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Key Storyline Points

This section is both orientation and review for readers and writers. It necessarily contains spoilers. If you don’t like spoilers, we recommend skipping to the next article or downloading a copy of 1632 from the Baen Free Library: https://www.baen.com/1632.html

Timeline

Sunday, April 2, 2000 – Rita Stearns and Tom Simpson are married in her hometown Grantville, WV. Rita’s brother Mike Stearns was president of the United Mine Workers of America local, so many coal miners and their families were at the reception in the high school cafeteria. Tom Simpson was the starting nose guard for the WVU Mountaineers. His parents came down from Pittsburgh, although they did not approve of the marriage.

Sunday, May 25, 1631 – An Assiti shard moved a sphere a little over six miles in diameter to Thuringia, in the Germanies, during the Thirty Years War. It appeared just a few days after the sack of Magdeburg, arguably the single greatest atrocity of the war. Mike, Police Chief Dan Frost, and several miners break up an atrocity just over the border of the Ring of Fire and rescue Balthasar and Rebecca Abrabanel.

Wednesday, May 28, 1631 – A town meeting is held in the high school gym. After Mike’s “I say we start the American Revolution one hundred and fifty years early” speech, he is elected chairman of the Emergency Committee.

Monday, June 30, 1631 – Up-timers and Alexander Mackay’s Scots defeat a tercio and liberate Badenburg in the Battle of the Crapper. Jeff Higgins rescues Gretchen Richter.

Wednesday, September 17, 1631 – King Gustav II Adolf’s Swedish army defeats Count Tilly’s Imperial Army at Breitenfeld. In the new timeline, this battle plays out very much the same as it did in our timeline.

Early October, 1631 – A fragment of Tilly’s scattered forces marches on Jena. Grantville sends a mix of up-time and down-time forces. The battle is fought almost entirely by sniper Julie Simms.

December, 1631 – Mike Stearns is elected President of the New United States.

August, 1632 – Cardinal Richelieu engineers a multi-pronged attack on Grantville. Imperial mercenary commander Albrecht von Wallenstein designates the high school as the main target. NUS forces are victorious at Eisenach, the Wartburg, Suhl, and downtown Grantville. Captain Gars arrives with Swedish, Finnish, and Lapp troops, and the combined forces defeat the Croats at Grantville High School.

September, 1632 – NUS and Swedish forces shatter Wallenstein’s army in the Battle of Alte Veste outside Nuremberg. In contrast to our timeline, Gustav II Adolf does not need to retreat from Nuremberg, and there is no battle of Lützen for him to die in.

Fall, 1631 – Gustav II Adolf and Mike Stearns organized the Confederated Principalities of Europe.

Characters

The city of Grantville is the collective protagonist of the 1632 series. Eric pointed to these eight as his main characters. If more than one of these couples is present, you’re reading a “main line” book.

Rebecca Abrabanel – young Jewish woman born in England and raised in Amsterdam

Jeff Higgins – high school senior, D&D aficionado

Alexander Mackay – captain of a company of Scots cavalry in the Swedish army

Melissa Mailey – high school English teacher

James Nichols – African-American doctor from Chicago, in town because his daughter Sharon was one of Rita’s bridesmaids

Gretchen Richter – young German woman taken captive by mercenaries

Julie Simms – captain of the cheerleading team, potential biathlon competitor

Michael Stearns – coal miner and UMWA union local president

Terms, Concepts, and Groups of People

Committees of Correspondence – organized to spread up-time ideals, leaders include Gretchen Richter, Gunter Achterhof, and Joachim von Thierbach (“Spartacus”)

Down-timer – a person born in the sixteenth or seventeenth century

Up-timer – one of the approximately 3,551 West Virginians who came through the Ring of Fire

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Coming Tuesday, September 5, 2023

1638: The Sovereign States

Eric Flint, Paula Goodlett, Gorg Huff

The United Sovereign States of Russia struggles to set in place the traditions and legal precedents that will let it turn into a constitutional monarchy with freedom and opportunity for all its citizens.

At the same time, they’re trying to balance the power of the states and the federal government. And the USSR is fighting a civil war with Muscovite Russia, defending the new state of Kazakh from invasion by the Zunghars, building a tech base and an economy that will allow its money to be accepted in western Europe, establishing a more solid claim to Siberia, and, in general, keeping the wheels of civilization from coming off and dumping Russia back into the Time of Troubles. Or, possibly even worse, reinstalling the sort of repressive oligarchy that they just got rid of.

* * *

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