The Emberverse

I looked up the series hoping to find a pre-existing thread, but after several pages of sideways topics I didn't see one. It's surprising if we don't have one, but I guess now we will.

I first read this back in either high school or college, and I loved it. It's been years, and now I'm beginning to reread it. I'm still on Dies the Fire, before the Bear Killers are even a thing. I don't remember if I read this before or after the Island in the Sea of Time trilogy but I've picked out a couple of direct character links I don't think I noticed the first time. Like Dennis's brother being on Nantucket, and William Walker being one of Signe's exes. At least, if you can call him that. It only sounds like they dated some, not had a real relationship. I can't imagine anyone have an actual relationship with a solipsistic person like him.

Anyway, this is just a place to discuss the series if people still want such a discussion. After all, the series is still on-going last I read.

I just finished the most recent, The Desert And The Blade, which is now into Change Year 46.

I've read Dies the Fire and bought The Protector War, but haven't read it yet. I think it's pretty good, but it's not the "best" thing I've ever read. Though that may be because Dies is the setup novel where not much happens.

edited 3rd Dec '15 5:17:29 PM by theLibrarian

Dies the Fire does a lot to set up the main plotline, although I think it's a bit unfair to describe people surviving the end of the world and planting the seeds of new civilizations as 'not much happening' :) Admittedly, a lot of it is basically 'this is the grinding horrible necessity involved in surviving the apocalypse. Over the next several books, especially as the next generation grows up, you actually get to watch those scrambling desperate skirmishes become myth and then national identity. It's quite well done, actually.

Yeah, I can imagine.

At the same time though I don't really buy Armitage (is that his name? I forget) being able to control all of the city's gangs. You would think they'd all be going "Hey, this is our chance to really tear stuff up!" rather than paying service to a guy in a suit.

Then again he gave chucklefucks like Iron Rod a way to walk over people without them being able to fight back (sans groups like the Bearkillers) so I imagine they tolerate him for now. At least until other people get their act together and start saying "Hey, knock that off you assholes."

Arminger pulls off a balancing act. He gives them a way to organize and control land without just knocking each other off, and the Lords aren't going to kill him themselves for several reasons. 1. It's not just gangs he's recruited. It's also the Society folks who know how to use the new weapons more effectively. 2. His and his wife's efforts to organize the place are a legend of their own that the Society people build up and get enough others involved in to keep things stable. And 3. Who would replace him? There's no majority candidate anywhere in that clusterfuck of a city. It's either Arminger or Anarchy, and after the initial fires die down and hunger is a serious threat, nobody wants to plunge the city into a Civil War that'll probably burn the food supply.