BotD.1 "Dies the Fire"

Book of the Day:

Dies the Fire

by S. M. Stirling

Ah, post-apocalyptic books.  There is nothing better.

And this is one of the best.  Like most p-a books, it is set in the modern day.  However, as pretty much all modern devices stop working, the stuff that happens starts to turn downright medieval.  The premise is that everything electronic or high energy chemicals (like gasoline or gunpowder) become useless.  Everywhere around the world, planes fall from the sky and cities go black.

It has heroes, machete wielding cannibals, and horseback archers.  Fiefdoms ruled by ruthless "kings", a constant fear of starvation, and like better post-apocalyptic books: no clear picture of what happened to cause all this.

Review:

What I enjoyed the most about the book was how much it made you put yourself into the story.  I was always questioning "What would I have done there?" or "Would I have been able to survive that?"  If anything is going to make you take up bow-making and fencing, this would be it.  Besides the well detailed  fights and conflicts, Stirling wrote quite a bit about how the non-combatants manage to survive.  Defense against the threat of pillaging "bicycle gangs" is key.

The medieval-esque "tech" is described well and is very believable.  As one would expect, archery and equestrianism (riding horses) are what really makes the difference between living and becoming some crazy guy's dinner.  It has a nice message of "lazy people will pay" although looking back that probably includes me.

A bit of warning, if you are kinda paranoid, reading this book could cause you to keep a backpack of food by your bedside at all times now.  Oh, and there is a bit of gore.

Further Reading:

Luckily there several sequels, all following the same groups of survivers.  I believe the next one is called The Protector's War.  Some other good post-apocalyptic books include Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, or The Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve.

There are plenty of post-apocalyptic video games and movies, so I'm sure most of you know a few good ones.

Feel free to comment with some other favorites of yours sorta follow the same there or a book you are DYING to get people to read.

And more Books of the Day will be coming.  Look out.

Cheers.