#15 in the multiple best-selling Ring of Fire Series.
It's springtime in the Eternal City, 1635. But it's no Roman holiday for uptimer Frank Stone and his pregnant downtime wife, Giovanna. They're in the clutches of would be Pope Cardinal Borgia, with the real Pope—Urban VII—on the run with the renegade embassy of uptime Ambassador Sharon Nichols and her swashbuckling downtime husband, Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Up to their necks in papal assassins, power politics, murder, and mayhem, the uptimers and their spouses need help and they need it quickly.
Special rescue teams—including Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew—converge on Rome to extract Frank and Gia. And an uptime airplane is on its way to spirit the Pope to safety before Borgia's assassins can find him. It seems that everything is going to work out just fine in sunny Italy.
Until, that is, everything goes wrong. Now, whether they are prisoners in Rome or renegades protecting a pope on the run, it's up to the rough and ready can do attitude of Grantville natives to once again escape the clutches of aristocratic skullduggery and ring in freedom for a war torn land.
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Product Review1632 IS BACK! The Papal Stakes is much more like it. I've been wondering if the series had finally jumped the shark; of the last three books, I've only bought the Saxon Uprising. While that was some better, it still wasn't as good as the early ones. But this is Flint & a collaborator back up to par, with plenty of action, characters I want to read about, and a terrific plot. (While I can empathize with Flint's wanting to have the series and Grantville Gazette focus on the everyday people as well as the important, the original main Grantville characters *were* everyday people. Not hearing more than mentions about them for quite a while has been extremely disappointing. They're the reason I fell in love with the books in the first place!)
I've been dying to know what happened after The Cannon Law. When I saw the ARC, though I'd sworn I wasn't going to buy an ARC again, I couldn't resist. I'm glad I didn't. Loved the book, read it in one sitting, and went around with a silly grin the rest of the day. Very satisfying.Posted on
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Product ReviewAs others have said, this is the best entry in the series in recent memory. Not everything goes perfectly to plan (unlike the recent Stearns-as-general books), and we see some real character development, combined with near non-stop action.
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Product ReviewRecent previous entries in the 1632 universe have been a little too much talk and not enough action or activity.
Not this time.
This time there's an explosion of combat action throughout the book.
Still some talk, but the emphasis this time out bloody battle situations take precedence.
Some past characters don't make it through, and it holds your interest.Posted on
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Product ReviewSolid. First 1632 book I really enjoyed in quite a while.
The plot is perhaps a bit too complex, but still: very good book.Posted on
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Product ReviewMore,more!
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