I’ve only lately come to S. M. Stirling’s novels about The Change. I don’t know how I missed them, but I’m glad I found them. The good thing about starting late is that there already five books in the series, so I don’t have to wait from year to year to dive into those the way most of the fans have had to.
Stirling takes a very basic concept in Dies The Fire and runs with it for nearly 600 pages in paperback. It seems like with everything going on around us these days, more and more people are concerned with the end of the world or big changes in the way that we live. Those are primary concerns that everyone seems to have at one time or another even before this latest setback. Contrarily, some of the best books that have been written have focused on the end of the world as we know it. Somehow that basic premise of humanity surviving against all odds shores up readers and offers a feel-good all its own.
With Stirling’s novels about The Change (and that’s all it gets called—so far), no one knows why every electrical thing on earth stopped working in an eye blink. Batteries don’t work. Combustion engines don’t work. And strangest of all, gunpowder — which has nothing in common with the previous two energy sources — no longer works either. Conjectures fly throughout the book regarding the reason for the loss of power.
But in a moment, the world is slammed back to the Dark Ages and the natural predations of men emerge.
A massive electromagnetic pulse is suggested by one character, while another holds out for superior aliens who come to take our toys away. As yet, Stirling hasn’t revealed the reason behind The Change. There is a rumor that he’s going to tie these books in with his Nantucket novels. That means I have more books to read, but it also gives me the answer for why things are going wrong in this series. I’m not convinced that I really want to know yet. I’m enjoying discovering this new land and all these new problems as I read the series.
The author doesn’t just tell stories about people. He also discusses and weaves in theories about culture and legend and heroes. I loved how he braids new threads for the world and graces it with an emerging history that is unique yet plays upon everything I’ve read in myths and legends ever since I was a kid. Tolkein’s fantasies even become a major part in the remaking of this world, in a way that I truly found fascinating.
Article comments