Grantville Gazette I (The 1632 Universe)

by Eric Flint (Editor)

Overview

Grantville, formerly in West Virginia in the 20th century, now in Germany in the 17th century, is the most unusual town in the world-and probably in any century. The mysterious cosmic phenomena which the former West Virginians call the "Ring of Fire" hurled the town back through time into the middle of the Thirty Years War. In spite of their advanced technology, the men and women of Grantville are greatly outnumbered and must deal carefully with the squabbling local tyrants-but they have no shortage of American courage and ingenuity. Eric Flint, a bright new star of science fiction and creator of the Ring of Fire universe, now presents a book of new fiction about the heroes of Grantville, as well as articles examining the problems of maintaining 20th century technology in the 17th century. (Can you make penicillin from bread mold? To conserve your limited supply of gasoline, can you use literal horsepower to run a dynamo? Can you make a radio using 17th century glassware and metallurgy?) The Grantville Gazette is a fascinating exercise in alternate history and imagination and will be a must-buy for everyone who read 1632 and 1633.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780743488600
Publisher:	Baen
Publication date:	11/01/2004
Series:	Ring of Fire Series
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	4.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Eric Flint was the creator of the New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series, the best-selling alternate history series of all time. Beginning with 1632, Flint—along with dozens of cowriters—chronicled what happened when the 20th-century town of Grantville, West Virginia, was transported through time and space to 17th-century Europe. In addition, Flint was the author, with New York Times best seller David Weber, of the Crown of Slaves Saga, as well as the Belisarius series with best-selling author David Drake. Flint was the editor of Jim Baen’s Universe, as well as numerous short story anthologies. Before becoming a writer, Flint worked as a trade union organizer, longshoreman, truck driver, auto worker, steel worker, oil worker, meatpacker, glassblower, and machinist. Eric Flint passed away in 2022.

Read an Excerpt

Grantville Gazette Volume I

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By Eric Flint

Baen Books

Copyright © 2004 Eric Flint
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0-7434-8860-1

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Preface

Eric Flint

The Grantville Gazette originated as a by-product of the ongoing and very active discussions which take place concerning the 1632 universe I created in the novels 1632, 1633 and 1634: The Galileo Affair (the latter two books co-authored by David Weber and Andrew Dennis, respectively). This discussion is centered in one of the conferences in Baen's Bar, the discussion area of Baen Books' web site. The conference is entitled "1632 Tech Manual" and has been in operation for almost five years now, during which time over one hundred thousand posts have been made by hundreds of participants.

Soon enough, the discussion began generating so-called "fanfic," stories written in the setting by fans of the series. A number of these, in my opinion, were good enough to be published professionally. And, indeed, a number of them were-as part of the anthology Ring of Fire, which was published by Baen Books in January, 2004. (Ring of Fire also includes stories written by established authors such as myself, David Weber, Mercedes Lackey, Dave Freer, K.D. Wentworth and S.L. Viehl.)

The decision to publish the Ring of Fire anthology triggered the writing of still more fanfic, even after submissions to the anthology were closed. Ring of Fire has been selling quite well since it came out, and I'm putting together a second anthology similar to it which will also contain stories written by new writers. But, in the meantime... the fanfic kept getting written, and people kept nudging me-okay, pestering me, but I try to be polite about these things-to give them my feedback on their stories. The problem, from my point of view, was that that involved work for me with no clear end result I could see.

Hence... the Grantville Gazette. Once I realized how many stories were being written-a number of them of publishable quality-I raised with Jim Baen the idea of producing an online magazine which would pay for fiction and factual articles set in the 1632 universe and would be sold through Baen Books' Webscriptions service. Jim was willing to try it, to see what happens.

In the event, the first issue of the electronic magazine sold well enough to make continuing the magazine a financially self-sustaining operation. Since then, a second volume has come out and we're in the process of putting together the third and fourth volumes.

So, Jim decided to try a new experiment: this volume, which is a paperback edition of the first electronic issue, with a new story by me included in the mix. It's an experiment, because we don't know yet whether we'll do the same thing with later volumes of the magazine.

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There are four stories in this issue, in addition to the one I wrote for it. Two of them-Loren Jones' "Anna's Story" and Tom Van Natta's "Curio and Relic"-were originally submitted for the anthology Ring of Fire. Both of them were stories I would have included in the anthology, except that I ran out of space and, for one reason or another-none of which involved the actual quality of the writing-I decided to accept other stories instead. Loren does have a story appearing in Ring of Fire, by the way, entitled "Power to the People."

Virginia DeMarce, the author of another story contained here ("The Rudoldstadt Colloquy"), is another of the authors with a story in Ring of Fire. She is also my co-author in an upcoming novel in the 1632 series, 1634: The Austrian Princess. Finally, her story here introduces a character-Cavriani-who will figure in later stories in the series. (Indirectly he already has, in fact, in the form of another member of the Cavriani family, in 1634: The Galileo Affair.)

Gorg Huff's "The Sewing Circle" was submitted for the magazine. Gorg is a new writer in the setting, who has not previously been published. He does have other stories coming out in later volumes of the magazine, including a sequel to the one in this book.

All three factual articles in this issue were written at my request. Rick Boatright was the radio expert whom David Weber and I leaned on for advice while writing 1633, and his article fleshes out the background for the radio material contained in that novel (as well as future novels in the series). The same is true for Bob Gottlieb's expertise with regard to disease and antibiotics. Karen Bergstralh is an experienced horsewoman and an expert on horses, a subject which I find is routinely mishandled in fiction. (Especially the movies-the downhill charge in the recent movie The Two Towers is admittedly a lot of fun. It is also preposterous.) -Eric Flint April 16, 2004

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Grantville Gazette Volume I by Eric Flint Copyright © 2004 by Eric Flint. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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