TimeSpike

An interesting point many 1632 readers may not realize is that it has sister storylines. In the original novel, we find out that alien artists from a race called the Assiti caused the event by being careless with their artwork, allowing “shards” to fall randomly. One of those caused Granville to swap places with some land in 1631 Thuringia, but it was not the only event. We eventually learn that there were many micro-events that didn’t register with the public mind. No one would notice if a sphere of land in the middle of the ocean swapped with land pretty much anywhere in history, for example. It would just literally be swallowed by the ocean and disappear without a trace. But in addition to events that no one noticed, there were a few bigger events. Time Spike was the first of these to be published in 2008, with Marilyn Kosmatka. In 2017, The Alexander Inheritance with Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlet was published, followed by The Crossing in 2022 and An Angel Called Peterbilt in 2024. At the time Eric wrote the post below, it was the only additional shard to be written. Two sequels to it were printed by Ring of Fire Press and they are being re-released by Baen Books in early 2026. In Time Spike, an Illinois prison is sent back through time millions of years, landing them with the dinosaurs. But it’s not just dinosaurs. Along the way, they picked up native Americans, murderous conquistodors, and a few post-Civil War American soldiers. In addition to having a lot more people travel back, it’s a much larger amount of land and the land, like the people, represents multiple eras. Garrett W. Vance has taken this fertile landscape and written Time Spike: First Cavalry of the Cretaceous and Time Spike: The Mysteerious Mesa. There are also short stories set in the Time Spike shard in The Grantville Gazette…