Just Finished Reading: The Sunrise Lands by S M Stirling (FP: 2007)

It is now Change Year 22. 22 years after the momentous event that stopped all technology down to steam engines and guns working. It is a new world, much reduced in population and largely agricultural. A world with a strange mix of Medieval and modern where memories of the machines is slowly fading into legend and myth. Young Rudi Mackenzie is aware of his place in this world. As heir to Clan Mackenzie he has been groomed from an early age to rule but his youth still calls for adventure. He is about to get his wish and the world will never quite be the same. Stories have been circulating of strange events in Nantucket – both on the night of the change and now, 22 years later. Now he has a more pressing reason to go there. A refugee has arrived with a story to tell and a man to find. After barely surviving an assassination attempt the story is told and Rudi learns his fated path – to travel to Nantucket and solve the mystery of The Change. But other know about Nantucket and plan to do everything in their considerable power to stop him ever reaching there. A man, only known as The Prophet is building an army dedicated to the destruction of all technology – no matter how primitive and Rudi and his eight companions must face them if they have any hope of completing their quest.

I didn’t exactly promise never to revisit the world of The Change after reading the original trilogy some time ago (actually back in December 2007!) but you can see that I wasn’t exactly rushing to read the next books in the series. This wasn’t, as you might guess, because they’ll badly written – they’re not. These books are real pages turners with interesting characters and excellent battle sequences. What leave a bad taste in my mind – if there is such a thing – is the back story (which goes way beyond the merely ridiculous – and the persistent feeling that this is all just a Republican’s wet dream: essentially sweeping aside everything about present society that he doesn’t like and replacing it with everything from the Middle Ages that he does – whist conveniently missing out all the bad bits of being essentially low-tech. On top of that the main characters – although well drawn – and basically superhuman and only remain realistic (overall) by a sliver of a hairs breath. You don’t exactly need a strong stomach to read this but you do have to supress your critical faculties rather more than in a standard SF novel.

I don’t own the next book in the series (at least I don’t think I do) and am not exactly going out of my way to purchase it. I would like to see if my ideas(s) about The Change pan out but with so many other (and probably better) books to read I don’t know if I can bring myself to spend the time and the money to find out. Reasonable if you’re into that sort of thing. Much more apocalypse and post-apocalypse tales to come soon.