S.M.Stirling's new Emberverse novel, "The Desert & the Blade," coming 09/01/15

[BrainGlutton]

Seven sample chapters available online.

[Lorene89095]

Thanks!! I have it ordered,tho he’s gotten a bit woo … But his characters… They are so real…

[XT]

@BrainGlutton

Seven sample chapters available online.

I read the Golden Princess and it wasn’t bad, so I’ll most likely continue with this new series. It has gotten a bit woo-ish, but it’s still an interesting read, though I think the first 3 book in the Dies the Fire series were the best and most interesting.

[tripthicket]

Loved the first three also, but have stalled out on book 5, I think. Book 6 purchased and never opened; nothing bought past that. For me, it’s just not the same series after the first 3.

[RikWriter]

After the incredible anticlimax of The Given Sacrifice, I won’t be reading any more of his Emberverse books.

[BrainGlutton]

At this point, complaining the Emberverse is woo-ish is like complaining Harry Potter is woo-ish.

[silenus]

@RikWriter

After the incredible anticlimax of The Given Sacrifice, I won’t be reading any more of his Emberverse books.

Pretty much this, except I gave up after Book 4. The first 3 are great. After that they go downhill very rapidly.

[RikWriter]

@silenus

Pretty much this, except I gave up after Book 4. The first 3 are great. After that they go downhill very rapidly.

I was still able to get excited about the next three books, but at that point I only kept reading out of curiosity…I just knew there would be a great big honking showdown to end things. Sure, Rudy would probably die in it, but it would be worth reading.

Then…

the great big showdown was a truncated anticlimax and Rudy died in a meaningless skirmish on the beach years later.

I was fucking pissed.

[Rick_Kitchen]

There’s a new collection of short stories coming out on June 2 called The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth with stories by Stirling, Turtledove, Walter Jon Williams, John Birmingham, John Barnes, Jane Lindskold, and others.

[BrainGlutton]

Nine chapters online now.

[Sangahyando]

@Rick_Kitchen

There’s a new collection of short stories coming out on June 2 called The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth with stories by Stirling, Turtledove, Walter Jon Williams, John Birmingham, John Barnes, Jane Lindskold, and others.

I was never super-taken with Stirling’s “Change / Emberverse” – perhaps I’m a nancy-boy over-fond of unicorns / rainbows / fluffy bunnies, but I feel the same as at least one other Stirling fan who said approximately, “call me a wimp, but the death of 95% of the world’s population is a bit more than I like hearing about”. Nonetheless, I read the earlier books in the series, with interest and a good deal of enjoyment; but the increasing role therein of the magical / mystical / mythical / miraculous, increasingly stuck in my throat – I let the series go after book 5. However – these short stories, with presumably various “takes” by assorted writers, arouse my interest.

[BrainGlutton]

@Sangahyando

I was never super-taken with Stirling’s “Change / Emberverse” – perhaps I’m a nancy-boy over-fond of unicorns / rainbows / fluffy bunnies, but I feel the same as at least one other Stirling fan who said approximately, “call me a wimp, but the death of 95% of the world’s population is a bit more than I like hearing about”. Nonetheless, I read the earlier books in the series, with interest and a good deal of enjoyment; but the increasing role therein of the magical / mystical / mythical / miraculous, increasingly stuck in my throat –

Hey, at least he’s kept the unicorns out of it so far.

[Sunny_Daze]

@RikWriter

I was still able to get excited about the next three books, but at that point I only kept reading out of curiosity…I just knew there would be a great big honking showdown to end things. Sure, Rudy would probably die in it, but it would be worth reading.

Then…

the great big showdown was a truncated anticlimax and Rudy died in a meaningless skirmish on the beach years later.

I was fucking pissed.

This. I haven’t read the next book yet. Not sure I will. I wish he’d write more Peshawan Lancers myself, but the chances seem remote.

[BrainGlutton]

Ten chapters now online. The book comes out September 1.

From The Given Sacrifice:

“I was just thinking,” Sandra said, “of how often I’ve wondered what the world will be like when the last of us oldsters have shuffled off to our—literal, as it turns out—rewards and the Changelings like Mathilda are left to run things without us.”

“And I’ve had the same thought, many a time,” Juniper said. “But?”

“Just now,” Sandra said, tickling the tip of the baby’s nose with one finger as she smiled and kicked, “it struck me that I should wonder what the world will be like when Órlaith’s generation is in charge… people who never knew the people who knew the world before the Change. When she’s my age it will be… Good Lord, it’ll be Change Year 84! Nearly a century! Will they really believe anything about our world by then, except as myths? And of course her children…”

Juniper’s face froze for a moment, though the Changelings showed polite incomprehension. Then she said, slowly: “It never fails; in a conversation with you, something truly disquieting will be said. Now I’ll be having that thought every time I look at a baby, instead of just enjoying the little ones. Thank you, Sandra.”

“You’re welcome, dear Juniper.”

Clearly, that’s what this new series is about. In The Golden Princess, characters of Mathilda’s generation appear onscreen hardly at all.