1632 Snippets
The Newton Cipher – Snippet 03
The Newton Cipher - Snippet 03 Espresso University of Notre Dame South Bend, Indiana Edelstein's office was a hazardous topology of stacked books and papers piled into miniature mountains. This particular mountain range extended across the office: in corners, beneath tables, and atop the cushions of old leather chairs. Surveying those precarious peaks, Trina knew that one little jolt to the room's unsteady tectonics -- a careless step, an absentminded gesture -- and the entire landscape could hit a full 8.0 on the documental Richter Scale....
1636 The Atlantic Encounter – Snippet 24
1636 The Atlantic Encounter - Snippet 24 "But to Champlain. His first ventures into the New World were in the last century, and he visited New France for the first time more than thirty years ago. He has survived rivalries at court, changes in loyalties, conquest by the English, and even the enmity of the Queen Mother when she was regent. He even survived his own death." Stephane did not quite understand what Servien had meant by that, and it clearly showed on his face. "As you are aware, Stephane," Servien explained, "the up-timers have...
The Newton Cipher – Snippet 02
The Newton Cipher - Snippet 02 Seminar University of Notre Dame South Bend, Indiana One Week before Thanksgiving Present Day "We have a few minutes left," Trina Piper said, eyeing the fifteen undergrads sitting around the large table in front of her. Their mostly-bored faces were bathed in the wan glow of the fluorescent bulbs that illumined all thirteen floors of Notre Dame's Hesburgh library, including the seminar room here on the seventh floor, the home of the University's Medieval Institute. Bookshelves lined three of the room's walls,...
The Newton Cipher – Snippet 01
The Newton Cipher - Snippet 01 Note from Eric Flint: Steve Ruskin's The Newton Cipher is being published by Ring of Fire Press on August 1. We're going to snippet from it for the next month. Anyone interested in the novel can learn more about it on our web site: https://ringoffirepress.com/forthcoming-books/#newton THE NEWTON CIPHER By Steve Ruskin Prologue The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Cambridge University England A Night in April, 1666 It was well past midnight when Isaac heard the knock on the door. He was awake in his...
1636 The Atlantic Encounter – Snippet 23
1636 The Atlantic Encounter - Snippet 23 "No doubt," Savignon answered. "But the river is a strong rival, the further upstream we go. No, we will travel to Tadoussac, and you can find a sailing vessel to take you the rest of the way." "This is a busy place?" "Oh, oui, for many years. When the French first came here it was a place where the Montagnais and other natives could trade furs with Europeans. The Sieur de Champlain conducted there a tabagie, a great meeting, when he came to New France." He let his oar trail in the water. "It was one...
1636 The Atlantic Encounter – Snippet 22
1636 The Atlantic Encounter - Snippet 22 Chapter 14 On the St. Lawrence River Stephane had no idea what woke him. The rain had stopped, but the gentle lapping of the river against the side of the kano -- which had helped put him to sleep in the first place -- remained constant. The animal noises were just the same; there was a heavy cloud cover, giving no sign of either moon or stars…but something was just different, some change in the quiet. He was unarmed, but for a small hatchet that had also been stowed aboard the boat, and the long oar...
1636 The Atlantic Encounter – Snippet 21
1636 The Atlantic Encounter - Snippet 21 Chapter 13 Nye-Alborg Labrador Stephane found it easy to tell where the Danes had settled along the shore of the Saint-Lawrence: instead of the thick covering of tall pines, there was scarcely a tree to be seen inland to where the hills began. It was like that on both sides of the river that emptied into the gulf, but the crew of the coal-hauler paid it no mind, nor did they seem to notice the murky water of the river or the acrid smell of coal dust that pervaded the settlement of Nye- Alborg. If...
1636 The Atlantic Encounter – Snippet 20
1636 The Atlantic Encounter - Snippet 20 Chapter 12 Paris, France Servien walked along the broad corridor toward the great salon that his master planned someday to make into a theater. He would have scoffed at the idea of a theater in the Palais-Cardinal, a needless extravagance even for a patron of the theater such as Richelieu -- except that up-timer history said that it had been built, and that Lemercier had done it in grand style. At the entrance to the room he passed a servant, nervously shifting from foot to foot. Inside, standing and...