Dies the fire

by S. M. Stirling

Paperback, 2004

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

New York : Roc, 2005, c2004.

Description

Fiction. Literature. Science Fiction. HTML: Michael Havel was flying over Idaho en route to the holiday home of his passengers when the plane�s engines inexplicably died, forcing a less than perfect landing in the wilderness. And, as Michael leads his charges to safety, he begins to realize that the engine failure was not an isolated incident. Juniper Mackenzie was singing and playing guitar in a pub when her small Oregon town was thrust into darkness. Cars refused to start. Phones were silent. And when an airliner crashed, no sirens sounded and no fire trucks arrived. Now, taking refuge in her family�s cabin with her daughter and a growing circle of friends, Juniper is determined to create a farming community to benefit the survivors of this crisis. But even as people band together to help one another, others are building armies for conquest�.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member cleverusername2

I have always been fascinated with the post-apocalyptic fiction genre. After some woolgathering on why, I have decided it is because it makes me appreciate the postmodern world I live in. Every time I eat a banana, buy strawberries or raspberries imported from Equator in the middle of winter, or

when I simply turn the hot water on in my sink; it reminds me of how lucky I am. Take tap water for instance! Most people won’t even drink it, but I’m glad I don’t have to drill my own well and stoke up a fire if I want to wash dishes.

Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling brings a new and gripping premise to the post-apocalyptic drama. I read this novel after just having finished The Stand by Stephen King and in many ways it is the pedagogical opposite of King’s work. Much hay is made over how the Superflu in The Stand kills off all but 1% or less of the population on earth but leaves the destructive weapons of the modern age behind, which figures prominently into the plot. In Dies the Fire, something miraculous and terrible happens to the rules of physics causing electrical devices to fail, gunpowder to fizzle rather than explode, and not even steam engines work correctly. The human population of nearly seven billion souls is left intact, though not for long. Without the structure of transportation and the global marketplace the vast majority of humans face mass starvation on an epic scale (hinted at the hundreds of millions, possibly even several billion). Survivors must re-invent farming methods of our ancestors in order to live until the next harvest season. Millions abandon the cities, which have become literal plague grounds. It all makes for great drama. This “Emberverse” world is an unmerciful place, where thuggery and cannibalism and death are all too common.

Most of the action centers around three groups. They become nascent tribal entities really as the novel progresses. Ex-marine Mike Havel leads a family through the Rocky Mountains in Idaho and instills a militaristic discipline in his charges as they take on more and more refugees and form sort of a nomadic band on neo-Turkish mercenaries (numerous references are made to the Mongols, but I think Turkish horse archers of the Crusade period seems more of an apt analogue). In the central Willamette Valley of Oregon, musician and Wicca priestess Juniper McKenzie retreats with her coven to her family’s log cabin. They come to form a neo-Celtic commune and form alliances with farmers from a nearby small town. Further north in Portland a former medieval history and sociology college professor (and Society of Creative Anachronism member) Norman Arminger has far less altruistic plans; using contacts he made while researching street and biker gangs and drug cartels he assembles a mini fiefdom of thuggish “knights”, and generally tries to party like it’s 1066 with him as the supreme monarch. Conflict with the more democratic tribes to the south inevitably progresses.

I love exploring a universe like this and wondering how I would survive if put in their place. I must admit my profession of librarian wouldn’t get me too far, I would most fit in with the community that sprang up around Corvallis, the University Collective, which like Arminger tries to emulate anachronistic technology but does so in a more democratic and humane manner. The Collective was sparsely mentioned in this book, but I am hoping they are more thoroughly explored in the third book in the series: Meeting in Corvallis.

A note on religion: I have read many reviews of this book, many critical of what I like to call the Full-Frontal Paganism content. It has been derogatorily called the Wicca Left Behind series because of its positive and very lengthy treatment of that minority religion. It seems America retains much of its Puritanical knee-jerk fear of all things witchy. Let me say a few things in Stirling's defense. After doing some research I have found that he is in fact atheist, so I don’t think the character of Juniper McKenzie is meant to advocate or draw support for Wicca in any way. He just has a bit of a fetish for using minority character in major roles in his novels, perhaps to make things interesting. In the same vein his Nantucket trilogy has been sardonically called “the greatest black lesbian pirate ninja epic of all time!” because of a so-called alternative lifestyle main character. I used to live in the Pacific Northwest, even in the Willamette valley for a time and there are indeed more Wicca living there than in the general population. You run into them at conventions and Renaissance fairs all the time, some even sporting kilts as they do in the novel. It is not TOO far out there to think that given the skill set of the McKenzie coven and the tools, food, and seeds they brought with them to their hillside retreat they would flourish. It is not TOO far out there to think that the residents of the small town (based on tiny Brownsville, Oregon) would see the witches flourishing and wish to ally with them, no matter how reviled they were in the past. It is not TOO far out there to think that given the great social upheavals after The Change that many of those would convert to a nature worshiping religion like Wicca. Critical reviewers tend to think that Stirling was implying that most of Oregon would become Wicca, when in fact it was just one tiny (by pre-Change standards) community.

Where Stirling goes wrong is in Juniper’s unrelenting spouting of platitudes to her gods (“By the Lord and Lady!” “Goddess forbid it!” etc.) and liberal use of hackneyed Gaelic clichés. I kept putting Juniper up to this litmus test: if she were Catholic or Jewish rather than Wicca would I be as annoyed by her frequent use of Latin or Hebrew sayings? Would I feel my time was wasted by excessive descriptions of liturgical rituals and verbatum recitation of prayers? Yes, I think I would. Wicca is much less exotic to me than the average American so I would rather rituals was edited down a bit. Describe what happened and how the characters felt IF it is important to the story, verbatim descriptions of the ritual are unneeded and vulgar no matter what religion they pertain to.

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LibraryThing member Toast.x2

i recently finished reading S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire. i don't want to come right out and state that it was a bad book because it was not. i actually enjoyed it to a large degree. to be honest though, i am glad someone loaned it to me instead of being an out right buy.

in Dies the Fire, a flash

of light crosses the globe, killing all electronics. its similar to an electromagnetic pulse, but unlike an EMP, more is affected than just electronics. in a standard EMP (assume non-nuclear), the fluctuations in a magnetic field cause a wave reaction. interactions with that wave actually induce/generate electricity which shorts things out, often permanently. in the "books of the change", this pulse seems to have actually changed the laws of physical properties. as an example, gunpowder is useless, it still burns, but at a far lower temperature and speed. as a result, pressure does not build and a bullet will not fire.

lets get to the reason i didn't fully care for the book, the issue of masturbation. its not that characters are hyper-sexual, nor it is filled with graphic scenes, more that the author was wanking his "i am smart" cock while he wrote. the story wanders back and forth between two diverse groups of survivors. each group is slathered in Stirling's self love as he over describes every aspect of their world. we understand within the first 50 pages that the people in the story are going to have to learn to do everything with out technology. we get that they are going to starve to death if they do not manage to store food and learn to grow crops. this does not mean that we need to read about every aspect of medieval farming. nor do we need to read a full conversation determining which crops should go into which field. this kind of self gratifying, masturbatory knowledge flaunting was annoying as hell.

luckily, by the time you reach the last 5th of the book, Stirling seems to advance the plot much faster as he starts cutting off chapters early, leaving you to infer how it turns out based on future events. basically, he stops spoon feeding us his spunk, and instead gives us the benefit of an assumed intelligence, and with it, the ability to understand simple concepts.

it was a good book, and i plan to read the others in the series, but.... they are low on my priority list.
i think the saving grace for the book was that it all takes place in the pacific northwest where i live. reading about things i know, on fire, destroyed, or filled with cannibals.. its is kinda fun from that perspective.

~~

anyone planning to read this should note that:

1. "witches" are not evil (you will be told this in snarky conversation no less than 3 times)
2. the Society for Creative Anachronisms (SCA) will rule the world when everything turns to shit. in case you are unaware who the SCA are, they are the people who study and recreate old timey stuff like knights and jousting. they are also the folks who (yeah yeah) like witches, allow themselves to be poorly represented by 10-12 fools playing sword fight in public parks and yelling "thou art a mother-fucker" when you clothesline them WWF style as you run past (oh to dream dreams).

--
xpost RawBlurb.com

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LibraryThing member DebsReviews

Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling is the story of the end of the world as we know it. In an instant all modern technology stops working. Planes fall from the sky. Cars stop where they are. Machines die. Electricity doesn't work. Even guns won't fire. Cities are overpopulated and can't feed

themselves. Disease is rampant. Hungry people starve or resort to cannibalism. Within the first year ninety percent of the Earth's population is dead. This is the story of some of the survivors and the new societies they built during that first year.

Juniper Mackenzie is a folksinger who supplements her income performing at Renaissance Faires. She is also the mother of a young deaf teenager. Juniper's quick thinking saves the lives of a number of her friends when she leads the way to the country house she inherited in the Willamette Valley. There her group sets out to plant crops, to learn ancient arts such as bow making, and to survive that first year. It's hard work, and there are those who would take the results of their hard earned labor. This community develops into a celtic pagan type community known as Clan Mackenzie.

Mike Havel is a charter pilot and former marine. He is in the air when the Change takes place. His immediate thoughts are how to land the plane and keep his passengers alive. The Larson family who were his passengers tell Mike about their country house in the Willamette. It is a good place they believe to survive. Mike and the Larson family set out for the house and acquire a lot of people with various skills on the way. Everyone is going to have to work together if they want to survive. They also develop good fighting skills and learn to fight on horseback and in armor. They become known as The Bear Killers, and to his consternation Mike is known as Lord Bear.

Norman Arminger and his wife Sandra are sociopaths, but they are skilled members of the Society For Creative Anachronism familiar with the production and use of ancient weaponry. Norman is also a history professor specializing in medieval Europe. Together Norman and Sandra along with members of various gangs set out to build a castle and feudal society going so far as to enslave people who don't have useful skills. This group becomes known as The Protectorate.

There are other groups which are seen less in this volume. For example the city of Corvalis is run now by the university. There are also two teenagers who are Tolkien fanatics who will grow up to found their own group. There are lots of others.

This story is a science fantasy, but aside from the obvious premise it's easy to miss the fantastic here. Later in the series the fantastic becomes more central. In this installment survival is key, and it is fascinating to see the creative solutions the characters employ with the resources they have available. The author is impressively knowledgeable about what it would take to survive. It's a thought provoking story that makes me ask over and over, "How would I fare?" I don't like to think of my answer.

Very highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member AnnieHidalgo

Initially felt like DeLint, who I feel has a tendency to tell interesting stories in a sometimes annoyingly and sometimes endearingly bad way. But mid-book, he lost me with silliness - the black plague begins to spread. The charm of the book was that it posed a 'what if' medieval scenario in modern

times. Giving moderners the plague is carrying the conceit a bit too far. Also, I get the feeling that Stirling has spent a lot of time hanging out with Wiccans and SCA-types, and is working out his feelings about that - he seems alternatively attracted to, and repelled by, aspects of those lifestyles, and describes them with an anthropologist's tendency to view each character's every quirk as being somehow related to these lifestyles. But what eventually turned me off of this book for good was his sorry approach to man-woman relationships. People who, throughout the book, seemed to be innately decent, were inexplicably utterly without a conscience when it came to romantic entanglements. People can behave strangely, in life, or in out of the ordinary situations. But Stirling's characters at heart all seemed to care about nothing but themselves. They were too busy amusing their author to become real people. Too bad. Stephen King has done this post-apocalyptic thing better. And DeLint does the modern fantasy angle better. Skippable.

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LibraryThing member sara_k

Dies the Fire chronicles the changes, trials, and lives of several groups (who later interact) following a strange technological apocalypse. With a flash of light electronics and explosives have stopped working, planes drop from the sky and create fires that ravage cities unable to use their

motorized pumps, refrigeration failure causes massive loss of stored foods, the government (local and national) fails.

I really enjoy S. M. Stirling's books about "the change" and its results for the people on Nantucket. As in Elizabeth Moon's books the military strategy often goes over my head but the people and stories grab me. Dies the Fire is the other side of the story, the people who don't go back in time but loose much of their technology.

I have some non-technological skills - I can sew, quilt, make candles, cook from scratch over a fire, plant and weed, do a little minor woodcarving - but I have none of the skills that could keep me alive in S.M. Stirling's worlds. The people who survive longest are those with weapon skills then those with horse training/riding and medical knowledge and supplies. The ideal is a group which can protect itself while maintaining a respect for other lives.

One group in the book is lead by a woman who is Wiccan. As their clan grows and becomes, through holding of land, fighting skills, management, and care for their neighbours, influential in their area more and more people join their religion.

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LibraryThing member GallifreyArchive

The characters are well written and mostly sympathetic, although the level of Wiccan background information jammed in there was annoying and tended to throw me out of the story and also make me initially dislike one of the main characters. I'm not anti-witch, just anti bad writing and whiny

characters who call on their deity/deities every 5 lines. To be fair, though, Juniper does improve over the novel and while there's just as much Wicca thrown in your face the whole way through it gets easier to tune it out and focus on events.

As an avid D&D player who probably knows too much about various historical weapons, I liked the practicality of the weapons and tactics used. I liked the realism of people getting hurt and dying when they did stupid things. I liked the various societies that formed up around lucky, charismatic leaders, and the ways people tried to resolve the inevitable problems. I liked the focus on farming, planting and harvesting food, and that the people who survived were the ones who realised that they needed to get crops planted so that they'd be able to eat over the winter.

My main problem with the story was suspension of disbelief. It's just too convenient for electricity, engines, gunpowder, internal combustion of all sorts, and even high tech steam engines to all stop working, and yet leave everything else as is. It reads like an SCA or Renfair recreationist's dream scenario: no guns or engines, but we can still have fire and napalm; no electricity, not even batteries, but magnets still work. Steam works, and gases work exactly as they do now, but you simply can't get the pressure up to run a steam engine (that was the last straw for me; I was prepared to accept the no gunpowder rule as a narrative necessity, but that just doesn't make sense at all). I'd have liked the story very much more if it had just flat out said it's magic, or else gone with the global EMP option. The scenario as stated just didn't work for me, and the half-hearted "but I'm no scientist" explanations also didn't work for me. After all, they found people who had the skills & experience to make yew longbows, train horses, and make siege engines, but no one with any idea of how physics works who would talk about it for the reader. Lazy writing.

That said, I enjoyed reading the novel. I've read better examples of the genre, and I'm including the 'onoes, I've fallen into a low tech world with a bit of high tech knowledge' type of story in this same genre, but this wasn't bad. I just wish the premise had been stronger, or at least internally consistent.

If you want a better look at a similar idea, try Fey by Paul Kidd.

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LibraryThing member Aerrin99

I love me some post-apoc, and I've read a lot of it - this is one of the better on my list. It did some things very differently, from having all tech - including cars and guns - go completely dead to its complete focus on the successful formation of post-Change communities.

I really enjoyed the

exploration of what could happen in different areas where different strong personalities - or lack thereof - could shape the odds of survival. I also enjoyed Stirling's treatment of women - who are both present and not all the same!

That said, there are a few things that bug: for one, the 'wow, what a lucky coincidence' coincidences were so many that I started to question whether there was meant to be a divine guiding force of some sort watching over our main protagonists. I mean, how many people are /you/ acquainted with who can do any of the following: shoot moving targets with bow and arrows, make bows and arrows, create functional swords from cars, use pre-industrial farming equipment, swordfight... the list goes on and on. BOTH of our protagonists manage to acquire people who can do almost all of these, and more, in a very short period of time.

They also both spend a lot of time really wishing no one would call them Lord or Lady but not doing a dang thing to stop it.

But if you can ignore those points, Stirling has a heck of a tale to tell, and a good voice to do it in. I'm picking up the sequels ASAP.

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LibraryThing member dictator555

This may be my favorite SM Stirling book, and I love Stirling! The Island in the Sea of Time series was awesome, but I find that the Emberverse really fulfills my need for post-apocalyptic fiction.

This book is totally fun. It covers some pretty dark subject matter, but somehow stays fun and not so

dark that's it's depressing. I think it's because Stirling focuses so much on building. Everything collapses, and then it's built back up. There's a feeling of hope throughout the book and the whole Emberverse series.

I currently convinced my boyfriend to read Island in the Sea of Time, and he's currently on the second in the Nantucket series. His only complaint about Stirling is the amount of detail Stirling gives. But I figure that you just have to learn how to read him. You read the details that interest you, and skip the rest. His long discourses on myriad subjects (metal working, neo-paganism, beer makings, etc.) are easy to spot in advance and simply skip if you aren't interested. And if you are interested in the subject, so much the better!

I totally love this book and this series. I recommend it to everyone who might have the slightest interest, and many of them have agreed with me that it's awesome!

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LibraryThing member rocalisa

An electrical storm over Nantucket causes all electronic devices to cease to function-computers, radio, even firearms-and plunges the world into a darkness humanity is unprepared to face. But as some people band together to help, others are building armies for conquest...

This was my second DNF in a

row, and that fact was even more of a disappointment than in the case of Outlander. This was a read for a book group and I'm the one who nominated it. I thought the concept was fascinating - electricity and even firearms stop working for no apparent reason and everyone is left to cope. I got about of a third of the way through and just found myself stopping reading. I don't even know why. It wasn't specifically the characters or the plot or even anything I can pinpoint about the writing style. I just didn't want to go on.

This is the second time I've tried to read Stirling and I had the same reaction then. I started Island in the Sea of Time, where the island of Nantucket gets thrown 3000 years back in time and again, the people have to find a way to survive. (And yes, it does seem the two events are connected and apparently Stirling is starting to show that in his latest book in the series.)

I find this incredibly frustrating, especially since the discussion on my book group suggests the story stayed interesting and thought-provoking. These are books I want to have read, but don't actually want to read. The idea works for me brilliantly, the books themselves don't. So, again I guess I'm just going to have to accept that this author doesn't work for me and move on to something else. A pity, as I still think I'm missing a good story.

Dies the Fire
S. M. Stirling
Did Not Finish

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LibraryThing member egrant5329

I started this series with book #4, so reading book #1 explained a lot of things. On its own I thought it was just ok, but the books later in the series are better. I liked the authors take on who and how people survive when modern systems shut down and fail.

LibraryThing member Noeshia

I really liked this book, so why did it get a 3? Because I argued with my husband over the inconsistency of the universe, and as much as I don't want to admit it, he's right. It's well written in my opinion, and the idea IS neat, but the thing that turns off the technology is inconsistent and too

unexplained or even dealt with. I'm cool with that in that it only moderately bothers me, but it was too much for my husband. I'll be honest, if I was trying to read this in physical book format, I'd probably not read this series further, but since it's in audio format I'm going to try a few more before I judge more harshly. There really was a lot to enjoy, such as how excellent a job the author did writing about a Wiccan coven, or how hard it would be for people to go back to plowing to get their food on such short notice. The pitfalls are the inconsistent universal changes in the Change, the fact that everyone you follow in the story accepts that the Change is wide-scale so quickly, and the heavy concentration of people with primitive technology hobbies in the book. I know that I would probably move on quickly because that's just how I work, but I doubt very many people would, and I'd really have liked to see that struggle more in this book. It needed some changes to really live up to its potential as a story.

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LibraryThing member AMKitty

Unabridged audiobook

At 35%, I am enjoying this book, for the most part. Two things are really grating my nerves. The first is how annoying the narrator’s attempts at Scots and English accents has become, especially when one character even indicates she adopts her accent for performances onstage.

I’d rather have an out-of-character American accent over a poorly done one. The second irritation is the Wiccan character’s constant invocation to the goddess and/or god. Seriously, it seems like every other thought or statement of hers is this way. No, I’m not a hater - I actually find much in Wicca to recommend it. But, come on! Even if a person is devout in their belief system, this constant iteration is preachy and distracting. Only my general interest in where this story goes is keeping me here. I just hope I don’t hit the end of my tolerance before the end of the story.

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LibraryThing member JLsBibliomania

Honey introduced me to Steve Stirling. Quite a clever premise and some interesting characters. Will be interesting to see where the series goes

LibraryThing member maggieliz

fantastic fiction about 'the end of the world' (as we know it) told from several perspectives

Two thumbs up - this is a must-read beginning to an impressive trilogy

LibraryThing member DevonShea5

I'm not one for post-apocalyptic books. However, I very much enjoyed this novel. I'll be getting the other two in the series and probably the next trilogy set in this world.

After a weird flash of light, all technology dies. The world is thrown back into pre-Industrial Revolution technological times

- actually, before that since gunpowder won't even work. The story follows a few groups of survivors and their efforts to adapt to a very different world than they are used to.

Mr. Stirling does go a tiny bit overboard on the Wicca stuff, but one can ignore that if needed. All in all, it's a strong beginning to a trilogy.

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LibraryThing member jcopenha

A great novel that keeps you engaged the whole time. Wonderful descriptions of the land without getting in the way of the story. Great characters. I'll definitely read the rest in the series.

LibraryThing member jpsnow

Page-turner in the genre of dystopian fiction. A disturbance in space (apparently intentional), disables all primary sources of electric, mechanical, and explosive power. Two leaders help their respective groups of survivors to persist among the chaos of disease, famine, and new gangs of power.

LibraryThing member Hartman762

Has a lot in common with the rest of this author's work. Fairly weak characterization (he seems to be improving on this) but highly interesting scenarios if you can suspend disbelief. In this case, the laws of physics suddenly change and there is no more combustion greater than a normal campfire,

nor is there any electricity. The author is obviously interested in the Wiccans, and as others have said these guys are tiresome, but the other groups are pretty interesting.

I thought an awful lot about this book, what I would do if this happened, etc. And in the end you can't give a much higher compliment than that. This particular book has more of a post holocaust element that is missing from the later books.

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LibraryThing member elwood_mom

Warning: when you start reading this book, also start putting aside the cash to buy the sequels. You will be hooked!

Alternate.... history? Future? Hard to say. Machines, engines, gunpowder, batteries - all no longer work after a mysterious light appears over Nantucket. So how would you survive if,

technologically, you were thrown back to Medieval times?

I don't want to say more because part of the joy in reading this series is discovering how people survive, as well as what's helpful and what's not.

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LibraryThing member BenjaminHahn

What a great idea! Setting a story in the Pacific Northwest is nothing new, but then add in a mysterious diasaster that strips humanity of electricity, steam power, working gun powder, and combustion energy. Add some wiccans, some U.S. marines, a couple hundred CSA nerds, OSU, some gangstas, and

Tolkien die hards. Shake it all up, what do you get, a plot that satisfies the geek within. Oh how I love Portland. Its such great city, but in Dies the Fire, it becomes the center of evil oppression run by brutal thugs who in turn are controlled by Nobles from the Society for Creative Anachronisms. Oregon State University, my Alma Mater, becomes a free city-state, run by the Engineering and Agricultural Faculty. You get the idea. All of this is caused by some mysterious "change" connected to the island of Nantucket (which is the source of another trilogy by Stirling) and Dies the Fire becomes the first in a series of 6 books, 5 of which are currently written. If you love alternative history, and have a touch of the eccentric in you, you will love this series.

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LibraryThing member donp

Loaned to me today. It's a novel, but I'll give it the "100-page" test.

LibraryThing member hamredb

A post-apocalyptic TV series called "Jericho", as well as the unstable state of the world got me interested in this genre. This is the first of a 3-part trilogy; I felt it was worthwhile to complete the trilogy though I was ready to be done with it by the end. certainly this 1st book was the best.

LibraryThing member hjjugovic

Bizarre but enjoyable novel of the collapse of society, where Wiccans take the lead in survival. Fun stuff!!

LibraryThing member crazybatcow

Started this book with big hopes since I love post-apocalyptic stuff. It was not finishable...

It was obviously written by a geeky male around 35 years old. It's not quite as bad as Sawyer's work (probably because it's a bit more "look at how clever I, the writer, am" than "look how stupid the

government is") but it's bad enough.

Of course, it's not HORRIBLE like the Melanin Apocalypse which was unfinishable because it was just plain terrible... Dies the Fire still has some decent stuff in it, especially if you're a boy-man.

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LibraryThing member pauliharman

What would happen if one day electricity failed to work? SM Stirling gives us a window onto the initial chaos, and shows the usual survival types struggling to build a new medieval society.

Fewer