Grantville, 1636   “Noble’s Book Barn.” Adelbert turned to his wife, Anna Margaret Herman. “What a strange name. Do they mean to suggest that a noble has so many books he needs a barn to hold them? Or that he is actually engaged in the vulgar process of selling them, like some common fishwife hawking [...]

June 1637, Office of the Commander, Lübeck Naval Base   “Captain Kruger, there is a man here to see you, but he won’t tell me his name or what he wants. He said the supply office at navy headquarters sent him and that you are expecting him.” Kruger frowned. “Perhaps now I’ll find out what [...]

The Mountain Top Baptist Bible Institute West Virginia County Early summer, 1636 Martha Button woke up alone in a strange bed. A strange bed, in itself, was no novelty by now. There had been one strange bed after another since the family’s desperate flight from Cambridge, and some nights no bed at all. But being [...]

October, 1633   Andreas Strauss hurried along the road toward Erfurt. The October afternoon was cold and rainy, and he wanted to arrive before dark. It had been a fairly good year. The crop was decent, and the family business had sold all the barrels they could make. Andreas had a small purse to spend [...]

  Chapter 28: A Night at the Opera Magdeburg, at the Outer Ring Street October 1635 "Oh my god! Oh my god!" Hans flinched. It was simply shocking to hear Christine, landgravine of Hesse-Kassel breaking out in what came very close to blasphemy. When he finally managed to remove the mud from his eyes and [...]

Part 3: Development of Universities The Middle Ages The universitas magistrorum et scholarium (community of teachers and learners) was a term forged in the twelfth century after Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa issued an edict called authentica habita. Hereby he protected roaming scholars, who were teaching at many places, and guaranteed that they couldn’t be captured [...]

This issue’s cover features some text in German, so I thought I had best explain. It is inspired by an old USA propaganda poster. I imagined someone at the Grantville Grange seeing it hanging on the wall and being inspired to do an updated version with the lady dressed in USE colors to promote new [...]

I find science fiction comforting. Not the stories themselves, necessarily. They disturb me, make me stay up all night, force me to root for the worst people (in the best way) and make me understand what is alien is often what is human. Not the visions of the future, which are often bleak and disquieting. [...]

  Tilted Meadow Camp Ni-T'o sat by the fire studying the bones he had recovered from the great beast that had expired nearby. They had been picked clean by the enormous flying lizards that played the role of vultures here, as well as a murder of crows from the mesa top, who were adapting quite [...]