Grantville Gazette III
Encyclopedia
The Grantville Gazette III is the third collaborative and 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. It was released as a hardcover
in January 2007, and trade paperback
in June 2008 with both editions containing Flint's story "Postage Due".
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 1634: The Galileo Affair
, and appears earlier in the overall series timeline when she sends her daughter to Grantville in "Breaking News" in the anthology Grantville Gazette V. 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.
This story might well be considered a continuing serial by Eric Flint
, as it follows the trend set from the outset in Grantville Gazette I
s "Portraits" wherein 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 "Portraits" and culmination of the plot in 1634: The Baltic War
), the politicians opposing the republic of the United States of Europe and democracy of the State of Thuringia-Franconia 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 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 Rembrandt and the resident Dutch portrait masters, the brothers Frans and Dirck Hals
. Meanwhile, Special Forces
Captain Harry Lefferts appears in a scene suggesting skulduggery and underhanded dealings with a specific reference to Frans Hals
need for money and a Frenchman willing to outbid others in the Netherlands.
The story ends with Cardinal Richelieu selecting a painter and planning to join the parade of states in the new service, despite the nominal hostilities, which makes the postal service a typical Stearnsian stroke at the underpinnings of the old Europe, with untold and unexpected consequences for the down-time leaders adopting the new concept.
The story follows a good Lutheran 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 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 flock's dowerless
eligible daughters, but to convert the American scoundrels into becoming stalwart Lutherans. He carefully targets young American men known to be "heretics" or lapsed in their own religions, and indirectly the scheme has the effect of rehabilitating some of the more under-achieving and undereducated American 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 an exposition of likely culture clash scenario's as the up-timers' 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" by 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 "Heavy Metal Music" or alternatively, "Revolution in Three Flats" in the anthology Grantville Gazette IV. These stories feature a down and out down-timer musician, Franz Scylwester, a maestro violin
ist whose left hand had been deliberately mutilated by a rival, leading to the loss of his position with the orchestra
of the Archbishopric
of Mainz
. The crippled former maestro violinist Franz Scylwester ekes out an existence writing correspondence letters for the illiterate and gradually wends his way across western Germany to Grantville. Here 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.
Scylwester is befriended by a sympathetic female singer, Marla Linder and the two are featured 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 1630s musical world and the intriguing blended American-German ("Ami-Deutsch".) 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 continues the adventures of the teenage entrepreneurs and their families started in "The Sewing Circle" in Grantville Gazette I. 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 Grantville because of the town residents' 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 Birdie Tales" in 1634: The Ram Rebellion
. Further this tale introduces the three active newspapers covering events in the region immediately around Grantville, and details their reporting styles and target audience:
The Grantville Times—which similarly emulates the reserved style of the New York Times;
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 tale's 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.
This tale with the personal issues of European refugees falling into the safety of Grantville's expanding hegemony. A man seeks 'New United States' medical assistance for the pending childbirth of his traumatized wife. She has been so abused by her experiences during the Thirty Years' War
, that she cannot psychologically stand to be enclosed within four walls. The nurses eventually learn that she was once a captive of the infamous Blood Countess
.
The story set within the businesses, schools, homes, and pubs of Shakespearian England
as word of Grantville's appearance in far off Thuringia reach the English academic and mercantile circles. The tale serves well to illustrate how deeply entwined religion and education were in this age. Much of the story involves real historic characters, and the predominant setting location, 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 her father'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" depicts the concerns of the Roman Catholic Church about the arrival of Grantville and its people. Information about the future, received through up-time publications, raise concerns among the Benedictine
religious order about the role and survival of monastic orders in the future. By sending Brother Johann, a German librarian from the region, to Grantville, they hope to arrive at a long term survival strategy and to discern a pattern in the two divergent histories. This will allow the religious community to take action to alter their order to provide a secular role and benefit to the communities.
"Euterpe" continues to follow Giacomo Carissimi
, a musician who feels compelled to investigate Grantville and the rumors of new and wonderful instruments and music. Carissimi narrate his experience through letters back to the home parish in Italy
. 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 "Euterpe, Episode 3" with David Carrico's "Fran and Marta" tales ("Suite For Four Hands" in the anthology Grantville Gazette V).
.
This important tale by 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 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 University of Jena.
Boatright's essay focus about the production and use of iron
in a modern society.
Bergstralh's essay on the nature of German farms, the economics of mechanization, and the necessary infrastructure to support such technology.
Soon after the release of 1633
internet buzz on Baen's Bar showed a heavy concentration of surprise and queries because the Confederated Principalities of Europe armed forces of Gustavus depicted in the novel had been given less advanced firearms than readers had projected, the muzzleloading SRG rifle. Once the Gazettes moved from conceived experiment to implemented trial, this essay—"Flint's Lock" by 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."
The essay discusses the following main issues:
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
preservative
s—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.
that Grantville Gazette III: "forms a fine introduction to [the series]. Those familiar with [the series] will find Grantville Gazette an indispensable addition to their collection. If you are a fan of alternate history, you will want to read it." William Lawhorn in SFRevu called the collected stories "good" and especially enjoyed Hell Fighter's.
1632 series
The 1632 series, also known as the 1632-verse or Ring of Fire series, is an alternate history book series and sub-series created, primarily co-written, and coordinated by Eric Flint and published by Baen Books...
edited by the series creator, Eric Flint
Eric Flint
Eric Flint is an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are alternate history science fiction, but he also writes humorous fantasy adventures.- Career :...
. It was published as an e-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
by Baen Books
Baen Books
Baen Books is an American publishing company established in 1983 by long time science fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. It is a science fiction and fantasy publishing house that emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, military science fiction, and fantasy...
in October 2004. It was released as a hardcover
Hardcover
A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
in January 2007, and trade paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
in June 2008 with both editions containing Flint's story "Postage Due".
E-book cover art
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
cover is Judith Slaying Holofernes (Naples Version) by Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Early Baroque painter, today considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation influenced by Caravaggio...
(1593–1653), painted circa 1612–1613. Gentileschi was the most prominent female artist of the period, and is referred to in the novel 1634: The Galileo Affair
1634: The Galileo Affair
1634: The Galileo Affair is the fourth book and third novel published in the 1632 series by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis. It follows the activities of an embassy party sent from the United States of Europe to Venice, Italy, where the three young Stone brothers become involved with the local...
, and appears earlier in the overall series timeline when she sends her daughter to Grantville in "Breaking News" in the anthology Grantville Gazette V. 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.
"Postage Due"
- by Eric FlintEric FlintEric Flint is an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are alternate history science fiction, but he also writes humorous fantasy adventures.- Career :...
This story might well be considered a continuing serial by Eric Flint
Eric Flint
Eric Flint is an American author, editor, and e-publisher. The majority of his main works are alternate history science fiction, but he also writes humorous fantasy adventures.- Career :...
, as it follows the trend set from the outset in Grantville Gazette I
The Grantville Gazette
The Grantville Gazette is the first of a series of professionally selected and edited paid fan fiction anthologies set within the 1632 series inspired by Eric Flint's novel 1632...
s "Portraits" wherein 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 "Portraits" and culmination of the plot in 1634: The Baltic War
1634: The Baltic War
1634: The Baltic War is the direct novel sequel to 1633 in the collaboratively written alternate history shared universe 1632 series by David Weber and Eric Flint...
), the politicians opposing the republic of the United States of Europe and democracy of the State of Thuringia-Franconia 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 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 Rembrandt and the resident Dutch portrait masters, the brothers Frans and Dirck Hals
Dirck Hals
Dirck Hals , born at Haarlem, was a Dutch painter of festivals and ballroom scenes. He was influenced by his elder brother Frans Hals.-Biography:...
. Meanwhile, Special Forces
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
Captain Harry Lefferts appears in a scene suggesting skulduggery and underhanded dealings with a specific reference to Frans Hals
Frans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
need for money and a Frenchman willing to outbid others in the Netherlands.
The story ends with Cardinal Richelieu selecting a painter and planning to join the parade of states in the new service, despite the nominal hostilities, which makes the postal service a typical Stearnsian stroke at the underpinnings of the old Europe, with untold and unexpected consequences for the down-time leaders adopting the new concept.
"Pastor Kastenmayer’s Revenge"
- by Virginia DeMarceVirginia DeMarceVirginia Easley DeMarce is a historian who specializes in early modern European history, as well as a prominent author in the 1632 series collaborative fiction project. She has done prominent genealogical work on the origins of the Melungeon peoples.-Biography:DeMarce received her Ph.D...
The story follows a good Lutheran 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 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 flock's dowerless
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
eligible daughters, but to convert the American scoundrels into becoming stalwart Lutherans. He carefully targets young American men known to be "heretics" or lapsed in their own religions, and indirectly the scheme has the effect of rehabilitating some of the more under-achieving and undereducated American 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 an exposition of likely culture clash scenario's as the up-timers' 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"
- by David Carrico
"The Sound of Music" by 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 "Heavy Metal Music" or alternatively, "Revolution in Three Flats" in the anthology Grantville Gazette IV. These stories feature a down and out down-timer musician, Franz Scylwester, a maestro violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist whose left hand had been deliberately mutilated by a rival, leading to the loss of his position with the orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
of the Archbishopric
Prince-elector
The Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire were the members of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Roman king or, from the middle of the 16th century onwards, directly the Holy Roman Emperor.The heir-apparent to a prince-elector was known as an...
of Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
. The crippled former maestro violinist Franz Scylwester ekes out an existence writing correspondence letters for the illiterate and gradually wends his way across western Germany to Grantville. Here 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.
Scylwester is befriended by a sympathetic female singer, Marla Linder and the two are featured 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 1630s musical world and the intriguing blended American-German ("Ami-Deutsch".) 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"
- by Gorg Huff
Other People’s Money continues the adventures of the teenage entrepreneurs and their families started in "The Sewing Circle" in Grantville Gazette I. 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 Grantville because of the town residents' 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 Birdie Tales" in 1634: The Ram Rebellion
1634: The Ram Rebellion
1634: The Ram Rebellion is the seventh published work in the 1632 series, and is the third work to establish what is best considered as a "main plot line or thread" of historical speculative focus that are loosely organized and classified geographically...
. Further this tale introduces the three active newspapers covering events in the region immediately around Grantville, and details their reporting styles and target audience:
In addition, this tale's 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
Bearing (mechanical)
A bearing is a device to allow constrained relative motion between two or more parts, typically rotation or linear movement. Bearings may be classified broadly according to the motions they allow and according to their principle of operation as well as by the directions of applied loads they can...
, ball bearings
Rolling-element bearing
A rolling-element bearing, also known as a rolling bearing, is a bearing which carries a load by placing round elements between the two pieces...
, spring steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
, 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"
- by Eva Musch
This tale with the personal issues of European refugees falling into the safety of Grantville's expanding hegemony. A man seeks 'New United States' medical assistance for the pending childbirth of his traumatized wife. She has been so abused by her experiences during the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
, that she cannot psychologically stand to be enclosed within four walls. The nurses eventually learn that she was once a captive of the infamous Blood Countess
Elizabeth Báthory
Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although in modern times she has been labelled the most prolific serial killer in history, the number of murders has been debated...
.
"Hobson’s Choice"
- by Francis Turner
The story set within the businesses, schools, homes, and pubs of Shakespearian England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
as word of Grantville's appearance in far off Thuringia reach the English academic and mercantile circles. The tale serves well to illustrate how deeply entwined religion and education were in this age. Much of the story involves real historic characters, and the predominant setting location, The Pickerel pub, claims to be the oldest pub in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
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 her father'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"
- by Wood Hughes
"Hell Fighters" depicts the concerns of the Roman Catholic Church about the arrival of Grantville and its people. Information about the future, received through up-time publications, raise concerns among the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
religious order about the role and survival of monastic orders in the future. By sending Brother Johann, a German librarian from the region, to Grantville, they hope to arrive at a long term survival strategy and to discern a pattern in the two divergent histories. This will allow the religious community to take action to alter their order to provide a secular role and benefit to the communities.
"Euterpe, Episode 2"
- by Enrico Toro
"Euterpe" continues to follow Giacomo Carissimi
Giacomo Carissimi
Giacomo Carissimi was an Italian composer, one of the most celebrated masters of the early Baroque, or, more accurately, the Roman School of music.-Biography:...
, a musician who feels compelled to investigate Grantville and the rumors of new and wonderful instruments and music. Carissimi narrate his experience through letters back to the home parish in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. 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
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, 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 "Euterpe, Episode 3" with David Carrico's "Fran and Marta" tales ("Suite For Four Hands" in the anthology Grantville Gazette V).
"An Invisible War, Part 2"
- by Danita Ewing
.
This important tale by 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 Lahey Medical Center, several different medical field training programs (Emergency Medical Technician
Emergency medical technician
Emergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...
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 University of Jena.
"Iron"
- by Rick Boatright
Boatright's essay focus about the production and use of iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
in a modern society.
"The Impact of Mechanization on German Farms"
- by Karen Bergstralh
Bergstralh's essay on the nature of German farms, the economics of mechanization, and the necessary infrastructure to support such technology.
"Flint's Lock"
- by Leonard Hollar, Bob Hollingsworth, Tom Van Natta, and John Zeek
Soon after the release of 1633
1633 (novel)
1633 is an alternate history novel co-written by Eric Flint and David Weber, and sequel to 1632 in the 1632 series. 1633 is the second major novel in the series and together with the anthology Ring of Fire, the two sequels begin the series hallmarks of being a shared universe with collaborative...
internet buzz on Baen's Bar showed a heavy concentration of surprise and queries because the Confederated Principalities of Europe armed forces of Gustavus depicted in the novel had been given less advanced firearms than readers had projected, the muzzleloading SRG rifle. Once the Gazettes moved from conceived experiment to implemented trial, this essay—"Flint's Lock" by 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."
The essay discusses the following main issues:
"Alchemical Distillation"
- by Andrew Clark
Andrew Clark's how-to essay, "Alchemical Distillation" is a brief chemical treatise on how processes familiar to the 17th century alchemists
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
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
Aspirin
Aspirin , also known as acetylsalicylic acid , is a salicylate drug, often used as an analgesic to relieve minor aches and pains, as an antipyretic to reduce fever, and as an anti-inflammatory medication. It was discovered by Arthur Eichengrun, a chemist with the German company Bayer...
, purified acetic acid
Acetic acid
Acetic acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH3CO2H . It is a colourless liquid that when undiluted is also called glacial acetic acid. Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar , and has a distinctive sour taste and pungent smell...
(from "bad wine", that is vinegar
Vinegar
Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...
), various kinds of tree bark extracts like the familiar 17th century's pine tar
Pine tar
Pine tar is a sticky material produced by the high temperature carbonization of pine wood in anoxic conditions . The wood is rapidly decomposed by applying heat and pressure in a closed container; the primary resulting products are charcoal and pine tar.Pine tar consists primarily of aromatic...
—which have very different useful properties, a transformation of pine pitch
Pitch (resin)
Pitch is the name for any of a number of viscoelastic, solid polymers. Pitch can be made from petroleum products or plants. Petroleum-derived pitch is also called bitumen. Pitch produced from plants is also known as resin. Products made from plant resin are also known as rosin.Pitch was...
into turpentine
Turpentine
Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...
—a basis of better industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
preservative
Preservative
A preservative is a naturally occurring or synthetically produced substance that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc. to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes....
s—especially better paints, sodium acetate
Sodium acetate
Sodium acetate, CH3COONa, also abbreviated NaOAc, also sodium ethanoate, is the sodium salt of acetic acid. This colourless salt has a wide range of uses.-Industrial:...
, acetic anhydride
Acetic anhydride
Acetic anhydride, or ethanoic anhydride, is the chemical compound with the formula 2O. Commonly abbreviated Ac2O, it is the simplest isolatable acid anhydride and is a widely used reagent in organic synthesis...
(a powerful desiccant
Desiccant
A desiccant is a hygroscopic substance that induces or sustains a state of dryness in its local vicinity in a moderately well-sealed container....
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.
Literary criticism and reception
Mark Lardas wrote in The Galveston County Daily NewsThe Galveston County Daily News
The Daily News, formerly the Galveston County Daily News and Galveston Daily News, is a newspaper published in Galveston, Texas, United States. It was first published April 11, 1842, making it the oldest newspaper in the U.S. state of Texas. The newspaper founded The Dallas Morning News on October...
that Grantville Gazette III: "forms a fine introduction to [the series]. Those familiar with [the series] will find Grantville Gazette an indispensable addition to their collection. If you are a fan of alternate history, you will want to read it." William Lawhorn in SFRevu called the collected stories "good" and especially enjoyed Hell Fighter's.
External links
- Grantville Gazette III on LibraryThingLibraryThingLibraryThing is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing book catalogs and various types of book metadata. It is used by individuals, authors, libraries and publishers....
- Grantville Gazette III on Google Book SearchGoogle Book SearchGoogle Books is a service from Google that searches the full text of books that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. The service was formerly known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October...