Dies the Fire cover art

Dies the Fire

A Novel of the Change

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Dies the Fire

By: S. M. Stirling
Narrated by: Todd McLaren
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £25.99

Buy Now for £25.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 Michael Havel was flying over Idaho en route to the holiday home of his passengers when the plane's engines inexplicably died, forcing a less than perfect landing in the wilderness. And, as Michael leads his charges to safety, he begins to realize that the engine failure was not an isolated incident.

Juniper Mackenzie was singing and playing guitar in a pub when her small Oregon town was thrust into darkness. Cars refused to start. Phones were silent. And when an airliner crashed, no sirens sounded and no fire trucks arrived. Now, taking refuge in her family's cabin with her daughter and a growing circle of friends, Juniper is determined to create a farming community to benefit the survivors of this crisis.

But even as people band together to help one another, others are building armies for conquest.

©2004 Stirling (P)2008 Tantor Science Fiction

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Island in the Sea of Time cover art
The Stainless Steel Rat cover art
Deathstalker cover art
The Silmarillion cover art
Ring of Fire I cover art
New Spring cover art
The Road cover art
Eden Rising cover art
Outcast cover art
The Sum of All Men cover art
Blindness cover art
After It Happened: Publisher's Pack cover art
Year One cover art
Forging Hephaestus cover art
Hard Magic cover art
Monster Hunter International cover art

Critic reviews

"The novel's dual themes - myth and technology -should appeal to both fantasy and hard SF readers as well as to techno-thriller fans." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant  
A great series of books if you can get over the initial premis. The world suddenly changes and engines, guns and electricity no longer works. How will people adapt? What price civilisation and law?

Cleverly written with a closely observed and diverse population, the first three books in this series are well worth a read (or rather listen). Personally later volumes got a bit too "new age" for my taste - but the initial trilogy were a great adventure.

Can you suspend disbelief?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Shows how different educated people can solve problems and think ahead against little or well organised despots Severe savagery is pre elect for those who glorify in it to necessity to survive

Interesting premise Shows good and bad in people

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Didn’t want to stop listening very engaging story looking forward to the rest of the series

Gripping

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A ripping yarn of new gone old. Enjoying it immensely and looking for more.

Great alternative to Zombies

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very well written and well read good, exiting story. It also made you think. Definitely worth to listen to also for the reader's voice.

Pleasant entertainment!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thought this was a really clever idea for a different kind of apocalypse story. The survival elements are entertaining,
fit the story and are carried out by someone who I can believe would have that knowledge. All the characters are interesting and the story starts strong and gets stronger. It was also well read with the characters consistently voiced. It was read well enough that I can forgive the pronouncing of the hard A in the word “rations” unless I’m the one who’s been saying it wrong.

An excellent alternative apocalypse fiction.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you listen to Dies the Fire again? Why?

The concept of the story is a good one. It merges together the concepts of fantasy and sci-fi in an interesting way

What other book might you compare Dies the Fire to, and why?

Not sure

Would you be willing to try another one of Todd McLaren’s performances?

The narration is what lets this book down. The narrator is awful. Every 20 or so words is mispronounced. I expect someone who reads for a living to have a decent vocabulary. Words mispronounced that I can remember off the top of my head include : celtic, seconded, viscount, precise, endinburgh, surmise etc. This by no means an exhaustive list as there are too many to remember.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book could be very emotional. But the bad reading distracts from otherwise would be an excellent and emotional story.

Excellent story, terrible narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No. The narrator obviously doesn't know when to pause for paragraphs etc. Book was spoilt by having to second guess which part of the story he was reading.

What other book might you compare Dies the Fire to, and why?

Similar theme to many post-apocalyptic novels

What didn’t you like about Todd McLaren’s performance?

There was no pause for paragraphs, changes of scene etc which spoilt the novel for me. His voice was fine but it became annoying to second guess where in the story we were at. I am not talking even slight pauses, but straight from one sentence into another which bore no resemblance to the thread of that particular part of the story. In a novel that is following 2 or 3 different threads that is not good enough.

Could you see Dies the Fire being made into a movie or a TV series? Who would the stars be?

No

Any additional comments?

Novel spoilt by lack of basic punctuation rules.

How to spoil a story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed the story and the narrator is very good however there are quiet a few times that it suddenly jumps forward or to another part of the story line with no particular pause or change of chapter. I'm not sure if it is the way it is written or the way it has been edited but for a few moments you are left wondering what has happened. Apart for that it was very good and if it hadn't been for that I would have given it 5 stars.

Good but jumpy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Narration is ok but the accents are terrible. I'm Irish. That Irish accent and turn of phrase is shocking, even though it is supposed to be an exaggerated one. It is also the same accent as the Vietnamese character's😂. The narrator reads the bizarre version of Irish/ gealic penned by the author but never researched how to say any of the words. Not such a big deal as it was non-sensical to me as a native speaker.

Narration....

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews