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''Ring of Fire'' is the third published book by editor-author-historian Eric Flint of the 1632 series, an alternate history series begun in the novel ''1632'' (February 2000). The ''Ring of Fire'' is both descriptive of the cosmic event as experienced by the series' characters, but also is at times used as the name for the series itself. The series is set in war-torn Europe during the middle of the Thirty Years' War. ''Ring of Fire'' is a collection of short stories —half by a variety of established science fiction authors invited into the setting, half fan-fiction by enthusiasts who helped take the stand alone novel into a series numbering works in the tens of books; all set in the universe initially created by Flint's science fiction novel ''1632'' written as a stand-alone novel and turned into a series by popular demand. Unlike most short works in a novel created series, the stories within are important milieu shaping creations—story threads which are formalized into the series canon for they helped establish it, and act as a spring board for further developments in the books. Many characters debut in these short stories who play an important role in subsequent longer works. == Premise of the series == The series heralds a new kind of writing, blending both shared universe and collaborative fiction writing in large series fiction. As in other shared universes, the stories are set in a milieu shared with other writers, but usually it's done with other author's stories being set safely somewhere off to the side of the main story threads. Flint demonstrated that a series could be successfully written by ignoring convention, and deliberately asking the other writers to share in creating the main threads and plot lines of the milieu. The first two novels in the series, ''1632'' and ''1633'', were written contemporaneously so that story threads started in one novel could intermingle and generate matching action or background in the other, and vice versa. Flint is on record saying that large portions of ''1633'' were adjusted drastically, even thrown out and rewritten as later submissions to the 1632 series impacted the various and diverse story threads. For a fuller look on this literary development see Assiti Shards series. For the fullest enjoyment of all three books, it is best to read them in the order ''1632'', ''Ring of Fire'', and then ''1633''. Interchanging the last two has a relatively minor cost to understanding and in appreciation that can be avoided. Flint has stated that he intends that short stories featuring major characters, or establishing points that will be important in future novels will be collected into the ''Ring of Fire'' anthologies, and that ''The Grantville Gazettes'' anthologies will feature the stories of characters that don't establish new background for the novels. However, many of the characters or events become more important in retrospect than either the author or editor expected, so this rule is fairly weak. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ring of Fire (anthology)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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