1635: The Papal Stakes

1635: The Papal Stakes is novel in the 1632 series written by Charles Gannon and Eric Flint. It was published in 2012 and is the direct sequel to 1635: The Cannon Law published in 2006. This book is the third in the South European fork to the main 1632 series storyline. The story follows the exploits of younger members of the Stone family in Italy.

The reviewer for SFRevu writes that "Charles Gannon takes the helm in this installment" and that "Gannon hits all the right notes."^[1] The Midwest Book Review called the book "a fabulous thriller as Eric Flint and Charles E. Gannon prove a deft pairing."^[2] The reviewer for the Mixed Book Bag also agrees that Flint and Gannon make a good writing team and adds "This is a story that flows smoothly and is focused on the problems the characters face" and "the action is great and keeps the story arc moving along".^[3]

However a blog reviewer had problems with Gannon contributions to the series since it appeared that "several of the formerly strong female characters seem to lose about twenty I.Q. points each during the course of the story" and "Gannon tends to describe female characters in an overtly sexualized manner that made me extremely uncomfortable."^[4]

1635: The Papal Stakes is the first book in the 1632 series to get listed on the Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Books list for Hardcover Science Fiction, which gets their data from the Nielsen BookScan. This book was able to stay on this list for two weeks during October 2012, topping at number 6.^[5]

• 1635: The Papal Stakes title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

References