1636: The Devil’s Opera by Eric Flint and David Carrico

Alternate History

What Goodreads says:

"A new addition to the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series. After carving a place for itself in
war-torn 17th century Europe, citizens of the modern town of Grantville, West Virginia take on a murderous conspiracy of operatic proportions in Magdeburg, the capital of the United States of Europe.
New York Times Best Selling Series

Eric Flint and David Carrico serve up the latest entry in the best-selling alternate history saga of them all, the Ring of Fire!
It is the year 1636. The United States of Europe, the new nation formed by an alliance between the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus and the West Virginians hurled back in time by a cosmic accident, is on the verge of civil war.  His brain injured in the war with Poland, the USE's emperor Gustavus Adolphus is no longer in command. Enter Swedish chancellor Oxenstierna, a leader of aristocratic reaction against democracy. His goal: to assemble the forces of the hidebound ruling class in Berlin and drown the revolution in a bloodbath.
In Magdeburg, the capital of the USE, Mike Stearns' wife Rebecca Abrabanel is organizing popular resistance to Oxenstierna's plot. As part of the resistance, the American musician Marla Linder and her company of down-time musical partners are staging an opera that will celebrate the struggle against oppression. Princess Kristina, the heir to the USE's throne, is now residing in Magdeburg and is giving them her support and encouragement.
But another plot is underway--this one right in the heart of the capital itself, and with murder as its method. The only people standing in the way are a crippled boy and the boxing champion who befriended him, and an unlikely pair of policemen. Can the American detective Byron Chieske and his down-timer partner Gotthilf Hoch thwart the killers before they succeed in their goal?

The Devil’s Opera is a side story in the series.  It features characters that are secondary in the main line of the series while the original main line characters are side characters here.  Events in The Devil’s Opera are running parallel to the events in The Saxon Uprising. 

There are several mysteries in the story and some new characters.  Music is featured as a way to make a political statement.  The book is extremely well written and held my attention throughout the story. Everything does intersect at the end.  It was a pleasant story and fulfilled my need for more of the series.  However, it is more of a filler and did not seem to move the story line along. 

Pick it up if you are a fan of the series.  It can stand-alone but is better if you have read the previous books.

Baen published 1636: The Devil’s Opera by Eric Flint and David Carrico in 2013.

1635: The Papal Stakes by Eric Flint and Charles E. Gannon

Alternate History/Science Fiction

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.