A Meeting At Corvallis

Finally. I finished. So here's a quasi-review of the book, the series, and S. M. Stirling.

The Book

The book is slow to start. Very slow. In fact, I had to force myself through parts of it to make my way through. But at the end, it sped along nicely. Lots of plot movement. Almost enough to make up for the first half of the book.

Anyway, we see some major developments with Rudi, Mike Havel, and Tiphaine. Juniper stumbles along so-so as do Astrid and others.

In the end, Mike and Norman die. I guess it balances out, but I was upset to see Mike die as well as how. Stirling didn't do the fight justice by dragging it out. It was more like pulling a band-aide off real fast.

Bottom line - Where else can you read about lesbians, witches (not the magic kind), swords, and a world with no electronics or gunpowder?

The Series

The trilogy, Dies The Fire, was pretty good. First two books were good, third was just okay. The trilogy ties in nicely with the Island in the Sea of Time trilogy (Island in the Sea of Time, Against the Tide of Years, and On the Oceans of Eternity). I now want to go back and re-read this trilogy to see how well it fits in. And I want to read the next series, Sunrise Lands, that delves into the rest of America and the world.

Bottom line - Lesbians again, but with fewer Gaelic speaking Wiccans and more super-evil bad guys.

S. M. Stirling

Aside from his plethora of lesbians (and Wiccans in the second series), he has quite an imagination. The Changed World line I'm familiar with (7 books published and 3 to go) is essentially about a world that experiences a change that splits time. A small enclave in New England gets sent back to ancient times (like the Bronze Age) where guns and electricity works (for those that have it). Meanwhile, the rest of the world is plunged into a world where physics are altered and guns and electricity don't work. What caused the change? Who knows. But I'm partial to the Alien Space Bats theory.

I've only read one other book by Stirling, Conquistador, and was not very pleased. It was a slightly below average read and just didn't really do anything for me.

Go here to see more about the book, series, and author. But fair warning, there are some spoilers there. And don't forget the cool cover art. That's what got me hooked.