Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond #10, March/April 2025
“Grantville Gumshoe in The Pre-enactor Murder” by Tom Kidd
“Driving Force” by Sarah Hays
“Our Man Hiuchi” by Garrett W. Vance
“Come Dig My Earth” by Edith Wild
“Here or There?” by Virginia DeMarce
Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf
[Editor’s note: The following is offered by Tangent reviewer Mike Bickerdike as a guide for those not familiar with this magazine’s concept.] Eric Flint’s 1632 and Beyond is a magazine comprising stories set in the late Eric Flint’s “Ring of Fire” or 1632 alternate-history universe. For those unfamiliar with the books, the essential concept is that the town of Grantville in West Virginia became transported (by cosmic accident) from our present day to northern Germany in 1632 during the 30 Years War. The book series extends to dozens of novels. The short stories in this magazine are set within that framework.
As its title suggests, “Grantville Gumshoe in The Pre-enactor Murder” by Tom Kidd is a tongue-in-cheek detective story. A man of the seventeenth century fancies himself a hardboiled private eye, based on mystery fiction from the future. During his work as a trash collector, he discovers a murdered man. With the help of a clever friend, who does most of the actual detective work, he traces the killing to a gang of American Civil War reenactors, sympathetic to the Confederacy, who had various reasons to murder the victim.
Despite the presence of serious themes such as the gang’s promotion of slavery, this is a lightweight bit of entertainment. It becomes self-referential, as the case involves a novel of alternate history by Harry Harrison, and the characters realize they are living in an alternate history as well. The story is quite long, perhaps too much so for a tale meant only to amuse, and it goes on for a while after the true climax.
“Driving Force” by Sarah Hays is an anecdote in which a Texas woman from the future and a German woman of the past come together. The former teaches the latter about chili and operating a manual transmission. There’s not much else to this trivial slice-of-life.
“Our Man Hiuchi” by Garrett W. Vance begins with the violent expulsion of Japanese from Siam in 1630. During this attack, the villain kills his own sister, who married a Japanese man. Years later, the son of the murdered woman returns to Siam, intent on revenge.
This is mostly a work of historical fiction, with only minor references to guns from the future. As such, it shows that the author is very knowledgeable about the time and place. The story ends before reaching a resolution, suggesting a sequel. This is likely to frustrate readers expecting a complete work.
In “Come Dig My Earth” by Edith Wild, several characters, native to both past and future, become involved in a violent attack on a household. I hesitate to offer any further description of the plot, as I found it very hard to follow. Many of the characters fail to understand exactly what is going on, and readers may wind up as confused as they are. Like several other works set in this universe, it would be best to be familiar with previous stories featuring these characters to fully appreciate their current adventure.
“Here or There?” by Virginia DeMarce features a pair of corporation representatives who are also industrial spies. To secure them a respected place in society, their manager insists that they get married. The plot mostly deals with a scheme to sneak the intended bride of one of the men out of a convent, along with her two daughters.
I suppose the story’s speculative content is the contrast between modern business practices, learned from the visitors from the future, and old-fashioned marriage arrangements of the seventeenth century. The intent may be satiric. In any case, this is a minor piece without much drama or emotional appeal.
Victoria Silverwolf watched the 1943 film Son of Dracula between reviews tonight.