Ring of Fire (anthology)
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Ring of Fire cover art with backdrop of an armored coal truck.
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| Author |
Eric Flint (ed.) and various others |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Dru Blair |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series |
1632 series or Ring of Fire |
| Subject | Anthology, fiction in a shared universe setting |
| Genre | Alternate history, science fiction |
| Publisher | Baen Books |
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Publication date
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January 1, 2004 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 528 pages; 1.6 lb, Physical Description: 6.6"x9.7"x1.6" |
| ISBN | (2004 hardcover) ISBN (2005 paperback) |
| OCLC | 53145277 |
| 813/.0876608 22 | |
| LC Class | PS648.F3 R55 2004 |
| Preceded by | 1633 (novel) (Written in parallel, with crossed plot lines) |
| Followed by | 1634: The Galileo Affair (novel) or in time The Grantville Gazette (more anthologies, November–2004) |
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Physical Description: 6.6"x9.7"x1.6"; 528 pages; 1.6 lb Edition Info: Physical Description:6.6"x9.7"x1.6"; Hardcover; 2004-01-01 |
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Physical Description: 6.6"x9.7"x1.6"; 528 pages; 1.6 lb
Ring of Fire is the third published book by editor-author-historian Eric Flint of the 1632 series, an alternate history series begun in the novel 1632 (February 2000). The Ring of Fire is both descriptive of the cosmic event as experienced by the series' characters, but also is at times used as the name for the series itself. The series is set in war-torn Europe during the middle of the Thirty Years' War.
Ring of Fire is a collection of short stories —half by a variety of established science fiction authors invited into the setting, half fan-fiction by enthusiasts who helped take the stand-alone novel into a series numbering works in the tens of books; all set in the universe initially created by Flint's science fiction novel 1632 written as a stand-alone novel and turned into a series by popular demand. Unlike most short works in a novel created series, the stories within are important milieu shaping creations—story threads which are formalized into the series canon for they helped establish it, and act as a spring board for further developments in the books. Many characters debut in these short stories who play an important role in subsequent longer works.
The series heralds a new kind of writing, blending both shared universe and collaborative fiction writing in large series fiction. As in other shared universes, the stories are set in a milieu shared with other writers, but usually it's done with other author's stories being set safely somewhere off to the side of the main story threads. Flint demonstrated that a series could be successfully written by ignoring convention, and deliberately asking the other writers to share in creating the main threads and plot lines of the milieu. The first two novels in the series, 1632 and 1633, were written contemporaneously so that story threads started in one novel could intermingle and generate matching action or background in the other, and vice versa.
Flint is on record saying that large portions of 1633 were adjusted drastically, even thrown out and rewritten as later submissions to the 1632 series impacted the various and diverse story threads. For a fuller look on this literary development see Assiti Shards series. For the fullest enjoyment of all three books, it is best to read them in the order 1632, Ring of Fire, and then 1633. Interchanging the last two has a relatively minor cost to understanding and in appreciation that can be avoided.
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Wikipedia