A new addition to the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring of
Fire series. After carving a place for itself in
war-torn 17th century Europe, citizens of the modern town of Grantville,
West Virginia take on a murderous conspiracy of operatic proportions in
Magdeburg, the capital of the United States of Europe.
New York Times Best Selling Series
Eric Flint and David Carrico serve up the latest entry in the
best-selling alternate history saga of them all, the Ring of Fire!
It is the year 1636. The United States of Europe, the new nation formed
by an alliance between the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus and the West
Virginians hurled back in time by a cosmic accident, is on the verge of
civil war. His brain injured in the war with Poland, the USE's emperor
Gustavus Adolphus is no longer in command. Enter Swedish chancellor
Oxenstierna, a leader of aristocratic reaction against democracy. His
goal: to assemble the forces of the hidebound ruling class in Berlin and
drown the revolution in a bloodbath.
In Magdeburg, the capital of the USE, Mike Stearns' wife Rebecca
Abrabanel is organizing popular resistance to Oxenstierna's plot. As
part of the resistance, the American musician Marla Linder and her
company of down-time musical partners are staging an opera that will
celebrate the struggle against oppression. Princess Kristina, the heir
to the USE's throne, is now residing in Magdeburg and is giving them her
support and encouragement.
But another plot is underway--this one right in the heart of the capital
itself, and with murder as its method. The only people standing in the
way are a crippled boy and the boxing champion who befriended him, and
an unlikely pair of policemen. Can the American detective Byron Chieske
and his down-timer partner Gotthilf Hoch thwart the killers before they
succeed in their goal?
**About 1636: The Devil's Opera:
**"Another engaging alternate history from a master of the
genre."--Booklist
". . . an old-style police-procedural mystery, set in 17th century
Germany. . . . the threads . . . spin together . . . to weave an
addictively entertaining story. . . . a strong addition to a fun
series."-- *Daily News of Galveston County
*
**About Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series:
**"This alternate history series is...a landmark..."--Booklist
"[Eric] Flint's 1632 universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop
of gifted alternate historians."--Booklist
"...reads like a technothriller set in the age of the
Medicis..."--Publishers Weekly
