1632 & Beyond Issue #002

Preface

Introduction

Grantville's Secret Santa

The Gift

At Christmas Time

Christmas at the Schickelmans

No Proper Carol

Santa's Lapp

Natala

A Christmas Stollen

One Night Only

Sad Spectacles of Deceitful Iniquity at Christmastime

The View From Nakatomi Tower

Connect with Eric Flint's 1632 & Beyond

This is a reissue of the second half of A 1632 Christmas, one of the last Ring of Fire Press books Eric worked on. The first half is Special Issue 1, November 2024.

Jackie Britton Lopatin's "Grantville's Secret Santa" tells how Grantville changed one woman's once-bleak future to fulfillment. In Chuck Thompson's "The Gift," Inez Wiley convinces her down-time friends not to leave her. Mark Huston's "At Christmas Time" follows a simple letter and its impact. Sarah Hay's "No Proper Carol" follows a search for hard to find up-time music. Edith Wild's "A Christmas Stollen" tells more of Amalia's story.

Leaving Grantville, John Deakin's tale "At the Schickelmans'" follows their first Christmas celebration in the New World. In "Santa's Lapp" by George Haberberger, a man tells his people what he learned of their future up-time. "Natala" by Iver Cooper sees a Christmas play in Califonia. "One Night Only" by Michael Lockwood tells of a special performance at the Magdeburg Opera House. "Sad Spectacles" by Eric Flint and Lucille Robbins shows how new ideas can blow up even the most entrenched paths.

The final tale addresses one of the key questions of modern Christmas: Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Spoiler: yes, it is.