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Up-time Pride and Down-time Prejudice (Ring of Fire) Paperback – August 8, 2019

by Mark H Huston (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 406 ratings
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In the Year of our Lord 1633, Mary Margret Russo graduates from Grantville High School at the top of her class. The beautiful and strong willed up-timer, as the people from the future are called, is mysteriously hired by a branch of the wealthiest family in the world. Mary finds herself far from her family, living in a beautiful castle in the Inn Valley of Tyrol. There she meets Counts, Countesses, the handsome and distant Count Johann Franz, and works hard as a teacher and consultant among the one-percenters of the day.But all is not what it seems in this gilded world, where religion, undercurrents of witchcraft, and vast sums of money create high-stakes contests, and where treachery and death await the unwary or the unprepared. Can a resolute and intelligent girl find love, happiness, and purpose in this world where she is the ultimate outsider, out of her time, alone, and in dangers she cannot comprehend? Using archetypes, occasional dialog, and story beats from Jane Austen, Up-time Pride and Down-time Prejudice tells the story of Mary Russo, Count Johann Franz Fugger, and Mary's journey of maturation, knowledge, and love in this 1632 adventure.
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  1. Print length
    367 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    August 8, 2019
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 0.83 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1948818493
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1948818490
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Press (August 8, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 367 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1948818493
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1948818490
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.08 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.83 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 406 ratings

About the author

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Mark Huston

Mark Huston

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Mark H Huston is a Chicago area-based author of alternate history and science fiction. He has multiple short stories and novellas published in Eric Flint's Ring of Fire Series and is a contributor to the Grantville Gazette. His most recent novel is "Up-time Pride and Down-time Prejudice", a romantic adventure set in the same universe. Mark is and has been – well, many things, ranging from expert on steam systems, to race car driver and instructor, to actor, to engineer, salesman, columnist, and theater producer and director. And more stuff in between. He is married with three remarkably competent children, and lives in a legendary place, once called "The Land Beyond O'Hare".

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
406 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Andy McKinney
5.0 out of 5 stars superior in every way
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2019
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I read everything I can that comes out of the ROF universe. This story by Mark Huston is every bit as good as the stories the Flint has written. Often enough I have trouble with spin-off stories that do not have the mainline characters, the characters that we know so well and enjoy so much. No so here.
Huston has created a compelling protagonist and has given her interesting things to do, goals to accomplish and troubles to overcome. She does not actually have the full skill set to do everything she must do, which makes for one of her problems. She has graduated from Grantville High school. We find her in her post-school army stint. She gets an offer to go to the Tyrol and work for one of the richest families in the world as a teacher of math and chemistry and as a general factor for all things up-time, especially technical stuff. All while keeping her army rank, active duty status and pay. She is also to be a spy. The story holds our interest. So, good story.
Somehow he has penetrated the thought patterns of his female main character and her female companions in an accurate way. This does not happen often with male authors in describing the interior lives of female characters. Maybe haveing a household filled with women has given him a special ability to devine the motives, thoughts, and reasoning of his female characters. Frankly, most male authors draw their female characters only deeply enough to have them act and react to the male characters. Huston has a rare touch. He has also drawn his other characters quite well. He even has well-drawn third-tier characters, characters who seem round and real. So, very good character creation. Good.
His writing style is stellar. My goodness, what a pleasure we readers have in reading his words. He is so good that I intend to go back and re-read the two stories he has written, one in an issue of the Grantville Gazette and another in ROF III. I am a wannabe writer and pay very close attention to writing style, flaws, inconsistencies and so on. In Huston's novel, I found myself totally absorbed, just living in the story for long stretches at a time. Just as if this was a work of literature! Oh!
He also gives even long term fans like me a new, deeper insight into the relationship between up-timers as a group and down-timers as a group. He takes time, and it does take time, to work through just exactly how down-timers view up-timers in terms of class, cosmic status, and even utility. It helped me a lot to sort of jell concepts that have floated around the edges of this vast fictional universe that the genius of Eric Flint has created.
Perhaps best of all from the reading fan point of view, this work by Mark Huston is so very good, so satisfying, interesting and enjoyable that the other off the mainline authors in the future will have to up their game. Goody.
9 people found this helpful
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Kyle Hayes
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun read but needs editing
Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2021
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Fits right in with the other books. Engaging characters. However, at least my copy needs some careful editing. Incorrect words such as downtime instead of uptime and some grammar problems were just common enough to be abit annoying.

I hope Mr. Huston writes more stories like this one in the future. The story was good. It just needs a bit of polish.
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John T. Sapienza, Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars A better book than the headline suggests.
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2019
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This is the story of a minor character applying her talents to gain a career while major characters from other novels are living out their events in the background. I am glad I bought this. It's very well done, and I'll be looking for future books by Mark H. Huston.

A Grantville high school graduate with a major talent for mathematics finds herself hired by a Count to introduce uptime technology into his businesses. Her job is to educate his children, and analyze his questions and turn them into research requests back to sources in Grantville.

She's a good Catholic girl in an age that regards her version of Catholicism with deep suspicion. She even has a clause in her employment contract requiring the Count to protect her from the Inquisition. Alas that one of the Count's children regards her as a tool of the Devil!

I was afraid this would be too much a pastiche from Jane Austin. Never fear, the title is clickbait--other than that, yes, there is a smart woman who finds the Count's son impossibly dull and prejudiced to even consider marriage material. And from that there are many plot developments that stem from the 1632 series in the Germanies rather than Austin's English society. Recommended.
7 people found this helpful
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Bill Garthright
5.0 out of 5 stars Caught my interest right from the start
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2019
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I wasn't expecting much from a completely unknown author. Face it, the quality of the books in the "1632" shared universe vary a lot! But once I read the free preview here, I just couldn't stop reading.

The main character is very appealing, and the story moves right along. If you enjoy the "1632" stories at all, I'd certainly recommend this one. (Like many of the others, it's not directly connected with the main storyline. In fact, Mary Russo is the only "up-timer" in the whole book.)

I hope that Mark Huston decides to write science fiction and/or fantasy outside of this setting sometime. I was impressed enough to start following him.
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John Bishop
4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly non-derivitive
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2019
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While of course I was expecting a pastiche of "Pride and Prejudice", it turns out that other than one or two entertaining quotes this is really a different story of a how a young woman's opinion of her status changes as she moves from pre-Ring-of-Fire Grantville to post-Ring-of-Fire Austria. At one point a character points out just how valuable what an up-time knows can be.

There were a few too many perils to be quite reasonable, but the plot moves along and there were no "balk" points at which I said to myself, "it couldn't have happened that way", though she should have been a bit less trusting.

In the universe of Non-Flint, Ring-of-Fire fiction this is one of the better ones.
15 people found this helpful
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R. P. Drake
5.0 out of 5 stars An impact of culture addition to the seriew
Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2019
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This novel, with Moscow Rules and the Barbie collection, connects with the impact ordinary Americans have in the 17th century mainly because of who they are culturally. The advanced nature their ordinary knowledge matters too, of course. I find this to be one of the most compelling aspect of the series, and had trouble putting the book down.

I also found this author's writing to be quite compelling. Better than some of the Gazette authors.

Finding a couple editing notes in the Kindle version was less satisfying, but not the author's fault.
6 people found this helpful
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Skunk
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book (Even if you loathe Pride and Prejudice)
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2020
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My high school literature teacher over-taught P&P to the point that I have a visceral reaction to it. I avoided this book based on the title until I ran out of other 1632 content to read. That was a mistake.

I loved this book. The main character is flawed, real, and struggling. There's excellent action and character development and it fits in well with the events in the 1632 Main-line novel.
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Top reviews from other countries

Carrick
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Ring of Fire Triumph
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2020
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Warning: This is not a Jane Austen tribute (except in the broadest terms), no delicate study in etiquette nor regency romance. The characterisation, narrative, pacing and descriptions are all decidedly modern, faithful to the '1632' series. That said it repsects and reuses key Pride and Prejudice scenes well.

No spoilers included

First off to say that while an important part of the series, this stands alone, as well as any of the 1632/ Ring of Fire books. This book will, nevertheless, be better appreciated if read after '1632'-'1633'-'1634: The Baltic War' (and optionally, the 'Grantville Gazette', '1634: The Ram rebellion' and '1634: The Bavarian Crisis'). Understanding the 1632 premise is important. Next, I should say it is written as skillfully and entertainingly as any in the series. It is well paced, nicely detailed, fully engaged in the 1632 themes and brings an entertaining twist or two of it's own to the series.

The 1632 writting school is a VERY well devloped writting team. They maintain a remarkable consistency in writing quality. They combine many talented writers from divers backgroudns and experience, in this epic oeuvre, and their combined knowledge is able to weave a wonderfully varied, insightful and intelligent social, scientific, human, military, moral, religious, technical and practical comparative 'study' of modern and rennaissance. What this series makes of it's subject, is so deep and so thorough, that you cannot appreciate fully its intelligence and depths without enough context, gained through reading the key books (not so much the gazettes) in order. The impact of 20th Century views on all things on the early 17th century is a fantastic premise. It is done deftly with fabulous effect.

This book has pacing and entertainment value good enough to stand alone, even if you do not already know the '1632' premise. It takes the broad Jane Austin plot and weaves it in seamlessly (but not faithfully) to the 1632 series and this world, and makes it entirely its own. The underlying nobility of effort in matching a meritocracy to an aristocracy is full of ironic opportunity, and the author takes full advantage, does it well and with respect for his characters. The small differences between modern and renaissance ethics, resulting in such a big impact, horror or happiness, good or evil, war or peace, seems worth a PhD by itself. This book keeps that in sight, and holds a respectable place in the 1632 pantheon.

This is not an over sentimental regency romance, nor a deeply complex 1632 world builder: This stays firmly within 1632 style, using modern writting. This book is focussed on character building, which makes it an easier read than some others of the series. Its characters are driven, deep, credible, bright, detailed and this is my most important criteria for judgiong the quality of writing.

Not great classic literature, but vefry good. Better than merer honest amusement if you like 1632. If not still very entertaining and you will be engaged and carried along. I had a thoroughly lovely time with this book. This is no simple Jane Austen rip off, perhaps not for the Austen purist, unless they are ready to take a leap into The 1632 wolrld. Existing 'Ring of Fire' followers will be very well satisfied.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

One caveat is that the kindle edition appears to have been withdrawn. With it, so has some amazon-kindle support.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Girl meets boy...
Reviewed in Australia on April 12, 2021
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On first sight she nearly kills him. But love triumphs, as it should in a romance novel. Charming, well written and some enjoyable characters, borh good and bad.
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Franca Ogbonnaya
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice story.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 19, 2019
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I enjoyed this story but at times I read notes made by the editor. That was a bit odd and it affected the flow of the story. Otherwise it’s a good addition to the Ring of Fire stories.
3 people found this helpful
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Michael B
5.0 out of 5 stars Another lovely tale about the Ring of Fire
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 10, 2019
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I picked up Up-time Pride and Down-time Prejudice because unlike some it had not been given a roasting. It was not a decision that I have regretted. There was a good plot and whilst the ending was not quite what I expected, it was still satisfying. In spite of that I have a few beefs about it. There were a couple of editing links in my Kindle version, a section where uptime and downtime appeared to be mixed up and a reference to fauna that did not live in the area. However, the novel was well written enough that I decided to overlook them and give it five stars.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book. Terrible title
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2019
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One of the best ring of fire press books i have read. Well written. Exciting. It shows the uptimer impact well. Terrible title.
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