1632 series

1632 series
1632, the first novel in the series.
(please see template at the bottom of page)
AuthorEric Flint and others
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreAlternate history
PublisherBaen Books
Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Press
PublishedFebruary 2000 – ongoing
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book
No. of books90+

The 1632 series, also known as the 1632-verse or Ring of Fire series, is an alternate history book series and sub-series created, primarily co-written, and coordinated by American author Eric Flint and published by Baen Books.[1]

The series is set in 17th-century Europe, in which the small fictional town of Grantville, West Virginia, was sent to the past from the year 2000 to central Germany in the year 1631, during the Thirty Years' War.

As of 2019, the series has seven published novels propelling the main plot and over ten published novels moving several subplots and threads forward.[citation needed][original research?] The series also includes fan-written, but professionally edited, collaborative material which are published in a bi-monthly magazine titled The Grantville Gazettes and some collaborative short fictions.[2]

In terms of the history of Time Travel literature, the 1632 series can be considered an extension and modification of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, in which a 19th-century American engineer, finding himself in 5th-century England, is able, all by himself, to introduce into the past society the full range of his time's technologies. In Flint's version, a whole modern community is transplanted into the past, in possession of a considerable amount of the material and written resources of modern society, making their success in changing the past more plausible.

Since both The Grantville Gazette and the Ring of Fire Press had ceased operations just shortly after Eric Flint's death in 2022,[3][4][5] the series was originally expected to be concluded after manuscripts that had already been submitted to Baen prior to Flint's death were published in the upcoming year or so.[6] In June 2023, it was announced that a new company, Flint's Shards Inc., had signed a contract with Lucille Robbins, Eric Flint's widow and heir, to produce a new electronic magazine called Eric Flint's 1632 & Beyond that will be released bimonthly on the first day of odd-numbered months with Bjorn Hasseler as Editor-in-Chief starting September 2023.[7]

  1. ^ "1632 Series Reading Order". ericflint.net. September 12, 2012. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
  2. ^ "Eric Flint: Remaking History". Locus Online. December 4, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference gazette end was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference rofp end was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Ring of Fire Press to Close". Locus (magazine). September 24, 2022.
  6. ^ Glyer, Mike (August 16, 2022). "Ring Of Fire Press Shutting Down". File 770.
  7. ^ Glyer, Mike (June 23, 2023). "New Eric Flint 1632 Magazine". File 770.