[Assiti Shards 11] • 1635 · The Papal Stakes

A new addition to the multiple *New York Times* best-selling Ring of Fire series. After carving a place for itself in war-torn 17th century Europe, citizens of the modern town of Grantville, West Virginia take on the Borgias and Papal succession shenanigans that could undermine a Spring of freedom that has come to Europe three centuries early.

# 15 in the multiple bestselling Ring of Fire Series.

It’s springtime in the Eternal City, 1635. But it’s no Roman holiday for uptimer Frank Stone and his pregnant downtime wife, Giovanna. They’re in the clutches of would-be Pope Cardinal Borgia, with the real Pope–Urban VII –on the run with the renegade embassy of uptime Ambassador Sharon Nichols and her swashbuckling downtime husband, Ruy Sanchez de Casador y Ortiz. Up to their necks in papal assassins, power politics, murder, and mayhem, the uptimers and their spouses need help and they need it quickly. 

Special rescue teams–including Harry Lefferts and his infamous Wrecking Crew–converge on Rome to extract Frank and Gia. And an uptime airplane is on its way to spirit the Pope to safety before Borja’s assassins can find him. It seems that everything is going to work out just fine in sunny Italy.

Until, that is, everything goes wrong. Now, whether they are prisoners in Rome or renegades protecting a pope on the run, it’s up to the rough and ready can-do attitude of Grantville natives to once again escape the clutches of aristocratic skullduggery and ring in freedom for a war-torn land.

**About Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire series:**

“This alternate history series is…a landmark…”—*Booklist*

“[Eric] Flint's *1632* universe seems to be inspiring a whole new crop of gifted alternate historians.”—*Booklist*

“…reads like a technothriller set in the age of the Medicis…”—*Publishers Weekly*

“…each new entry appears better than the previous one, a seemingly impossible feat…terrific.”—*Midwest Book Review*

“[C]ombines accurate historical research with bold leaps of the imagination.”—*Library Journal*