Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling

One of the great pleasures of being a book freak is discovering a writer who has had many books published, but for whatever reason I am just experiencing for the first time - a writer who you know you will want to read more of and start the slow search of gathering more his or her books into your collection. In S. M. Stirling I am quite pleased to have discovered one such writer. For some reason I have been missing out on S. M. Stirling for many years now (although I have my suspicions as to how that happened), I mean I have run across his books before, but I just never bought one before Dies the Fire - and now that is something that I am in process of changing... if Dies the Fire is any indication of what to expect out of further reading S. M. Stirling, I look forward to accumulating and reading more of his work... the books following Dies the Fire and the Island in the Sea of Time series being high on that list (the “Novels of The Change” is how they are described on the also by page, although around the internets I have come across them referred to as the “Emberverse” and “Nantucket” series as well). Some of his older, and what looks to be out of print, work looks rather interesting as well... S. M. Stirling has been putting out books by himself and in collaboration with others since the mid ‘80’s.

OK, on to my thoughts about the book - Dies the Fire is entertaining speculative fiction to be sure. Combining a post-apocalyptic tale with something that is very reminiscent of epic fantasy (without magic thankfully) or historic fiction, Dies the Fire is the beginning of what promises to be an enjoyable series (and on personal note, S. M. Stirling certainly caught my interest here - as someone who enjoys reading both post-apocalyptic stories and epic fantasies, this book was super fun). In a flash all modern electronics stops working (even guns no longer operate) and now everyone has to both come to grips with the Change but also figure out how to survive in a whole new world. The why and how the Change occurred is not really gotten into, but that doesn’t hurt the story at all. The book follows two groups of people who experience the Change in the Northwest of America, one in Idaho and one in Oregon. Lead by Mike Havel and Juniper Mackenzie respectively, we learn how each group survives through hard work, knowledge, and a little bit of luck (ok, in some instances, whole truckloads of luck). I question the abundance of cannibalism which seems to occur, but heck, people are hungry, so it is quite possible there would be more of this than anybody would really want to imagine... The post-Change world is brutal, stark, and unforgiving - although, it is also not lacking in hope. The concept of what civilization means in such circumstances plays a vital role in making this not just your typical post-apocalyptic adventure story, and it is nice to see serious thought put into how things would change post-Change.

Ever wonder what medieval warfare would like with a modern sensibility? Dies the Fire is most definitely is for you. Stirling dishes out some in depth details on the mechanisms, methodology, and practice of various weapons and warfare techniques now necessary in the post-Change world. He also provides plenty of details into the everyday things which are required to survive from farming, hunting, and lodging to traveling, scavenging, and security. He provides a nice amount of detail without distracting from, or losing focus on, the story. The story does evolve quite naturally and rarely was there a moment where I didn’t want to know what was coming next. I recommend that anyone who finds any of this the least bit interesting give Dies the Fire some serious consideration... I know I will be reading more!

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Caution, a crazy book lover’s rant is soon to follow... starting... Now - I don’t believe there are many books without faults, and Dies the Fire is no exception - although, much of this can be purely subjective, so I rarely get overly into what I don’t like in a book, and looking back at what I’ve written above, I feel I have given my honest thoughts on Dies the Fire, and recommend it quite highly. But with Dies the Fire I have one major gripe that got me a bit angry (irrationally so, I will admit) that I need to get it off my chest - SPOILER WARNING (minor as it may be)... halfway through the book Mike gives Astrid a thoughtful birthday gift. To 98% of the people who read the book, this was probably a nice, maybe even touching, moment in the story. To me it was completely unbelievable - yes, I know, I was able to suspend disbelief, and buy into every other thing in Dies the Fire (which has more than a few convenient coincidences and lucky circumstances), but finding a signed First Edition set of Lord of the Rings in post-apocalypse bum-f*ck Idaho is rather inconceivable to me. Seriously, it would not happen - just how many thousands of home libraries in a non rural state would you have to scour to find them, let alone the ranching and reservation country of Idaho!? An Easton Press or even Folio Society set I could have believed. Maybe even unsigned First Editions (although that probably would have even had my “bullsh*t” radar going as well), but signed too? No f&cking way! OK, I’ll admit, maybe some wealthy, Tolkien loving celebrity owns a Sun Valley vacation home... so, I suppose it “could” happen, but the fact that the gesture would have been just as effective being any nice set of the books seemed liked overkill. Does this is anyway hurt the book as whole? No, it was just a cute moment thrown in to give the reader a happy feeling, but it did pull me out of the story for a bit - and now it gets me thinking about what would be valuable in a post-Change world... Gold? Maybe (Stirling says no). Rare books? Yes, but books on how to do things without modern technology would certainly replace any first edition in your collection (Stirling does touch upon how the usefulness of books is now what dictates their value).