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)

I liked this one... But don't tell anybody.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes I had a great time listening to this one. It was a fun adventure. You have to get over some things and just immerse yourself into the story. Did you know there are almost 10 million horses in the US ... "who would have thought." I was having a real hard time believing that there had been this many horses rounded up for military use in this story. So I had to look it up. (your thinking lol THATS WHAT you had a hard time believing)

Would you be willing to try another book from S. M. Stirling? Why or why not?

Yes, From the reviews I am fearing the second book however. The whole Wicca thing was one of my un-favorite parts about this book... and apparently he has a whole bunch of ramblings about Wicca in the second book. I think for the re-installation of a magic system onto earth. I would have gone with something brand new. (with a nice bright shine to it.)

What about Todd McLaren’s performance did you like?

I liked this guy. He is no five star but he tries real hard and I appreciate that.

Could you see Dies the Fire being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

Sure I don't see why not. For a show like this though Ron Perlman is mandatory.. not the main star... but in the show... mandatory.

Any additional comments?

I dont plan on reading the second book right away. So I dont know if this is a pass or a must read. I heard the series gets better. You know that book in your favorite series that was just bad. AHHH Lord of Chaos Robert Jordan Cheewww I feel that this second book might be that.

Great until Book 5....

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend the first 4 books... only. After the 4th book it becomes a series of excruciatingly detailed battles. It gets so boring, the story lags since it's all about the battles.

Would you be willing to try another book from S. M. Stirling? Why or why not?

I have listened to the first 5 books.

What about Todd McLaren’s performance did you like?

Great!

Did Dies the Fire inspire you to do anything?

no

Any additional comments?

It's sad, I just can't continue listening to find out how this series ends. Seems like the it's more about the length of the books and not the quality of the storyline. It's a generational series, the first generation was great, the second generation just has one battle after the other and the story moves so slowly.

A great book!!

Starting from the event called The Change through the first few years of post apocalypse recovery, this book is an amazing listen! It follows three separate groups as they figure out how to survive. I've read the series and now I'm happily starting to listen to them!

love it.

the first book sets up rhe tone for the 1st series nicely. as you continue the series it will continue to evolve and explain more of what is happening and why. I also recommend some of his other book series as they intertwine and explain more but don't physically touch each other.

Returned It

Just too ridiculous. Had potential to be entertaining, but far too much distracting corny nonsense. Knew I should stop when I found myself rolling my eyes in annoyance or thinking about how ridiculous that last scene was, instead of paying attention to the story. I could give examples but there are so many, so quickly, that anyone listening could find plenty of their own within the first hours.

I dont like using expressions like Mary Sue but this thing digs so deep into that it cannot be helped. Like the author was going for the Mary Sue award or something.

And the pacing… clumsy and absurdly fast. Sure many of us rightfully complain when a story takes too long to get started… but thats not even what Im talking about. Portland conquered roughly 3 days after the event by a history teacher with an SCA fetish? Not only was it way too fast, way too easy, and missing a great chance to tell an interesting part of the overall tale… no…Portland, the land of ANTIFA morons who love to smash things and set fires? Like that place isn’t ready for a riot with no apocalypse needed. One molotov cocktail or acid bomb and Mr History Knight is in a world of hurt (thats the problem with armor… you are trapped in your protection). Stable, high quality glass bottles and a wide variety of accelerants and acids would be readily available… unlike the true olden days when the former was hard to make and the latter rare and not well understood (even if gasoline is a magical fail now there are many other options - but Im not sure gasoline wont work, since i stopped reading… combustion engines themselves are dead, but that in itself doesn't mean gasoline, oils, alcohols, other chems wont burn, and The Protector in his first appearance makes a comment about dousing someone in gasoline and burning them alive). Would be difficult for the “event” to make acids inert since that would result in a host of biological and natural world problems. Just because you are knocked back to medieval times, does not mean you have to limit your thinking to what a medieval brain assumed and accepted about the world and warfare, even with magical limitations. But my point isnt to label flaws in world design… its how quick a major city fell to what is suggested to be an instantaneously organized and equipped unstoppable force, which it wouldnt be. Within the chaos of a large city falling apart… various kinds of molotovs are just one of many ways to ruin an SCA day. The real threat wouldn't be individual attackers but the mass of chaotic violence itself and the difficulty traveling, communicating and organizing that fast in the middle of such a mess.

Im not going to get into the Irish brogue goddess… other than to say in a life of reading many books, she ranks very high on “the most cringe-worthy” list. Doesn't take much to make Wicca look ridiculous, just like if there was a Christian commune in the story where the leader went around saying things like - “Thou shalt planteth thy corn or I shall smote thee!” Yeah thats a group Id join… long term success stamped all over it and its prioritization of linguistic affectations. I can see putting on a fake Irish brogue when performing on stage at bars as a minstrel… but doing it as a “goddess” while also reverting to made up “wicca speak” to create the illusion of mystical being… ends up coming off like someone trying too hard and too obviously to be something they are not. Like a religious charlatan rather than someone to be taken seriously. But the busker high priestess / massive track of land owner (yeah, that’s a convenient inheritance to move the plot along fast), talks like that all the time, everywhere, before and after. In the real world someone like that would get laughed at behind their back, if not to their face - “oh, here comes Miss Pretendabrogue.” And more importantly in terms of an audio book - it gets really, really annoying to listen to. I stopped before the wicca speak half of it got too out of hand, but it was starting… and I could feel “annoying” ready to turn fast into “grating.”

And the coven gleefully going along with her faux celtic priestess routine, while taking up similar “wiccan speak” themselves as their new normal - as if “coming out of the closet” to throw away the banality of everyday common English and finally embrace their “merry be” true linguistic selves… yeah, right in the middle of a near world ending event… im sure if I was surrounded by an apocalypse that was knocking civilization back hundreds of years, killing most of the population in a variety of terrible ways, leaving me with a list of very difficult problems to handle in a desperate struggle to survive, first on my mind would be making sure to use the proper anachronistic phrasings of group acceptance to achieve an air of historical credibility / authenticity. Because once you got that, all else will just fall into place. “Do the words right and be serious about it, or it wont look real!” Yeah, that and dress up are always the most important things when it comes to true belief, let alone survival.

Im not saying in such a situation faith would not be something people would turn to… of course they would. Its all the readily assumed affectations and posturing in the middle of an extreme catastrophe - like its “just another happy weekend at the Renfaire! Pocky-clypse, what pocky-clypse? So long as the goddess provides, all is blessed as blessed could be.” No, thats not just unrealistic, its creepy delusional. Besides too… people who have lived their entire lives in our modern world simply do not and cannot shrug that all off with no sense of shock or need for serious adjustment. No matter your beliefs or hobbies, you do not possess the mindset of a distant time period you have never truly lived in. You are / were immersed in a totally different reality (that of the real present day) no matter how much you may wish to reject it due to being unhappy with modern society. Even with “the event” limiting technology, your memory isnt wiped nor is the influence of your life long exposure.

But perhaps such immersion in style can effectively overcome widespread PTSD brought on by experiencing the horrors of an apocalypse… mass delusion combating mass trauma… maybe that as a more realistic explanation of behaviour lol.

Besides too… Wicca does not confer any greater connection to nature or ability to farm. If you are a farmer or naturalist, and a Wiccan, sure, because you are already a farmer or naturalist. But reading some books on magical herbalism, playing dress up, and saying “merry be” isnt going to make you skilled in animal husbandry or the use of medieval farming equipment. Funny that the book even comments on how many of their covens Wiccans are from the computer industry… yeah, thats a skill set and environment that equals rapidly achieved 12th century farm life success.

I should add… I do not dislike Wicca or SCA. Quite the contrary, I have an MA in History, and love the subject and its wide range of topics and time periods. I also have a deep interest in anthropology, folklore, and pagan religious systems. So I have no aversion to such being present in a story (though Wicca really isnt True Pagan or Ethnic Pagan, its more of a Nu-Paganish “best of the past” that was created 70 years ago, just in time for the Sixties to embrace it). My issue is more with how its presented… how things fall together even easier and faster than they would have if no apocalypse had happened… and how the psychological impact of the world collapsing apparently has little psychological impact.

I hate doing this but… little miss master archer? A 25 pound draw weight bow is not enough to effectively hunt deer, let alone elk. For elk you’d need at least twice that. Hers is a target bow or small game at best. An inexperienced (at hunting) 13 to 14 year old teenage girl with a 25 pound bow that’s based on a flashy mix of ancient / fantasy design, is not going to one shot an elk (and no, it wasn’t a super lucky shot through the eye… it was a bleed out that magically went deep enough from very short range, at that low draw weight, on a snap shot). Oh and I almost forgot… she is using fantasy character correct bone tipped arrows. Guess they’re not growing elk hide like they used to. Goodluck.

And… I have no affection for would be rapists so her next one shot a chapter or so later I was glad for… even though a traumatized, naked, bitten and bloody teenage girl who just watched her mom be butchered, would likely not pull off a snap shot against a fleeing target at night, shot through a broken window, half blocked by an adult male friend, who is jumping through that window, at the same time as her arrow passes by, to hit her fleeing target that is outside in the dark. But a dead rapist is a good rapist so we can let that one slide. I can only imagine what would have been next on the trick shot list though.

Too… the survivalist / prepper crowd would do a lot better than the comic book groups promoted here… no matter how much the author tries to dismiss them as looney backwoods militia types.

Imma stop there, because the list could get a whole lot longer.

Yes, its fiction. And even if over the top, fiction can be entertaining. Which is why I stayed with it as long as I did. But like I said at the start of this review… I soon found myself “arguing” in my head with the author as one ridiculous or corny scene piled on top of another. This became too distracting to immerse in the tale. There is only so much belief a sensible person can suspend. Even for someone who loves fiction lol. Unless the tale is a comic farce to begin with, which this is not… or wait, maybe it was… hmm, Wicca vs SCA death-match to rule the world… maybe I approached the story wrong lol.

The basis of the story isnt bad… and the Wicca / SCA angle would work much better if the author had taken the time to try to more realistically fit and adapt the idea into the world he was suggesting. Such would require reconciling Wicca / SCA with the reality of that world… not just taking the easy route of mashing the square peg into the round hole as fast as possible to quickly rush in a world that comes off too silly to connect with… when it could have been great.

Perennial favorite

I’ve listened to this book over and over. It’s one of my all time favorites.

First Rate--An Excellent Read

Warning: Once you start this series you will want to read on. Action packed and intelligently well written, this book (and the rest in the series) moves along at a good clip and left this reader satisfied with both the pace and the rich detail. And bravo to Todd McLaren, one of my favorite readers (only the man who read Altered Carbon so brilliantly could bring this violent saga to life so beautifully). Well worth your time and credits. Not for the overly squeamish or the too young however as there is a great deal of violent detail--which was completely appropriate for the premise of the story. Enjoy.

This Series

I loved almost every part of this whole series. A little graphic at times but the premis of the situation I found thrilling. I kept finding myself saying 'What would I do?, What would I take with me? If it were me I would...'. My son and I still have lengthy discussions about how we would handle each scenario. Highly recommended. Can't wait for the next one.

What happens when the lights go out!!

This a well written and well read story about a change in the way we would live if the toys were taken away. This a captivating read and made the family trip from Missouri to Utah fly by. It is a bit of the Renfest or D&D adventure but if the lights go out that is the path that you would travel down. Good strory and I hope Audible picks up the series.

Unusual for a post-apocalyptic novel.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The story is not realistic within its framework.

Would you recommend Dies the Fire to your friends? Why or why not?

No. I could not get emotionally involved with these characters.

Did Todd McLaren do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes, he used different voices and some accents.

Was Dies the Fire worth the listening time?

It was not quite what I was looking for.

Any additional comments?

If you are looking for a fantasy novel set in a middle-ages type setting, it is the book for you. If you are looking for post-apocalyptic, you would be well advised to look elsewhere.