Customer Reviews

Ring of Fire II (v. 2)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ring of Fire II (2008) is the second alternate history anthology in the Assiti Shards series. It contains a novella, fourteen short stories, two maps, and a preface by the editor.

"Horse Thieves" by Karen Bergstrahl tells about the conflicts between downtime mercenaries working for Grantville and some uptimers.

"Second Issue?" by Brad Sinor concerns the aftermath of "Here Comes Santa Claus" in RoF I, when the Grantville Times receives a story from a reporter who has stumbled onto the conspiracy.

"Diving Belle" by Gunnar Dahlin & Dave Freer is about a librarian who will do almost anything to get back some stolen books and the effects of her actions upon Stockholm.

"A Gift from the Duchess" by Virginia DeMarce relates the story of the loan of three plague specialists to the disease ridden city of Kronach.

"Lucky at Cards" by Andrew Dennis describes a high stake card game with the brother of the French king.

"A Trip to Amsterdam" by Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett is a story about high finance and the siege of Amsterdam.

"This'll Be the Day" by Walt Boyles recounts the deeds of Father Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld on the day of his former death.

"Command Performance" by David Carrico illustrates the impact of uptime music on the elite of Magdeburg and Europe.

"Ellis Island" by Russ Rittgers recounts the tribulations of a peasant family immigrating to Grantville.

"Malungu Seed" by Jonathan Cresswell-Jones is about an African Jesuit layman who has an urgent mission in Grantville and elsewhere.

"Trials" by Jay Robison reveals the trials of an Italian artist and a Grantville housewife.

"The Chase" by Iver P. Cooper shows the perils of a teenage crush on a English aristocrat.

"Eddie and the King's Daughter" by K.D. Wentworth tells of the shaky beginning of Eddie's relationship with Anne Cathrine.

"Second Thoughts" by Virginia DeMarce discloses the events leading to marriage between the parents of Noelle Brigitte Murphy.

"The Austro-Hungarian Connection" by Eric Flint is the novella. It describes a very unusual romance between Noelle Brigitte Stull and a Hungarian officer.

Highly recommended for Ring of Fire fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alternate history and cultural mixing.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Very good, but you really need to read the (mostly-online) Granteville Gazettes (volumes 1,3,4,5,6,7 in particular + some of the others) to better understand some of the stories. For example, "Command Performance" in Ring of Fire 2 is part 4 of a series that appears in volume 3 ("The Sound of Music"), volume 4 ("Heavy Metal Music or Revolution in Three Flats"), and volume 5 ("Suite for Four Hands") of the Granteville Gazette.

This is another attempt to flush out the 1633 universe, but while somewhat entertaining it is similar to the Ram Rebellion in that it jumps around a lot and at times you get lost in the minutia of the detail. If you like 1633 a lot then you will find this book just OK.

2 stars + as its better than average but uneven even for an anthology.

Most of the stories are continuations of others in the series and do not stand alone. Paradoxically the best "Ellis Island" does. Eric Flints novella can nearly stand alone the rest vary widely.

If you haven't read at least most of the books in the series including the rather peripheral 1634: The Ram Rebellion (The Assiti Shards) and the 1634: The Bavarian Crisis (The Assiti Shards) as well as many of the Grantville Gazette V and the rest of them (mostly online) these will not make sense; particularly "Second Issue" and a "Trip to Amsterdam".

Most of the stories are 2 star with some 3s and one nearly 4 star (Eric Flint) and one 5 star "Ellis Island" but are dragged down by VD'Ms 2 efforts . While "Gift From a Duchess" has a great premise and solid historical research it is too diffuse with too many characters. Compared to "Lucky At Cards" where Richelieu, Mazarin and a crony embarrass Gaston at a card game (Gaston had been putting around rumors that Mazarin was in debt due to loosing at cards and then Gaston gets cleaned out). Frankly; reading VD'Ms "Second Thoughts" it occurred to me--putting my Editors hat on--that most of the authors, in this series and not just this book, suffer from too many sub plots and could benefit from reading The Cheaters Guide to Writing Erotic Romance For Publication and Profit. Eric can manage a lot of characters and sub plots although he bogs down in "The Austrio Hungarian Connection" but in spite of her ability to make historical characters interesting--If not always to bring them to life and her understanding of the history; V'DM looses her way consistently in the excess characters and sub plots. Almost every story in this antholgy needs to be tightened up. Shorts and novellas are very hard to write and several of the authors (particularly VD'M) suffer from Sam Clemmons problem "I didn't have time to write you a short letter so I wrote a long one...".

Overall a decent read for series heads better skipped buy anyone else.

Ring of Fire II presents a set of side stories to accompany the 1632 series, painting a rich tapestry of changes, small and large, that occur when the Grantville, WV, of the year 2000 mysteriously materializes in the middle of 17th-century Germany.

You should NOT read this book without first having read 1632, 1633, and Ring of Fire, so you shouldn't need a review to decide to read the book; by the time you get this far into the series, you either like the premise or you don't. For myself, I like it!

Having been a fan of the "Ring of Fire" series for some time, I can't really recommend this book. As another reader noted, unless you are familiar with some the "freebie" efforts on the internet (and I am not) many of the stories make little sense - and even if they do, the writing quality isn't very good - like the "filler" music included on music CD's or olderstyle LP's.
A major concern as a fan is that we are witnessing the "churning" out of ROF books to maintain the money stream.

I really enjoy this altiverse. I'm not much of a short story reader, because it's so much work to recreate the world inside my head that I hate to lose the world so quickly. Here, that isn't a problem. I loved seeing how "Eddie and the King's Daughter" began their association. I'm fascinated by the adventures of Mazarin, I liked hearing references to other characters I have learned to love, like Queen Maria Anna and Fernando I, King of the Netherlands. Oh--and like the rest of the series, it's an easy way to learn complicated history. I was already familiar with the Glorious Revolution, but had no clue about 17th century Scandinavia and Central Europe.

However, if you have no idea what the Ring of Fire is, thisis not the place for you to start. Get back to 1632, and don't come here until after 1634!

The "Grantville Gazette" and related "Ring of Fire" books always tend to be a bit uneven, since there are many authors involved. On the whole, I enjoy these "snippets" immensely. I especially enjoyed the continuation of the "Sound of Music" story line that features Marla Linder and Franz Sylwester as the major characters. There is not only some excellent musicology research, but some real warmth within the characters. A decent 4-star rating. I eagerly await the next episodes.

A nice addition to the 1632 series. A mixture different authers moving new spins. Just make sure you read them in close to the right order.

The stories of different quality, which is not unusual in anthologies. The Eric Flint's novella is good--smart and funny. The rest of the stories... some too in depth to be interesting, others trying to hard to fit into the Universe to be enjoyable.