Grantville Gazette VI (Ring of Fire) [Hardcover]

This, the sixth volume of the Grantville Gazette, has changed some since it's inception. No longer are all the stories submitted to author/editor Flint published in order received. Instead, this is a more selective compilation of short stories sharing the 1632 Universe as a common thread. Editor Flint has made a good selection this time, and there are fewer "duds" than in previous volumes.

Since this is anthology, combining the efforst of a large collection of authors, I'm only going to mention the short stories I considered outstanding:

The Monster; by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlet. This is an aviation-related tale of a downtimer effort to build an economically useful airplane for TEA (trans European Airlines); there is a warm underlying theme of romance in this one and develops the central characters very well.

Birdwatching: by Garret Vance. Another tale of interaction between a lonely and isolated up-timer, Pam Miller, and how her birdwatching hobby/passion allows her to break from her remorse and begin to connect with the 17th Century through efforts of the good couple, Dore and Gerbald.

Suite for Four Hands; David Carrico. As always in the Grantville Gazette, one of the premier stories! An ongoing tale of music and romance between Marla Linder and Franz Sylwester; this deals with Marla and her newly formed group of young downtimer German musicians and her efforts to teach music theory in a 20th century mode. A very warm and enjoyable journey, it is!

Lost in Translation; by Iver P. Cooper. A clever tale with a surprise ending. Well executed.

Sailing Upwind; by Kevin and Karen Evans; another real "winner" in this volume. This is a very nicely crafted tale of an uptimer hot air balooner and his wife, adapting up-time technology to an unusual proble, A nice subplot involving a young downtimer German lad as an assistant Boy Scout Troop leader plays out nicely.

Jenny and the King's Men; by Mark Huston was something of a return to the British portion of the ongoing tale--and the efforts of King Charles I to eliminate the yet-to-be conspiritors who participated in his not-yet-to-be history of losing his head. I enjoyed this one very much, and Julie (Sims) Mackay and Alex play a small role in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Many of the other stories seemed to be "thread drift," and got a little too far from the main storyline in the 1632 Universe. Not that they weren't well executed, but I've simply highlighted the better installments.

Overall a well crafted collection, and an improvement over previous efforts. Five stars, and no equivocation on my part. Buy it. Read it. Enjoy it.

Otherwise much less
This is an anthology of short stories based on the Ring of Fire novels begun by Eric Flint's 1632. Unless you are reasonably up to date with this series you will probably be unable to follow these stories as they are definitely meant to be companions to the series rather than stand alone works. I read, and thoroughly enjoyed, the first three books in the series when they first came out but I was completely lost for many of these stories. Fans will undoubtedly get all the references and inside jokes but for those who have only a passing knowledge or less of this series skip this one and read one of the main RoF novels instead.

It was a pleasure to read most of these stories, but (as in any anthology), some of them were just ok. However, this would be a hard book to pick up and enjoy if you aren't already a fan of the series.
Start with the 1632 written-by-Eric books (AVOID the one by Virginia!), and you will enjoy the series, and then will enjoy this book.