Grantville Gazette III

Infobox Book |
name = Grantville Gazette II
author = Eric Flint, "et al."


image_caption = Grantville Gazette III hardcover and paperback release book covers showing 16char|Anne|Jefferson posing for four Dutch and Spanish Master Artists amidst the 16batl|Siege of Amsterdam.
cover_artist = Tom Kidd
country = United States
language = English
series = 1632 Series "Also known as the Ring of Fire Series"
genre = Science fiction, Alternate History
publisher = Baen Books
release_date = eb: October, 2004 hc: January, 2007 pb: June 2008
media_type = E-book & Hardback & Paperback
pages = hardcover: 320 pages paperback: 464 pagescite web
quote=Book Description: Baen Books, 2008. Mass Market Paperbound. N. 6.74 by 5 inches. (00464 pages) [ships from USA takes 8-14 days to Europe] Lang=English accessory:NO ACCESSORY (Mass Market Paperbound) BRAND NEW MASS MARKET PAPERBOUND. Bookseller Inventory # AF141655565X
url=http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=141655565X&sts=t&x=0&y=0
accessdate=2008-05-19
title=Abe Books Search for paperback ISBN]
isbn = nowrap|(pb) ISBN 1-4165-5565-X [http://www.baen.com/author_catalog.asp?author=EFlint Baen author catalog, On Eric Flint] , accessdate: 2008-05-19, ISBN: ISBN:1-4165-5565-X, $7.99 Paperback (June 2008) ] nowrap| (hc) ISBN-10: ISBN 1-4165-0941-0 nowrap|& ISBN-13: ISBN 978-1-4165-0941-7
preceded_by = "in the anthologies sub-series: " Grantville Gazette II "in publication order: " 35TCL
followed_by = "in the anthologies sub-series: " Grantville Gazette IV "in printed publication order: " 34TBW

The "Grantville Gazette III" is the third collaborative Ring of Fire work set in the '1632verse'in what is best regarded as a canonical sub-series of the popular alternate history that began with the February 2000 publication of the hardcover novel 1632 (novel) by author-historian Eric Flint. Overall it is the fourth anthology released as a print publication in the atypical series which consists of a mish-mash of main novels and anthologies produced under "popular demand" after publication of the initial novel (which was written as a stand-alone work). The internet forum Baen's Bar in the Eric Flint oriented sub-forums 1632 Tech Manual and 1632 Slush figure prominently in the background of these works as is covered in the "The Grantville Gazettes" main article and are an example of the internet-age collaborative writing in the literary field.

"Grantville Gazette III" is the fourth anthology in the 1632 series edited by the series creator, Eric Flint. It was published as an e-book by Baen Books in October 2004, less the shortstory by Eric Flint. It was release as a hardcover in January 2007, and trade paperback in June 2008 with both editions containing Flint's story GG03|s="Postage Due".

About the Gazettes

Book cover notes

E-book cover art

The illustration on the e-book cover is "Judith Slaying Holofernes" (Naples Version) by Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653), painted circa 1612–1613. Gentileschi was the most prominent female artist of the period, and is referred to in the novel "", and appears earlier in the overall series timeline when she sends her daughter to Grantville in GG05|IN="Breaking News". The Biblical episode involving Judith and her maidservant killing the Assyrian tyrant Holofernes was an immensely popular theme for painters and sculptors of the Renaissance and the early modern era.

Print version cover art

The picture is from the Flint story GG03|s="Postage Due" and is the third introductory tale he wrote (one in each Gazette so far, in each print release) as "Added Material"—a blatant marketing ploy he admits to good humoredly to get e-book owners to spend on the hardcover editions. Aside from that businesslike sensibility, the three stories are also referred to in longer works, at least as events in the background, but in a manner that makes clear Flint has future plot factors in mind as the milieu matures in neohistorical time. In the second, this same model depicted on this cover, 16char|Anne|Jefferson deliberately leaked the "thick xeroxed" secrets (complete with plans and sketches of key equipment and other how-to) of how to make an antibiotic to the Spanish diplomat 16CHAR|s=Rubens under the express orders of USE prime minister 16char|Mike|Stearns. It is but one Stearnsian ploy that both keeps the other governments off balance and guessing at what he will do next—and a strategic "Trojan horse" many of which in the aggregate that in the fullness of time, will (he hopes) create the "American Revolution 150 years early" from "the bottom up". In that sense, much of what occurs in the gazettes are key to future developments in the big sexy novels, for the "hearts and minds" of the common man and "their ways of thinking" are what must be "changed first", if a modern less-war-prone Europe is to develop in the neohistory as Stearns and other Grantvillers wish. In effect, such stories as occur in the Gazettes are frequently other Trojan horses, for the gazettes dwell on the close-up picture of day to day interactions in the main, the dilemmas of the common village resident dealing with the outlandish ways of thinking of these Americans, and vice versa.

This cover is illustrative of that tendency in the series, for the tale ends with a little concession by the evil schemer 16CHAR|s=Richelieu who is faced with a no win situation—Stearns with chess-like misdirection proposed the establishment of a (modern type) of uniform postal service through all of northwestern and west-central Europe, while proposing the necessary "how-to"—the result is that nurse Anne Jefferson sits for a simultaneous portrait by four great painters of the seventeenth century, which portraits are used as the basis of a stamp that will have universal acceptability and "vastly improve communications" for the average person. Without communications, democracy or new ideas don't flourish, or propagate only slowly—yet the benefits are manifest enough that the champions of authoritarianism like Richelieu don't perceive the dangers to the way of life they are waging war against the USE to preserve. A delicious irony, and quite subtle and far reaching, very much like giving antibiotics to the enemy... to defeat you he has to do what you want him to do! Half the fun of the series is the characterization of the non-fictional figures trying to figure out what this or that action means—the 34TBC novel is filled with such "unintended consequences" and the plot turns critical on the results in that work. But that's Stearns gameplan—at least as far as he can see a combination of factors, at which, he's as susceptible to surprises as the rest of us— and his role in the series is very much as chess grandmaster thinking 20 moves ahead in a dizzying combination of possible moves. The gazettes have many stories with similar subtle implications and the series is rich because of their presence— and it's predominate corpus of prose is not in the novels, as there are currently GG_CURRENT_COUNT book length gazettes in e-publication and have hit a pace of six per year, with the later gazettes being much longer than the early experiment. The shear synergy of the ideas the contributors have made and are making promises a lot of good "main book" reading lies ahead for affectionatos of the series.

Table of contents

Note: In the earliest two Grantville Gazettes, there were differences between the print published version and the original serialized e-magazine, and then again the intermediate e-book as the 'kinks' were worked out of the experiment. In general, at each more refined stage, material is added, including, as a rule, a short story by creator Eric Flint.

In the case of this book, the hardcover version omits the second part of the medical based sort novel: "An Invisible War", which was serialized in the e-zine versions between GG02 and this volume, but was printed in full in the hardcover and paperback editions of GG02|o. Should additional published works differ between versions, it will be noted in the pertinent article.

=E-book Table of Contents= Note: In the earliest three Grantville Gazettes, there are differences between the print published version and the original serialized eMagazine, and then again the intermediate e-book as the 'kinks' were worked out of the experiment. Should additional published works differ, it will be noted in the pertinent article. In the case of this work, the second part of the serialized canonically important 16writ|Danita|Ewing short novel GG02|s="An Invisible War" was excluded in the print version of this e-book, but was instead published in toto in the hardcover release of the second Gazette. At the time, and as it has turned out, the market for short fiction will not economically support print publication of every Gazette published as e-books, and the fourth Gazette (scheduled for June 2008) will be the last of the semi-sub-series published in that way. Additional Gazettes books will be published by Baen's as an annual "Best of the Grantville Gazettes" volume, following a long established science-fiction publishing tradition, since today's readers simply do not embrace and support sales of anthologies.

32TOC-beg|Grantville Gazette III 32s|** |"The Sound of Music"|p=16writ|David|CarricoIbegins a serial continued as nowrap|"Revolution in Three Flats" or nowrap|GG04|IN="Heavy Metal Music".

The third volume of the Gazette also contain factual articles exploring such topics as the centrality of iron to the industrial revolution, the prospects for the mechanization of agriculture in the 17th century, and the logic behind the adoption of the Struve-Reardon Gun as the basic weapon of the USE’s infantry.

List of Gazettes

The Grantville Gazettes are all edited by Eric Flint who maintains editorial control over the fictional canon for the series on the plainlinks|http://1632.org| 1632.org website in conjunction with the 1632 Editorial Board, and the various 1632 Research Committees, all being regular participants to the Baen's Bar forum 1632 Tech Manual. Gazettes include fact articles and stories which are initially vetted through a tough peer review on the forum 1632 Slush, typically requiring several rewrites then are subsequently nominated by the "editorial board" in conjunction with assistant editor 16writ|Paula|Goodlett, whereupon Flint chooses the stories for inclusion in the canon and for each volume based in part how it leads into or integrates with the ongoing main storyline 'threads' in the various novels.

tory Synopses

"Postage Due"

This story might well be considered a continuing serial by 16writ|Eric |Flint, as it follows the trend set from the outset in GG01's GG01|s="Portraits" wherein 16char|Anne|Jefferson is cast as the common model for five seventeenth century master painters as Stearns hatches a plan to count another subtle-coup under the radar screen of the down-timer political opponents with their willing co-operation. As with his release of directions via Jefferson on how to make an antibiotic (See GG01|s="Portraits" and culmination of the plot in 34TBW), the politicians opposing the republic of the USE and democracy of SoTF have no concept of the attack unleashed via the popular psyche.

:In this the third installment of the Nurse's Amsterdam tale, Jefferson sits for 16CHAR|Peter Paul|Rubens a second time—during or shortly after a Stearns visit to the siege of Amsterdam—but also as part of the Stearns scheme at the same time, for "the unknown" young master painter-to-be 16CHAR|s=Rembrandt and the resident Dutch portrait masters, the brothers Franz and Dirck Hals. Meanwhile, Special Forces Captain 16char|Harry|Lefferts appears in a scene suggesting skulduggery and underhanded dealings with a specific reference to Franz Hals need for money and a Frenchman willing to outbid others in the Netherlands.

"Pastor Kastenmayer’s Revenge"

In 16writ|Virginia|DeMarce's third canonical short fiction contribution, she writes of the good pastor who escapes from a small village leading women and children whilst most of the villages men and boys perish fighting a delaying action against 16CHAR|Count|Tilly's rampaging mercenaries. In Grantville, his oldest daughter gets swept off her feet by a handsome up-timer and marries a few days later without permission.

With the help of a formidable widow, the pastor plots a fitting revenge and founds a fifth-column that seeks to not only trap eligible bachelors into marriage to his dowryless flocks eligible daughters, but to convert the American scoundrels into becoming stalwart Lutherans. He carefully targets young American men known to be lapsed in their own religions, and indirectly the scheme has the effect of rehabilitating some of the more shiftless, under-achieving and undereducated hillbillies into more solid citizens who can support a Lutheran family. The tale is loosely modeled on the Seven Daughters for Seven Sons, at least in numbers, and every couple has their story that spans the time line from 1631 to early 1635. It serves as a excellent exposition of likely culture clash scenario's as the uptimers social system comes up against a stubborn adherent of the religiously centered thought modes prevalent in the transitional period between middle-ages social modes and the social revolution inherent in modern thought embodied in Grantville's natives.

"The Sound of Music"

::Setting, as a letter written from "Grantville", January 19th, 1633—with flashbacks in time and places along the road to Grantville. Backdrop action, a room or tavern somewhere in Grantville itself.

:The Sound of Music, by 16writ|David|Carrico begins a set of stand-alone sequential stories (known as the "Franz and Marla stories" that may be considered as a serial) continued as GG04|s="Heavy Metal Music" or alternatively, "Revolution in Three Flats" in the anthology Grantville Gazette IV featuring a down and out down-timer musician, 16char|Franz|Scylwester, who'd been a maestro violinist whose left hand had been deliberately mutilated by a rival, lost his position with the orchestra of the Archbishopric of Mainz. The crippled former maestro violinist "Franz Scylwester" makes his way eking out an existence writing correspondence letters for the illiterate and gradually wends his way gradually across western Germany to Grantville, where he is exposed to modern Rock and Roll (which appalls him), but also to modern musical knowledge from "Master Herr Professor Wendell" (the high school music teacher), where he learns about the breadth and depth of modern musical instruments and the systematized musical theory available from these strange people from the future.

:He is befriended by a sympathetic female singer, 16char|Marla|Linder and uses the two in a succession of stories (next beginning with "Heavy Metal Music" in the anthology Grantville Gazette IV), in effect serializing stories told from Scylwester's viewpoint, and uses the likable and sympathetic character to explore interactions between the 1630's musical world and the intriguing blended American-German ("16inst|Ami-Deutsch"fact32| spelling before initiating section in 1632 institutions.) culture coming into existence in central Europe. In this tale, the musician is writing a lengthy letter encouraging and entreating various colleagues from the Mainz music establishment to make haste to Grantville and its marvels.

"Other People’s Money"

:Other People’s Money by 16writ|Gorg|Huff continues the adventures of the teenage entrepreneurs and their families started in GG01|IN="The Sewing Circle". Centered more on David and Sarah (who sneak in a 'creative date') early in the story, like the sewing circle, the story is based upon and builds deeper background for the burgeoning economy that is growing up in around the town of Grantville because of the Grantvillers knowledge of industrial processes and advances in science and engineering. It seems everyone downtime wants a piece of an American enterprise, and knowing and being able to demonstrate a connection with an up-timer can be worth quite a lot. In this tale, a cautionary morality tale is included as sub-plot telling of injudicious greed, fast talking and overconfidence rear their head and introduce Carl Junkers who plays a reluctant role (out of necessity, as set up in this story and shortly afterward in the new timeline) in showing a way to merge German down-timer property law and practices with up-timer expectations of different kind of more familiar ownership practices as is told in some depth in the 34TRR|IN="The Birdie Tales". Further this tale introduces the three active newspapers covering events in the region immediately around Grantville, and details their reporting styles and target audience: I"16inst|The Street"—aiming for a staid financial coverage similar to the "Wall Street Journal"; I"16inst|The Grantville Times"—which similarly emulates the reserved style of the "New York Times"; I"16inst|The Daily News"—which is contrasted as flashy and incautious in what it prints, but has an editorial policy championing the idea that the death of any up-timer is an irrevocable and unpardonable loss, and that policies ought to be in place to prevent any up-timer from taking unnecessary risks.

:In addition, this tales finance based theme reports on some other technological advancements in the region only semi-related to the main tale: the establishment in Badenburg of a foundry able to produce crucible steel and achieve high-carbon steels—both necessary for maintaining or replacing tooling, military requirements, and development of other technology (bearings, ball bearings, spring steel, etc.); the establishment of plating capability in Badenburg—with the explicit linkage to the cash-cow of producing table flatware and other more strategic protections over iron and steel artifacts, again ratcheting up the local tech base capabilities.

"If the Demons Will Sleep"

:This heart-jerker of a tale by 16writ|Eva |Musch deals with the personal delema of European refugees falling into the safety of Grantville's expanding hegemony. The husband in the tale seeks NUS'32 medical assistance in a pending childbirth of his traumatized wife. She has been so abused during her experiences during the Thirty Years' Wars, that she cannot stand psychologically to be enclosed within four walls.

"Hobson’s Choice"

::Setting 16plac|Cambridge, England::"Timeline": Summer 1632 through the end of 1633

:This charming very literate and scholarly romance story by British writer 16writ|Francis |Turner is set within the businesses, schools, homes, and pubs of Shakespearian England as word of Grantvilles appearance in far off Thuringia reach the English academic and merchantile circles. The tale serves well to illustrate how deeply entwined were religion and education in the age. Much of the story involves real historic characters, and the predominant setting location, 16inst|The Pickerel pub, claims to be the oldest pub in Cambridge and is still in business.

:In the story, a young upwardly mobile son of a merchant takes up "reading as a student" in Cambridge and soon unsurprisingly befriends an attractive young woman— the tavern-keepers young, precocious, vivacious daughter, Bess Chapman— whom he proceeds to share his instruction with as the only way he can spend time with her under daddy's watchful eye. In time, his tutoring of the girl becomes a scandal within the society of Cambridge and society of the day, which believes that women cannot be educated, whereas the girl's mastery gives lie to the belief.

:When this crisis unfolds, the cities upper, university and merchant classes are meeting and collaborating on forming and funding a fact finding mission to Grantville, to see what they can learn and what is just wild rumor.

"Hell Fighters"

:This interesting twist of a tale by 16writ|Wood |Hughes depicts a religious order reading the Grantville brung tealeaves about the role of monastic orders in the future. They discern a pattern in the histories and take action to alter their order to provide a secular role and benefit to the communities as a long term survival strategy.

"Euterpe, episode 2"

:16writ|Enrico |Toro's "Euterpe stories" are a running serial written as a series of "what I've seen" letters back to the home parish in Italy by a musician who feels compelled to investigate Grantville and the rumors of new and wonderful instruments and music. The first two are interesting as comparison of societies and practices rather than from any compelling human dilemma, though Toro does a fair job at presenting motivations that are both appealing and something the reader can readily identify with, even if one is little interested in matters about music or its comparative theory and technologies. This episode is written from 'on the road' detailing an expansion of the party by like thinkers and instrument makers in northern Italy and Switzerland, and details a formation of a company including one member of the party joining a local guild (costly) for access to jealously guarded local quality woods. The serial tale becomes intersected in GG05|s="Euterpe, episode 3" with the 16writ|David|Carrico's "Fran and Marta" tales (GG05|in="Suite For Four Hands") exploring many of the same topics in a more heart warming tale of romance.

"An Invisible War, part 2"

::(Not in Hardcover and paperback print versions, Part 2 of the serialized story in the ebook, was combined and printed as one inclusion in the print released versions GG02).:This important tale by 16writ|Danita |Ewing establishes canon for the series as Grantville's understaffed medical capabilities struggle to create training and advanced care institutions and begin out-reach to nearby down-time communities in matters bearing on public health and medicine. The story establishes the newly built 16inst|Lahey Medical Center, several different medical field training programs (Emergency Medical Technician and various nursing programs, Nurse-practitioner programs) and outreach programs in public sanitation and public works for same. Much of the story focuses on the culture clashes experienced—including counter-productive chauvinistic incidents from both up-timer and down-timer characters—during an effort to form a collaborative program to train up-time standards trained physicians at the 16inst|University of Jena.

"Iron"

by Rick Boatright

"The Impact of Mechanization on German Farms"

by Karen Bergstralh

"Flint's Lock"

:Soon after the release of 1633 internet buzz on Baen's Bar showed a heavy concentration of surprise and queries because the CPoE armed forces of Gustavus depicted in the novel had been given less advanced firearms than readers had projected, the muzzleloading 16inst|1=SRG rifle. Once the Gazettes moved from conceived experiment to implemented trial, this essay—"Flint's Lock" by 16writ|s=Grantville Firearms Roundtable members Leonard Hollar, Bob Hollingsworth, Tom Van Natta, and John Zeek—was commissioned by Flint to explain "why a muzzle loading flintlock rifle was chosen, rather than the pet design of every fan, requires a look at many problems faced by the Grantvillers and their understanding of those problems." [Flint, et al., authors guide: "Grantville Firearms Roundtable"32FC|retrieved 2007-12-12]

The essay discusses the following main issues:

"Alchemical Distillation"

:16writ|Andrew |Clark's how-to essay, "Alchemical Distillation" is a brief chemical treatise on how processes familiar to the 17th century Alchemists can be used to prepare a number of refined and very useful 18th–20th century industrial and final user products such as the analgesic Aspirin, purified acetic acid (from "bad wine", that is vinegar), various kinds of tree bark extracts like the familiar 17th century's pine tar—which have very different useful properties, a transformation of pine pitch into turpentine—a basis of better industrial preservatives—especially better paints, sodium acetate, acetic anhydride (a powerful desiccant that could be used (with a lot of care) as an explosive or explosive primer, and so forth. The essay is written as if a local down-timer alchemist has written the text, but included a lot of up-timer English terminology to the benefit of his audience.

Publishing history

;As e-zine by installments: [http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200410/1011250006.htm?blurb baen.com: "Grantville Gazette III", (current version)] , First printing as e-zine / e-book lacked the story: GG03|s="Postage Due" and Preface, both by Eric Flint. First electronic version had part II of the continuing serial GG02|s="An Invisible War", by 16writ|Danita|Ewing, which in the print editions was published whole in the hardcover and paperback release of GG02.:: First electronic printing, October 2004, DOI: 10.1125/0006 name="ebook release">cite web|accessdate=2007-12-07|title=Electronic cover page|url=http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200410/1011250006__c_.htm|quote=Electronic version by WebWrights, DOI: 10.1125/0006, First electronic printing, October 2004INote webscriptions hash code number in the url, less the dot and slash, matches exactly. Alternate webwrights listed version: Ihttp://www.webscription.net/chapters/1416509410/1416509410.htm?blurb] : Second electronic (e-ARC) version: April 2006, DOI: 101125/0017; an e-ARC version is not, fully copyedited.: Third electronic printing, October 2006, DOI: 10.1125/0006, with the added story by Flint, GG03|s="Postage Due"cite web|accessdate=2007-12-07|title=Electronic cover page|url=http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200410/1011250006__c_.htm|quote=Electronic version by WebWrights, DOI: 10.1125/0006, First electronic printing, October 2004] This work released as hardcover later, available: 26 December 2006, Hardcover edition copyrighted January 2007.:WebWrights http://www.webscription.net :Newport, TN:http://www.webwrights.com

;Print edition: paperback edition, June 2008, TPB ISBN: ISBN 1-4165-5565-X Ibid ] : Hardcover edition, January 2007, ISBN 978-1-4165-0941-7Ibid] and ISBN 1-4165-0941-0. [Verified both ISBNs in hc edition, 2007-12-06 ] [Cite GG03|long=1] : Copyright 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 by Eric Flint, http://www.EricFlint.netIbid] :A Baen Books Original:Baen Publishing Enterprises:P.O. Box 1403:Riverdale, NY 10471:http://www.baen.com

Print versions

Published by Baen Books and distributed by Simon & Schuster.

References