Dies the Fire

A Novel of the Change

By: S. M. Stirling

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2004 Stirling (P)2008 Tantor

Critic reviews

"The novel's dual themes - myth and technology -should appeal to both fantasy and hard SF readers as well as to techno-thriller fans." ( Publishers Weekly)

Intriguing concept.

What did you love best about Dies the Fire?

The logistics of living in a world without

What did you like best about this story?

Well paced story and interesting characters.

Strong work based on questionable premise

The story is well told. It must really appeal to the folks who live in rural Oregon and Idaho because it seems like they will inherit the earth.

I did not buy the idea that a flash of white light could fundamentally alter physics and chemistry so selectively such that guns, batteries, and steam engines fail to work but an acetylene torch and electro-chemical process within the human body work just fine.

I think this premise stems from the view that slicing someone apart with a sword is more romantic, or pure than firing projectiles into them. Still if a bottle of oxygen (needed for an acetylene torch) holds 3000 psi like usual, you could easily make a projectile weapon with it, not to mention finding a way to blow up an acetylene bottle.

What is so romantic about slinging rocks with a trebuchet? And how did they research design without the internet while feeding themselves from the land?

Still it is a good story if you squint your eyes and give in to the premises. I especially like the role of the witch coven.

Multiple listens.

I love this combination of characters, plot and world (re)building. Narrator is also excellent for this novel. I enjoyed it even more than when I read the paper back some time sgo.

my new favorite series can't wait to read the next

Absolutely loved it, unique story with a very interesting take on a post apocalyptic era.

Excellent world building

Seriously enjoyable story that has me hooked on a new series for sure!

Fantastic narrator

A good story overshadowed by too much Wiccan stuff

This is a good story and different than your typical TEOTWAWKI story because the source of all the outages seems to be Supernatural since gunpowder or even steam pressure no longer work.
I'm not sure if the author is a Wiccan or not but the story is very heavy with wiccan lore and procedures.
I could never quite decide if the author was trying to educate people about something that most people don't know about. Or if he's actually trying to recruit me.
Either way it's a good story and worth the listen. But if you are easily offended by the modern day wicccan movement and don't want to sit through page after page of Wiccan mysticism you might want to pass on this one.
Also as an experienced audio book consumer I can honestly say I've never experienced so many mispronounced words in one book. I'm surprised no one caught this in production.

Mid

The voice actor did a good job. My biggest problem with this story was how convenient the main characters found people with the perfect background for what was needed. 3 million people in Oregon and somehow they found the exact people they needed.

Also what happened to the military? No explanation and not one group shown.

Besides that I also had a problem with how the story constantly jump between the characters.

The narrator’s consistent inability to pronounce anything Celtic.

I’m an old fan of Sterling’s, and know this series well. I was pleased to discover this one in audio format, to spare my eyes during a lengthy illness. So the story gets 5. The reader, for the most part, was quite good: rhythm, clarity, consistent different voices for major characters. But it was abundantly clear he never bothered to look up the actual correct pronunciation of any Gaelic word in the entire book, nor of any odd sorts of names. One does not expect a Yank to be able to recite entire Irish proverbs, of course, but there is such a thing as looking up how to pronounce the name of a major character correctly. It was so exasperating for the mispronunciations to jar an extended good flow of narration! So the reader gets a 3. If the next book has the same person reading, I will not be going on with the series.

I had high hopes but should have left it at book 1

It starts in the real world and slowly loses the plot. It is just another twist on the galloping 'Thrones' machine and it really doesn't get there.

Great Book, Great Narrator

I had never read S.M. Stirling prior to listening to Dies the Fire. It captured my imagination and was thrilling. The narrator, Todd McLaren was perfect for the role and it was easy to tell which character he was. The story begins with a world that has suddenly become "changed" Suddenly, after a white flash, no machines work, no electricity, no computers, no phones, planes fall out of the sky, cars and trucks stop, trains stop and firearms no longer work. The story is the changed world that comes out of this event and how people react. Those that live and those that don't. It is very compelling and makes you wonder what kind of person YOU would be if this really happened!