Preface
The stories of 1636: Seas of Fortune are set in the alternate history universe created by Eric Flint, and introduced in his novel 1632. These stories reveal that the Ring of Fire, by hurling the town of Grantville from 2000 West Virginia to 1631 Germany, is affecting history in places as far away as Brazil and Japan.
This isn’t a novel, and it isn’t a traditional short story anthology. It’s a braid, or, more precisely, two braids. The first, “Stretching Out,” presents seven short stories dealing with characters who find adventure on the other side of the Atlantic, in South America and the Caribbean. The stories are linked by recurring characters and locales, and overarching themes.
The second, “Rising Sun,” presents another five linked short stories that reveal how the Japanese respond to the Ring of Fire.
The braided story format allowed me some flexibility that I wouldn’t have in a novel; stories can overlap in time, and follow the activities of different lead characters. That works well for covering the branching of events natural to alternate history. On the other hand, braided stories have more of a sense of unity than a mere collection of short stories.
I hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Iver Cooper