From there, his premise is that society would rapidly break down. gunpowder) and absence of mechanical electrical function (as opposed to nerve impuse conduction). Stirling decided on two rules for his apocalypse setting: the absence of explosive combustion (i.e.

The plot doesn’t inspire or stretch, offering little to the apocalypse canon except an exploration of a variety of communities and leadership styles in one book. While they have some dimension to their personalities, in the sense of having hopes, fears, anger and determination, they are essentially ideal role models, both in terms of community leadership and in coping with disaster.

Their backstories are somewhat fuzzy, except when providing an explanation for their skills and resources. Start with the characters: it centers around two people, Michael Havel, archangel, ultimate Male, former Marine, bush pilot, hunter, survivalist, and Juniper Mackenzie, Mother Earth, ultimate female, Wiccan, musician, Renaissance Faire player and general people-person. It is such an archtypical tale, an Aesop’s fable with details–lots and lots of details–but no originality, no finesse in characterization or plotting that it is really quite predictable. And not the good kind.Īctually, I feel kind of ranty about the book.

While it scratched some of those survivalist itches, unfortunately, when I finished, I felt nothing but relief. It’s been a while since my last apocalypse (not counting The Walking Dead on AMC, naturally), so it was with anticipation that I opened Dies the Fire.

Dies the fire book