If the measure of a book is the impact it has on your thought process after you put it down, Stirling's Dies the Fire is quite a book. The basic premise is that some sort of "event" causes all modern (steam engine and beyond) technology to stop working; no electronics, no internal combustion engines, no guns. Sounds like an environmentalists dream, right? Think again. A delightfully chilling exercise in how society would change if we were all suddenly dependent on the strength of our arms for security and the strength of our labor
s for food.
For weeks after finishing this book I was nervous if was more than 5 miles from home in case my car stopped working. I also had an overwhelming desire to go out and buy a crossbow. It might be more realistic to think in terms of a collapse due to lack of oil, but this was a good read and I highly recommend it. Afterwards, you just might sleep better with a sword under your bed.
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