Eric Flint Books

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Eric Flint is an American science fiction and fantasy author that is best known for his alternate history novels. Born in 1947 in Burbank, his father’s work saw Flint live in France for five years, though he eventually returned to the US, spending his teenage years in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.

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After getting his bachelor’s degree in the late 1960s, Flint initially pursued a Ph.D. in history at UCLA. He was fascinated by South African History, going so far as to write an article on the Kololo Period.

But the author was very politically active, having vehemently expressed his opposition to the Vietnam War, not to mention throwing his support behind the Civil Rights Movement.

After becoming a socialist, Flint abandoned his studies, having determined that the academic qualifications he sought wouldn’t serve him in the political arena.

The next two decades of the author’s life were a whirlwind. Eric Flint did many odd jobs to earn a living. He worked as a longshoreman, a meatpacker, a glassblower and a truck driver, eventually apprenticing as a machinist.

The machinist gig retained his interest the longest. He spent a quarter of a century in the role. With his political interests having occupied him for so long, the author was 50-years-old when he finally became a full-time writer. That was in 1999.

Eric Flint actually made his first publishing sale in 1993. The novelist started collaborating with Richard Roach, a friend, on a fantasy series in 1969. ‘Entropy, and the Strangler’, Flint’s short story which won the Winter Writers of the Future Contest, came out of years of collaboration with Richard.

The sale gave Flint and Richard the confidence to complete ‘Forward the Mage’, one volume in their fantasy series. Flint then followed it up with ‘The Philosophical Strangler’.

While ‘Entropy, and the Strangler’ had garnered some interest, Flint’s foray into fantasy fiction ended in failure. Even the author recognized that the stories he wrote with Richard did not fit into the accepted confines of fantasy.

And he wasn’t particularly surprised when his efforts to sell their collaborative works attracted a storm of rejection letters.

None of that deterred Flint, though. If anything, he felt compelled to give ordinary, mainstream fantasy and science fiction a go. It was around that period that ‘Mother of Demons’ and the Belisarius books were written.

It was also around that time that the author cemented his relationship with Baen Books. Flint’s most popular novel to date is 1632. It set him apart as an author of alternate history.

Outside of his efforts as a novelist, Eric Flint worked as a Baen Free Library Librarian, the first Librarian to be exact. He worked with Jim Baen to convince various authors to publish free electronic unprotected copies of their books on the internet.

Flint was always a strong proponent of e-publishing and he rejected claims that eBooks were a threat to traditional physical novels. He believed that the two could thrive side by side.

Eric Flint Awards

The novelist received the Dal Coger Memorial Hall of Fame Award. He was nominated for an Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Prize in 2006.

Best Eric Flint Books

Flint isn’t just a writer; he is also an editor that has repackaged the works of classic SF authors for new audiences, with some of the best books in his bibliography including:

1632: Mike Stearn led the local United Mine Workers of America chapter, and all its members had chosen to attend his sister’s wedding. Then something catastrophic happened, and when Mike went to investigate, he found that their entire town had been transported to 1632.

Now they must use their meager tools to survive the 30-year war.

1633: Everything changed for Mike when his town was sent back to the Holy Roman Empire in 1632. Mike was elected president of their community and charged with launching the American Revolution several decades earlier with the intention of attaining the strength required to repel the forces that sought to destroy them.

Now the town has made an alliance with the King of Sweden. Mike and his people have advanced technology. But it will take the corporation of Gustavus and the Jews to fend off the catholic armies that will stop at nothing to obliterate their burgeoning nation.

When Does The Next Eric Flint book come out?

The next book by Eric Flint is 1637: The Peacock Throne and will be released on May, 4th 2021. It is the newest book in the Ring of Fire Series.

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