Eric Flint's 1632 & Beyond: Alternate History Stories

LibertyCon was a great experience, as it always is! It was fantastic to see some of you in person and to get to share our news: Next year we will have our minicon at FenCon in Dallas, TX February 14-16! We will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Baen publishing the first edition of 1632.

We are also thrilled that it has been a full year since we announced this new venture at LibertyCon and launched it at DragonCon. Thanks to your support, it is doing very well. Thank you all!

For those new to our universe, Eric Flint’s 1632 in the story of a small town in West Virginia (Grantville) that is sent through time and space to Thurginia Germany, 1631, in the middle of the Thirty Years’ War and proceeded to change the world. There are many novels set in his universe, and 102 volumes of his original magazine, The Grantville Gazette. With his passing, many things changed but many stayed the same. Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond is the new short-story venue for the universe. New name, same basic mission (minus the non-1632 science fiction stories).

To celebrate reaching the one year mark, Issue 1 will be available to read free online or download for free during DragonCon 2024, August 29 – September 4, 2024. (If you need help getting the epub file onto your Kindle, Kindlepreneur does a fantastic job of explaining how to do this.) The print and ebook will also be discounted on Amazon.com.

Follow us on FaceBook for more frequent updates! And please join us the second Saturday of every month (8 PM Eastern Time) for our salon call discussing 1632 topics! Notices are sent to everyone on our email list during the week before the salon call.

1632 & Beyond Issue 7

It’s great to be back! After a one-year hiatus, Eric Flint’s 1632 Universe has a new short-fiction venue (magazine). We are delighted to share the return of long-term contributors, relatively new writers and even an old friend from the early days.

We publish a new issue on the first of odd months, six issues per year, following the Grantville Gazette’s tradition. We also have a monthly Zoom call for readers, writers, and anyone interested the second Saturday of every month at 8 pm Eastern. The link is posted on BaensBar.net (1632 Tech) and our FB page and group about a day in advance. Please join in!

We aren’t just writers and staff, we are fans and readers, too. As such, we are committed to following the path Eric Flint laid out for the 1632verse, and we are actively seeking new authors to welcome into our universe. We even built an entire new authors website (Author.1632Magazine.com).

Some of the storylines from the Gazette are being continued in 1632 & Beyond, such as Robert Waters’ charming story about Giovanni Cassini and baseball.

Speaking of the Gazette, we are also licensed to sell all 102 volumes of the Grantville Gazette! They are currently only available through this website as eBooks, either individual books or bundles of six (all the volumes from one year).

Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond is now available through this website as individual issues or subscription, through Amazon as print on demand paperback or ebook, and through Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Hoopla* (for libraries), and a variety of other locations. (*Long processing times means Hoopla access is often delayed.)

While we all fully understand the convenience of Amazon and other online options, the simple fact of the matter is that we make more per issue when you buy directly through our website. Knowing it is slightly more work, we truly appreciate those of you who do buy directly. We also appreciate those who subscribe, even though it is more expensive on a per-issue basis.

Why is it worth subscribing? Beyond the obvious “to support the new magazine and help ensure it continues”, there is subscriber-exclusive content. The two biggest benefits are online access to read twelve issues of the Grantville Gazette with a “new” issue every month and access to an area where serialized stories are compiled to make it easier to read. This means that subscribers effectively get three issues every two months instead of one, although two issues are older ones they may have already read.

Here is a sampling of the stories in Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond!

Issue 1 has a Jody Lynn Nye story from the upcoming Baen novel she and Eric Flint collaborated on, set immediately before the daring Tower escape. S.M. Stirling and Virginia DeMarce tell the story of an herbal peddler pondering post-RoF changes.

In continuing stories, Garrett W. Vance tells the tale of Japanese expatriates trying to escape southeast Asia in Issues 1 and 3. Robert Waters continues the story of Giovanni Cassini and baseball in Issue 3.

In shorter stories, Chuck Thompson lets an old farmer make a difference one last time. Bethanne Kim tells a tale of remembering those left behind up-time. Sean Little takes on changes happening in Japan, and George Grant lets an up-timer give his ancestor advice.

Leaving 1632verse fiction for Assiti Shards fiction, Iver Cooper has written Alexandria Inheritance stories about caving, gunpowder, and matching the right person to the job, and about how to safely move an entire colony of bees from the Mediterrean to the Carribean on a cruise ship. Talk about a logistical challenge!

In non-fiction, George Grant writes about available farm equipment based on his visit to Mannington, WV, while Bethanne Kim writes about the evolution of medical training and facilities down-time. Iver Cooper updates us on the available construction materials .

If you enjoy the 1632verse, you’ll also love the most recent 1632 releases from Baen, 1638: The Sovereign States by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff, and Paula Goodlett, and Bjorn Hasseler’s NESS series, available as ebooks from Baen as well as the cover story for Issue 4. Buy now to find out what happens next in the 1632verse!

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11 Comments

  1. It would be interesting to have for in the Ring of Fire novel series additional early 21st century additional American even European and Asian Towns and Cities gradually time travel transplanted. And then mid 21st century American even European and Asian Towns and Cities possibly genuinely extraterrestrial species/races factions Towns and Cities and even outer space additional Towns and Cities, and then late 22nd Century American even European and Asian Towns and Cities possibly genuinely extraterrestrial species/races factions Towns and Cities gradually time travel transplanted and even outer space additional Towns and Cities and then early to mid 22nd century American even European and Asian Towns and Cities possibly genuinely extraterrestrial species/races factions Towns and Cities and even outer space additional Towns and Cities gradually time travel transplanted. Multi generational sagas as done by author Ken Follett https://ken-follett.com/. Seems like would be the best way to do alternative history timelines scenarios such as the ring of fire novel series. Like in a Ring of Fire/1632/Grantville and Stargate franchise crossover. I get that Grantville would be the first one to be time travel transplanted but I have a hard time believing that it would be the only one to do so. http://www.stargatenovels.com/ https://www.space.com/stargate-robocop-reboot-series-amazon#:~:text=Hollywood%2Dbased%20MGM%20Studios%20originally,Stargate%22%20and%20%22RoboCop.%22 https://www.gateworld.net/news/2022/03/done-deal-amazon-owns-stargate-today/. If it is a matter of space why couldn’t it be argued that the cause/source of the first/original ring of fire with Grantville ended up also managing to enlarge that particular reality’s Earth into a Super Earth (with additional land masses/continents such as the mythical/legendary long lost continents of Submerged lands
    Further information: Continental fragment

    The Sahul Shelf and the Sunda Shelf during the last glacial maximum and today. The area in between is called “Wallacea”.

    Map showing hypothetical extent of Doggerland, c. 8,000 BC
    Although the existence of lost continents in the above sense is mythical (aside from Zealandia[2] and Greater Adria[3]), there were many places on Earth that were once dry land, but submerged after the ice age around 10,000 BCE due to rising sea levels, and possibly were the basis for Neolithic and Bronze Age flood myths. Some were lost due to coastal erosion or volcanic eruptions. An (incomplete) list follows:

    A large island in the Mediterranean Sea, of which Malta is the only part not now submerged.
    Balkanatolia, a sunken land in the Mediterranean Sea.
    Beringia, connecting Asia and North America.
    Doggerland, the bed of the North Sea, which once connected Great Britain to Continental Europe before being inundated by rising sea levels during the Holocene.
    Ferdinandea, submerged volcanic island which has appeared at least four times in the past.
    Kerguelen Plateau, a submerged micro-continent which is now 1–2 kilometres (0.62–1.2 miles) below sea level.
    Maui Nui, once a large island of the Hawaii archipelago; several major islands represent residual high ground of Maui Nui.
    Sundaland, the now submerged Sunda Shelf.
    Viking-Bergen Banks are submerged hills in the North Sea which formed Viking-Bergen Island during the Last Glacial Period and possibly the northernmost point of Doggerland. Lost continents
    Main article: Submerged continent
    Greater Adria, a continent connecting between Italy and North Africa.
    Zealandia, a scientifically accepted continent that is now 94% submerged under the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the areas of New Zealand and New Caledonia. Mythological lands
    Main article: List of mythological places

    Plato’s Atlantis described in Timaeus and Critias
    Agartha, in the Hollow Earth.
    Atlantis, Plato’s utopian paradise.
    Avalon, the mythical lost land or island in Arthurian, Cornish and Welsh legend.
    Buyan, an island with the ability to appear and disappear in Slavic mythology.
    Cantre’r Gwaelod, in Welsh legend, the ancient sunken realm said to have occupied a tract of fertile land lying between Ramsey Island and Bardsey Island in what is now Cardigan Bay to the west of Wales.
    Iram of the Pillars, a reference to a lost city, country or area mentioned in the Qur’an.
    Jomsborg and Vineta, legendary cities on the south coast of the Baltic Sea supposed to have been submerged in the Middle Ages.
    Kitezh, a legendary underwater city located in Russia, populated by spiritual people.
    Kumari Kandam, a mythical lost continent with an ancient Tamil civilization in the Indian Ocean
    Lemuria, a mythical lost continent in the Indian or the Pacific Ocean.
    Llys Helig Welsh legends regarding the local rock formations conceal the palace of Prince Helig ap Glanawg, said to be part of a larger drowned kingdom near Penmaenmawr, Wales.
    Lyonesse in Arthurian literature: it was the home of Tristan and is usually associated with the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall (an area inundated by the sea c.2500BC)[citation needed]. The tale parallels the Welsh and particularly Breton legendary lost lands.[citation needed]
    Mu, a mythical lost continent in the Pacific Ocean
    Shangri-La, a fictitious valley in Tibet the idea of which may have been inspired by the myth of Shambhala
    Quivira and Cibola, also known as the Seven Cities of Gold. These were suspected somewhere in America by the Conquistadors.
    El Dorado, mythic city of gold.
    Ys, a mythical drowned city in Brittany, similar to other Celtic lost lands in Welsh and Cornish tradition. Most versions of the legend place the city in the Baie de Douarnenez. All also inhabited by its own environments and ecology and even civlizations and cultures of sentient intelligent people groups so that not neccessarily those of Grantsville and other time travel transplanted inhabited villages, towns and cities can remain know it all in fact they end up being surprised to have things and discovered for themselves). Including to Australia
    Africa
    Antarctica
    Asia
    Europe
    South America
    North America
    America
    Eurasia(Europe and Asia)) even if among the smaller of the Super Earths and tweak the laws of science of that particular reality/universe so that it would work for the Earth to become a Super Earth and still be inhabited by complex intelligent and sentient life forms. I guess I was thinking it could turn out more so much more be involved and also additionally provide why Grantville and its inhabiteds was time travel transported int the first place in fact.

    1. We would all love that! While we can’t speak for the estate or how things currently stand, it’s public knowledge that the series has been “optioned” so a studio had the right to make a series in the past. I don’t know the current status of that, though. But it would be great!!!

  2. Hi all, I really long to encounter all of the materials above in a library setting. That’s how I read all of the books, and as many of the Grantville Gazettes as I could come by. Think I’ve only read the first ten or so of the Gazettes. Would like to read all the rest and the magazines–if I buy all of them I could end up becoming a donor to the library. Thankful that I signed up for this avenue toward more reading in the 1632 universe. Will soon find my ‘sea legs’ about acquiring at least a small part of what you offer–and catching up!

    1. As each book is released, it is set to be released to libraries via Hoopla. That takes several months, but Issues 1 – 4 definitely show they are available.

  3. I’ve purchased almost every book in the series, but this is still bewildering to me, and the way some of the Grantville Gazette stories were republished in hardback has made it worse.

    1. I’m sorry to hear that you are finding it confusing. Most of the Gazette stories that were gathered and printed in novel form were from Ring of Fire Press and aren’t available any more.

      We have all looked at the massive list of books and magazines and reacted a bit like a deer in the headlights. My goodness! SO MANY BOOKS! Where do I start and where do I go next? Eric created a chronological list of books, but it still felt like a wall o’ books to conquer to me, so I created the list below. That breaks it up into smaller (mostly geographical) chunks of generally 4-7 related books. I feel MUCH less overwhelmed looking at that list.
      https://author.1632magazine.com/canon-continuity/reading-order-small-bites/

      We are planning to start having an intro paragraph for stories in the magazine because we know readers won’t necessarily remember the details they need to follow everything in the story. We know this because we are readers ourselves, as well as writers. Hopefully these things will help you feel less bewildered! Thanks for staying with us. We hope you continue to enjoy the universe.

  4. I have everything in the 1632 universe that’s been put into print, but there’s a big hole in the print universe that needs to be filled. I’m talking about the story that was ONLY released in ebook form, “The Barbie Consortium”. So many stories and characters and even history revolve around this story. Who do I need to talk to, how much do I have to pay, to get this story in print form ?

  5. ITC Has the TV right , which is the movie /serial branch of the BBC. Probably the only people who could do the 1632 world justice.

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