Starship Fonzie

  Last year, a few months before Chicon 8 took place, a literary giant passed away. His name was Eric Flint, the man responsible for the 1632 "Ring of Fire" series. I first learned about Eric Flint from a panel which took place at Chicon 8, which covered the life and works of Eric Flint. One of his friends, who was on that panel, was none other than Orange Mike Lowery, a man who has come to be a friend of mine. I was utterly unfamiliar with Eric Flint at the time. But I purposed to read some of his works and get familiar with him. I'm so very glad I did. The 1632 series is historical alternate universe fiction. Its premise is simple. In the year 2000, the West Virginia town of Grantsville gets magically transported to Thuringia, Germany in the year 1632 - right in the middle of the Thirty Years' War. The transported Americans quickly make their presence felt with their advanced technology and weaponry. But they face many challenges, too. For starters, they have no mea...

  Take a look at this cover art! Is this not the greatest book cover of all time? Seriously? Charlie is an ordinary dude at the end of his rope. He's a divorced substitute teacher living alone with his cat in a house his siblings claim ownership of and want to sell off, leaving him with nothing. All he wants to do is open a pub, but he lacks the capital to buy up the old one down the road. Then, the strangest thing happens. Charlie's uncle dies. Despite the fact that he is not the oldest sibling, he learns that he is named by his childless uncle as the heir to his estate. But there's a catch. His uncle was a supervillain. What follows is a mad-cap adventure that takes Charlie from one near-death incident to another. He learns of a consortium of other supervillains, none of whom was friendly with his uncle, and all of which want to take over. They blow up Charlie's house (or rather, the house Charlie lives in which his siblings claim ownership of), forcing Charlie to tak...