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)

Excellent

Loved it and it does start a wonderful series of books that keep you waiting for the next book.

hmm...I like the TV show better than the book.

Thought about reading a book from the series that inspired the new show Revolution. Well I am glad the producers did not stick to the plot SM Stirling presented in the novel. He was way to wicken/ren fest honoring. gesh, I can put up with a lot I don't agree with....every political season demonstrates that...but this one was a little overboard. But, if you can look past the wicken homage shown in each chapter some of the story line is interesting...I really liked the island in the sea of time series much more. His quality of writing shows through a lot better when he is not trying to convince the reader they should become part if some druidic tradition.

One of my favs

A friend gave me this book in paperback when I asked for something to read while visiting for a week. They never got it back. :) I own most of the series in paperback and even got my 20 year old son reading it. I'm a fan so when I got Audible back in 2012 I used my free book on this title. I've listened to it twice (just got back to audible after a few years away) and have read it probably 3 times. The narrator does a great job with voices and inflection. I'm not a professional anything (unless you wanna give me a job as a reader and then I'll be happy being a professional reader lol) so I can't tell you if his accents are accurate but he doesn't sound ridiculous speaking as a female and uses the full range of depth and tone to carry both sexes. It's easy to know when one female is speaking as opposed to another, same with the men. So I'm a fan of the narrator, author, and most certainly of the series.

Sexist and plagiarist

Totally stole a line from Billy Joel's "Piano Man". Wonder what else the author stole. Barely got through the first chapter because the character is such a sexist and has a serious superiority complex. Not sure I'll be able to finish the second chapter.

Engaging story

The story line of building up a society from nothing is very engaging, emotional and detailed. Narration is decently paced, but some pronunciation issues and a crazy amount of mouth and throat noises, usually i dont mind but when it sounds like the narrators got cotton mouth for half the book it grates on me.

An interesting premise set in my neck of the woods

Came for the geography stayed for the story. Entertaining use of place names the story centered within 30 miles of the house. Nice to revisit after all these years. I understand the series visits many areas of the country if he knows all the places visited in the detail here he knows the country very well indeed. Good page turner especially if he is writing about your region. Good gimmick to found the series on looking forward to the rest of it.

An interesting take on the pre and post apocalypse

An entertaining tale of survival in a world turned upside down when all technology is suddenly rendered useless. A solid narrator, great writing, and at 22 hours a great value.

A wonderful story with exceptional characters

This is a great read the plot is wonderful the charcters exceptional. A thrill from start to finish!

Annoying

Struggled to read half the book then gave up. The premise was extremely enticing but the characters really took away the plausibility of it all. The religious focus was quite annoying, and the main guy simply felt like a Hollywood Jason Statham, capable of everything and skillful beyond measure. This would be thrilling in a B flick, but it loses when presented in a book.

Well presented and interestingly written.

Enjoyable to the point to where I need to continue the series and follow the characters.