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)

This is my favorite story.

This story captures my imagination like no other. I find myself reading it every couple of years. It is well crafted, and creates a world that fascinates, and begs the question “what if”.

Good Start to a great series!

This was a fun book. "something" happens to change the world and now humanity has to adjust to survive without modern conveniences. There have been other authors with the same concept, but I loved the way S.M. Sterling pulled it off. The characters are believable and likable. Groups splinter off and those who are clever and willing, adapt, survive and prosper. I can just see the cities and suburbs panicking and motionless with fear. Any book that can make me both wince and laugh out loud are more than worth the credits! Todd McLaren's voice is rich, talented and gripping!

A Great Study in Human Nature and Conflict

S.M. Sterling is quoted as having said "There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot."

So first, don't be dissuaded from listening to this book by those who complain about the amount of “wiccan propaganda” or pagan jargon in the book. I am not a religious person and usually chafe rather quickly at the sometimes constant interjection of (the mostly Christian) religious dogma within much of the survivalist literature out there today. This book is not about witches or wiccans. Only one main faction, out of several, is wiccan. There are pagans of various sorts, christians, buddhists, native americans, and even a few agnostics and atheists thrown in. Sterling does a masterful job of weaving this wide array of belief systems into the survival aspect of the story, and like everything else in the book, he does so in great detail at times. But that's real life. Humans throughout history have believed, and based their societies upon, a wide assortment of dogmas, myths and utter fantasies. Regardless of their spiritual bent, the tribes, clans and cultures with the strongest leaders, best social cohesion and greatest ability to mobilize, organize and prepare have prospered relative to those less able. Sterling has simply applied that fact to the changed world he has created, and he’s done it in an interesting, appropriate and believable way. People thrown back to the time before machinery and gunpowder would likely rally around those with similar beliefs as one mechanism of their efforts to survive. Those groups who prospered would likely attract converts. Dies the Fire describes that process from several different religious perspectives.

Second, the criticism that Dies the Fire is written for D&D fanatics by a D&D fanatic are equally baseless. How else would you survive in a world without guns, engines and electronics if not for swords, armor, archers and castles? How does climate and geography impact the choice of these weapons and fortifications? Who of the 21st century, male and female, would survive and prosper in such a world given such choices? And who would die, become slaves or turn cannibal? These are among the questions Sterling tries to answer in this book, and the rest of the Emberverse series. I don’t think Sterling has a D&D fetish. But he does seem to have an inexhaustible grasp of medieval history, particularly warfare, field fortifications and individual combat. I used to be an infantry officer and a military history buff. I find very little within his description of combat to quibble about, though admittedly I was never trained in swords and lances…more’s the pity.

Sterling is a very descriptive writer. If you don’t like detail this book (and the series) are not for you. There is a tremendous amount of medieval-style warfare, combat and combat logistics, training and political intrigue, written in a way that puts you right in the middle of the action, or right in the mind of the speaker. That is interspersed with a great deal of descriptive information about primitive agriculture, horsemanship, construction and a host of other related aspects of survival. He describes the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the environment, the food, the terrain, the battles and the human relationships, providing the listener with a multi-dimensional landscape that few authors can replicate. I love the style and the detail.

Add to this the truly amazing performance of Todd McLaren. He is one of my favorite narrators, giving life and a unique personality to each character. Yes, as a former Marine, his pronunciation of the word corpsman (pronounced core-man) as “cores-man” is a bit irritating…both times he says it in the book’s 22 hours. I can live with that. He has an ability to change voices from male to female, young to old, Irish to Jewish to English to mid-western to just about anything without missing a syllable and doing so plausibly. No two characters out of the book’s dozens sound the same. Men sound like men, women like women. The Celtic accents, and most of the others, sounds fairly genuine to me. No one person can do all that without a few voices sounding…odd. But some real people sound odd, so I’m not finding fault with that either. His reading style, the tone of his voice and his patterns of speech are easily understood and conducive to listening for hours at a time comfortably.

Overall, it’s a great book and a great series. Sterling takes late 20th Century society, throws it back to the 13th century and lets human nature adapt and build a new world. The stark contrast between good and evil seems apparent at first. But later you find yourself questioning what you would do, what you would believe and how you would go about surviving. There are countless nuances to survival that aren't captured in most survival stories. This book makes you think about the world and the end of the world as we know it in a very unique way. I highly recommend it.

A little overbearing

First of all kudos to the performance by Todd McLaren. The reading is well done and his inflection and accents he uses for the characters are first class.

The story is well written and I am a fan os Sterling but a certain points the entire Old Religion focus gets to the point where you feel beat about the face with it.

Merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again.

A truly unique take on the end of the world.

Where does Dies the Fire rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This book is one of my favorites. It pulled me in from the start and I found myself caring about the characters and that is always good. I also really like the level of detail with which Stirling describes his world and the characters.

What other book might you compare Dies the Fire to and why?

I don't think there is a book that compares to this. It is a truly unique story that provides a far more realistic presentation of an end of the world scenario especially in how the power and cultural structure rearranges than I've read or seen anywhere else.

What does Todd McLaren bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Todd is an excellent narrator that breaths life into the story and characters.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The end of one world, the birth of another.

Ignore the premise and enjoy the book

Any additional comments?

Dies the fire has a bizarre premise but if you can get past that it can be very enjoyable. It does fall into the trap that I find many authors do and that is that it does feel like a vehicle meant to promote the life choices the author has made and he has created a world in which those choices have made him, I mean his characters, kings.

Quite often I found myself pulled out of the story because of this, only to say to myself, OK, just go with it. It's fun, a bit informative and overall I did enjoy myself enough to buy his other books. If you can just accept an author's premise and "go with it" then this is not for you. If you like this sort of genre then you will be happy with this book.

lost book so decided to listen great story.

great story very riveting i used Audible because i lost the actual book i have the rest of the series i gave read the first 4 before now going to read the whole series again.

Love this book.

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

YEs, it is a great story and epic series.

What did you like best about this story?

The characters and how they reacted to The Change.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He mispronounced the Celtic names and other words. It is not like it is hard to find proper pronounciations of things anymore. You can look it up on online or talk to the author.

Was Dies the Fire worth the listening time?

Yes, just find the mispronounced words to be a distraction.

A very intriguing introduction

This novel was enjoyable to read. Striling is an excellent storyteller. The detail with which he describes the actions of his characters is incredible. From farming, to horseback riding, to swordplay, to construction techniques, all is extremely well researched. The action is vividly described and exciting to read, albeit gruesome.

Several tidbits about the nature of the change add intrigue to the story. Also, viewing the world through Ken Larsen's eyes is fascinating. The exploration of the "craft" and it's proliferation in a post apocalyptic setting is a totally original idea, at least to this reader.

Well worth your time, and an excellent intro to the Emberverse.

I'm ready for the apocalypse now.

I've never read a book that made me want to learn how to make chainmail and be valuable to a society. Blown away.