-
Dies the Fire
- A Novel of the Change
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $22.35
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Dies the Fire (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Emberverse, Book 1
- By: S.M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Andrew Quilpa, Dani Stoller, James Lewis, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable - and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face....
-
-
Overall excellent - mispronunciations irritating
- By Triona on 09-08-21
By: S.M. Stirling
-
Island in the Sea of Time
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 25 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket, a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling, colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror.
-
-
Listen to this before "Dies the fire"
- By Kevin McLaughlin on 11-26-08
By: S. M. Stirling
-
The Forge
- By: S. M. Stirling, David Drake
- Narrated by: Franklin Pierson
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a planet that was once part of a vast interstellar civilization, humans survive on the edge of barbarism amid the ruins of the once-great empire.
-
-
Well done performance of an old favorite
- By Josh Norris on 09-04-19
By: S. M. Stirling, and others
-
1632
- Ring of Fire, Book 1
- By: Eric Flint
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author Eric Flint has received glowing critical praise for his Ring of Fire alternate history series. In this first installment, a West Virginia town is transported from the year 2000 to 1631 Germany at the height of the Thirty Years’ War. Thrust into conflict, the town residents must also contend with moral issues such as who should be considered a citizen.
-
-
NOT ALL THAT BAD
- By Randall on 11-26-18
By: Eric Flint
-
One Second After
- By: William R. Forstchen
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Already cited on the floor of Congress and discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a book all Americans should read, One Second After is the story of a war scenario that could become all too terrifyingly real. Based upon a real weapon - the Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) - which may already be in the hands of our enemies, it is a truly realistic look at the awesome power of a weapon that can destroy the entire United States.
-
-
A Civil War Re-enactor Saves a Community?
- By Cidney on 07-05-12
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
Dies the Fire (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Emberverse, Book 1
- By: S.M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Andrew Quilpa, Dani Stoller, James Lewis, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable - and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face....
-
-
Overall excellent - mispronunciations irritating
- By Triona on 09-08-21
By: S.M. Stirling
-
Island in the Sea of Time
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 25 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket, a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling, colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror.
-
-
Listen to this before "Dies the fire"
- By Kevin McLaughlin on 11-26-08
By: S. M. Stirling
-
The Forge
- By: S. M. Stirling, David Drake
- Narrated by: Franklin Pierson
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a planet that was once part of a vast interstellar civilization, humans survive on the edge of barbarism amid the ruins of the once-great empire.
-
-
Well done performance of an old favorite
- By Josh Norris on 09-04-19
By: S. M. Stirling, and others
-
1632
- Ring of Fire, Book 1
- By: Eric Flint
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author Eric Flint has received glowing critical praise for his Ring of Fire alternate history series. In this first installment, a West Virginia town is transported from the year 2000 to 1631 Germany at the height of the Thirty Years’ War. Thrust into conflict, the town residents must also contend with moral issues such as who should be considered a citizen.
-
-
NOT ALL THAT BAD
- By Randall on 11-26-18
By: Eric Flint
-
One Second After
- By: William R. Forstchen
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Already cited on the floor of Congress and discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a book all Americans should read, One Second After is the story of a war scenario that could become all too terrifyingly real. Based upon a real weapon - the Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) - which may already be in the hands of our enemies, it is a truly realistic look at the awesome power of a weapon that can destroy the entire United States.
-
-
A Civil War Re-enactor Saves a Community?
- By Cidney on 07-05-12
-
Starter Villain
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.
-
-
Volcanic Lairs, Death Rays & Cats… Oh My! 😼
- By C. White on 09-19-23
By: John Scalzi
-
The Peshawar Lancers
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-1870s, a violent spray of comets hits Earth, decimating cities, erasing shorelines, and changing the world's climate forever. And just as Earth's temperature dropped, so was civilization frozen in time. Instead of advancing technologically, humanity had to piece itself back together.... In the 21st century, boats still run on steam, messages arrive by telegraph, and the British Empire, with its capital now in Delhi, controls much of the world.
-
-
Narration should be redone
- By Dawno on 08-29-18
By: S. M. Stirling
-
Conan: Blood of the Serpent
- The All-New Chronicles of the World's Greatest Barbarian Hero
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Bradford Hastings
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conan the Barbarian, the world’s most famous fantasy hero, returns in an all-new novel tied directly to the famous works by his legendary creator, Robert E. Howard. Set early in his life, Conan has left his northern homeland to cut a bloody swath across the legendary Hyborian Age. A mercenary, a soldier, a thief, and a pirate, he faces conquering armies, malicious sorcerers, and monstrous creatures—against which he wields only the sword held in his powerful grasp.
-
-
Conan is back, and more gritty and real than ever!
- By Luke B. on 12-14-22
By: S. M. Stirling
-
The Sky People
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marc Vitrac was born in the early 1960's, about the time the first interplanetary probes delivered the news that Mars and Venus were teeming with life, even human life. Now, in 1988, Marc has been assigned to the US-Commonwealth base on Venus. But there are flies in this ointment - and not only the Venusian dragonflies, with their yard-wide wings....Extravagant and effervescent, The Sky People is alternate-history SF adventure at its best.
-
-
Fun in a wild world....
- By Lars on 07-24-07
By: S. M. Stirling
-
Alas, Babylon
- By: Pat Frank
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This true modern masterpiece is built around the two fateful words that make up the title and herald the end - “Alas, Babylon.” When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness....
-
-
One apocalypse--hold the zombies
- By Lesley on 01-07-14
By: Pat Frank
-
Marching Through Georgia
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first novel of the rise and fall of the Drakan Empire, an alternative history saga. In Marching Through Georgia, the Draka begin their conquest of the globe as they fight and best that more obvious horror, the Nazis.
-
-
Story line is good but . . .
- By GB on 07-20-20
By: S. M. Stirling
-
Going Home
- A Novel
- By: A. American
- Narrated by: Duke Fontaine
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If society collapsed, could you survive? When Morgan Carter's car breaks down 250 miles from his home, he figures his weekend plans are ruined. But things are about to get much, much worse: the country's power grid has collapsed. There is no electricity, no running water, no Internet, and no way to know when normalcy will be restored - if it ever will be.
-
-
Intriguing "prepper" story, terrible writing.
- By Chris Hookway on 02-19-14
By: A. American
-
Lucifer's Hammer
- By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 24 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival--a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known....
-
-
Good story from front to back
- By DJM on 07-30-09
By: Larry Niven, and others
-
Worldwar: In the Balance
- By: Harry Turtledove
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 26 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
War seethed across the planet. Machines soared through the air, churned through the seas, crawled across the surface, pushing ever forward, carrying death. Earth was engaged in titanic struggle. Germany, Russia, France, China, Japan: the maps were changing day by day. The hostilities spread in ever-widening ripples of destruction: Britain, Italy, Africa...the fate of the world hung in the balance. Then the real enemy came.
-
-
Awesome
- By W on 03-29-10
By: Harry Turtledove
-
The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
- By: Robert E. Howard
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities...there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars.... Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand...to tread the jeweled thrones of the earth under his sandalled feet.
-
-
A Perfect Introduction
- By Wes on 11-09-09
By: Robert E. Howard
-
Virgins
- An Outlander Short
- By: Diana Gabaldon
- Narrated by: Allan Scott-Douglas
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mourning the death of his father and gravely injured at the hands of the English, Jamie Fraser finds himself running with a band of mercenaries in the French countryside, where he reconnects with his old friend, Ian Murray. Both are nursing wounds, both have good reason to stay out of Scotland, and both are still virgins despite several opportunities to remedy that deplorable situation with ladies of easy virtue.
-
-
Don't expect an in depth story
- By ELZIE B HICKERSON on 10-30-16
By: Diana Gabaldon
-
The Mad Mick Box Set Volume 1
- The Mad Mick Series, Books 1-3
- By: Franklin Horton
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 26 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a series of devastating terror attacks brought down the United States, Conor and Barb assumed they were safe in their compound. They had everything they needed. They were armed and highly trained. But then, Barb was kidnapped. The kidnappers didn’t know why Conor was known as The Mad Mick. They didn’t know the fear and respect his name invoked in the shadowy underworld of covert operations. They didn’t know that when it came to protecting his family, he was without conscience, without compassion, and without equal. But they would soon find out.
-
-
I had to stop listening
- By JBA on 12-30-23
By: Franklin Horton
-
A Long Time Until Now
- By: Michael Z. Williamson
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 22 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A military unit is thrust back into Paleolithic times with only their guns and portable hardware. Ten soldiers on convoy in Afghanistan suddenly find themselves lost in time. Somehow they arrived in Earth's Paleolithic Asia. With no idea how they arrived or how to get back, the shock of the event is severe. They discover groups of the similarly displaced: imperial Romans, Neolithic Europeans, and a small cadre of East Indian peasants.
-
-
Different Than Expected--But an Excellent Listen !
- By C. Hartmann on 06-11-15
Publisher's summary
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.
Critic reviews
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Dies the Fire (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Emberverse, Book 1
- By: S.M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Andrew Quilpa, Dani Stoller, James Lewis, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable - and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face....
-
-
Overall excellent - mispronunciations irritating
- By Triona on 09-08-21
By: S.M. Stirling
-
The Sleeping Dragon
- Guardians of the Flame, Book 1
- By: Joel Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Keith Silverstein
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It began as just another evening of fantasy gaming with James, Karl, Andrea, and the rest ready to assume their various roles as wizard, cleric, warrior, or thief. But sorcerous gamemaster Professor Deighton had something else planned for this unsuspecting group of college students. And the "game" soon became a matter of life and death as the seven adventurers found themselves transported to an alternate world and into the bodies of the actual characters they had been pretending to be....
-
-
A Self Image Cast in Stone Could Shatter
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-19-13
By: Joel Rosenberg
-
Way of the Wolf
- The Vampire Earth, Book 1
- By: E. E. Knight
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel, E. E. Knight (Introduction)
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Louisiana, 2065. A lot has changed in the 43rd year of the Kurian Order. Possessed of an unnatural and legendary hunger, the bloodthirsty Reapers have come to Earth to establish a New Order built on the harvesting of enslaved human souls. They rule the planet. They thrive on the scent of fear. And if it is night, as sure as darkness, they will come.
On this pitiless world, the indomitable spirit of mankind still breathes in Lieutenant David Valentine.
-
-
Its what you expect, and thats not a bad thing.
- By Kevin McLaughlin on 11-26-08
By: E. E. Knight
-
Rot & Ruin
- By: Jonathan Maberry
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifteen-year-old Benny Imura lives in a world infested with zombies where, when a kid turns 15, he must get a job to continue receiving food rations. Benny has no interest in the family business of zombie killing, but figures he doesn’t have much of a choice. He’s tried out a bunch of other jobs, and hasn’t found anything he likes. But as Benny starts training with his brother, he learns things about being human that he never expected.
-
-
Just when you thought it was safe.....
- By Amanda H. on 05-12-11
By: Jonathan Maberry
-
The Fire Duke
- Keepers of the Hidden Ways, Book 1
- By: Joel Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When strange wolf-like creatures kidnap his girlfriend and his mother, Torrie and his friend Ian Silverstein join Torrie’s father, Thorsen, and the mysterious "Uncle Hosea" on a rescue mission via a passageway to the exotic world from which Hosea and Thorsen had fled two decades earlier. Once entering the world of The Hidden Ways, they must battle gods, monsters and men, including the sinister Fire Duke, who seeks ultimate power and control of magical gems that can destroy the universe.
-
-
Bland boring...
- By Mr Dangerous on 01-29-24
By: Joel Rosenberg
-
Ariel
- By: Steven R. Boyett
- Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's been five years since the lights went out, cars stopped in the streets, and magical creatures began roaming Earth. Pete Garey survived the Change, trusting no one but himself until the day he met Ariel - a unicorn who brought new meaning and adventure to his life.
-
-
A Unique Love Story in a Fantasy Novel
- By David on 06-11-15
By: Steven R. Boyett
-
Dies the Fire (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Emberverse, Book 1
- By: S.M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Andrew Quilpa, Dani Stoller, James Lewis, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable - and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face....
-
-
Overall excellent - mispronunciations irritating
- By Triona on 09-08-21
By: S.M. Stirling
-
The Sleeping Dragon
- Guardians of the Flame, Book 1
- By: Joel Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Keith Silverstein
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It began as just another evening of fantasy gaming with James, Karl, Andrea, and the rest ready to assume their various roles as wizard, cleric, warrior, or thief. But sorcerous gamemaster Professor Deighton had something else planned for this unsuspecting group of college students. And the "game" soon became a matter of life and death as the seven adventurers found themselves transported to an alternate world and into the bodies of the actual characters they had been pretending to be....
-
-
A Self Image Cast in Stone Could Shatter
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-19-13
By: Joel Rosenberg
-
Way of the Wolf
- The Vampire Earth, Book 1
- By: E. E. Knight
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel, E. E. Knight (Introduction)
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Louisiana, 2065. A lot has changed in the 43rd year of the Kurian Order. Possessed of an unnatural and legendary hunger, the bloodthirsty Reapers have come to Earth to establish a New Order built on the harvesting of enslaved human souls. They rule the planet. They thrive on the scent of fear. And if it is night, as sure as darkness, they will come.
On this pitiless world, the indomitable spirit of mankind still breathes in Lieutenant David Valentine.
-
-
Its what you expect, and thats not a bad thing.
- By Kevin McLaughlin on 11-26-08
By: E. E. Knight
-
Rot & Ruin
- By: Jonathan Maberry
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifteen-year-old Benny Imura lives in a world infested with zombies where, when a kid turns 15, he must get a job to continue receiving food rations. Benny has no interest in the family business of zombie killing, but figures he doesn’t have much of a choice. He’s tried out a bunch of other jobs, and hasn’t found anything he likes. But as Benny starts training with his brother, he learns things about being human that he never expected.
-
-
Just when you thought it was safe.....
- By Amanda H. on 05-12-11
By: Jonathan Maberry
-
The Fire Duke
- Keepers of the Hidden Ways, Book 1
- By: Joel Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When strange wolf-like creatures kidnap his girlfriend and his mother, Torrie and his friend Ian Silverstein join Torrie’s father, Thorsen, and the mysterious "Uncle Hosea" on a rescue mission via a passageway to the exotic world from which Hosea and Thorsen had fled two decades earlier. Once entering the world of The Hidden Ways, they must battle gods, monsters and men, including the sinister Fire Duke, who seeks ultimate power and control of magical gems that can destroy the universe.
-
-
Bland boring...
- By Mr Dangerous on 01-29-24
By: Joel Rosenberg
-
Ariel
- By: Steven R. Boyett
- Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's been five years since the lights went out, cars stopped in the streets, and magical creatures began roaming Earth. Pete Garey survived the Change, trusting no one but himself until the day he met Ariel - a unicorn who brought new meaning and adventure to his life.
-
-
A Unique Love Story in a Fantasy Novel
- By David on 06-11-15
By: Steven R. Boyett
-
The Emperor's Railroad
- By: Guy Haley
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Global war devastated the environment, a zombielike plague wiped out much of humanity, and civilization as we once understood it came to a standstill. But that was a thousand years ago, and the world is now a very different place. Conflict between city-states is constant, superstition is rife, and machine relics, mutant creatures, and resurrected prehistoric beasts trouble the land. Watching over all are the silent Dreaming Cities. Homes of the angels, bastion outposts of heaven on Earth.
-
-
THE GONE BEFORE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-09-18
By: Guy Haley
-
The Sword-Edged Blonde
- By: Alex Bledsoe
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It should have been a case like any other: a missing princess, a king willing to pay in gold for her return. But before he realizes it, private investigator Eddie LaCrosse, a slightly shopworn sword jockey with a talent for discretion and detection, is swept up in a web of mystery and deceit involving a brutally murdered royal heir, a queen accused of an unspeakable crime, and the tragic past he thought he'd left behind.
-
-
No Redeeming Qualities
- By MightyMite68 on 09-27-20
By: Alex Bledsoe
-
Altdorf
- The Forest Knights, Book 1
- By: J.K. Swift
- Narrated by: Brad Wills
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A wild land too mountainous to be tamed by plows…A Duke of the Holy Roman Empire, his cunning overshadowed only by his ambition…A young Priestess of the Old Religion, together with a charismatic outlaw, sparking a rebellion from deep within the forests…And an ex-Hospitaller caught between them all. At the end of the thirteenth century, five hundred orphans and second sons are rounded up from villages in the Alpine countryside and sold to the Hospitaller Knights of St John. Trained to serve as Soldiers of Christ, they fight in eastern lands they know nothing about, for a cause they do not understand.
-
-
Life's Trials.
- By Gary Carter on 04-05-18
By: J.K. Swift
-
The Breakers Omnibus
- Books 1-3 and Prequel Novella
- By: Edward W. Robertson
- Narrated by: Ray Chase
- Length: 42 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Books 1-3 and the prequel novella of the Breakers series.
-
-
So glad I downloaded this one.
- By Stevie Havoc on 11-16-15
-
Lens of the World
- Lens of the World, Book 1
- By: R. A. MacAvoy
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lens of the World is the story of a prodigious life. It recounts the coming of age of Nazhuret, an outcast and orphan who rises from his lowly estate as a ward of the Sordaling military school to become a mighty warrior, philosopher, and confidant of the King of Vestinglon. As he grows, the young man receives outlandish knowledge and is prepared for an entirely exceptional destiny far beyond the narrow confines of his kingdom.
-
-
Beautifully told coming of age story
- By Kat Hooper on 12-13-12
By: R. A. MacAvoy
-
Trail of Lightning
- By: Rebecca Roanhorse
- Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The sudden rising waters of a climate apocalypse have destroyed most of the planet…yet out of these waters, Dinétah, a former Navajo reservation, has been miraculously reborn. Listen along as Tanis Parenteau's impeccable narration, capturing the rhythms of Navajo speech, fully envelopes you into the Sixth World. Trail of Lightning follows our heroine as she walks the land alongside gods, heroes of legend, and monsters alike.
-
-
The person you hire when the heroes fail
- By Cynthia on 08-09-18
-
Prince of Thorns
- By: Mark Lawrence
- Narrated by: James Clamp
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Author Mark Lawrence has won over audiences everywhere with Prince of Thorns, his exciting debut novel. Nine-year-old Prince Jorg is forced to watch as his mother and brother are slaughtered. Fleeing the palace, Jorg joins a bloodthirsty band of thugs. But he’s determined to take back what’s rightfully his, so he returns to the castle a few years later - unaware of the dark and powerful magic that awaits.
-
-
It sticks in your head.
- By Door on 09-07-13
By: Mark Lawrence
-
The Archemi Online Chronicles Boxset: Books 1, 2 & 3
- A LitRPG Epic Fantasy Series (The Archemi Online Chronicles)
- By: James Osiris Baldwin
- Narrated by: Justin Thomas James, Jeff Hays, Laurie Catherine Winkel, and others
- Length: 45 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before being conscripted to fight in the Total War, Private Hector Park had a shattered family, a collection of old video games, and a promising career as a motorcycle stuntman. Now, he is dying from a virus threatening humankind with extinction. He has three days to live. When Hector’s brother contacts him after years of hostile silence, Hector goes to try and make peace. But his brother offers him something even better: the chance to cheat death by joining him in Archemi, a full-immersion fantasy VR-RPG video game.
-
-
love this
- By Linda on 07-03-23
-
Ashes
- Ashes Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Ilsa J. Bick
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device and killing billions. Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom, a young soldier, and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP. For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it's now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.
-
-
No Thank You
- By KK on 06-27-12
By: Ilsa J. Bick
-
Two Roads
- By: Joseph Bruchac
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1932, and 12-year-old Cal Black and his pop have been riding the rails for years after losing their farm in the Great Depression. Cal likes being a "knight of the road" with Pop, even if they're broke. But then Pop has to go to Washington, DC - some of his fellow veterans are marching for their government checks, and Pop wants to make sure he gets his due - and Cal can't go with him. Pop tells Cal something he never knew before: Pop is actually a Creek Indian, which means Cal is, too. And Pop has decided to send Cal to a government boarding school for Native Americans in Oklahoma.
-
-
Amazing story
- By Sandra Cavender on 05-11-23
By: Joseph Bruchac
-
Luck in the Shadows
- Nightrunner, Book 1
- By: Lynn Flewelling
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spy, rogue, thief, and noble, Seregil of Rhiminee is many things, none of them predictable. And when he offers to take on Alec as his apprentice, things may never be the same for either of them. Soon Alec is traveling roads he never knew existed, toward a war he never suspected was brewing. Before long he and Seregil are embroiled in a sinister plot that runs deeper than either can imagine and that may cost them far more than their lives if they fail. But fortune is as unpredictable as Alec's new mentor.
-
-
Fantastic Series! Homophobes, shut up!
- By Ted on 09-23-11
By: Lynn Flewelling
-
The Book of Kells
- By: R. A. MacAvoy
- Narrated by: Alan Robertson
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A contemporary man, John Thornburn (a meek, non-violent and unpredictable artist) and woman, Derval (his tough, confrontational, strong and warrior-like lover) time travel to ancient Ireland to avenge a Viking attack. Packed with fascinating details of historical time and place in Irish history and delicately balanced on the border between realism and fantasy, the story centers around one of the most famous and beautiful illuminated manuscripts in history, the legendary but entirely real Book of Kells.
-
-
The Book of Irish Fantasy
- By S. Wells on 12-10-12
By: R. A. MacAvoy
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Dies the Fire (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Emberverse, Book 1
- By: S.M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Andrew Quilpa, Dani Stoller, James Lewis, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable - and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face....
-
-
Overall excellent - mispronunciations irritating
- By Triona on 09-08-21
By: S.M. Stirling
-
Island in the Sea of Time
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 25 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket, a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling, colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror.
-
-
Listen to this before "Dies the fire"
- By Kevin McLaughlin on 11-26-08
By: S. M. Stirling
-
Marching Through Georgia
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first novel of the rise and fall of the Drakan Empire, an alternative history saga. In Marching Through Georgia, the Draka begin their conquest of the globe as they fight and best that more obvious horror, the Nazis.
-
-
Story line is good but . . .
- By GB on 07-20-20
By: S. M. Stirling
-
The Peshawar Lancers
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-1870s, a violent spray of comets hits Earth, decimating cities, erasing shorelines, and changing the world's climate forever. And just as Earth's temperature dropped, so was civilization frozen in time. Instead of advancing technologically, humanity had to piece itself back together.... In the 21st century, boats still run on steam, messages arrive by telegraph, and the British Empire, with its capital now in Delhi, controls much of the world.
-
-
Narration should be redone
- By Dawno on 08-29-18
By: S. M. Stirling
-
The Forge
- By: S. M. Stirling, David Drake
- Narrated by: Franklin Pierson
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a planet that was once part of a vast interstellar civilization, humans survive on the edge of barbarism amid the ruins of the once-great empire.
-
-
Well done performance of an old favorite
- By Josh Norris on 09-04-19
By: S. M. Stirling, and others
-
Under the Yoke
- Draka, Book 2
- By: S.M. Stirling
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 18 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Under the Yoke, S.M. Stirling traces the rise of the Domination of the Draka and its long struggle with the United States and the American-led Alliance for Democracy. In this alternate history, the Americans who reject the Revolution did not scatter to the four winds and Canada; a slight change in the course of events brought them to the new Crown Colony of Drakia instead - starting with the Cape of Good Hope and soon encompassing the whole of the right subcontinent of Southern Africa.
-
-
Beware: Minor Abridgements
- By rgrekejin on 10-30-20
By: S.M. Stirling
-
Dies the Fire (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Emberverse, Book 1
- By: S.M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Andrew Quilpa, Dani Stoller, James Lewis, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable - and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face....
-
-
Overall excellent - mispronunciations irritating
- By Triona on 09-08-21
By: S.M. Stirling
-
Island in the Sea of Time
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 25 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During a perfect spring evening on Nantucket, a violent storm erupts and a dome of crawling, colored fire blankets the island. When the howling winds subside and the night skies clear, the stars appear to have shifted. The mainland has become a wilderness of unbroken forest, where tools of bronze and stone litter the beaches, and primitive natives scatter in terror.
-
-
Listen to this before "Dies the fire"
- By Kevin McLaughlin on 11-26-08
By: S. M. Stirling
-
Marching Through Georgia
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first novel of the rise and fall of the Drakan Empire, an alternative history saga. In Marching Through Georgia, the Draka begin their conquest of the globe as they fight and best that more obvious horror, the Nazis.
-
-
Story line is good but . . .
- By GB on 07-20-20
By: S. M. Stirling
-
The Peshawar Lancers
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-1870s, a violent spray of comets hits Earth, decimating cities, erasing shorelines, and changing the world's climate forever. And just as Earth's temperature dropped, so was civilization frozen in time. Instead of advancing technologically, humanity had to piece itself back together.... In the 21st century, boats still run on steam, messages arrive by telegraph, and the British Empire, with its capital now in Delhi, controls much of the world.
-
-
Narration should be redone
- By Dawno on 08-29-18
By: S. M. Stirling
-
The Forge
- By: S. M. Stirling, David Drake
- Narrated by: Franklin Pierson
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a planet that was once part of a vast interstellar civilization, humans survive on the edge of barbarism amid the ruins of the once-great empire.
-
-
Well done performance of an old favorite
- By Josh Norris on 09-04-19
By: S. M. Stirling, and others
-
Under the Yoke
- Draka, Book 2
- By: S.M. Stirling
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 18 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Under the Yoke, S.M. Stirling traces the rise of the Domination of the Draka and its long struggle with the United States and the American-led Alliance for Democracy. In this alternate history, the Americans who reject the Revolution did not scatter to the four winds and Canada; a slight change in the course of events brought them to the new Crown Colony of Drakia instead - starting with the Cape of Good Hope and soon encompassing the whole of the right subcontinent of Southern Africa.
-
-
Beware: Minor Abridgements
- By rgrekejin on 10-30-20
By: S.M. Stirling
-
Black Chamber
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1912, just months before the election, President Taft dies suddenly, and Teddy Roosevelt wastes no time in grabbing power as he wins another term as president. By force of will, he ushers the United States into a new, progressive era with the help of the Black Chamber, the mysterious spy organization watching his back.
-
-
a new old world
- By Sean Dustman on 07-17-18
By: S. M. Stirling
-
The Sky People
- By: S. M. Stirling
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marc Vitrac was born in the early 1960's, about the time the first interplanetary probes delivered the news that Mars and Venus were teeming with life, even human life. Now, in 1988, Marc has been assigned to the US-Commonwealth base on Venus. But there are flies in this ointment - and not only the Venusian dragonflies, with their yard-wide wings....Extravagant and effervescent, The Sky People is alternate-history SF adventure at its best.
-
-
Fun in a wild world....
- By Lars on 07-24-07
By: S. M. Stirling
-
1632
- Ring of Fire, Book 1
- By: Eric Flint
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author Eric Flint has received glowing critical praise for his Ring of Fire alternate history series. In this first installment, a West Virginia town is transported from the year 2000 to 1631 Germany at the height of the Thirty Years’ War. Thrust into conflict, the town residents must also contend with moral issues such as who should be considered a citizen.
-
-
NOT ALL THAT BAD
- By Randall on 11-26-18
By: Eric Flint
-
Opening Atlantis
- A Novel of Alternate History
- By: Harry Turtledove
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Atlantis lies between Europe and the East Coast of Terranova. For many years, this land of opportunity lured dreamers from around the globe with its natural resources, offering a new beginning for those willing to brave the wonders of the unexplored land.
-
-
poor writing/boring reader
- By Rhonda on 01-27-08
By: Harry Turtledove
-
Outlanders 1-3 Bundle (Dramatized Adaptation)
- By: James Axler
- Narrated by: Casey Jones, Christopher Graybill, David Coyne, and others
- Length: 24 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America had barely survived the nuclear holocaust, but two centuries later a new order emerges to inflict its rule on the fortified cities. Beyond the walls are the outlands, where a fragile freedom remains. Once a fearsome warrior of the new order, Kane discovers a secret that has damned humanity since the dawn of history. Now banished as an enemy of the state, he joins forces with Brigid Baptiste, keeper of the archives, and Grant, brother-in-arms and innovative weapons specialist.
-
-
Amazing story
- By Zachary on 09-21-21
By: James Axler
-
Himmler's War
- By: Robert Conroy
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the days after the Allies’ landing at Normandy, Adolf Hitler is removed from his position atop the Third Reich, and SS chief Heinrich Himmler assumes control. Meanwhile, the Allies begin grappling with competing solutions for bringing the war to an end. But with a second wind - and a potentially devastating secret super-weapon - the German war machine is primed for a final assault.
-
-
Well Worth A Listen
- By Terrence on 09-03-12
By: Robert Conroy
-
Worldwar: In the Balance
- By: Harry Turtledove
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 26 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
War seethed across the planet. Machines soared through the air, churned through the seas, crawled across the surface, pushing ever forward, carrying death. Earth was engaged in titanic struggle. Germany, Russia, France, China, Japan: the maps were changing day by day. The hostilities spread in ever-widening ripples of destruction: Britain, Italy, Africa...the fate of the world hung in the balance. Then the real enemy came.
-
-
Awesome
- By W on 03-29-10
By: Harry Turtledove
-
Outrider
- A Novel
- By: Steven John
- Narrated by: Matthew McCollum
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the near future, the New Las Vegas Sunfield will be one of many enormous solar farms to supply energy to the United States. At more than fifty miles long and two miles wide, the Sunfield generates an electromagnetic field so volatile that ordinary machinery and even the simplest electronic devices must be kept miles away from it. Thus, the only men who can guard the most technologically advanced power station on earth do so on horseback.They are the Outriders.
-
-
After listening to the whole thing, I have no idea
- By Aerindel on 10-13-21
By: Steven John
-
Grid Down Reality Bites: Volume 1 Part 1
- By: Bruce Hemming, Sara Freeman
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Phillips
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two young men, Mark and Eric, struggle desperately trying to make it to their retreat in Northern California. Their truck is dead from an EMP. They have to walk 200 miles. Will they make it passed the gangs and the utter confusion of a powerless society? George and his son Junior, are set up in a retreat in Northern Wisconsin. Everything is going along great until disaster strikes. One mistake leaves his 18-year-old son to survive alone.
-
-
I CANT STAND the narrator.
- By Richard Wallace on 08-12-14
By: Bruce Hemming, and others
-
The Postman
- By: David Brin
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He was a survivor - a wanderer who traded tales for food and shelter in the dark and savage aftermath of a devastating war. Fate touches him one chill winter’s day when he borrows the jacket of a long-dead postal worker to protect himself from the cold. The old, worn uniform still has power as a symbol of hope, and with it he begins to weave his greatest tale, of a nation on the road to recovery. This is the story of a lie that became the most powerful kind of truth.
-
-
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night
- By Ed Pegg Jr on 12-09-20
By: David Brin
-
An Oblique Approach
- Belisarius Saga, Book 1
- By: Eric Flint, David Drake
- Narrated by: Pete Bradbury
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Northern India, the Malwa have created an empire of unexampled evil. Guided or possessed by an intelligence from beyond time, with new weapons, old treachery, and an implacable will to power, the Malwa will sweep over the whole Earth. Only three things stand between the Malwa and their plan of eternal domination: the empire of Rome in the East, Byzantium; a crystal with vision; and a man named Belisarius, the greatest commander Earth has ever known....
-
-
YEEEEEEEES!
- By Andrew on 08-26-19
By: Eric Flint, and others
-
Colonization: Second Contact
- Colonization, Book 1
- By: Harry Turtledove
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 28 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the extraordinary Worldwar tetralogy, set against the backdrop of World War II, Harry Turtledove, whom Publishers Weekly has called the "Hugo-winning master of alternate SF," wove an explosive saga of world powers locked in conflict against an enemy from the stars.
-
-
A great title poorly presented
- By Magnus on 06-27-12
By: Harry Turtledove
What listeners say about Dies the Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- David
- 06-12-08
Misleading description....
I bought this book because I thought, from the description, that it would be an interesting exploration of a fascinating concept. By the 3rd chapter, it was clear that the premise of the story was nothing more than a vehicle for the author to pen a "Ren Fare" fantasy of how the earth would devolve into a huge live action D&D game after the event. From the celtic mythology, the mother earth stuff and the Lord of the Rings references; the author is clearly in love with the world of knights, dark lords, swordcraft, witches and wizardry. I don't mind that stuff--and the book seems passable in that regard--but to describe it as less than a forum contrived for the purpose of telling such a tale is less than honest. I became so disappointed at being "tricked" into buying it by a much broader description of its subject that I'm now too annoyed to finish it. Even the D&D world jargon is too much. I wich the author had woven a few of these elemnts into a broader and more interesting story rather than making this fanatsy element the focus of the book. At the very least, the publisher and Audible should have said more about what it was really about. Do the reviewers even read these things beyond chapter 2...?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
128 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Hopeypooze
- 10-10-08
cheezie
I couldn't get past the cliches in the first couple of hours. The stupid fake Irish accent of the woman, the idiotic idea of the girls being clad in period costume with bows and arrows... ohhhh my brain. It's like Gilligan's Island meets Dungeons and Dragons. It's awful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
45 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Mr Marcus B Kenny
- 10-29-09
Interesting story
Several reviewers have complained about the pagan aspects of this novel, I'm not a pagan myself and found it a little boring at times, but in my opinion it fits the storyline well. The kind of people who are likely to prosper in a world where guns, electricity, and combustion engines suddenly stop working are the people who spent a lot of time doing things like horse riding, gardening, and mock fighting with medieval weapons. The pagan community is full of those kinds of people, so having a major story arc in the novel following a pagan group of people makes sense.
What the people complaining about the pagans fail to mention is the other major story arc following a group of people who are lead by an ex-military type who spends a lot of time doing things like hunting & hiking in the wilderness.
So, if your afraid that your Higher Being of choice is going to punish you for reading a book with such words as pagan, wiccan, goddess and witch in it, then you should stay away from this book. Otherwise, you just have to remember that you spend as much time listening to the thoughts of the jarhead which are as full of militaristic thoughts as the witches' mind is full of pagan thoughts. The author is not trying to convince you to become a pagan any more than he is trying to convince you to join the army. He's just doing a pretty good job of getting inside the head of a pagan and an ex-jarhead.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
42 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David
- 02-17-14
An SCAer's dream
Dies the Fire goes through the usual paces in an end-of-the-world novel: civilization collapses, there is much confusion and rioting, a few lucky/prepared ones are situated such that they don't starve while all the city-dwellers run out of food, there's a massive die-off, and then the most organized, ambitious, and/or ruthless are setting up fiefdoms.
The gimmick here is that "the Change" that causes the end of civilization literally changes the laws of physics. Gunpowder, internal combustion, and electricity simply stops working. The world is literally knocked back into the middle ages technologically. This device is an excuse to write an SCAer's fantasy: those folks in the Society for Creative Anachronism who spent time dressing up in plate armor and whacking each other with rattan swords are suddenly among the only ones with actual useful combat skills, now that guns no longer work. Sterling takes that ball and runs with it: the chief villain, who takes over Portland, Oregon, "the Protector," is a former history professor and an SCA member who uses his combat skills and knowledge of medieval history to immediately begin recreating his favorite period of history with himself in charge.
Michael Havel, military veteran and former pilot, becomes a warlord of sorts, quickly leveling up as the mercenary commander of the "Bear-Killers," with assistance from a teenage girl Tolkien-nerd who conveniently enough also practiced archery as a hobby.
As a gimmick, it's interesting and fun to see the survivors literally rediscovering medieval tactics out of necessity. "The Change" is never explained, though the characters speculate that aliens did it. It does become a bit much when witches (the wiccan kind, not the actual magic-using kind) form the basis for a large survival community, apparently because they're better able to organize and survive in a pre-industrial world. Juniper, the leader of the coven, who becomes High Priestess and "Lady Juniper," is constantly spouting "Blessed Be" and "Lord and Lady!"
Dies the Fire is not much of an actual survivalist story; there is discussion of how the survivors have to reimplement medieval technology and spend a lot of time getting agriculture going again the hard way, but most of the action is the battles against various bandit gangs and warlords.
Will be interesting to see if the author actually makes aliens responsible in the next book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
37 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Geoffrey T. Bieniek
- 09-25-09
Silly
The storyline in this book might very well be stellar, but I cannot get past the obvious Wiccan propaganda shoved down my throat during every scene. The power goes off in the world, and all of a sudden everybody is speaking with a ridiculous irish accent and is wiccan. Good fantasy books are good because they can make you forget they are likely written by D&D fanatics, and can make you identify with at least a few of the characters. This one does not. Try doing without the Goddess rants for a few chapters, and let the characters speak naturally and within their own time period please. It is a shame because the story looked really good. The authors religious and political views were all too evident in this story for me to enjoy. I felt as though I was being preached to. Would not recommend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
33 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JasonK
- 08-17-09
Good but not Great
I downloaded this title in spite of the numerous reviews claiming that it is like Dungeons & Dragons and Renaissance Fairs. Some of the characters are involved with "ren-fairs" (which is a phrase from the author/characters). As far as "D&D lingo" or any other similarity to the game I'm lost. Unless you consider calling weapons by their actual names rather than a dumbed down description to be like D&D. I would say to ignore those reviews citing either of those as a description of this story.
Others have complained about decisions being made too quickly or society breaking down too rapidly as being unrealistic. It is FICTION!! Although the author could have dragged out things and then it would have been called "too slow and not enough happening."
It is a good story and serves the purpose of being entetaining. Although I do get annoyed at the author's repeated use of some words or phrases it doesn't hurt the story. The reader is good but not exceptional.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
32 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Bruce
- 10-05-08
Unbelievable and Clich?d
I got an hour into this novel before I decided not to finish listening to it. To me, the story and the characters were unbelievable and cliched. The Wicca references are over done and heavy handed. I can usually find one or two reasons to finish a story even if I do not really like the book, but not this time. It reads like a college student's first manuscript and I am surprised that it was published at all. Since the cover states that S. M. Stirling is a best selling author, it probably gets better and the sequels are probably much different. Even so, this book is so bad that I can not enjoy it and I will not give it any more of my time.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
30 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Natasha
- 07-21-08
Maybe!
This story falls between the cracks for me, I did enjoy it, but I'm not sure it's believable. Some of the main characters came to the correct decisions very, very fast, I'm sure there would have been much more confusion surrounding the circumstances that the story builds on. Second the breakdown of civil behavior was much too rapid to be believed, even if we use Katrina, and New Orleans as our example it was not so total and complete barbaric dark ages murder, rape, and pillage on day one! I think many will like the story, but others certainly will not. This is one you might just have to take a chance on. Good Luck and If you buy it I hope you enjoy it, I did.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
21 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tanja Gardner
- 11-08-14
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
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
16 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael Damon
- 04-24-19
Sillier than I remember
I remember reading this years ago and loving the post apocalyptic world Sterling created. I'm not sure what's different now, though. Maybe it's listening to the book this time, maybe I'm older, or maybe it's just because I already know the story, but this book is utterly ridiculous most of the time.
To start, Juniper talking in Gaelic all the time is annoying beyond belief. Secondly, the fact that all the Larson kids are basically weapons experts from the start. Most of all, though... All the ludicrous cultures and ceremonies that people start weeks after the world ends. It's just all too much. It's the post apocalyptic world that a lonely teenager addicted to anime would create. Yeah, there are some decent parts to the book. Overall, it's a good concept ruined by an author being too nerdy for his own good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
14 people found this helpful