1635: The Papal Stakes

1635: The Papal Stakes is an alternate history science fiction novel in the multiple bestselling , written by Charles E. Gannon and Eric Flint. It was published by Baen Books on October 2, 2012. It is the third novel in the 1632 series' South European thread.
Plot summary
The book commences a few weeks following the events of 1635: The Cannon Law. In Rome, Pope Urban VIII is a refugee fleeing the forces of Cardinal Gaspar Borja y Velasco, who has deposed Urban and attempted to declare himself Pope. The remnants of the staff of the United States of Europe embassy in Rome, Harry Lefferts and his Wrecking Crew, and a group of newfound Irish allies (not only a group of Wild Geese which includes and Owen Roe O'Neill; but also Father Luke Wadding and another Franciscan priest who have been rescued from house arrest in Rome's Irish College of St Isidore) are evading Borja, who is not reacting well to the fact that his move to make himself Pope has not been widely accepted by the Church outside Spain and her dependencies).
A group which includes the Pope and the two Franciscans ends up taking refuge in a villa in the Dolomites. The Pope directs Wadding and to conduct a debate (moderated by Father General Vitelleschi) as to the meaning of the Ring of Fire and the Vatican II documents for the future of the Church, which is interrupted when their refuge is inevitably located and attacked by a force of assassins hired by Borja.
Meanwhile, other USE forces led by Harry Lefferts and his Wrecking Crew, along with the O'Neills and other Wild Geese, are attempting to rescue and his pregnant downtimer wife Giovanna Marcoli, who are being held hostage by Borja. The first effort to rescue them goes disastrously wrong. When the hostages are moved (in the wake of the debacle), Lefferts and the rest must arrange another attempt with the aid of xueta Dom Estuban Miro, to rescue them from a remote fortress on Mallorca.
In both subplots, the bloodshed is grim, and a number of sympathetic characters die, are grievously injured and/or must themselves commit violence in defense of themselves and others. Lefferts, Urban VIII, Frank Stone and Larry Mazzare each finds himself changed by his experiences.
Literary significance and reception

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