Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond #13, September/October 2025
“Life List” by Garrett W. Vance
“Miss Redbird” by Bethanne Kim
“The Young Lady of the Lake” by Edith Wild
“Grantville Gumshoe in a 17th Century World’s Fair” by Tom Kidd
Reviewed by Chuck Rothman
[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 & 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.]
I have to be honest: I haven’t read any of the 1632 stories, though I was intrigued by the concept. The four stories in Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond #13 are deep dives into the background. However, I assumed that part of it was all covered previously, so didn’t question any details about how things came to be. I read them as stories and assumed the background and explanations and many of the characters are known to readers of the series. It was actually freeing, since I could look at the stories as stories.
All these stories are focused on the Redbird Institute, and figure the readers of the series know what that is, since they don’t describe any of its workings. Also, the stories involve or refer to characters who were introduced elsewhere. I took that all into consideration as I read them.
“Life List” by Garrett W. Vance has Dorothea Weise going to spend the summer at the Redbird Institute. There is a lot of description, but the story lacks conflict as she takes part in various events during her time there, including a concert of 20th century music. It reads like a “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” essay, with plenty of description of the surroundings and flat characterizations. The ending—a small revelation—is telegraphed early.
Bethanne Kim’s “Miss Redbird” shows Karen Reading, who runs a bridal boutique/saloon for women, joining with her sister Carole to set up a beauty pageant, with an eye to improving their income stream and piggybacking on the Redbird Institute being set up near their town. The story gets stuck in the minutia of setting up the pageant and is devoid of drama, as various characters explain things to each other. It also doesn’t help that the winner of the pageant is a person who is not mentioned until the final words. It certainly must mean something to followers of the series, but I’m surprised the person is not even mentioned until the final line.
“The Young Lady of the Lake” by Edith Wild tells the story of Alice, someone from the 16th century who has moved to Grantville, the 21st century enclave that’s the basis of the series. While adjusting, she is invited to snorkel in the local lake and loses her ring. When searching for it, they discover an old, rusted sword. The story is purely mundane, and the characters are flat, with no actual conflict. It could use much tightening and something other than slices of life.
Tom Kidd contributes “Grantville Gumshoe in a 17th Century World’s Fair” where Kit Shinkenspeck is a private detective, much like Phillip Marlowe, and is tasked with helping with security precautions for the Paris World’s Fair. So he, his wife, and his partner make the trip, only to discover complications. Like the other stories, this is filled with digressions and could have been cut. Hard-boiled detective stories were always tightly written, and much of this could have been cut to highlight the plot. I also found the final resolution too much of an info dump.
Obviously, I have major blind spots. I did like the occasional “kiss with history” (“The Young Lady of the Lake” has a dandy one), but I felt that all the stories needed some serious tightening and would have worked better if cut down and if there were more drama and better characterization. Fans of the series might like the way it fleshes out the background, but the stories would need more to stand on their own.
Chuck Rothman’s historical fantasy novel The Cadaver Princess is available from Amazing Selects, the book imprint of Amazing Stories.