I have been reading the Ring of Fire series and just
finished the next one to come out.
Next one! Yes, it has not
come out yet. It was not a free
ARC but and ARC no less. Baen
often releases books that are popular months ahead of time as an eARC for
$15.00. I had just finished the
1635: The Cannon Law. It ended with a cliff-hanger and I
wanted to know what happened. When
I went to Baen I found that the sequel to The Cannon Law, The Papal Papers, had just been released
as a eARC.
Here is the description from Baen:
#15
in the multiple best-selling Ring of Fire Series.
It's
springtime in the Eternal City, 1635. But it's no Roman holiday for uptimer
Frank Stone and his pregnant downtime wife, Giovanna. They're in the clutches
of would be Pope Cardinal Borgia, with the real Pope—Urban VII—on the run with
the renegade embassy of uptime Ambassador Sharon Nichols and her swashbuckling
downtime husband, Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Up to their necks in papal
assassins, power politics, murder, and mayhem, the uptimers and their spouses
need help and they need it quickly.
Special
rescue teams—including Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew—converge
on Rome to extract Frank and Gia. And an uptime airplane is on its way to
spirit the Pope to safety before Borgia's assassins can find him. It seems that
everything is going to work out just fine in sunny Italy.
Until,
that is, everything goes wrong. Now, whether they are prisoners in Rome or
renegades protecting a pope on the run, it's up to the rough and ready can do
attitude of Grantville natives to once again escape the clutches of
aristocratic skullduggery and ring in freedom for a war torn land.
The
Papal Stakes does not follow what is know as the main line characters. Instead it follows Sharon Nichols and
Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz . Frank Stone, Gia Stone and several others from
the previous book. Harry Lefferts
and his Wrecking Crew show up in this book along with some new characters. This is a action packed book and as a
result it does not have a lot of character development. However some of the action does make major changes in Leffert and his Wrecking Crew.
That
said the action is great and keeps the story arc moving along. The action is running parallel but with
little interaction to previous books. There are surprises in the book. The two goals, freeing Frank and Gia
and saving the Pope, flow smoothly but with unexpected results. All of the action helps set up the next
books in the series. While The
Papal Stakes runs parallel to the action in other books it sets the scene for
blending the results of all the books some time in the future.
I
loved the writing in The Papal Stakes.
This is a story that flows smoothly and is focused on the problems the
characters face. Some of the books in this series spend so much time world
building that the story slows down.
That was not true here. Any
world building was done is small doses and blended into the story line. I think some of the difference is the different authors in the series. Eric Flint keeps control of the series but allows other authors to write in his series. This one is co-authored by Flint and Charles Gannon. They are a good writing team.
The Papal Stakes is a great addition to the Ring of Fire series. If you can’t wait to read the book go to Baen and get
the eARC. If you can wait buy the
book when it comes out in October.
Baen published the ARC of 1635: The Papal Stakes by Eric Flint and Charles E. Gannon in 2012.
1 comment:
Glad you enjoyed my writing! Chuck Gannon
cegannon2@comcast.net
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