1635: The Wars for the Rhine

An exciting addition to the multiple New York Times best-selling Ring ofFire alternate history series created by Eric Flint. Time travelers from ourmodern age are thrown into the deadly straits of the Thirty Years War in Europeof the 1600s.

In the year 1635, the Rhineland is in turmoil. The impactof the Ring of Fire, the cosmic accident which transported the small modern WestVirginia town of Grantville to Europe in the early seventeenth century, has onlyaggravated a situation that was already chaotic. Perhaps nowhere in centralEurope did the Thirty Years War produce so much upheaval as it did in theborderlands between France and Germany.

Archbishop Ferdinand of Cologneshares the religious fanaticism of his older brother, Duke Maximilian ofBavaria. He is determined to restore the power of the Catholic Church over themiddle Rhine, the so-called “Bishop’s Alley,” and hasunleashed a plot for that purpose. But that same middle Rhine is territory whichLandgrave William V of Hesse-Kassel is determined to seize for himself, underthe guise of expanding the influence of the United States ofEurope.