The Anaconda Project

The Anaconda Project is the eleventh full length work of the popular shared universe Ring of Fire (See 1632|s=1632-verse) but only the second solo novel of the 1632Count series total allworks‎ works by milieu creator Eric Flint, and something he has longed to get back to doing (solo novels) despite the success of the other works in the extensively co-written series, for which he also serves as gate-keeper of the series canon, and editor.

Flint is also co-author of all the long fiction in the series. It is the seventh of the 1632Count total novels novels in the series which acharacteristically for science-fiction or alternate history, is predominated by short canonical fiction, in the main the long book length Grantville Gazettes, which are canonical e-zines first and mostly—future print versions will be "best of" book collections, though GG04 is scheduled in hardcover for 2008. The series suffered a lengthy delay and time lag between print releases in the 2004-2006 period because of the inability of the two busy best selling lead writers to synchronize schedules and writing windows—which in turn held up other works in the series lest plots be spoiled. This work, released in e-published form only, signals the end of the bottle-neck, for it is the prequel to the next major novel at Baen Books, 35SoB (in production, forthcoming May 2008), and the direct sequel to the novelette ROF-1|s="The Wallenstein Gambit". In the latter, the famed general Albrecht Wallenstein comes to Grantville for medical attention after being shot near-fatally by 16char|Julie|Mackay|p=Julie Sims Mackay at extremely long range during the 16batl|Battle of Alte-Vista, which ends the lead novel.

In the tradition of Dickens, sections of "The Anaconda Project" appear in separate issues of the Gazettes, and must be purchased separately, to continue the story.

Place in the series

"The Anaconda Project" is a direct sequel to the 2003 novelette ROF-1|s="The Wallenstein Gambit" (TWG) which began neohistorical story expansion toward and into the Eastern half of Europe, the so called plot thread|Eastern European thread, and the novel begins soon after the (late 1633) close of "The Wallenstein Gambit" which began the long anticipated plot thread, about which fan complaints have been growing increasingly impatient.

The beginning deals directly with 16char|Morris|Roth the Jewish jeweler-protagonist of TWG, who is made General by king 16CHAR|Albrecht|Wallenstein, the new king of Bohemia—he'd asked 16char|Mike|Stearns to consider doing what he could to avert the infamous massacres of Jews in Eastern Europe at least three times, and Stearns cut a deal with Wallenstein who claimed as the novelette began, that he could avoid the pogroms. The book title refers to a military operations map with phase lines, color coded for dating, which snakes eastwards from Bohemia—resembling nothing else so much as a giant Anaconda to Roth.

The neohistorical timeline divergences from our "up-time" written history become stark as this plot thread opens act II: Wallenstein, a peasant who became famous as a ruthless but extremely capable mercenary general becomes king of Bohemia, which he wrestled (part of "The Wallenstein Gambit" prequel) from Ferdinand III in the Old Time Line, who was also king of Hungary; and the heir apparent of the pious Ferdinand II, the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor who was the leading force behind the devastating Thirty Years' War.

But the divergences grow extremely obvious by the end of most of the novels set in 1634 (Four, all more or less running concurrently with one another "and with this novel") and in particular at the end of 34TBC Ferdinand III succeeded his father as "King of Rome", the predecessor and prerequisite office to being crowned Holy Roman Emperor—whereas in our timeline Ferdinand II and III continued on for years undisturbed in their offices outlined previously—so the repressive anti-protestant Habsburg policy remained in place; another divergence, as his dying act Ferdinand II revoked the 16inst|Edict of Restitution, a major underlying "secular" (Greed) reason underlying the causes of the Thirty Years War, creating another departure point for the alternative speculative history.

Publication information

First electronic printing, serialized beginning September (Vol 12), November (Vol 13) and continuing January 2008 in (GG15|p=Gazette vol 15), Copyright 2007, 2008 by Eric Flint and 1632.org, Inc.

Production by WebWrights, Newport, TN

References and notes