Dies the Fire

Dies the Fire is set in a US where “something” happens and electricity and guns no longer work. It's a solid post-apocalyptic book that compels you to keep reading. However, I had trouble keeping track of all the characters - some of who were really interchangeable. Also, I have a hard time believing that there are THAT many people who would know how to sword-fight in the Willamette Valley. It's good, but I'm not feeling that compelled to finish the rest of the series.

This is the first book in a spin-off series.

In the original trilogy, the island of Nantucket somehow gets caught up in a temporal storm and goes back in time to the bronze-age. Meanwhile, bronze-age Nantucket is sent forward to 1998.

This series started with the original trilogy (Dies the Fire, The Protector's War, and A Meeting at Corvallis). Basically, this book is about what happens in Oregon because of the temporal storm.

I didn't like any of the characters and especially disliked Mike Havel, one of the main protagonists. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it was all those annoying internal observations he made.
The whole Wiccan angle was annoying too......maybe because of Juniper.
I was not drawn in emotionally at all and also found the writing itself of mediocre quality.
Too bad; I had high hopes for Dies the Fire.

A very good book about the end of the world. You have to buy in that some sort of “event” made some of the laws of physics change, but once you resign yourself to that it's smooth sailing. I'm not a huge fan of poetry in my prose or trying to puzzle out how to pronounce a foreign language not even remotely related to my own, so Juniper's parts were sometimes daunting. The other “main” character, Mike, is a bit of a Gary Stu, but even he has exceptions.

Holy cow. That took forever to finish. Sounded liked a great premise to start with - a world plunged into mass chaos due to some big unexplained event that resulted no electricity and guns being useless (I still don't get how a gun won't fire but they can start actual fires)- but it took a wrong turn and got very, very lost along the way. I was so bored in the middle section of the book that got to the point where I didn't much care who fought who or who won (though since this is a series that part is kind of obvious) as long as the number of pages I had left was less than the number of pages I had already read. I just didn't care about any of the characters anymore. Can't see myself ever picking up book 2.

This is the first in a post-apocalyptic series taking place in my home, the Pacific Northwest. An excellent read, although this first book gets a little gritty in the details. Stirling's characterization is phenomenal - he's very good at writing anti-heroes, flawed heroes, and generally people who seem real - there's always some facet of their personality that you just know you'd hate about them if they were real.

Characterization aside, this is a great series. There's generally very little set in the Pacific Northwest, and knowing the places adds a fun element to reading this series. I'm hooked - I can't wait for book 4 to move to paperback!