I just finished reading The Protector’s War by S.M. Stirling.  It’s the sequel to Dies the Fire, where the entire world’s technology is rendered useless, along with all explosives.  As a result the world is tumbled into chaos as governments fall, leaving a handful to rise out of the ashes of civilization to build new tribes to fight for survival.

It’s a very interesting concept, that some sort of extraterrestrial technology – for reasons of their own – would take away the technology of our world, leaving humans to fall back to the days of bows and swords where living every day is a struggle for survival.  I stumbled upon Dies the Fire a couple of years ago and was pleasantly surprised it discover its sequel not too long after that.  And then today, just a handful of pages from the end of The Protector’s War, I discover again that there yet another sequel, A Meeting at Corvallis.  For some reason, I was under the impression that this was a two-book series, but I’m both pleasantly surprised and annoyed to find that this is not so.  I’m pleased to be able to follow some of my favorite characters yet a little further but annoyed by the fact that I thought resolution was at hand. 

And purusing Amazon.com a bit further, I see that there is yet another upcoming novel called The Sunrise Lands, set in the same universe but starting a new series, where survivors of the Change (the thing that caused the loss of technology) send out a mission to try to determine the cause and find Those responsible for it.  This is a fascinating series, and while some folks may find it a bit dry and slow at times, I think anyone who likes both fantasy and alternative history will enjoy this series a great deal.