1632 is the initial alternate history novel in the best-selling Ring of Fire series written by Eric Flint and published by Baen Books.
The premise involves the small fictional town of Grantville, West Virginia, its power plant and immediate environs are displaced in space-time, through a side effect of a mysterious alien civilization. The town and its 3000 inhabitants are sent back from April 2000 to May of 1631, from North America to central Germany, in an alternate Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.
Grantville, led by Mike Stearns, president of the local chapter of the Miner’s Union, must cope with the town's dislocation, the surrounding raging war, language barriers, and numerous social and political issues, including class conflict, witchcraft, feminism, the reformation and the counter-reformation, among many other factors. One complication is a compounding of the food shortage when the town is flooded by refugees from the war. The locals experience a culture shock when exposed to the mores of contemporary American society, including modern dress, sexual liberation, and boisterous American-style politics.
Grantville struggles to survive while trying to maintain technology sundered from twenty-first century resources and manages to establish itself locally by forming the nascent New United States of Europe with several local. With an alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, the Confederated Principalities of Europe is crated and some measure of security for Grantville's up-timer and down-timer populations.
The flagship novel kicked off a collaborative writing effort that has involved hundreds of contributors and dozens of authors. Fans are encouraged to contribute to the series though an online message board known as Baen's Bar. The author also worked with other established authors to develop new stories and plot lines for further novels which are also published in the two Ring of Fire anthologies. The entire Grantville Gazette and large portions of the Ring of Fire anthology, are paid, fan-written works, and have directly contributed material to the main novels.
You can download Eric Flint's 1632 and its direct sequel 1633 for free here and here. If you enjoy it, please support the author and Baen's Books by buying hard copies of these books, or the rest of the series.
The flagship novel kicked off a collaborative writing effort that has involved hundreds of contributors and dozens of authors. Fans are encouraged to contribute to the series though an online message board known as Baen's Bar. The author also worked with other established authors to develop new stories and plot lines for further novels which are also published in the two Ring of Fire anthologies. The entire Grantville Gazette and large portions of the Ring of Fire anthology, are paid, fan-written works, and have directly contributed material to the main novels.
You can download Eric Flint's 1632 and its direct sequel 1633 for free here and here. If you enjoy it, please support the author and Baen's Books by buying hard copies of these books, or the rest of the series.
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