "Horse Thieves" | by Karen Bergstralh | |
| • "Second Issue? | by A B | |
| • "Diving Belle | by A B | |
| • "A Gift from the Duchess" | by A B | |
| • "Lucky at Cards" | by A B | |
| • "A Trip to Amsterdam" | by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett | |
| • "This'll Be the Day..." | by A B | |
| • "Command Performance" | by David Carrico | |
| • "Ellis Island" | by Russ Rittgers | |
| • "Malungu Seed" | by Jonathan Cresswell | |
| • "Trials" | by Jay Robison | |
| • "The Chase" | by A B | |
| • "Eddie and the King's Daughter" | by K.D. Wentworth | |
| • "Second Thoughts" | by A B | |
| Featured Novel, in fifteen chapters | ||
| • "The Austro-Hungarian Connection" | by Eric Flint | |
- "The Austro-Hungarian Connection"[1] (short novel) by Eric Flint
[edit] Synopses
[edit] "City of the Dead*"
Jay Robison
[edit] "Noelle Comes Home*"
Virginia DeMarce Flint's e-book preface refers to this work as being a prequel to his own short novel "" (below), but the title does not agree with the credited work on 1632.org's timeframes spreadsheet.
[edit] "Horse Thieves"
1632 Research Committee and Editorial Board member, writer Karen Bergstralh, is 1632.org's resident expert on horseflesh, and farming.
[edit] "Second Issue?"
[edit] "Diving Belle"
[edit] "A Gift from the Duchess"
[edit] "Lucky at Cards"
[edit] "A Trip to Amsterdam"
This vignette by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett returns to the story of the two groups maturing of tycoons known respectively as the Sewing Circle and Barbie Consortium introduced initially in the well-written story Grantville Gazette I , continued again in Grantville Gazette III , and other seminal background tales.
[edit] "This'll Be the Day..."
[edit] "Command Performance"
This continuation of the popular "Franz and Marla" stories by David Carrico, ties in with a brief mention of the story behind and within the concert as told here. The same tale, from a different prospective was used as background for the entrance of Admiral John Simpson and wife Mary as they come on stage during the end of the industrial disaster that begins the novel 1634: The Baltic War.
As a continuation and perhaps climax of the Franz and Marla saga, the tale reveals Marla in a triumphal debut among the rich and famous in Magdeburg, while the lovable and tragic Franz finds a new musical groove—and is able to play again publically — while, finally, proving worthy in his own eyes of "getting the girl". Like the preceding Franz and Marla stories, it is an excellent tale told with skill and is good at evoking emotions and painting complex characters undergoing lifes' pressures.
[edit] "Ellis Island"
Russ Rittgers
[edit] "Malungu Seed"
Jonathan Cresswell
[edit] "Trials"
Jay Robison
[edit] "The Chase"
[edit] "Eddie and the King's Daughter"
Veteran science fiction writer K.D. Wentworth returns to the Ring of Fire series (her seminal story "Here Comes Santa Claus" in the anthology Ring of Fire began the speculative line that is the rapidly developing Eastern European thread) to explain just how Eddie Cantrell became involved with the daughter of king Christian IV of Denmark, after his capture in the confused aftermath the Battle of Wismar.
[edit] "Second Thoughts"
[edit] "The Austro-Hungarian Connection"
- 'time line:
- sequel to: 1634: The Ram Rebellion and 1634: The Bavarian Crisis, The Anaconda Project, etcetera.
- prequel to: 1635: Soldier of Bohemia and 1635: The Dreeson Incident (both in production and scheduled for publication in 2008)
- Original "working title": Technology Transfer with Noelle[3]
This short novel by series creator Eric Flint features a return to the enigmatic secret agent, Noelle Murphy, introduced in 1634: The Ram Rebellion who once (Still is?) considering becoming a Catholic Nun (see "Enter the Ram" in 1634: The Ram Rebellion). [4] Noelle Murphy isn't quite a James Bond, and "can barely hit the floor with a hat" when shooting a pistol, but she's a good brain, knows how to sniff out a hidden relationship, and something about dealing with people.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
- Ring of Fire (anthology) aka Ring of Fire I
[edit] References
- ^ Ring of Fire II by Eric Flint - Baen Books
- ^ 1632 Editorial Board staff, http://www.1632.org Link: "Timeframes" (Spreadsheet: /timeframes.thrugg15.ods, accessed 2007-12-26)
- ^ Flint, Template:1632 timeframes, GG-15 version, accessdate: 2007-12-22 && 31, Quoted spreadsheet: "Flint TechNoelle RF02-TechNoelle A Eric Flint Technology Transfer with Noelle "
- ^ Flint, http://www.webscription.net/chapters/1416573879/1416573879___1.htm, October 2007, accessdate: 2007-12-31, Virginia's DeMarce's "Second Thoughts" continues the story of Noelle Murphy, one of the central characters in 1634: The Ram Rebellion, and serves as a preface to the final story in this anthology.
That's my own short novel, "The Austro-Hungarian Connection," which ties the development of Noelle as a character to major changes taking place in political and military developments in Austria and Hungary with the accession to the throne of a new emperor. The story also features Denise Beasley, one of the major characters in a new novel I've co-authored with Virginia entitled 1635: The Dreeson Incident, which is coming out in September of this year.
- ISBN:1-4165-7387-9, $25.00 Hardcover (January 2008)
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