1637 : Dr. Gribbleflotz and the soul of Stoner

THE ALCHEMY OF INVENTIONPhillip Theophrastus Gribbleflotz, the world's greatest alchemist and a great-grandson of Paracelsus-and a Bombast on his mother's side-had been a man history forgot.

But when the town of Grantville was transported by a cosmic accident from modern West Virginia to central Germany in the early seventeenth century, destiny gave him a second chance at fame and fortune-and this time he doesn't intend to blow it!The world's greatest alchemist does not make, ahem, mere household goods.

But with suitable enticements, he might be persuaded to create baking soda, and then baking powder, so that the time-displaced Americans can chow down on their biscuits and gravy.

An alchemist he remains, but with his relentless quest for the quinta essential of human nautre, Gribbleflotz plays a central role in jump-starting the seventeenth century's new chemical and marital aids industries-and perhaps bringing on a scientific revolution three centuries before its time!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