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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Just Finished Reading: The Protector’s War by S. M. Stirling

This was the sequel to Dies the Fire in which an as yet unexplained event rendered all advanced technology useless and stopped firearms (and steam engines) from working.

It’s now Change Year Eight and the book divides itself between continuing the story of Mike Havel, Juniper Mackenzie and the Lord Protector Norman Arminger together with a thread about the fate of Europe. Here King Charles the 3rd rules most of Southern England together with parts of France & Spain. Trouble brews when the Queen falls out with a group of Nobles and they flee for their lives. Meanwhile in Oregon the clouds of war gather as Arminger gathers his forces for a final push against his neighbours with a terrifying new weapon at his disposal.

Much like the previous instalment this is a well written fantasy tale (feeling like a wish fulfilment at times) of heroic people thrust into strange circumstances. Yet despite the skill in delivery I find it impossible to take the series seriously. Though the characters are well drawn and often likeable they are just too perfect. The overarching message in the subtext is that modern civilisation is somehow deeply flawed and that only a vast cleansing can get us back to how we should be – in a mythical simpler time when all things where clearer. This did stick in my craw somewhat as Stirling was hardly subtle in his apparent distain for modern living. By far the biggest problem I had with both his books in the trilogy so far is the incredible speed that human civilisation fell apart after the Change. Whole societies collapsed in weeks if not days and quickly descended into chaos, cannibalism and plague. This is so unbelievable (although an understandable plot device to get the numbers of characters and situations down to a manageable size) that it made any suspension of disbelief – so vital to reading any work of Sci-Fi or Fantasy – quite frankly impossible.

Despite all of the above I did enjoy The Protector’s War and look forward to reading the final instalment when it comes out in paperback at some point next year. I am hoping for some explanation of what exactly brought the Change about. Juggling Mother (who I discussed this with recently) thinks that the author will use God to explain things. Maybe the trilogy is a retelling of the Great Flood myth? My first thought was that aliens had used a device to disrupt technology as a pre-invasion strike… but no aliens have appeared, at least not yet. Thinking about some of the sub-text though I’m forming an opinion that it might be the Old Gods making reappearance on the scene. There does seem to be a heavy dose of mysticism throughout the second book that, in my mind at least, points in this direction. I guess we’ll all find out soon enough.

5 comments:

Juggling Mother said...

I wouldn't be surprised if it were the God(s) of nature rather than the Xian God, but it's still a god situation imo.

American civilisation was completely gone within less than a week - 24-48 hours in the cities! OK, I know that americans aren't that civilised to start with, but considering the number of survivalist fanatics they have, and their real love of "leaders" I find it hard to get past his ridiculous central concept.

can I borrow your copy rather than waste money on my own;-)?

Unknown said...

If Starbucks couldn't produce coffee, McDonalds stopped re-heating frozen burgers and "I'm a Celebrity Get me out of Here" and "Pop Idol" were no longer being telvised civilisation for the masses would crumble almost instantly!

Totally beleive the premise. We are totally dependent on IT

CyberKitten said...

JM asked: can I borrow your copy rather than waste money on my own ;-)?

I actually don't think that you would get much beyond the brief account of England collapsing in 4 DAYS but if you wanna risk it..... [grin]

rca - you're kidding... right? The West in particular has only been dependent on IT for about 20 years. We've only been technologically 'advanced' for about 50 years. Manned flight is only just 100 years old. The internal combustion engine is only *just* over 100 years old. Even steam power is only only 250+ years old. We had planet spanning civilisations long before technology and I'm sure that things wouldn't just collapse over night without it.

Personally I would miss my computer quite a lot though. Just imagining a world without computer games gives me the chills...

Juggling Mother said...

Lots of things would change quite quickly, but civilisation collapse within a few days? C'mon! we're too stuck in our ways, to onservative, and too used to taking orders! it would take weeks minimum before most of us even realised it was more than a power cut, and months before we worked out the gov't couldn't stay in control.

Of course it would take the gov't years to realise the same thing;-)

And as the UK has never needed armed police to keep control of the civilians, I dooubt that we'd find out that firearms didn't work for a VERY long time. I don't ahve one, or know anyone who does - do you? We might wonder why the canon doesn't fire in April, but then we'd probably put it down to wet gunpowder or something.

Plus, as the police have never needed firearms to keep control of the poulation, why would it make much difference if they didn't ahve them? Honestly, would YOU mess ith a 6'6 burly skinhead Met copper? Or ditto for the army!

I don't think we'd even start to notice there was a real problem till the shops ran out of food - and as we all tend to stock up rather well in the UK (a hangover from times past I think) it wouldn't be the drastic starvation riots! Plus most people live within 1/2 day's walking distance of farmland!

The lack of cars would be an issue, but we'd al just take a holiday from work:-)

Unknown said...

Well I haven't read the book so I'll bow to your knowledge of the scenario and it's likelihood...

...but have you ever noticed everytime there's a major event (natural disaster, power cuts over 8 hours etc.) there are increased attacks, theft and often looting and riots...

We ain't that civilised and technology may be new but its intrinsic to so much of our world I can see a lot of people just having nervous breakdown's if none of it worked anymore...

Mobilising the troops is a fair point but no comms, no orders, no joint efforts, uncertainty, only takes one bullet for the entire thing to escalate out of control...