Pretty much what the title says. There are a lot of option which I’ve listed in the poll, but I’m sure to have forgotten some. Also, some places have been mentioned but not sufficiently described to know much about the lifestyle.
I had a hard time choosing. The place I now call homw is part of a Death Zone, so that’s not an option. There are pros and cons to living in any of the settled regions, but I finally settled on the territory run by the religious orders of Mt. Angel. I’m not Catholic but it wasn’t a requirement. I didn’t want to be part of the PPA, although visiting is something I wouldn’t mind. If being Wiccan wasn’t such an overwhelming cultural thing, I might have become a Mackenzie.
So, what option would you choose? What did I leave out?
Ok, I screwed up when I tried to create the poll, so that’s out. But some of the choices would be
1)Mt. Angel
2)The P.P.A.
3)Mackenzie territory
4)The Bearkillers
5)Norrheim
6)Iowa
7)Greater Britain
8)Chenrezi valley(the Buddhist led region
9)On the plains with the Lakota
10)Corvallis
As I recall, the “Island in the Sea of Time” (modern Nantucket moved thousands of years to the past) series by the same author is in the same “universe.” So my choice would be “visiting Nantucket when the Change strikes” because I like electric lights, phones, radio, cops with working guns, and such.:rolleyes:
If I couldn’t be “visiting Nantucket on March whatever-it-was 1998”; my choice would be “none of the Emberverse options listed”. I found the first three or so Emberverse novels absorbing, if a bit “rich for my blood” – call me a wimp, but I find a scenario where 95% of Earth’s population perishes miserably, a bit depressing. But then, the series took on an increasingly heavy “magical / mystical / mythological” bent, which for me was a total turn-off, and not what I’d hitherto found S.M. Stirling to be all about. I struggled to the end of the fifth book, and then packed it it.
So, for me – nowhere in the Emberverse, thank you – I want no part in that “puppets / tools of the gods” crap. I’d choose to be one of the large majority of folk, who perish in the Great Dying of 1998.
I liked immensely, the “Island in the Sea of Time” sequence-of-three: I only wish he would write more of that series, rather than going on churning out book after book about the bloody Emberverse.
It’s the churning that’s the problem. The Nantucket trilogy was great because Stirling packed a whole lot into just three books - and then stopped. Same thing with Conquistador and The Peshawar Lancers.
The Emberverse series would have been great if it had been squeezed into about five books. But the Director’s Extended Cut we’ve been getting is just too much. And the Shadowspawn trilogy probably would have worked better as a single book.
I concur that the “churning” is certainly part of the trouble. One feels that Stirling has come down with something of a dose of the Harry Turtledoves…
A “this is just me” thing: I happen to find vampire stuff, the world’s most boring literary theme; so groaned when I learned was was on the way, as regards “Shadowspawn”. I felt in duty bound, to get the first book in the series, hoping that the Master’s touch would let it be for me, at least endurable – but I got no further than the first chapter. A lot of Stirling fans are so enamoured of his writing that they say – and I believe them – that they’d delight in reading the telephone directory if SMS had written it. I plainly fall short of that ideal of fandom.
Corvallis is supposed to run on democratic principles, isn’t it? And PEI is part of Greater Britain, at least to the extent of having representatives in Parliament.
I’ve been re-reading the second series and have changed my mind about where I’d live, or think I would. I’d give the Chenrezi valley a try if I could. It is guided by the Buddhist orders that were there when the Change hit, but they don’t seem to have the influence in religious affairs that other places do. For a Protestant like me, well, Episcopal/Anglican, that would be easier than living in PPA territory, Mt. Angel, Mackenzie lands, and so on.
Current word is that the series will spread to 13 books before its completed. 13! I remember when The Sunrise Lands was published, the plan was to wrap it up in seven.
I think the last three books all could have edited down to a nice-sized single book.
Amen. A shame – I loved his output from his “middle period” (ISOT, Peshawar Lancers, Conquistador).
At least the Yahoo S.M. Stirling discussion group is still fun. As well as talking about SMS’s works, “everything under the sun” gets discussed there – much like “The Straight Dope” ! Although I don’t feel altogether comfortable with the general complexion of political views among the group’s membership; many people take part there who are very bright, and very knowledgeable about an amazing range of things.
