(also known as the ring of fire series) by eric flint
Whenever someone asks me “what is the correct reading order for the 1632 series?”, I am always tempted to reply: “I have no idea. what is the correct order to study the war of the thirty years? If you find it, apply that same method to the 1632 series.”
However, that would be a bit rude, and when it comes down to it, authors depend on the goodwill of their readers. so, to the best of my ability, here goes.
You are reading: Ring of fire books in order
The first book in the series, obviously, is 1632. That’s the base novel for the entire series and the only one whose place in the sequence is definitely fixed.
The digital eBook edition of 1632 is available as a free download at Baen.com. Click here to get your free copy!
Next, you should read the anthology titled Ring of Fire or the novel 1633, which I co-authored with David Weber. It really doesn’t much matter which of these two volumes you read first, as long as you read them both before continuing. That being said, if I’m stuck up against the wall and threatened with harm, I recommend reading Ring of Fire before reading 1633.
That’s because 1633 has a sequel that is so closely tied to it that the two volumes almost make up one great novel. so I guess you’d do well to read them side by side. That sequel is 1634: The Baltic War, which I also co-authored with David Weber.
Once you’ve read those four books, to recap, the three novels (1632, 1633, and 1634: The Baltic War) and the Ring of Fire anthology, you can now choose one of the two main alternatives for reading the 1632 series order.
The first way, which I’ll call “spinal”, is to start by reading all the novels in what I’ll call the main line of the series. As of now, the main line consists of these seven novels:
16321633 (with David Weber)1634: The Baltic War (with David Weber)1635: The Eastern Front1636: The Saxon Rising1636: The Ottoman Attack1637: The Polish Maelstrom
all of these novels except the two i did with david weber were written by me as sole author. The next major novel, working under the title 1637: The Adriatic’s Choice, will be written with Chuck Gannon. (dr. charles e. gannon, if you want to be formal about it). however, that novel probably won’t come out for a while, because there is a novel that needs to be written first, to lay the groundwork. for it.
I call this the “main line” of the ring of fire series for two reasons. first, because it is in these seven novels that I describe most of the major political and military events that have a tremendous impact on the entire complex of stories. second, because these “mainline” volumes focus on certain key characters in the series. Four of them, in particular: Mike Stearns and Rebecca Abrabanel, first of all, as well as Gretchen Richter and Jeff Higgins. ?
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The other main alternative way of reading the series is what I’ll call “comprehensive”. this approach ignores the special place of the main novels and simply reads the series as an integral whole, that is, reading each novel and anthology more or less in chronological sequence. (I’m referring to the chronology of the series itself, not the order in which the books were published. The two are not identical.)
The advantage of following the spinal way of reading the series is that it is easier to follow, since all of these novels are direct sequels to each other. you don’t have to deal with the complexity of reading all the branching stories at the same time. once you’ve finished the mainline novels, assuming you’re enjoying the series enough to want to continue, you can go back and start reading the other books in the order I’ve laid out below.
The downside of using the spinal method is that you’ll run into spoilers. most of the major political and military events are described in the main novels, but by no means all. so if spoilers really bother you, I recommend using the comprehensive approach.
very good. from now on, I will present the comprehensive approach of the series. if you have decided to follow the spinal method, you can follow this same reading order by skipping the books you have already read.
Once you’ve read 1632, Ring of Fire, 1633, and 1634: The Baltic War, you’ll have a firm understanding of the basic framework of the series. From there, you can go one of two directions: read 1634: The Ram’s Rebellion or 1634: The Galileo Affair.
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There are advantages and disadvantages in both directions. 1634: The Ram’s Rebellion is an eccentric volume, having some of the features of an anthology and some of the features of a novel. It is perhaps a more difficult book to read than Galileo’s volume, but it also has the virtue of being more closely tied to the main books. ram rebellion is the first of several volumes that basically run parallel to the mainline volumes, but on what could be called a lower narrative level. a more positive way of putting it is that these volumes represent the changes brought about by major developments in the main novels, as those changes are seen by people who are much lower to the ground than the characters who figure so prominently in books like 1632, 1633 and 1634: the Baltic War.
Of course, the distinction is only approximate. There are plenty of characters in the mainline novels (Thorsten Engler and Eric Krenz come immediately to mind) who are as “close to the ground” as any of the characters in 1634: The Ram’s Rebellion. and the main characters of the series will often appear in stories outside of the main line.
Which book you read first, I recommend that you read both before moving on to 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. in a way, that’s a shame, because the bavarian crisis is a kind of direct sequel to 1634: the baltic war. However, the problem with moving immediately from the Baltic War to the Bavarian Crisis is that there is an important political development portrayed at length and in great detail in 1634: the Galilean Affair which precedes the events portrayed in Bavarian history.
Still, you could read any of those three volumes (to remind you, these are 1634: The Ram’s Rebellion, 1634: The Galilean Affair, and 1634: The Bavarian Crisis) in any order you choose. just keep in mind that if you read the Bavarian book before the other two you’ll get at least one major development out of chronological sequence.
After reading those three books, you should read 1635: A Rogues’ Pack, which I co-authored with Andrew Dennis. that’s one of the two sequels to 1634: the baltic war, the other is 1635: the eastern front. the reason you should read the rogues pack at this point is that most of it takes place in the year 1634.
then, again, it’s kind of a toss-up between three more volumes: the second ring of fire anthology (ring of fire ii) and the two novels, 1635: cannon law and 1635: the dreeson incident. however, all things considered, I’d recommend reading them in this order because you’ll learn more about a chronological sequence:
ring of fire ii1635: cannon law 1635: the dreeson incident
The time frame involved here is not strictly sequential, and there are many complexities involved. to name just one, my story in the second ring of fire anthology, the novella “the austro-hungarian connection”, is simultaneously a continuation of the story of virginia in the same anthology, several stories in various issues of the gazette of grantville, as well as my novella in the first ring of fire anthology, the wallenstein gambit.
What can I say? It’s a messy world—as is the real one. Still and all, I think the reading order recommended above is certainly as good as any and probably the best.
we now come to 1635 virginia demarce: the tangled web. This collection of interrelated stories runs parallel to many of the episodes in 1635: The Dreson Incident. this volume is also where the tata character featured in the eastern front and saxon uprising is first introduced in the series.
then you should go back a bit and read 1635: The Papal Stakes, which is the direct sequel to 1635: Canon Law. And you could also read 1635: The Rhine Wars by Anette Pedersen.
You can then go back to the “main line” of the series and read 1635: The Eastern Front and 1636: The Saxon Rising. I highly recommend reading them consecutively. these two books were originally meant to be a single novel, which I ended up splitting in half because the story got too long. they read better together.
then read ring of fire iii. my story in that volume is directly related to 1636: The Saxon Rising and lays some of the groundwork for the sequel to that novel, 1636: The Ottoman Attack. After that, read 1636: The Kremlin Games. that novel is not closely related to any other novel in the series, with the exception of its own sequel, so you can read it almost anytime after reading the first few volumes. While you’re at it, you can also read the sequel, 1637: The Rules of the Volga. you’ll be a bit out of sequence with the rest of the series, but it doesn’t matter because at this point Russian history still largely operates independently.
From then on, the series branches out even more and there are several books you should read. I would recommend the following order, but it doesn’t really matter much which reading order of the 1632 series you follow in this part of the series:
1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies picks up the adventures of Eddie Cantrell after the events described in 1634: The Baltic War.
1636: the cardinal virtues represents the beginning of the French civil war that was also produced by the events related in the Baltic war and that has been foreshadowed in several stories after that novel. 1636: The sanction of the Vatican resumes the “Italian line” in the series, which follows the adventures of Sharon Nichols and Ruy Sanchez.
Iver Cooper’s 1636: Seas of Fortune takes place in the Far East and the New World. the part titled “spreading” has some spoilers for commander cantrell in the west indies and vice versa, but nothing too major
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1636: the devil’s opera takes place in magdeburg and might have some spoilers if you haven’t read the saxon uprising. my co-author of this novel, david carrico, also has an e-book available titled 1635: music and murder that contains stories published in various anthologies that provide much of the background to the devil’s opera.
1636: the viennese waltz comes after the saxon uprising in the sense that nothing in it will be spoiled by anything in the saxon uprising, but you might find out mike’s whereabouts sooner if you read it first. On the other hand, the eBook 1636: The Barbie Consortium (authored by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett) is a direct prequel to the Viennese Waltz and should be read first if you want to meet the young girls who dance the Viennese Waltz.
1636: The Viennese Waltz is also one of three immediate prequels to the next main novel in the series, which is 1636: The Ottoman Attack. If you’re wondering, the other two immediate prequels are 1636: The Saxon Rising and my novella “Four Days on the Danube” which was published in Ring of Fire III.
The next volumes in the reading order of the 1632 series to look for are these:
ring of fire iv (may 2016). There are a number of stories in this volume written by different authors, including David Brin. however, from the point of view of the series’ reading order, probably the most important is my own story, “scarface”. This novella simultaneously serves as a sequel to the Papal Stakes and the Dreeson Incident, as the story depicts the new adventures of Harry Lefferts after the Papal Stakes and of Ron Stone and Missy Jenkins after the Dreeson.
1636: the chronicles of dr. Gribbleflotz, by Kerryn Offord and Rick Boatright (August 2016). As with the Devil’s Opera, this is a story set in the middle of the United States of Europe as it evolves. in this case, recounting the adventures of a 17th-century scholar—descendant of the great Paracelsus—who enriches himself by translating confused and erroneous American notions of “chemistry” into the scientific precision of alchemy.
then I should go back to the main line of the series by reading, consecutively, my two novels 1636: The Ottoman Attack (January 2017) and 1637: The Polish Maelstrom (March 2019).
After those two, read two novels that are “outliers,” so to speak. Those are 1636: Mission to the Mughals (April 2017) and 1636: The China Project (coming November 2019). Note that the term “outliers” is always subject to change in the Ring of Fire series. Right now, those stories that take place in (respectively) India and China don’t have much of a direct connection to the rest of the series. but it’s a small world in fiction just like it is in real life, so you never know what the future may bring.
finally, using the term very tentatively, read two novels that take place in the new world. The first is 1636: The Atlantic Encounter, which I wrote with Walter Hunt and which came out in August of this year. and the second is this, 1637: there is no peace beyond the line.
This brings us full circle. You may recall that toward the beginning of this afterword I said that the next main line novel required that another novel be written first. Well, that’s the novel you are holding in your hand. Chuck and I will start writing the next main line novel next year, which means it probably won’t come out until 2022.
that leaves the various issues of the gazette, which are really hard to fit into a precise sequence. the truth is, you can read them pretty much anytime you choose.
It would be almost impossible for me to provide a usable framework for the eighty-two electronic issues of the journal, so I will simply limit myself to the eight volumes of the gazette that have appeared in print editions. With the caveat that there is a lot of freedom, I suggest reading them as follows:
read gazette i after having read 1632 and next to ring of fire. Read Gazettes II and III along with 1633 and 1634: The Baltic War, whenever you’re in the mood for short fiction. Do the same for Gazette IV, along with the next three books in the sequence, 1634: The Ram’s Rebellion, 1634: The Galileo Affair, and 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. Then read Gazette V after you’ve read Ring of Fire II, since my story in Gazette V is something of a direct continuation of my story in the Ring of Fire volume. You can read Gazette V along with 1635: Canon Law and 1635: The Dreson Incident whenever you’re in the mood for short fiction. the gazette vi can be read thereafter, along with the next batch of recommended novels.
I would recommend reading Grantville Gazette VII any time after you’ve read 1636: The Cardinal Virtues. and you can also read the grantville gazette viii anytime thereafter.
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and… that’s it, from now on. many more volumes to come.
for those of you who love lists, here it is. but keep in mind, when you examine this perfectly ordered sequence, that the map is not the territory.
See Also: Melinda Leigh – Book Series In Order
- 1632
- ring of fire
- 1633
- 1634: the Baltic war
- (somewhere along the way , after you have finished 1632, read the stories and articles in the first three volumes of the gazette’s print edition.)
- 1634: The Ram’s Rebellion
- 1634: The Galileo Affair
- li>
- 1634: The Bavarian Crisis
- 1635: A Pack of Scoundrels
- (Somewhere along the way, read the stories and articles in the fourth volume of the print edition of the gazette.)
- ring of fire ii
- 1635: canon law
- 1635: the incident of dreeson
- 1635: the tangled web (by virginia demarce)
- (somewhere along the way, read the stories in gazette v.)
- 1635: the Papal Stakes
- 1635: The Eastern Front
- 1636: The Saxon Rising
- Ring of Fire III
- 1636: The Kremlin Games
- 1637: the rules of the volga
- (somewhere along the way, read the histo rias in the gazette vi.)
- 1636: commander cantrell in the west indies
- 1636: the cardinal virtues
- 1636: the sanction of the vatican
- 1635: music and murder (by david carrico—this is an ebook edition only)
- 1636: the devil’s opera
- 1636: seas of fortune ( by iver cooper)
- 1636: the barbie consortium (by gorg huff and paula goodlett; this is an ebook edition only)
- 1636: The Viennese Waltz
- (at some point, read the stories in gazette vii and gazette viii.)
- ring of fire iv
- 1636: the chronicles of dr. gribbleflotz
- 1636: the Ottoman attack
- 1637: the Polish maelstrom
- 1636: mission to the Mughals
- 1636: the Chinese adventure (coming September 2019)