The Saxon Uprising-ARC

Chapter 56


Magdeburg, capital of the United States of Europe

After the servant ushered Mike into Gustav Adolf’s chamber, he left, closing the door behind him. Mike watched him go, with a slight smile on his smile.

“Yes, yes,” said Gustav Adolf. “As you can see, I am adopting an up-time custom. We will actually have a private meeting.”

The emperor was sitting in a very large and very comfortable-looking armchair. Another one, equally large and comfortable-looking, was positioned a few feet away, angled toward his own. A low table sat between them, with a pot and two cups on it. There was also a bowl of sugar and a small pitcher of cream.

“Your preference is coffee, if I recall correctly. Black, no cream or sugar.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you.”

Gustav Adolf lifted the pot and poured them both a cup. As he did so, he waved his hand. “Please, Michael. I think we would do better to keep this informal. Call me Gustav, if you would.”

Mike nodded and sat down. This was…interesting. Also unexpected. His relations with the king of Sweden had always been cordial, except in the heat of negotiations, but never what you’d call intimate. They’d been friendly but not friends. Was Gustav Adolf seeking to change that?

If so, Mike was certainly willing—provided the change didn’t come at too high a price. The emperor would want something in return, of course. Mike didn’t fault him for that. It was a given that an emperor wants something, unless he’s incompetent.

He decided the best tactic was to cut right to the chase.

“Why don’t we begin by you telling the thing you want most from me that you think I’m most likely to object to, Gustav.” He picked up his cup and took a sip. The coffee was superb, as you’d expect.

The emperor smiled, as he stirred some sugar into his own cup and added some cream. “Very well. We’re going to need a new election soon, obviously. The existing parliament has lost all credibility with the nation.” His pleasant expression darkened for a moment. “It has certainly lost it with me.”

“Until he loses a vote of confidence, Wilhelm is under no legal obligation to call for new elections,” Mike pointed out. “And he can stall holding a new session of parliament for some time, given the current…ah, chaos.”

His own expression darkened a little. “If for no other reason, he can argue that your disqualification of dozens of Crown Loyalist MPs requires that special elections be held in those districts to elect new representatives before any full session of parliament can be called. And I’d have to say I’d agree with him. Before we go any further, by the way, I’m giving you notice that I plan to contest that issue with you very strenuously. Privately, I’ll agree that those people are worthless bums and had it coming. But I can’t agree to allowing the emperor the right to unilaterally declare any MP to be disqualified from office. That power needs to be reserved for the parliament alone.”

Before the emperor could respond, Mike raised his hand. “I don’t ask that you do it immediately. That would make it seem as if you were caving in from pressure coming from me. By all means, wait a week or two. Wait a month, if need be. But I want those disqualifications rescinded.”

In times past that would probably have led to one of their frequent clashes. A bit to Mike’s surprise, after an initial stiffening of his back, Gustav Adolf visibly made himself relax. He even took another sip of coffee before replying.

“Let us leave that aside for the moment. In terms of what we were discussing, it’s not relevant. I’ve already spoken to Wilhelm—just two days ago, in this very room—and he assured me he plans to call for new elections before the month is over.”

Mike took a sip from his own coffee, while he thought that over. No one in the Fourth of July Party had known that Wettin planned such early elections. Mike knew that for a certainty because he had come here from his own house, which doubled as FoJP headquarters, after spending the first two hours of the morning discussing the political situation with his wife and several other leading figures in the party.

Interesting. Among other things, it indicated that Wilhelm Wettin was going to take the high road, so to speak, rather than engage in maneuvers that might be tactically effective in the short run but would be deleterious in the long run. Perhaps he’d learned something from the whole experience.

“Very well. What do you want from me, then?”

“I want you to step down as leader of your party. I do not want you to run for prime minister again. Let someone else take your place. I want you to stay in the army.”

Mike hesitated. It was so tempting…

But, no. He’d be making that same mistake. Undoubtedly the oldest mistake in the political book and probably the most destructive. You always needed to think in the long term. Stabilizing and strengthening the new relationship that Gustav Adolf was seeking with him was more important than gaining a temporary advantage in negotiations.

“Ask for something else, Gustav. That one’s a freebie. Ah, ‘freebie’ means—”

“I know what it means.” The emperor cocked his head quizzically. “But I’m not sure I understand the term in this context.”

“I was not planning to run for prime minister anyway. I made that decision before I even got here. Since I arrived, I’ve spent several hours discussing it with my wife and several other close political associates. We’re all agreed it would be best if I didn’t run again.”

Clearly, the emperor had not anticipated that answer. He took a moment to finish his coffee.

“I am surprised,” he said, after setting down the cup. “You could win, you know. Quite easily, I think. Your popularity is at an all-time high in the nation.” He chuckled. “It’s that ‘Prince of Germany’ business.”

Mike shrugged. “Yes, I know—but that’s also the problem. I’ve become too…what’s the word? ‘Princely,’ I guess. I make too many people nervous, on the one hand. And on the other—which I think may be worse—I make too many other people too ambitious.”

“ ‘Too ambitious’? What do you mean?”

He gave Gustav Adolf a level stare. “You know perfectly damn well what I mean. A prime minister had a clearly delineated position within the law. Powerful, but limited. A prince…has no clear limits. He might be capable of anything. What produces fear in some quarters can produce delusions of grandeur in another. Well, not that, exactly. I’d have to be the one with delusions of grandeur, and while I have my faults, that’s just not one of them. But some of my supporters would get too…enthusiastic, let’s say.”

Neither one of them said anything for perhaps half a minute. Then Gustav Adolf sighed softly and slumped a bit in his chair.

“Thank you for that, Michael. Yes, that is exactly where my fears lay.” He took a slow, deep breath and let it out. “Who would you run then?”

“We haven’t decided yet. Either Strigel or Piazza. But since Ed isn’t here yet, we can’t make any final decision.”

The emperor smiled a bit crookedly. “My own preference would be your wife, actually. But I suppose that’s impractical.”

Mike’s smile was not crooked at all. “Leaving aside the fact that the Germanies are not ready for a Jewess as prime minister, Becky would have a fit if anyone proposed it. She doesn’t like being in the limelight.”

He finished his own coffee. “And it wouldn’t be a good idea anyway—although I agree with you that she’d be superb in the office. The problem is that prince business again. Too many people—both those overly fearful as well as those overly rambunctious—would assume that she was simply my surrogate.”

He shook his head. “No, it’s got to be either Matthias or Ed.”

“Of the two, my own recommendation would be Piazza.”

“Privately, I agree. I’m curious though, Gustav. What’s your reasoning?”

“Two factors are critical, I think. The first is that I believe the nation would find it a bit reassuring to have an up-timer in the position of prime minister. In a peculiar sort of way, you provide the same sort of…call it ‘distance,’ that a royal family provides. You came from so far away that people think—not entirely foolishly, either—that you are a bit removed from the petty factionalism of everyday politics.”

Mike thought about it. “There’s possibly some truth to that. I agree that people tend to react to us that way. At least a bit. And your second reason?”

“Strigel is from Magdeburg province, Piazza from Thuringia-Franconia. The second is the one that more closely reflects the nation as a whole. I think he’d bring a wider experience to the position than Strigel would. Between the two of us, I also think he’s more capable. But that speaks more to Piazza’s strengths than to any real weakness on Strigel’s part. I’d certainly be comfortable enough with Strigel as prime minister.”

Mike’s private assessment was the same, but he saw no purpose in stating it aloud.

“To go back to the beginning, Gustav, ask me for something else.”

“A compromise, then. Something—it has to be of real substance, Michael—that your party will be willing to cede to the Crown Loyalists. Or whoever winds up being your principal opponent in the election. I suspect the Crown Loyalists are on the verge of collapse as a single and unitary party.”

“They were never really that to begin with. Yes, I think you’re right. I think Amalie Elisabeth will now be the most influential figure in a new conservative movement. She won’t run for prime minister herself, of course. First, because she’s not about to relinquish her title; and second, because she’s a woman. The nation wouldn’t be much more willing to accept a gentile female prime minister than a Jewess, I think. Wilhelm will probably run again, more or less on her behalf.”

He considered the emperor’s request. Not for long, though. This didn’t really come as a big surprise.

“I am not willing to compromise on the citizenship issue, Gustav. I’d rather lose the election than retreat from our basic principles there. I would be willing, though—and I believe I can persuade the FoJP to agree—to compromise on the question of the established church.”

“The nature of the compromise being…?”

“Each province can decide for itself whether it wants an established church. But I would insist that the legal options would have to include complete separation of church and state. Without that, the Committees of Correspondence would dig in their heels.”

Gustav picked up the pot. “More coffee?”

“Please.” Mike extended his cup.

They used the brief time needed to prepare the beverages to ponder the matter silently. Or rather, the emperor did.

After he took his first sip, he set down the cup and said: “Agreed. With your permission, I will privately let the key parties on the other side know where you are prepared to compromise, and where you are not.”

Mike had lifted his cup to his lips but paused just before taking a sip. “Satisfy my own curiosity, if you would. Who are these ‘key parties,’ as you see it?”

“Wilhelm and the landgravine, of course. Also Duke George of Brunswick. Just because he’s in the siege lines around Poznan doesn’t mean he’s not a central figure in the nation’s political life. No one of any importance in Brunswick will do anything without George’s approval.”

“Who else?”

The emperor named half a dozen prominent figures. All of them were in what could be called the moderate wing of the Crown Loyalist party—and not one of them had come to Berlin in response to Oxenstierna’s summons.

“Finally…” Gustav Adolf hesitated. “I think also Ernst Wettin.”

Mike’s eyebrows raised. “He considers himself an administrator, you know. Not a politician.”

The emperor chuckled. “Yes, I know. It is time he expanded his horizons, I think.”

The next two hours went smoothly, almost effortlessly. By the end, Gustav Adolf assured Mike that he would rescind his disqualification of the Crown Loyalist MPs in a week or so.

That done, Mike stood up. “And now that we’ve agreed I won’t run again for the prime minister’s post and I’ll stay in the army, what do you want me to do?”

The emperor’s nostrils flared. “You need to ask?” He pointed to the south. “I have had enough of Duke Maximilian! Since the Poles are being pigheaded, I have to leave Lennart and his two divisions at Poznan. So I’d appreciate it if you would take your Third Division down there and crush him like a bug.”

Mike stared down at him, for a moment. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“You don’t have any doubts—”

“Michael, please!” The emperor stood up himself. “Will you allow that I know whereof I speak, when it comes to military affairs?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Then here is the truth, whether you understand or accept it. You have now won three major battles. One of them included taking a well-fortified town, another resulted in the complete destruction of the enemy army. By the end, your forces were larger than they were when you started. Larger in numbers—and better equipped. And you managed to do all this without generating hatred among the populace as a whole. Indeed, I’m told civilians are more likely to regret seeing your soldiers leave than they are to welcome the sight.

“These are signal accomplishments, whether you realize it or not.” He raised his hand dramatically, as if to hold back the tides. “By all means, deny it! Continue to insist to any who will listen that you are a novice, a witless bumbler, and are only kept from total disaster by the desperate efforts of your staff. But please spare me the silliness. You are already one of the best generals in the continent. Still crude in some ways, but not in what really matters—you are willing to fight and you fight to win. So, as I said. Crush the Bavarian bastard for me, would you?”

There didn’t seem to be anything Mike could say to that. So, off he went.

On the way back to his townhouse, he wondered if perhaps he should put together a brass band for the Third Division. For the endless series of triumphal parades the emperor seemed certain were in his future.

When he raised it with Becky that evening, her reply was: “Of course you should.”

He raised it again several hours later, just to be sure that hadn’t been her hormones at work. By then, the hormones—his too—had been given a thorough workout.

She stirred, half-asleep, and nuzzled him. “Of course you should,” she said.

The next morning, at breakfast, his daughter Sepharad weighed in.

“Barry thinks you need a brass band, Daddy.”

He gave Becky an accusing glance.

“I said nothing to them,” she insisted. “It’s obvious to all.”

He looked at Baruch. The three-year-old philosopher-to-be gazed back at him solemnly.

“It’s just in the nature of things, Daddy,” he explained.

“I knew it!” exclaimed his wife.

It was a little unsettling, in fact. Mike steeled his resolve again. As soon as possible, that kid needed to get a Harley-Davidson patch for his jacket.

Jeff Higgins swore he had one, buried somewhere in his old junk. He thought he might have a Cat cap too.

His wife was now giving him a suspicious look. “Hillbillies!” she accused.

“Hey, hon, I was just thinking about how many instruments I should get,” he protested.

“You have no respect!”





Cast of Characters





Ableidinger, Constantin

Member of USE Parliament; leader of the Ram movement.



Abrabanel, Rebecca

Leader of the Fourth of July Party; wife of Mike Stearns.



Achterhof, Gunther

Leader of the Committees of Correspondence.



Baner, Johan Gustafsson

Swedish general.



Bartley, David

Supply officer in Third Division; also a financier.



Beasley, Denise

Teenage girl employed as an agent by Francisco Nasi; informally betrothed to Eddie Junker.



Bugenhagen, Albert

Mayor of Hamburg; leader in Fourth of July Party.



Christian IV

King of Denmark.



Dalberg, Werner von

Leader of the Fourth of July Party in the Oberpfalz.



Donner, Agathe “Tata”

Daughter of Reichard Donner, leader of the Mainz CoC; now a CoC organizer in Dresden.



Drugeth, Janos

Hungarian nobleman; friend and adviser of Ferdinand III.



Duerr, Ulbrecht

Officer, USE Army; aide to Mike Stearns.



Engler, Thorsten

Captain in USE Army; fiancé of Caroline Platzer; also the Imperial Count of Narnia.



Ferdinand III

Emperor of Austria.



George, Brunswick-Lüneburg, duke of

Major general in command of the 1st Division, USE Army.



Gundelfinger, Helene

Vice-President of the State of Thuringia-Franconia; leader of the Fourth of July Party.



Hahn, Liesel

Member of parliament from Hesse-Kassel.



Hans Georg, von Arnim

Commanding general of the Saxon army in Leipzig.



Hesse-Kassel, Amalie Elisabeth, Landgravine of

Ruler of Hesse-Kassel, widow of Wilhelm V.



Higgins, Jeffrey (“Jeff”)

Lieutenant Colonel, USE Army; husband of Gretchen Richter.



Hugelmair, Minnie

Teenage girl employed as an agent by Francisco Nasi; friend of Denise Beasley; adopted daughter of Benny Pierce.



Junker, Egidius “Eddie”

Former agent of the SoTF government, now employed as an agent and pilot by Francisco Nasi; informally betrothed to Denise Beasley.



Keller, Anselm

Member of parliament from the Province of the Main.



Kienitz, Charlotte

Leader of the Fourth of July Party in Mecklenburg



Knyphausen, Dodo

Major general in command of the 2nd Division, USE Army.



Koniecpolski, Stanislaw

Grand Herman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.



Krenz, Eric

Lieutenant, USE Army.



Kresse, Georg

Leader of guerrilla movement in the Vogtland.



Kuefer, Wilhelm

Guerrilla fighter in the Vogtland; Kresse’s assistant.



Leebrick, Anthony

Officer, USE Army; aide to Mike Stearns.



Long, Christopher

Officer, USE Army; aide to Mike Stearns.



Mailey, Melissa

Adviser to Mike Stearns; leader of the Fourth of July Party.



Nagel, Friedrich

Lieutenant, USE Army.



Nasi, Francisco

Former head of intelligence for Mike Stearns; now operates a private intelligence agency.



Norddahl, Baldur

Norwegian adventurer and engineer in Danish service; friend and assistant of Prince Ulrik.



Opalinski, Lukasz

Polish hussar.



Oxenstierna, Axel

Swedish chancellor, chief advisor of Gustav II Adolf



Piazza, Edward (“Ed”)

President of the State of Thuringia-Franconia; leader of the Fourth of July Party.



Platzer, Caroline Ann

Social worker in Magdeburg; companion for Princess Kristina; betrothed to Thorsten Engler



Richelieu, Armand Jean

Cardinal; first minister of Louis XIII; the effective head du Plessis de of the French government.



Richter, Maria Margaretha “Gretchen”

Leader of the Committees of Correspondence; Wife of Jeff Higgins.



Saxe-Weimar, Ernst, duke of

Brother of Wilhelm Wettin; regent for Gustav Adolf in the Oberpfalz (Upper Palatinate).



Saxe-Weimar, Wilhelm IV, duke of

See: Wilhelm Wettin.



Stearns, Michael “Mike”

Former prime Minister of the Unites States of Europe; now a major general in command of the 3rd Division, USE Army; husband of Rebecca Abrabanel.



Strigel, Matthias

Governor of Magdeburg province; leader of the Fourth of July Party.



Stull, Noelle

Former agent for the SoTF government, now employed by Francisco Nasi; is being courted by Janos Drugeth.



Szklenski, Tadeusz (“Ted”)

Polish CoC member in Dresden.



Thierbach, Joachim von “Spartacus”

Leader of the Committees of Correspondence.



Torstensson, Lennart

Commanding general of the USE army.



Ulrik

Prince of Denmark; youngest son of Christian IV in the line of succession; betrothed to Princess Kristina of Sweden.



Vasa, Gustav II Adolf

King of Sweden; Emperor of the United States of Europe; also known as Gustavus Adolphus.



Vasa, Kristina

Daughter and heir of Gustav II Adolf.



Vasa, Wladyslaw IV

King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.



Walczak, Waclaw

Leader of the Polish CoC contingent in Dresden.



Wettin, Wilhelm

Prime Minister of the USE; leader of the Crown Loyalist Party (formerly Saxe-Weimar, Wilhelm IV, Duke of).



Wojtowicz, Jozef

Nephew of Grand Hetman Koniecpolski; head of Polish intelligence in the USE.





Afterword


The 1632 series, also sometimes called the Ring of Fire series, is now up to nine novels and nine anthologies of short fiction. That’s what has been produced in paper editions. There is also a bi-monthly electronic magazine devoted to the series, the Grantville Gazette. As of the month this novel comes out, the magazine will have published thirty-four issues. If you measure things by word count, which is how authors tend to think, almost three million words have so far been published in paper editions—1,674,000 words in the novels and 1,312,000 in the anthologies. A little over two million words have also been published in purely electronic format in Gazette stories and articles, not counting the stories and articles that were reissued in paper editions.

About five million words, all told. To make things still more complicated, the story line of the series is very far from linear. The 1632 series isn’t so much “a” story as it is a complex of stories. (See below for my suggestion for the order in which to read the various volumes.) Any given character is likely to weave in and out of both novels and short fiction, in stories which are often written by several different authors or collaborations of authors.

To give an example of a character who appears in this novel:

Denise Beasley’s best friend Minnie Hugelmair was first introduced into the series in Virginia DeMarce’s story in the first Grantville Gazette paper edition, “The Rudolstadt Colloquy.” Thereafter, she reappears in Virginia’s “Mule ‘Round the World” (Grantville Gazette #7, electronic edition; Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett’s “Trommler Records” (in the same electronic issue of the Gazette); my story “The Austro-Hungarian Connection” in Ring of Fire II; Wood Hughes, “Turn Your Radio On, Episode Three” (GG #21, electronic edition); Virginia DeMarce, “Franconia! Parts II and III,” (GG #25, electronic edition); my story “Steady Girl” in Grantville Gazette V (paper edition); Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce, 1635: The Dreeson Incident; Virginia DeMarce, “Or the Horse May Learn to Sing” (GG #28, electronic edition; and my 1635: The Eastern Front. In some of these stories she is simply mentioned, but even so her appearance is a matter of record.

People ask me rather frequently: “How do you keep track of all that?”

The answer is: I don’t.

I couldn’t possibly keep track of it. The 1632 series began with the publication of my novel 1632 in February of 2000. But years ago it became transformed into a collective enterprise. I remain the major author in the series, of course. All of the novels are either written or co-authored by me, and I have stories in all but one of the anthologies. (The one exception is 1635: The Tangled Web. The stories in that anthology are all written by Virginia DeMarce.) And I have the final say-so over anything that gets published as an editor, or as the publisher, in the case of the electronic magazine.

The analogy I tend to think of is that I’m the old-style conductor of a piano concerto, where I’m both the pianist and the conductor.

Still, there is no way I could possibly keep track of everything. I rely heavily on a group of people who consist of the editorial board of the Gazette—that’s the editor herself, Paula Goodlett, along with Karen Bergstralh, Laura Runkle and Rick Boatright—and many of the authors who have been published frequently in the series. Those include Virginia DeMarce, Iver Cooper, Kerryn Offord, Walt Boyes, Gorg Huff, David Carrico, Kim Mackey and Chuck Gannon.

I need to take the time here to thank all of them once again.

In addition, at any given time, many other people have helped me with specific issues. For this volume and the one which preceded it, 1635: The Eastern Front, I need to extend special thanks to two people:

Danita Ewing provided me with a great deal of help with the medical issues involved with Gustav Adolf’s head injury and the resulting symptoms.

Stanley Roberts has been a big help with Ottoman history, which is a particularly thorny and difficult one for authors of historical fiction. He also wrote the first draft of what became Chapter 30 of this novel. I rewrote that draft and expanded it, but most of Stanley’s prose remains in the text as he originally wrote it.

Whenever someone asks me “what’s the right order?” for reading the 1632 series, I’m always tempted to respond: “I have no idea. What’s the right order for studying the Thirty Years War? If you find it, apply that same method to the 1632 series.”

However, that would be a bit churlish—and when it comes down to it, authors depend upon the goodwill of their readers. So, as best I can, here goes.

The first book in the series, obviously, is 1632. That is the foundation novel for the entire series and the only one whose place in the sequence is definitely fixed.

Thereafter, you should read either the anthology titled Ring of Fire or the novel 1633, which I co-authored with David Weber. It really doesn’t matter that much which of these two volumes you read first, so long as you read them both before proceeding onward. That said, if I’m pinned against the wall and threatened with bodily harm, I’d recommend that you read Ring of Fire before you read 1633.

That’s because 1633 has a sequel which is so closely tied to it that the two volumes almost constitute one single huge novel. So, I suppose you’d do well to read them back to back.

That sequel is 1634: The Baltic War, which I also co-authored with David Weber. 1632, 1633, 1634: The Baltic War, 1635: The Eastern Front and this novel constitutes what can be considered the “main line” or even the spinal cord of the entire series. Why? First, because it’s in these five novels that I depict the major political and military developments which have a tremendous impact on the entire complex of stories. Secondly, because these “main line” volumes focus on certain key characters in the series—Mike Stearns and Rebecca Abrabanel, first and foremost, as well as Gretchen Richter and Jeff Higgins.

Once you’ve read 1632, Ring of Fire, 1633 and 1634: The Baltic War, you will have a firm grasp of the basic framework of the series. From there, you can go in one of two directions: either read 1634: The Ram Rebellion or 1634: The Galileo Affair.

There are advantages and disadvantages either way. 1634: The Ram Rebellion is an oddball volume, which has some of the characteristics of an anthology and some of the characteristics of a novel. It’s perhaps a more challenging book to read than the Galileo volume, but it also has the virtue of being more closely tied to the main line books. Ram Rebellion is the first of several volumes which basically run parallel with the main line volumes but on what you might call a lower level of narrative. A more positive way of putting that is that these volumes depict the changes produced by the major developments in the main line novels, as those changes are seen by people who are much closer to the ground than the statesmen and generals who figure so prominently in books like 1632, 1633, and 1634: The Baltic War.

Of course, the distinction is only approximate. There are plenty of characters in the main line novels—Thorsten Engler and Eric Krenz spring immediately to mind—who are every bit as “close to the ground” as any of the characters in 1634: The Ram Rebellion.

Whichever book you read first, I do recommend that you read both of them before you move on to 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. In a way, that’s too bad, because Bavarian Crisis is something of a direct sequel to 1634: The Baltic War. The problem with going immediately from Baltic War to Bavarian Crisis, however, is that there is a major political development portrayed at length and in great detail in 1634: The Galileo Affair which antedates the events portrayed in the Bavarian story.

Still, you could read any one of those three volumes—to remind you, these are 1634: The Ram Rebellion, 1634: The Galileo Affair and 1634: The Bavarian Crisis—in any order you choose. Just keep in mind that if you read the Bavarian book before the other two you will be getting at least one major development out of chronological sequence.

After those three books are read…

Again, it’s something of a toss-up between three more volumes: the second Ring of Fire anthology and the two novels, 1635: The Cannon Law and 1635: The Dreeson Incident. On balance, though, I’d recommend reading them in this order because you’ll get more in the way of a chronological sequence:

Ring of Fire II





1635: The Cannon Law





1635: The Dreeson Incident





The time frame involved here is by no means rigidly sequential, and there are plenty of complexities involved. To name just one, my story in the second Ring of Fire anthology, the short novel “The Austro-Hungarian Connection,” is simultaneously a sequel to Virginia’s story in the same anthology, several stories in various issues of the Gazette—as well as my short novel in the first Ring of Fire anthology, The Wallenstein Gambit.

What can I say? It’s a messy world—as is the real one. Still and all, I think the reading order recommended above is certainly as good as any and probably the best.

We come now to Virginia DeMarce’s 1635: The Tangled Web. This collection of inter-related stories runs parallel to many of the episodes in 1635: The Dreeson Incident and lays some of the basis for the stories which will be appearing in the next anthology, 1635: The Wars on the Rhine. This volume is also where the character of Tata who figures in Eastern Front and Saxon Uprising is first introduced in the series.

You can then go back to the “main line” of the series and read 1635: The Eastern Front and the volume you hold in your hand, 1636: The Saxon Uprising. (Yes, I realize how silly it is to tell someone to read a novel who presumably just got finished doing so. But you never know. There are people in the world—I’m one of them, as it happens—who read afterwords before they read the book they’re in.)

That leaves the various issues of the Gazette, which are really hard to fit into any precise sequence. The truth is, you can read them pretty much any time you choose.

It would be well-nigh impossible for me to provide any usable framework for the thirty-four electronic issues of the magazine, so I will restrict myself simply to the five volumes of the Gazette which have appeared in paper editions. With the caveat that there is plenty of latitude, I’d suggest reading them as follows:

Read Gazette I after you’ve read 1632 and alongside Ring of Fire. Read Gazettes II and III alongside 1633 and 1634: The Baltic War, whenever you’re in the mood for short fiction. Do the same for Gazette IV, alongside the next three books in the sequence, 1634: The Ram Rebellion, 1634: The Galileo Affair and 1634: The Bavarian Crisis. Then read Gazette V after you’ve read Ring of Fire II, since my story in Gazette V is something of a direct sequel to my story in the Ring of Fire volume. You can read Gazette V alongside 1635: The Cannon Law and 1635: The Dreeson Incident whenever you’re in the mood for short fiction.

And…that’s it, as of now. There are a lot more volumes coming. The next volume of the 1632 series which will be appearing in print is Ring of Fire III, in July of this year. My story in that volume is directly connected to this novel and will lay some of the basis for the sequel to this novel. The discerning (that’s a polite way of saying fussbudget) reader will have noticed and perhaps been disturbed by the fact that the Bavarian invasion of the Overpfalz vanished from this novel almost as soon as it was reported in Chapter 21.

That’s because if I’d included that episode in this book it would have loaded it down with a large and unwieldy—and unresolved—sub-plot. So, instead, I will tell that story in Ring of Fire III.

I’m not sure yet the order in which I will write the next two novels in the series. The direct sequel to this book will pick up from the end of my story in Ring of Fire III and cover Mike Stearns’ handling of the assignment which Gustav Adolf gave him in the last chapter of this novel—crush Maximilian of Bavaria. New developments involving mumble mumble will also require Mike to mumble mumble in the course of which he winds up mumble mumbling. The working title of that novel is 1636: Tum te Tum te Tum.

Or I might decide instead to finish a novel I began a while ago and set aside when I realized I was getting ahead of myself. The title of that novel is 1636: The Anaconda Project. That book will serve as a sequel to my short novel “The Wallenstein Gambit,” which was published in the first of the Ring of Fire anthologies, and will tell the story of how Wallenstein—working mostly through Morris Roth—begins the expansion of his new kingdom to the east, by encroaching on the Ruthenian territory under Polish-Lithuanian rule. It will also serve as a companion volume to this novel, by recounting some of the developments in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which were left offstage here. The attentive reader of this volume will recall that it was mentioned that the hussar Lukasz Opalinski’s older brother Krzysztof and the notorious up-time radical Red Sybolt were off somewhere in Ruthenia stirring up trouble for the Polish powers-that-be. That tale will be told in 1636: The Anaconda Project.

(If you’re wondering about the distinction, “attentive” readers are the readers who pay attention to the things an author wants them to notice. “Discerning” readers are the damn nuisances who insist on fussing over loose ends that the author thought he’d swept far enough under the rug to be out of sight.)

A number of other novels are in the works that deal with other story lines in the series. I will mention in particular:

Andrew Dennis and I have started working on 1635: A Parcel of Rogues. That novel will pick up the story of the group left behind in England after the escape from the Tower of London depicted in 1634: The Baltic War. The characters involved will include Julie Sims, Alex Mackay, Oliver Cromwell, Gayle Mason and Stephen Hamilton.

Chuck Gannon and I are writing 1635: The Papal Stakes. That novel is the direct sequel to 1635: The Cannon Law, which I co-authored with Andrew Dennis. It will focus on Harry Lefferts’ attempt to rescue Frank Stone and his wife Giovanna from Spanish captivity and lay some of the basis for the continuing tale of Sharon Nichols, Ruy Sanchez and the now-exiled Pope Urban VIII.

Walter Hunt and I are writing a novel set in North America. Since the working title of that novel has already been announced publicly in Locus magazine, I suppose there’s no point in me trying to keep it buried. It’s 1636: Drums Along the Mohawk, which was supposed to have been a private joke. That will not be the title under which it actually gets published.

Yes, the Iroquois will figure in the story. Beyond that, I will say nothing.

David Carrico and I are working on a novel titled 1636: Symphony for the Devil. This is a mystery novel which takes place in Magdeburg simultaneously with many of the events depicted in 1636: The Saxon Uprising.

Iver Cooper is putting together an anthology of his own writing, similar in format to Virginia DeMarce’s 1635: The Tangled Web. These interwoven stories focus mostly on the New World, especially the Japanese decision to colonize the west coast of North America.

Other planned volumes include:

With Mercedes Lackey, a comic novel (sub-titled Stoned Souls) that continues the adventures of Tom Stone and others.

With Virginia DeMarce, a novel which centers on the Rhineland and serves as a sequel both to this volume and The Wars on the Rhine anthology. The current working sub-title for that volume is The Grand Duke of Burgundy, but that will probably change by the time the book comes out in print.

With Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett, a romantic comedy sub-titled The Viennese Waltz which will run parallel to one of my later main line novel and serve also as a sequel to a number of the stories they’ve written about the Barbie Consortium in various issues of the Gazette.

(If you’re wondering why I’m only providing sub-titles, it’s because I still don’t know exactly which year they’ll fall under. Either 1635 or 1636, depending on this and that and the other.)

And there it stands. For the moment.

For those of you who dote on lists, here it is. But do keep in mind, when you examine this neatly ordered sequence, that the map is not the territory.