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The 1632 series, also known as the Ring of Fire series, is an alternate history book series, created, primarily co-written, and coordinated by historian Eric Flint. The 1632 series began with Flint's stand alone novel 1632 (released in February 1, 2000) and currently includes twenty-six works of all kinds including e-published only works (e-books), of which twelve are standard trade printed books that are the printed, canonical Grantville Gazettes.

The series focus on the late 20th century town of Grantville and its population that were astronomically transported by a "Ring of Fire" to the midst of 17th-century Europe during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).

Novels in the Series[]

Grantville Gazette[]

The Grantville Gazette began as a web publication that compiled stories within the 1632 world. The first four volumes eventually made the jump to print publication, and there have been additional "best of" print volumes as well. As of June 2021, the e-book series of Grantville Gazettes is currently up to volume 96.

Ring of Fire Anthologies[]

Ring of Fire, Ring of Fire II, Ring of Fire III and Ring of Fire IV are story anthologies published within the 1632 universe. These anthologies follow a common pattern of ending with a short novel by Eric Flint, which is preceded by a closely related short story.

Series reading order (as of August 2019)[]

Although Flint believes that the right reading order of the series is akin to asking what the right order of studying the Thirty Years War was, he created a list that best summarizes the order to read the series for those who are interested.[1] Since the site ringoffirepress.com no longer has the list posted, the list has also been posted on 1632.org.[2]

These last few are not mentioned in the suggested reading order provided at https://1632.org/1632tech/reading_order/:

  • 1636: Calabar's War
  • 1636: Flight of the Nightingale
  • 1637: The Peacock Throne
  • 1637: The Transylvanian Decision

Relation to other works[]

The 1632 series clearly belongs to a sub-genre originating with Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", and of which a later prominent example is Sprague de Camp's "Lest Darkness Fall". This is based on the premise of a present-day individual - one with considerable knowledge and initiative - being transported back into the past and completely changing the society found there by introducing present-days technologies and ideas. Flint's variation on this theme was to transport into the past a whole present-day community, complete with many present-day tools and weapons - making the possibility of changing the past far vaster than with a single individual travelling back. This variation is shared with Stirling's Nantucket series, where an American community ends up in the Bronze Age.

References[]

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