Just Finished Reading: Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling.
I enjoyed this a lot so fairly raced though its 500 plus pages. The story is a post-apocalyptic one – but with a twist. A strange storm forms over Nantucket followed by a brilliant flash of light. Immediately all technology goes dead. No phones, no electricity, no cars. Planes drop out of the sky and fires burn out of control. But bizarrely other things stop working too. Like guns….
So begins the collapse of human civilisation seen mainly through the eyes and experiences of the two main protagonists and heroes of the piece. Mike Havel is an ex-marine who is caught during The Change flying a family to their wilderness retreat, whilst Wiccan High Priest Juniper Mackenzie is singing in a bar in Oregon. The novel basically follows how Mike & Juniper together with their followers cope with the new realities of life.
I thought this book was lots of fun. Stirling writes very well indeed and it’s not long before you really care about the many well drawn characters that populate the Changed world. I did have a few ‘niggles’ though. I found some of the situations overly contrived and some of the characters had far too many useful skills for my liking. I thought that his dismissal of the regular military in the New Order rather puzzling too – so far they’ve hardly been mentioned - to say nothing regarding just how quickly people adapted to a ‘medieval’ lifestyle and the lack of any real 'horror' as literally millions of people died, though I guess that wouldn’t be very entertaining would it?
Anyway [grin]. Despite all of the above this is still a cracking read. If you like post-apocalyptic tales this is just for you. If you like tales of chivalry and heroism (with a serious twist) then this is for you too. It’s also the first book in a trilogy – so with luck I might even find out why The Change happened and (more importantly) who did it.
Highly recommended (with a few caveats).
3 comments:
http://blink-by-malcom-gladwell.blogspot.com/
If you liked DTF I recommend you go over to Stirling's website - www.smstirling.com - which has preview chapters of the two sequels (Protector's War, which is already out, and A Meeting at Corvallis). There's also some interesting additional material that probably won't make it into print such as appendix on how Britain coped after the event. Short form - mostly appallingly, however while the government collapses in catatonic shock a small group of military officers acting without orders manage to get the royal family to the Isle of Wight and seal it off from the chaos. When the dieback on the mainland is pretty much complete they are then able to start recolonising it from Wight. The resulting society is not one that would please Guardian columnists:-)
There's also a link to his Yahoo newsgroup there where he's usually happy to answer any questions you may have - for example, he's defended the surprising predominance of super-skilled people by pointing out the extremely skilled and extremely lucky are the only people likely to survive in an environment where 95% of the population are dead in the first six months. But yes, the way they all manage to link up so easily is a tad convenient.
Oh, and it's a good time to be a Mormon too (New Deseret is apparently emerging as the major power on the far side of the Rockies) - apparently belonging to a religion that makes it an article of faith that you keep a year's supply of non-perishable food and water handy does have its upside after all...
Thanks random. I'll check it out.
I'd heard about what he said regarding the fate of the UK. Probably pretty accurate. No way we could support 50+ million people here without technology.
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