1635: The Dreeson Incident (1632 Series #8)

The Thirty Years War continues to ravage 17th century Europe, but a new force is gathering power and influence: the United States of Europe, a new nation led by Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and the West Virginians from the 20th century led by Mike Stearns who were hurled centuries into the past by a mysterious cosmic accident.

While the old entrenched rulers and manipulators continue to plot against this new upstart nation, everyday life goes on in Grantville, the town lost in time, with librarians, firefighters, and garbage collectors trying to make do under unusual circumstances. And what better place for an undercover spy from France than working with the garbage collectors, examining 20th century machines that others throw out, and copying the technology (though he wishes one device—the paper shredder—had been left behind in the future).

There are more sinister agents at work, however. One of them, Ducos, almost succeeded in assassinating the Pope, but his plan was ruined by quick action by a few Americans. Now, the would-be assassin not only has a score to settle, but has also decided on two excellent targets: Grantville’s leader Mike Stearns and his wife Rebecca. . . .

Jackie Cassada - Library Journal

Ever since a cosmic phenomenon displaced the West Virginia town of Grantville in time and space, the community has worked to craft a 17th-century United States of Europe, introducing modified 20th-century technology as well as ideas of democracy and egalitarianism to a world hardly able to accept them, except for the forward-looking King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, who now heads the USE. As the Thirty Years' War takes its toll on Europe, an assassin, thwarted from his attempt to kill the pope by a handful of Americans, now turns his sights on Mark and Rebecca Stearns, the leaders of the West Virginians. The latest installment in the popular "Ring of Fire" series keeps the action moving and the history honest as ordinary citizens of the 20th century bring their skills and their hopes to a dark time in European history. Working with coauthor DeMarce, a frequent contributor to the Grantville Gazette anthologies, Flint continues to produce entertaining and involving alternate histories in the tradition of Harry Turtledove. Essential for series fans and recommended for most libraries.

Eric Flint is the author of the New York Times best seller 1634: The Galileo Affair (with Andrew Dennis)—a novel in his top-selling “Ring of Fire” alternate history series. His first novel for Baen, Mother of Demons, was picked by Science Fiction Chronicle as a best novel of the year. His 1632, which launched the ring of Fire series, won widespread critical praise, as from Publishers Weekly, which called him “an SF author of particular note, one who can entertain and edify in equal, and major, measure.” A longtime labor union activist with a master’s degree in history, he currently resides in northwest Indiana with his wife Lucille.

Virginia DeMarce, after jobs as peculiar as counting raisins for the Calif. Dept. of Agriculture, received her Ph.D. in Early Modern European History from Stanford University. She has published a book on German military settlers in Canada after the American Revolution and has served as president of the National Genealogical Society. She taught at Northwest Missouri State University and at George Mason University. She has had stories in the Ring of Fire anthology and Grantville Gazette (#1), and more stories in the online Grantville