Grantville Gazette, Volume II

Ring of Fire - Gazette Editions Series 2

De: Eric Flint - edited

Narrado por: P. J. Ochlan

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 17th 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.

Contains mature themes.

©2005 Eric Flint (P)2020 Tantor

A potpourri of fiction and non-fiction

Many shorter pieces. Discussion of their individual qualities follows:

Steps in the Dance, Eric Flint
3 star short story
Another short story about portraits with Rembrandt during the Amsterdam siege. There's a bit of plot development here, but it's pretty light.

Collateral Damage, Mike Spehar
3.5 star short story
A bombing attack on Paris provides an opportunity for character development for the affects of Hans Richter's death on his flight instructor. Too short and too scattered for a really affecting story, and the decisions about his actions were at best unusual.

Euterpe, Episode 1, Enrico M. Toro
3 star short story
The start of a story about composer Giacomo Carissimi traveling to Grantville to study uptime music. This could become a really interesting story, but there's not enough here to tell much of a tale.

The Company Men, Christopher James Weber
3.5 star short novella
A downtime mercenary company is employed to rescue a Mughal ambassador from Austria. There are some quite good moments here, and the story is entertaining enough (if not as well written as Flint's writing), but the ending is scattered and damages the impact.

Just One of Those Days, Leonard Hollar
2 star short story
Set during the Croat attack on the high school, this tells a story of a bow hunter and a Finnish cavalryman. Too dependent on coincidence to be satisfying.

God's Gifts, Gorg Huff
2.5 star short story
Strawman ecumenical apologetics minimally disguised as a narrative by a downtime pastor. It's not terrible for what it is, but what is isn't something I especially want and it's not particularly well-handled.

Bottom-Feeders, John Zeek
2.5 star novelette
A murder investigation in Grantville with an uptime/downtime police partnership. Some nice details of life among the less-tolerant part of the uptime population. The mystery is weak and solved without much action. At best mildly interesting.

An Invisible War, Danita Ewing
3.5 star short novel
Setting up an entire health education system in 17th century Europe is fraught with complications. This story has a nice examination of the conflicts between uptime medical personnel and downtime academics, in particular examining sex roles at universities and in hospitals. There is some decent character work, mostly on the uptime side. The best part of the story is the examination of the technical difficulties and the solutions that might be available.

Non-Fiction

A Quick and Dirty Treatise on Historical Fencing, Enrico M. Toro
3 stars
This is what it says it is, but it's both short and lacking in interesting details. As an overview for a naive audience, it's fine.

So You Want to Do Telecommunications in 1633?, Rick Boatright
4 stars
A relatively deep dive into the history of telecommunications in our time and the difficulties that might be faced in the 17th century. Possibly too deep for a general audience, but I found it quite good.

Mente et Malleo: Practical Mineralogy and Minerals Exploration in 163, Laura Runkle
3.5 stars
An interesting article on the problems of mining and metallurgy, both practical and social, in the 17th century.

The Secret Book of Zink, Andrew Clark
2 stars
A very short piece about the uses of zinc. The attempt using period language was not a benefit to the piece.