On Tuesday, March 17th, 1998, the world Changed. The power went out in everything. Cars stopped running, airplanes fell from the sky, phones and radios were silent, and, as cities began to burn to the ground, law enforcement officers, private citizens, and ruthless thugs were shocked to find that gunpowder no longer worked. In one horrifying instant, the 20th century was switched off...permanently.
But from the ashes of the Old World, a new kind of world begins to grow.
Dies The Fire scratched my post-apocalyptic itch, but good. The book is packed with plenty of pulse pounding action, heroes that manage to be both larger than life and true to it, and the narrative builds a world that I look forward to visiting again and again. (But one I certainly would not want to live in full time.)
It's a good thing, then, that the book is the first part of a trilogy. If it wasn't, then I would be far more disgruntled with the abrupt ending than simply eager to find out what happens in the next book.
My biggest complaint is that the saga's primary villain, a murderous professor that seizes control of Portland, Oregon and begins forming a conquering army of former street gangs, is only introduced, not developed beyond being a menacing background figure. Most of the book is focused on getting the primary heroes situated and their various communities developed.
Speaking of focus, I would have liked to have seen a bit more focus on the actual apocalypse. Having a character or two actually experience the hell of the collapsing major cities would have fleshed out the disaster to a point where it feels truly epic. Perhaps in the next book.
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