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)

Back to the Middle Ages

Where does Dies the Fire rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I have listened to all of this series and this lead in book is very good. Stirling fully introduces the characters and develops them. The degeneration of society may seem quick but this is fiction.

What other book might you compare Dies the Fire to and why?

Others in the series, I have read a few other post collapse novels, this less "prepper" and more fantasy.

Have you listened to any of Todd McLaren’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The narrator says BARRED instead of BARED.

Any additional comments?

No

Dies The Fire

I have listened to this story over and over. I love most of the characters and really hate the villains. The series is great .

Why? Why does Juniper have an Irish accent?

What did you love best about Dies the Fire?

I've been a long time fan of these books, so I was looking forward to listening to them. Unfortunately, every scene with Juniper in makes me cringe to hear :-(

Who was your favorite character and why?

Too many to name - I love competence and there's a vast amount of it in this set.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Todd McLaren?

I'd have loved to hear what James Marsters did with the book.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes - every time the narrator voiced Juniper, I wanted to cringe. It's a plot point that she's an American who occasionally puts on an Irish accent for the effect it has - voicing her thoughts with one just shows the narrator hasn't read the book before recording.

Any additional comments?

It's amazing how something so small can totally ruin what should be an awesome listening experience

Great Story and fantastic Narrator

For me the story being told is critical, but with audiobooks, the narration is just as important. With S.M. Stirling enthralling series about what happens when the world is thrown into 'The Change,' complimented by the topnotch narration of Todd McLaren, you get the best of both worlds. I've listened to the first 2 books of this series and I can't wait to download the third next month!

Middle of the Road

‘Dies the Fires’ is a post-apocalyptic book, with a bit of magic and medieval history combined. Not only do electronics not work, but many of the things people would use post apocalypse to survive (Guns) do not work, which pushes everyone into a middle ages lifestyle. The story is slow in the middle but had a good beginning and end. The characters were likable, but overall people in general seemed to change drastically a bit too quick after the change occurred. Also there was just way to much wiccan talk for me, which I normally wouldn’t mind but since it really didn’t add to the story I could have done without it.

Performance was pretty good but sometimes everyone sounded like they were either from Scottland or Ireland.

Just what I was looking for.

Such a fun fantasy story set in modern day Oregon. Sure there are a few hokey things like gunpowder won't work anymore, but all in all it is a really enjoyable listen. The apocalypse has happened and there is no explanation as to why, but that does not take away from the story. Everyone is scrambling to survive and you really start to think "what would you do?"
The story develops well and keeps your interest throughout. the narration was great and if your looking for an apocalyptic book without zombies.....this is it.
Certainly worth the credit.

Dies The Fire

Excellent! I drive for a living and I error did not down load the 3rd part of the audio book. I had to go home and get it because it had me so rivveted. Dual subject; you just knew the author was going to have the two groups come together. Very easy listen; almost believable. Our world is in a quandary and very fragile. We have world leaders who don't really care about other countries let alone their own people.

This is my favorite story.

This story captures my imagination like no other. I find myself reading it every couple of years. It is well crafted, and creates a world that fascinates, and begs the question “what if”.

Good Start to a great series!

This was a fun book. "something" happens to change the world and now humanity has to adjust to survive without modern conveniences. There have been other authors with the same concept, but I loved the way S.M. Sterling pulled it off. The characters are believable and likable. Groups splinter off and those who are clever and willing, adapt, survive and prosper. I can just see the cities and suburbs panicking and motionless with fear. Any book that can make me both wince and laugh out loud are more than worth the credits! Todd McLaren's voice is rich, talented and gripping!

A Great Study in Human Nature and Conflict

S.M. Sterling is quoted as having said "There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot."

So first, don't be dissuaded from listening to this book by those who complain about the amount of “wiccan propaganda” or pagan jargon in the book. I am not a religious person and usually chafe rather quickly at the sometimes constant interjection of (the mostly Christian) religious dogma within much of the survivalist literature out there today. This book is not about witches or wiccans. Only one main faction, out of several, is wiccan. There are pagans of various sorts, christians, buddhists, native americans, and even a few agnostics and atheists thrown in. Sterling does a masterful job of weaving this wide array of belief systems into the survival aspect of the story, and like everything else in the book, he does so in great detail at times. But that's real life. Humans throughout history have believed, and based their societies upon, a wide assortment of dogmas, myths and utter fantasies. Regardless of their spiritual bent, the tribes, clans and cultures with the strongest leaders, best social cohesion and greatest ability to mobilize, organize and prepare have prospered relative to those less able. Sterling has simply applied that fact to the changed world he has created, and he’s done it in an interesting, appropriate and believable way. People thrown back to the time before machinery and gunpowder would likely rally around those with similar beliefs as one mechanism of their efforts to survive. Those groups who prospered would likely attract converts. Dies the Fire describes that process from several different religious perspectives.

Second, the criticism that Dies the Fire is written for D&D fanatics by a D&D fanatic are equally baseless. How else would you survive in a world without guns, engines and electronics if not for swords, armor, archers and castles? How does climate and geography impact the choice of these weapons and fortifications? Who of the 21st century, male and female, would survive and prosper in such a world given such choices? And who would die, become slaves or turn cannibal? These are among the questions Sterling tries to answer in this book, and the rest of the Emberverse series. I don’t think Sterling has a D&D fetish. But he does seem to have an inexhaustible grasp of medieval history, particularly warfare, field fortifications and individual combat. I used to be an infantry officer and a military history buff. I find very little within his description of combat to quibble about, though admittedly I was never trained in swords and lances…more’s the pity.

Sterling is a very descriptive writer. If you don’t like detail this book (and the series) are not for you. There is a tremendous amount of medieval-style warfare, combat and combat logistics, training and political intrigue, written in a way that puts you right in the middle of the action, or right in the mind of the speaker. That is interspersed with a great deal of descriptive information about primitive agriculture, horsemanship, construction and a host of other related aspects of survival. He describes the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the environment, the food, the terrain, the battles and the human relationships, providing the listener with a multi-dimensional landscape that few authors can replicate. I love the style and the detail.

Add to this the truly amazing performance of Todd McLaren. He is one of my favorite narrators, giving life and a unique personality to each character. Yes, as a former Marine, his pronunciation of the word corpsman (pronounced core-man) as “cores-man” is a bit irritating…both times he says it in the book’s 22 hours. I can live with that. He has an ability to change voices from male to female, young to old, Irish to Jewish to English to mid-western to just about anything without missing a syllable and doing so plausibly. No two characters out of the book’s dozens sound the same. Men sound like men, women like women. The Celtic accents, and most of the others, sounds fairly genuine to me. No one person can do all that without a few voices sounding…odd. But some real people sound odd, so I’m not finding fault with that either. His reading style, the tone of his voice and his patterns of speech are easily understood and conducive to listening for hours at a time comfortably.

Overall, it’s a great book and a great series. Sterling takes late 20th Century society, throws it back to the 13th century and lets human nature adapt and build a new world. The stark contrast between good and evil seems apparent at first. But later you find yourself questioning what you would do, what you would believe and how you would go about surviving. There are countless nuances to survival that aren't captured in most survival stories. This book makes you think about the world and the end of the world as we know it in a very unique way. I highly recommend it.