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...?

125 people found this helpful

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.

43 people found this helpful

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.

41 people found this helpful

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.

37 people found this helpful

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.

33 people found this helpful

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.

32 people found this helpful

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.

30 people found this helpful

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.

21 people found this helpful

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

16 people found this helpful

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.

14 people found this helpful