Sean Bala reviewed Grantville Gazette II by Eric Flint
Review of 'Grantville Gazette II' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I have found as I've made my way through the "Ring of Fire" series that the short-story collections are a bit stronger than the full novels, especially those of the main line of the series. I have found that those volumes ("1632," "1633," and especially "1634: the Baltic War") try to do too much though I do believe that they keep getting progressively better.
The second volume of "The Grantville Gazette" are collected short stories written by various authors that further push the boundaries of the world. As noted in the introduction this volume, what I think makes this collection worth reading is that most of the stories are from the perspective of down-timers reacting to the Ring of Fire. I liked "The Company Men" (for raising the notion of interest in Grantville from Mughal India), "Bottom Feeders" (a police procedural featuring a new down-time police detective), and "God's Gifts" …
I have found as I've made my way through the "Ring of Fire" series that the short-story collections are a bit stronger than the full novels, especially those of the main line of the series. I have found that those volumes ("1632," "1633," and especially "1634: the Baltic War") try to do too much though I do believe that they keep getting progressively better.
The second volume of "The Grantville Gazette" are collected short stories written by various authors that further push the boundaries of the world. As noted in the introduction this volume, what I think makes this collection worth reading is that most of the stories are from the perspective of down-timers reacting to the Ring of Fire. I liked "The Company Men" (for raising the notion of interest in Grantville from Mughal India), "Bottom Feeders" (a police procedural featuring a new down-time police detective), and "God's Gifts" (a down-time pastor trying to understand the Ring of Fire theologically).
I want to give special praise to "An Invisible War," a novella that looks at heath and medicine as uptime and downtime medical professionals try to create a new medical school that combines the best of both knowledge bases. This was such a strong read because it shows the actual mechanics of how individuals from both sides would need to navigate the ripple effects the Ring of Fire wrought.
