This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. Copyright © 2000by Eric Flint All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY 10471

ISBN: 0-671-31972-8

Cover art byLarry Elmore Interior maps by Randy Asplund First paperback printing, February 2001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Flint, Eric.

1632 / by Eric Flint. p. cm. ISBN 0-671-57849-9 (hc) 1. Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648-Fiction. 2. City and town life-West Virginia-Fiction. 3. Germany-History-1618-1648-Fiction. 4. Americans-Travel-Germany-Fiction. 5. West Virginia-Fiction. 6. Time travel-Fiction. I. Title.

813'.54-dc21 99-055275 Distributed by Simon Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020 Typeset by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH Printed in the United States of America

To my mother,

Mary Jeanne McCormick Flint,

and to the West Virginia

from which she came.

Baen Books by Eric Flint

Mother of Demons

The Belisarius series, with David Drake:

An Oblique Approach

In the Heart of Darkness

Destiny's Shield

Prologue

The mystery would never be solved. It would simply join others, like the Tunguska event or the Square Crater on Callisto, in the catalogue of unexplained occurrences.