Customer Reviews

A Meeting at Corvallis: A Novel of the Change (Dies the Fire)

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

They called it "The Change" and for good reason. Now, nine years (and two books) after the white flash and blinding pain that brought in a new age where electricity doesn't electrify and explosives don't go boom, we see a new world so different from the one we currently occupy that we wouldn't recognize it if we tried. At one point in A Meeting at Corvallis, a character postulates about the possibility that the change did not just change the physics of the natural world, but also changed the people in some fundamental way. Perhaps, but the mysteries of the why take a backseat to the here and now in this book.

The here and now is a grim look at the changed world concentrating on the free lands of the Willamette Valley against the Dictatorial Portland Protective Association, under the brutal control of the Lord Protector, Norman Arminger. The free societies consist mainly of Mike Navel's Bearkillers, Juniper MacKenzie's Dun MacKenzie, a Wicca collective, and Mount Angel, a pre-change Monastery, which is an oasis for the escapee's of the Protectorate. Along with theses three main groups are the Dunedain Rangers, and group of Tolkenesque Rangers who speak elfish and treat the change as if it was the fifth age of Middle Earth. These Groups meet at the former Oregon State University, at the city of Corvallis to try to persuade the group to form a treaty to stand against any aggression by any party.

OK, I know, it sounds a bit complex, and maybe a bit bizarre, but if you made it through the first two of this Post-Apocalyptic trilogy, you should have some idea of what I am talking about here. The Meeting at Corvallis indicated in the title, is just the prelim to what truly becomes the war between the Protector, and the combined forces that oppose him. This book starts with the political intrigue and maneuvering and moves into an all out Military tale with some of Stirling's strongest battle scenes since The General series.

For fans of the series, and writer, which I am, this is easily the strongest of the three books. With the characters developed and the conflict set up, it was time for action. Yet, Stirling takes it a bit further, giving us the best look at the "hated enemy" he has in either of the previous books. While the political and military details were detailed and intricate as you would expect, the sub plots dealing with the Tiphaine, Lady Arminger's bodyguard, give us a great insight into the complicated world of the PPA, and the complications of War. Here, Stirling really surprised me, giving greater depth, and providing a large chunk of the point of view to what seemed like a minor character in the earlier editions. Like with the Draka series, the first hand glimpse at the "evil" enemy doesn't really muddy the waters as much as make you step back and look at the conflict from new angles. Although, your gut reactions may not change much, the knee jerks become less jerky.

A Meeting at Corvallis was an exciting and excellent ending for a strong trilogy. The Change worked at an excellent devise, yet, by the third book, The Change becomes back story, and almost an annoyance to many of the characters. Unlike most Post-Apocalyptic books, the series quickly changes from looking to the past to living in the present. Many of the characters who were adults before the Change, may seem to be play-acting in their new psuedo-medieval roles, but those who came to age post-change, this is the real world. This change in philosophy does well to end this trilogy while setting up the next series well.

Nuts and bolts times. If you liked the first two books, you will love A Meeting at Corvallis. If you were one of those who groaned over all the 'Blessed Be's' and called The Protector's War the Wicca Left Behind, then you are entering safe territory. The beautiful old religion (or as one of the Father's in Mount Angel called it, the very young old religion) is still a significant aspect of the story, but doesn't dominate the pages to the degree it did in the first two books. Overall, this was easily one of my favorite reads of the year.

At last we have the final(?) volume in the "Dies the Fire" story, and it was well worth the wait. "Meeting" has all the hallmarks of Stirlings writing: great battle scenes, intrigue, and scads of dialogue lifted from books and movies that leave you saying, "where have I heard that before."

There is no "happily-ever-after" ending, which is refreshing, and a big door is left wide open for a future series.

If Mr. Stirling reads this amateur dreck, I have a few bones to pick in regard to future installments.

1. I understand the Mackenzies are the moral center of the alliance, but unless they are riddling Protectorate knights with arrows they are really a little boring. More Bearkillers, please.

2. Untranslated gaelic sayings might amuse Irish and Scot readers, but those of us who don't speak the language ( despite our celtic heritage ) find it rather irritating. And why does Juniper talk like an Irishwoman when she is plainly American, then ... but ... so.

3. By the Lord and Lady, I am sick of detailed descriptions of Wiccan rites.

That said, please keep up the good work. The "Rudi as Alexander the Great" that is obviously coming has great promise.

A Meeting At Corvallis, the final volume of the Change trilogy that began with Dies The Fire, comes to a satisfying, rollicking, action backed end, and there's plenty there to satisfy anyone who became a fan of the first book and followed it all the way through.

After spending two volumes, stretching over nine years, building up to a confrontation between Norman Arminger's Portland Protective Association and the loose alliance between Clan Mackenzie, the Bearkillers, and the monks of Mt. Abbott, Stirling doesn't disappoint this time and gives his readers not one, but two epic confrontations that will decide the future of the characters that we've come to know, and perhaps the new post-Change world itself.

For the first time, he spends considerable time in the territory of the PPA where people are under the thumb of a man that they rallied behind when their lives seemed near an end, only to find themselves in a bondage unseen since serfdom ruled Russia. We also see the conflict about to come from the perspective of the people living in PPA and, while it doesn't really change the moral calculus of good vs. evil, it does paint a broader picture and give depth to characters who otherwise would've been little more than cardboard cutouts.

More importantly, though, this final volume of the trilogy shows why Stirling really is such a good writer. Not only does he take care to humanize his characters, he makes you feel like you're right there in their world with them, which makes the things that happen to them, both good and bad, all the more personal.

Stirling has started a new series based on the world of the Change. The Sunrise Lands takes place about ten years after the events of Corvallis and looks to introduce new characters, new challenges, and at some point perhaps an explanation for what happened to the world back on March 17, 1998. I look forward to continuing the adventure.

A Meeting at Corvalis draws all the loose ends from the previouse two books into a tightly woven, and unexpected, conclusion while involving all participating factions in intense mental and physical battles right up to the last page. I found myself spell bound as this story grew closer to the end with no apparent way for the Bearkiller and McClintock Clans to win over the ever present threats of domination from the North. Very enjoyable reading.

I first encountered this author when I picked up book 1 of this series, "Dies the Fire" and enjoyed that book immensely. I was dumbstruck however, but the precipitous plunge in quality of the second book. I also picked up Conquistador, and found that book wanting. But I did not give up, and I am glad I did not. I bought this third book and was very pleased.

It takes a good author to take an antagonist and make you understand them and like them. The battles were riveting, the strategy wonderful! He did fall back into old habits of buzzwording and descriptive-tangents occasionally, but he definitely reined it it this time, and stuck to creating a very good book.

Again, the ending to this book, like the first, tended towards the cheese factor with the whole Rudi thing... but I suppose it cannot be avoided.

I look forward to the new trilogy announced on the website--continuing the saga of the characters we have grown to love.

I recommend this book enthusiastically; especially if you enjoyed the first one of the trilogy.

First, I found the first book great, the entire idea of a world stripped of its technology was extremely interesting. The second was terrible, a waste of a book. This last one redeemed the series but not to the point to make it excellent again.

The first half of the book has the good guys trying to make an alliance to stop the bad guys, something that probably should have happened in the last book. The second half is the actual fight, where the good guys effortlessly win all the fights, do everything right, and send the bad guys home to mama. I actually found myself rooting for the underdogs of the story, no not the good guys, the bad guys. The story ends with a deus ex machina to end the war, sort of anticlimactic.

The biggest problem, just like in the last book is that too much is told from the viewpoint of the Wiccan Mackenzie clan, a bunch of neo-Pagan Braveheart wannabes. There should have been more descriptions of the other societies showing up rather than the very brief glimpses given before jumping back to the Wiccans. Also, the endless Tolkien references, the Dunedain Rangers using Elvish as a secret language, the emblem of the cliched supervillain being the "lidless eye," come on! But at least Stirling kept his lesbian warrior women down to a minimum for this series, only one shows up in this last book, though she gets a lot of screen time.

Still, it's more or less well written and well researched. So this book(paperback version) and the first book are probably the only ones you need to read, go ahead and skip the second, your not missing much.

This, the last of a trilogy set in Oregon after a worldwide change in the laws of physics, is yet another triumph for S.M. Stirling. In "Dies The Fire", we read how societies formed in northern Oregon after "the change" made it impossible for steam engines, internal combustion and jet engines, electricity and explosives to function. Society was set back to at least medieval levels and in some cases to savagery.

The next in the trilogy, "The Protector's War", dealt with the various groups as they developed ten years post "change" and the rise of the Protectorate, a feudal medieval recreation, ruled by a tyrannical "Lord Protector" in Portland as a major threat to the more benign societies consisting of the Bearkillers, the Mackenzies, the Monks at Mt. Angel Monastery and the citizens in Corvallis.

"A Meeting At Corvallis" deals with the ultimate battle between the Protectorate, who attacks an alliance of the Bearkillers, the Mackenzies, the Monks of Mt Angel Monestary and a group of citizens from the community of Corvallis. The outcome of this final battle is surprising and one is sorry to see the novel end.

Throughout all three novels, the development of the various societies, the development of the characters and the interweaving of several excellent sub plots, makes each novel difficult to put down. Having read a number of books that deal with this genre, I can easily state that this trilogy and this particualr book are the best I have ever read.

Holdt Garver

Well, the first book was interesting, the second tolerable, but the final one is terrible. Heavily padded - we know the details of every meal eaten, and every journey has several long lists of local flora and fauna. The armor of nearly every important character is described again and again. Even small things are repeated endlessly - every time a character in armor hugs or is hugged we get a reminder of the armor (which generally was described a page or two back).

There continues to be no explanation of The Change, other than hints of a divine origin. Given that the basic laws of physics have been severely tampered with, this is not very satisfactory. And still, most characters seem relatively uninterested in the reasons for the Change. A bit of bad pseudo-physics is given but only annoys.

There are long, long battles and duels, described in painful detail which slows the action to a crawl.

The end is not bad, although the hints of things to come are painfully obvious.

Sigh...if you were intriged by the premise in the first, and slogged through the second, save yourself. Don't buy this book.

The third and best of the initial trilogy of "The Change" series, "A Meeting at Corvallis" is a great ending to a hack-n-slash adventure trilogy. If you have been disapointed by a book that isn't apocalyptic enough to sit well with fans of "The Postman" by David Brin or "Lucifer's Hammer", please note the top reviews of this book specify that it contains "a group of Tolkenesque Rangers who speak elfish and treat the change as if it was the fifth age of Middle Earth."

Statements like these strongly indicate that this trilogy does not belong to the apocalypse sub-genre of sf. The entire trilogy is strongly hack-and-slash, especially when one considers the end of "A Meeting at Corvallis". The constant references to individual, battlefield, and small unit tactics with medieval era weaponry strongly influence a narrative full of nearly last stands and David and Goliath moments.

Even the blatantly obvious imagery of the Portland Protective Association adopting the "eye of Sauron" (See "J.R.R. Tolkien Boxed Set (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings)") as their battle-standard contribute to the fantastic nature of this narrative.

The excellent battle-scenes and well-narrated combat in this book make it a strong finish to a trilogy that struggled at times. Stirling's success makes this book a safe bet for any adventure sf fans that feel like reading a well-executed hack-n-slash.

I started this series because I thought the first one was an interesting idea, but I was NOT too crazy about all of the Wiccan speak going on. In fact, I was hoping he would kill off Juniper, because her part of the story annoyed me, but Mike Havel's part intrigued me. That ended fine, but obviously it was a 'to be continued'. 'Protector's War' updated you on what was going on in the character's lives, how they had progressed, and generally stirred the pot for book 3, but it wasn't bad, especially if you love Tolkien, and I no longer wished for Juniper to die. 'A Meeting at Corvallis', was the book I had hoped it would be, delivering ALOT of battle scenes bent on strategy, and digging deep into the lives of the interesting characters, and what they stand for. It's a good book when the characters MUST fight if they want any hope for their families lives. Of course there was alot of death, and some very sad moments, but I felt they were all very fitting. Not everyone survives such hard times. I felt closure for 'this chapter' of the the story, though the book implies that there will be more to come involving Rudi and the upcoming generations, because in life, the story always continues, especially when you have upcoming generations to factor in. So, I will be reading Stirling's next series, which picks up a little over a decade later, when Rudi should be about a good fighting age....