Eric Flint’s 1632 & Beyond #9, January/February 2025
“Unintended Consequences” by George Grant
“Bremen Or Bust” by Terry Howard (reprint, not reviewed)
“Family Matters” by Marc Tyrrell
“The Rice Farmer’s Daughter and the Samurai” by Garrett W. Vance
“Rose-Hip & Red Velvet” by Tim Sayeau
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.]
“Unintended Consequences” by George Grant is a brief piece in which a person from our time writes a letter to the newly elected governor of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, advising him to make sure that he does what the person from his future knows he did. The title makes it clear how well this works out.
The paradoxes inherent in time travel and changing history are handled in a familiar way. The work ends with another twist, which turns it into something like metafiction. In any case, this is a very light appetizer; inoffensive, but without much flavor.
In “Family Matters” by Marc Tyrrell, a man wants his son to follow in his footsteps and work in health care, but the teenage boy would rather work with his hands. When his father slaps him hard enough to give him a black eye for neglecting his studies, the son runs away from home and finds employment with sympathetic relatives.
As I have tried to suggest, the speculative element in this story is irrelevant to the plot. The boy works with steam engines and other forms of technology that exist because of time displacement. Otherwise, this is a domestic drama that plays out as one would expect.
“The Rice Farmer’s Daughter and the Samurai” by Garrett W. Vance takes place among a community of expatriate Japanese living in what is now Cambodia. After taking part in a successful battle against river pirates, a young samurai is assigned to guard a family’s home. He and the eldest daughter are quickly attracted to each other. The fact that the young woman’s family is about to move to the time-shifted community of Grantville threatens their romance.
This is a very leisurely love story, with the bloody war against the pirates taking place before it begins. (A previous story deals with the battle.) The speculative content is slightly relevant, but it would be possible to have a similar plot with the family moving away for some other reason. The characters are likable and the work makes for pleasant, if sedate, reading. The author creates a detailed and convincing setting, evidence of careful research into the time and place.
“Rose-Hip & Red Velvet” by Tim Sayeau involves an exchange of letters between a family from modern times and English aristocrats of the past. The modern woman advises them about the ghosts that haunt their estate and gives them news about their future. The aristocrats ponder the necessity of going into business, normally a thing not done by their class, in order to ensure that their descendants retain ownership of their estate for as many centuries as possible.
Despite the presence of ghosts and a prediction that a mysterious figure will lead to the doom of the lord of the estate, this is a lighthearted tale. Much of it deals with such minor matters as the modern family’s cats, an exchange of recipes, and the aristocrats’ love of modern mystery fiction. These characters have appeared in a previous story, and familiarity with that work would make some of the references in this sequel clearer.
Victoria Silverwolf reviewed the story to which “Rose-Hip & Red Velvet” is a sequel a while ago.