Product Description
“A stunning continuation”(Diana L. Paxson, author of Ravens of Avalon) of the New York Times bestselling author’s “splendid saga” chronicling an alternate world without technology.

Rudi MacKenzie continues his trek across the land that was once the United States of America. His destination: Nantucket, where he hopes to learn the truth behind The Change that rendered technology across the globe inoperable.

During his travels, Rudi forges ties with new allies in the continuing war against The Prophet, who teaches his followers that God has punished humanity by destroying technological civilization. And one fanatical officer in the Sword of The Prophet has been dispatched on a mission—to stop Rudi from reaching his destination by any means necessary.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 26 reviews)

He's channeling Rbt Jordan

Jordan's WoT series died for me at about Book 6, and Stirling is dangerously close to that precipice. However, old trick: only read the first sentence of each paragraph on even pages, and the middle sentence of odd pages, and you won't miss a thing. And, how do you pronounce "shete"?
December 31, 2008

I don't know how much more I can take

I haven't read the original series but picked this up with Dies The Fire and on through Meeting at Corvallis and the last book, The Sunrise Lands. I'm mainly a science fiction reader but also like a good fantasy novel. This series, started out as post apocalyptic (science fiction's little brother) but has been devolving into fantasy. The Scourge of God is apparently the Prophet, a religious madman working out of Wyoming and the upper midwest. Ok, I can deal with that. But why do his minions, the Seekers, talk in bold type and are almost impossible to kill? Why is Rudi getting visions? For that matter, this whole quest they are on to the East coast is taking on more and more the trappings of The Lord of the Rings. And as another reviewer noted, it's probably going to take them at least two more books to get to Nantucket. And then 4 more to get back? We could have another Time of Wheels (I mean Wheels of Time) on our hands, a story which the author doesn't know how to end. Like I said, I don't know how much more of this I can take.
December 21, 2008

It's going to be a long trip (good!)

At this rate it is going to take Rudi and his pals a long time to reach Nantucket. Good! The idea seems to be to give us a good glimpse as to how people are faring across the entire continent.

As has been pointed out, this series has taken a decided turn toward fantasy. We're averaging a magical event/religious miracle every chapter or so now. Fantasy-haters look on the bright side: At least he hasn't conjured up any extra-terrestrials (yet -- yikes, I hope not).

In Scourge, plans don't seem to work as perfectly as they did in the first book or two. Especially back home in Oregon. Makes things a little more digestible, if not believable.

My biggest criticism is that a lot of Stirling's characters fall flat. For every wonderfully interesting Juney or Rudi there are two or three Sandra Armingers and Signe Havels.

Stirling is borrowing heavily from not only Tolkien but also Stephen King's Dark Tower series in this saga.

Good stuff! Looking forward to the next one.
December 12, 2008

Stirling Could Use an Editor for a Change

The concept of the Change series is interesting, and it is easy enough to suspend disbelief that in less than a generation after such a cataclysm, the survivors could be building huge castles and nineteenth-century industrial complexes. The social changes are certainly interesting (the Wiccans) and sometimes credible (the Indians). The series has definitely descended from soft Sci fi to pure fantasy (demonic possession has come to the fore) and religious diversions (Odin and the Virgin Mary both make appearances, and a good chunk of the book takes place in a Buddhist monastery). All this absurdity is related with absolute sincerity, and therefore has a certain charm. My big complaints about Stirling, however, are that he does not bother to check his facts at all (I forget if it was this book or a prior one that referred a few times to St. Paul's Cathedral in Rome), and he wastes pages and pages with gushy descriptions of nature and sometimes whole chapters with interminable conversations between and among the characters that tell us nothing we have not heard in the previous books, and do absolutely nothing to advance the story. So wrap it up in the next book, Stirling, and get an editor for the next series.
November 30, 2008

Get on with it already!

I enjoy The Sunrise Lands Series. The series is novel and the characters are deep. Having said that this book could have been done in three chapters. I kept waiting for the plot to move. It never did, skip this book you won't notice.

Joe
November 30, 2008

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The Sunrise Lands: A Novel of the Change (Change Series)
by S.M. Stirling

1635: The Dreeson Incident (The Ring of Fire)
by Eric Flint, Virginia DeMarce

By Schism Rent Asunder
by David Weber

A Meeting at Corvallis
by S.M. Stirling

The Last Centurion
by John Ringo