# How popular is Dies the Fire outside of the SDMB? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131 "2008-06-16T17:47:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/81 "2008-06-20T17:22:18Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] …As a member of South Downs, I know what you’re talking about. Hanging out with SCA folks, I’ve been part of dialogue something like this: “Man, when it all falls apart, only the strong will survive. Good thing I’ve got my awesome swordfighting skills!” “Yeah, if you don’t have a heart attack before you work off that extra hundred pounds you’re carrying, you’ll be king of your own tribe. Say, do you happen to know how to farm, or deliver a baby?” (Though to be fair, some of the SCA folks I know actually do live out in the country on farms, can get along fine without electricity, and know carpentry, blacksmithing, woodsmanship, animal husbandry and all sorts of useful stuff. I’m a city mouse who occasionally camps.) [/QUOTE] Stirling’s got a blog at Amazon, where he mentioned how some writers have a weakness for alcohol–but his is for food. (Critics of **Dies the Fire** complained that he spent too much time describing feasts.) He’d just gotten a Kindle to help him escape boredom while using the treadmill. Stirling’s apparently got no illusions that he’d be a warrior hero. His style for the **Lords of Creation** series is almost pulpish & tons of fun. From the [Acknowledgements](http://www.smstirling.com/) in \*\*The Sky People \*\* (set on an alternate Venus): > [@](#): > > Thanks to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leigh Brackett, Otis Adelbert Kline, Leinster, Heinlein, and to all the other great pulpsters for gracing my childhood with John Carter, Northwest Smith, “Wrong-Way” Carson of Venus, and all the heroes gifted with a better solar system than the one we turned out to inhabit. From the jungles of Venus and the Grand Canal of Marsopolis, I salute you! The next book in the series, **In the Courts of the Crimson Kings** , takes place on Mars–of course. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/82 "2008-06-20T18:59:09Z")
thanks for the recommendations **BrainGlutton** , i’ll check them out. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/83 "2008-06-24T17:54:15Z")
[Review of four recent “post-oil” novels,](http://www.energybulletin.net/node/44031) including Kunstler’s _World Made by Hand._ Apparently it’s a whole new subgenre. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/84 "2023-06-19T19:48:51Z")
Stirling has written seemingly dozens of sequels, so it must have some traction with the reading public. I recently listened to DTF on audio, and I originally heard of it years ago, somewhere other than here. I’m not actively involved in SF fandom so it must have happened through osmosis. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/85 "2023-06-19T19:52:12Z")
I will join this re-activation of this thread. He did write many sequels, but he eventually killed off too many characters and the new characters weren’t resonating with his audience. The series ended rather abruptly after that. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/86 "2023-06-19T20:16:57Z")
So the characters never did get an explanation or even a hint as to why everything stopped working? Or as to who or what caused it? ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/87 "2023-06-19T20:23:56Z")
No. I think the two theories that are discussed are aliens or gods. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/88 "2023-06-19T20:28:53Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > If the plural of auditorium is auditoria, what is the plural of scum? 😃 Scuzz? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/89 "2023-06-19T21:10:56Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > To be fair though, they were Massachusetts liberals who could afford property on Nantucket, and I’ve yet to meet a creature more idiotic than a rich Massachusetts liberal. Absolutely fair. And Nantucket is like a magnet for them. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/90 "2023-06-19T21:37:44Z")
> [@John DiFool](#): > > As for his writing, his books are riddled with thinly veiled strawman insults… And other examples of lazy, or just B-grade, writing. Someone mentioned characters being described the same (“Her face was a mask of obsidian” vs “Her face was a mask of basalt”). I got that feeling from the trilogy where Nantucket Island gets inexplicably jumped back in time (and place: they end up dealing with… _Aztecs? Why?)._ Oh, and, conveniently, a battleship that happened to be in the harbor got sent back, too. If anyone here’s lived on Nantucket, it’s a small island with a shallow harbor. I’ve only seen much smaller boats moored there. I shouldn’t be too critical. Even though I love Time Travel novels, I only made it through half of the first book. Oh, wait, that means I _should be_ critical… ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/91 "2023-06-19T22:01:52Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I got that feeling from the trilogy where Nantucket Island gets inexplicably jumped back in time (and place: they end up dealing with… _Aztecs? Why?)._ Considering they jumped back three thousand years, it would have been tough for them to deal with any Aztecs. I believe you’re thinking of the Olmecs. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/92 "2023-06-19T22:18:57Z")
I think I’ve read most of what Stirling has written and reread several of his books multiple times. So it’s fair to call me a fan. That said I feel there are three periods to his career: His early career (about 1985-1998): This is when he wrote the Draka books and the Fifth Millennium series and co-wrote the General series. I feel he was still developing as an author in this period. His mid-career (about 1998-2010): I feel this was when he wrote his best work. This was when he wrote _Conquistador_, _The Peshawar Lancers_, _The Sky People_, _In the Courts of the Crimson Kings_ and the Nantucket trilogy. I would recommend any of these. His later career (about 2010 to the present): I feel this was when his work started getting bloated. I feel he turned what should have been single books into trilogies and what should have been trilogies into long series. The Emberverse series (which started with _Dies the Fire_) began in the mid-career period and ran into the late career period and the quality of the books in the series showed a decline. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2023, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/93 "2023-06-19T23:17:33Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > > [@muldoonthief](#): > > > > To be fair though, they were Massachusetts liberals who could afford property on Nantucket, and I’ve yet to meet a creature more idiotic than a rich Massachusetts liberal. > > Absolutely fair. And Nantucket is like a magnet for them. I just want to point out that my original statement was made 15 years ago, and there are certainly groups now far more idiotic than rich MA liberals. > [@digs](#): > > Oh, and, conveniently, a battleship that happened to be in the harbor got sent back, too. If anyone here’s lived on Nantucket, it’s a small island with a shallow harbor. I’ve only seen much smaller boats moored there. It wasn’t a battleship, it was the [US Coast Guard Eagle](https://www.atlanticarea.uscg.mil/Area-Cutters/CGCEAGLE/), a steel hull, motorized 3 masted sailing vessel. It was passing by Nantucket at the time, IIRC, not docked, and got transported back as well. It was incredibly useful to the Nantucketers (and the plot) to have a large sailing vessel full of coast guard officers & sailors available - they would have mostly starved the first winter without it. But given that it’s a ship that actually exists, and whose home port is about 100 nm from Nantucket, it wasn’t unreasonable for Stirling to include it. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/94 "2023-06-23T17:17:29Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > This was when he wrote _Conquistador_, _The Peshawar Lancers_, _The Sky People_, _In the Courts of the Crimson Kings_ and the Nantucket trilogy. I would recommend any of these. _The Peshawar Lancers_ remains an all time favorite. I wish he had written sequels to that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131/95 "2023-06-23T17:25:16Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > _The Peshawar Lancers_ remains an all time favorite. I wish he had written sequels to that. He did write a prequel, _Shikari in Galveston_, a novella about Athelstane King’s father Eric. You can read [part of it](https://smstirling.com/books/shikari-in-galveston/) on Stirling’s website. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-popular-is-dies-the-fire-outside-of-the-sdmb/453131.md?page=4)