The Desert and the Blade

Emberverse #12

by S.M. Stirling

In his Novels of the Change, New York Times bestselling author S.M. Stirling presents “a devastated, mystical world that will appeal to fans of traditional fantasy as well as post-apocalyptic SF.”* Continuing their quest that began in The Golden Princess, two future rulers of a world without technology risk their lives seeking a fabled blade… 

Reiko, Empress of Japan, has allied herself with Princess Órlaith, heir to the High Kingdom of Montival, to find the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword, a legendary treasure of an ancient dynasty that confers valor and victory to its bearer. Órlaith understands all too well the power it signifies. Her own inherited blade, the Sword of the Lady, was both a burden and a danger to her father, Rudi Mackenzie, as it failed to save the king from being assassinated.  

But the fabled sword lies deep with the Valley of Death, and the search will be far from easy. And war is building, in Montival and far beyond.

As Órlaith and Reiko encounter danger and wonder, Órlaith’s mother, Queen Matildha, believes her daughter’s alliance and quest has endangered the entire realm. There are factions both within and without Montival whose loyalty died with the king, and whispers of treachery and war grow ever louder.

And the Malevolence that underlies the enemy will bend all its forces to destroy them.

*Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Alternate History, Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy

612 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Stephen Michael Stirling is a French-born Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author. Stirling is probably best known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and the more recent time travel/alternate history Nantucket series and Emberverse series.

MINI AUTO-BIOGRAPHY:
(personal website: source)

I’m a writer by trade, born in France but Canadian by origin and American by naturalization, living in New Mexico at present. My hobbies are mostly related to the craft. I love history, anthropology and archaeology, and am interested in the sciences. The martial arts are my main physical hobby.

Reviews

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read about 100 novels and about 100 more other titles (comic books collected in trade paperbacks, anthologies, non-fiction titles, stuff like that) in a given year, and those are mostly titles that were published in a current year. About 10% of those novels tend to be exceptional. Others not so much. That gives me ten or twelve novels from which I choose my absolute favorite in a given year. Sometimes the choice is hard or even impossible. Sometimes none of these novels left me with an impression strong enough to consider any of them absolute best. Anyway, most years I wait till the end of December - or even the end of January next year - to pronounce my own Best Novel(s) award.

This year I'm doing that early.

The Desert and the Blade is a redemption of a promise made in Golden Princess. To be perfectly honest, I loved Golden Princess - the previous book in the series), but it was lacking in some ways. It was all about the preparation for the journey, not the journey itself. Now that the Desert and the Blade arrived, I can safely say that more than any other part of Change series these two books should be read as one novel divided in two parts. The recently published anthology set in the Change universe was also tied into the story, although those readers who didn't read it need not to worry. Stirling has flawlessly included some of the protagonists from the best stories in the anthology, Harry Turtledove’s “Topanga and the Chatsworth Lancers” and Diana Paxson’s “Deor”, and has teased possible spin-offs dealing with their adventures that take place between events described in the Change anthology and the Desert and the Blade. This would be more than welcome, since the year-long wait between Stirling's novels starts to be harder to bear with each new book.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD


Stirling has really grown into A-list author with this one. I would rank him perhaps a blade width (pun intended) beneath his more famous colleague from the Critical Mass writing group, George R.R. Martin. His control of the story is now flawless and characterization excellent albeit still done in broad strokes, using almost cliches - but doing so in such a masterful way that the reader is not offended but rather amused with authors shenanigans. Once again, he gives homage to several important Fantasy and Science Fiction authors - Martin himself and his Game of Thrones not the least of them.

Anyway, except technical near-perfection of the writing style, language and genre manipulation, this novel boldly increases the "magic level" present in the world. In the previous novels we had "events" that could be explained as mass hysteria, simple hypnotism or even coincidence. During Rudy's part of the series we've encountered Entities that could be anything from aliens to projections of collective unconsciousness of the human kind.

But in the Desert and the Blade the readers encounter large-scale magic for the first time, raging from some serious protective magic to magic of mass destruction at the very end of the novel, along some kind of not-so-spontaneous combustion.

The author also teases the possible evolution (or devolution) of humankind into orcs or elves. I don't really know what to thing about the possibility of Eaters becoming real orcs, although I guess they are close enough already.

END SPOILER

This one is really the best of the series. Excellently written and plotted, with added bonus of some excellent world-building, this novel manages to delight and hypnotize its reader, without overwhelming him (or her) with large cast of characters, since those are handled deftly and with gentle touch so that the reader can adjust to different points of view and absorb the additions to the ansamble without any difficulties.

The wait will be hard to bear.

[Sean Smart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great story from S M Stirling. However as SM Stirling gets more successful he seems to falling in to the trap of many successful authors do of needing to be edited. I believe it was 150 pages of dialogue in this one before anything really happened. Some great battle scenes and great characters but really needed to be shorter and snappier in my humble opinion, it was just too long.

[Matt Mitrovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted at: http://alternatehistoryweeklyupdate.b...

Many of you who follow my reviews know that I am a big fan of SM Stirling's Emberverse (or Change) series. Hell I am responsible for creating the Wikipedia article on the series (O the things you can do when you are an intern and have nothing to do at work). You know what I like most about this series? Unlike many post-apocalyptic tales, the Emberverse isn't dreary or depressing with cliche stories about pointless survival. The Emberverse is not just about people surviving, but rebuilding and creating a new world in the process. Its an alternate history series as well, but of the alien space bats variety. Enough about the series as a whole, lets take a look at The Desert and the Blade, the newest installment in the Emberverse.

The Desert and the Blade takes up right after The Golden Princess. Órlaith, Crown Princess of Montival, and her followers are helping Reiko, Empress of Japan, and her band of loyal samurai recover the "Grass Cutting Sword", one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan. The sword is being kept in a "castle" somewhere in California, which was devastated and depopulated by the Change, except for a few Montival colonies, some tiny survivor communities and several tribes of Eaters (cannibalistic offspring of the few people who survived the loss of modern technology in 1998 by feasting on the only remaining source of readily available meat: humans).

Their quest is not an easy one as they are hounded by Haida pirates and Korean warriors, who are ruled by the grandson of Kim Jong-il (and remind me a lot of the Russians from The Peshawar Lancers, if you know what I mean) and want to stop the Japanese from recovering the sword. On the way the questors will battle armies of Eaters, be aided by Saxon warriors, meet Jewish desert nomads and come upon a community of aging hippies who worry about how the modern world will change their way of life...which is actually kind of funny when you come to think of it.

Like most long running series, The Desert and the Blade suffers from lengthy reintroductions to characters and settings that anyone who started from the beginning should already be familiar with. I know authors do it on the off chance that there is a reader who is entering the series from this book and you see this a lot in comics, but for long time readers it can be a slog to get through. There are also some references to events from previous stories, which are not given lengthy explanations, so new readers are going to be confused at times anyway.

In fact, Stirling works in a lot of characters and places from The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth anthology and I don't mean just quick cameos. Many characters originally introduced in those stories have become important, plot-turning characters. This isn't a bad thing (and I enjoyed the quick epilogue to Walter John Williams‘ “The Venetian Dialectic”, which was my favorite story from the anthology) since it shows Stirling is happy to have other authors play around in his universe, but it means one more book new readers have to pick to get the full enjoyment of The Desert and the Blade.

Common issues with long running series aside, The Desert and the Blade is still a good book. I would say its even better than The Golden Princess, since that book featured a lot of characterization and worldbuilding, and little action. This book balances all three better, giving us fun neo-Medieval conflict and Clarksian magic, along with character development and beautiful descriptions of post-Change California and its peoples. I especially liked the Jewish nomads and hope to see more of them in the future, but then again I have always been a sucker for nomadic people ever since I took a class on them in college. Perhaps that is why I always preferred the Bearkillers perspective over the Clan Mackenzie in the original Emberverse trilogy, even if they were only briefly migratory.

If there was one major issue I had with the book overall, it was the ending. It wasn't bad per se, but it just felt rushed. I will try to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers, so if you haven't read the book yet and your worried I will give something away, I recommend skipping the next paragraph and just go to the conclusion.

Anywho, one character discovers her brother, who was missing and presumed dead, is alive and under the spell of the bad guys. This could have been an intense, emotional scene, but weakened by the fact that we really didn't know much about the brother and some more time sharing how he was important to the character and giving a couple more pages to the emotional trauma the character was experiencing would have made the ending all the more powerful. Additionally, after the issue with the brother was resolved, that same character comforts another character who just got his hand chopped off by saying she thinks his son would make a good husband. Perhaps given the context of their culture and relationship this is a perfectly normal conversation...but wouldn't it be a more appropriate conversation for when he is recovering in a hospital and feeling bad about losing his hand? Again, it wasn't a bad ending, it just felt rushed.

Despite the usual issues that come with long-running book series and my own issues with the ending, The Desert and the Blade still earns a recommendation from me. Stirling continues to impress me with his world-building skills, while featuring strong, yet complex, female characters in speculative fiction. The next book in the Emberverse is going to be titled Prince John and I assume its going to involve Órlaith's younger brother helping a John Birmingham, who is the king of Darwin battle bad guys in the South Pacific (alternate history is weird). Tune in next year for that review.

[David Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A slow-moving but extremely entertaining read. Stirling invests heavily in character development and his descriptions of battles are second to none.

Love the concept and the series. Every time I finish one of his books, I cannot wait for the sequel, and this one was no exception (dammit).

[Ann Friedman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt this book was overly long.
Remember that one professor in college that just droned on and on and on without really saying anything new; that is how I felt about this book.
Over 800 pages to get to the point of the story, only to have it over in 10 pages.
Same concepts and descriptions repeated, until I wanted to shout OK I know about the kilts already.
I have read the previous 11 (14 if you include the Island series) books in this series and this is the first time I have given a star rating less than 4. Unsure if I will continue, but I know I am gong to give it a break.

[David Wooddell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been a fan of the series, but seriously, I'm losing interest. Into too many generations, and the going seems slow, with far too many regurgitations of what happened in the previous generations. It's like the bible retold, as told to, and remembered too many times. I couldn't finish this one.

[Dale Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The death of Rudi Mackenzie, High King of Montival and the wielder of the Sword of the Lady, has passed on to meet the Guardians of the Western Gates. His sacrifice saved the life of his daughter Órlaith Arminger Mackenzie, the daughter who now must take on the mantle of the Crown Princess and the bearing of the Sword - with all that requires. Órlaith was not the only one to lose a father - and a ruler - that day as Reiko, daughter of the Yamato Dynasty, had lost her father in the same conflict. Now, Reiko was Tenno Heika - Empress of Victorius Peace - of Dai-Nippon Teikoku, the Empire of Great Japan. But, her reign may be short lived as she continues the search for the ancestral blade of HER kingdom. A blade to match that of the Sword of the Lady - the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi - the Grass-Cutting Sword. That search has brought her from distant Dai-Nippon to the shores of the new kingdom of Montival, pursued continually across the width of the Pacific by a fleet of the Korean oppressors who want nothing more than to end her line and take Dai-Nippon for themselves. Now...the search takes the combined forces of the Golden Princes and the Tenno Heika to the farthest reaches of Montival and the desolate heat of the Mojave as the search for the sword reaches it most perilous.

S. M. Stirling continues to craft an amazing saga of huge proportions as he presents readers with the 14th book in THE CHANGE SERIES. What started with a world altering change in the fading years of the last century, has completed its transition from a post-apocalyptic story of the failing of physics in a scientific world to now, 46 years later, a true fantasy story of world-wide proportions. Stirling continues to fill his stories with well-researched and accurately detailed speech, religion, and historical facts and legends from those cultures that he transplants into his stories. His protagonists and antagonists both present as though lifted directly from history and dropped into a future setting. The story continues to build, and his readers will find characters and settings that they will love...or hate!!!...because they are that well written.

The story continues...

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Stirling gets his groove back. The character development and action will keep you reading. The story is fast paced and the challenges the characters face are enough to keep you reading. This is a much needed improvement on the previous book. I like that Stirling draws on other characters that were developed in the anthology.

[Alex Halo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gradual improvement from the previous entry, which served as an excruciatingly long and poorly paced introduction to the 2nd generation of the Change. Since all the main characters were introduced in the previous entry, but nothing was really done with them, we have time now to actually begin the new adventure to seek out the Grass-cutting sword for the Empress of Japan, Reiko.


By this point in time, going through the Emberverse series is usually a grind, with increasingly fewer opportunities for genuine fun and exploring the setting around us. In a previous review I explained how I was disappointed in the opportunity set up for a sort of Fallout-style rise of entirely new civilizations, but without guns or explosives or machines, and wondering how they would grow, acculturate, and create something entirely new out of the remnants of old America and the legends being created by the first generation of people who were alive long enough to experience air travel, car travel, television and movies and internet, now suddenly having to construct entire national identities out of sword and spear and shovel and plow.


Unfortunately nothing interesting was done with this. SM Stirling set up the major players with a pre-existing sense of wanting to essentially roleplay as an already existing past culture; the medieval Normans for Portland, the Gaels of Ireland for the MacKenzies, the Lord of the Rings and middle earth for the Dunedain Rangers, and so on. Almost no deviation from these cultural monoliths occurs except in the increasingly fewer older people who lived through the Change, or in the "miscellaneous" cultures such as Corvallis and the Bear-killers who didn't have a historical stereotype culture to base themselves off of (although increasingly more and more Bear-killers are taking on a Viking style without any clear reason).


Similarly, the same has happened with the Japanese, it seems, as (despite there being a brief mention of reading manga) the Japanese of the 1990s inexplicably completely reverted to a 1600s-style Samurai Japan with no hint of anything else from their past other than occasional references to the second world war.


All of this was gone over in the previous book, which could have been edited down sharply and combined with this book, but mercifully for this book was excluded, giving us more time for adventure.


And also mercifully, we start to come across some of the "New Cultures" I was pining for initially; we even get a rare moment of meeting some elderly people who were adults during the Change, and get to have some of that introspection that we had briefly teased many books previously with Ken Larsson and Mike Havel ruminating on the fate of their children and their children, how they are living legends and how the future will speak of them as if they were myth, and the old world of skyscrapers and computers and jet fighters will become increasingly fantastical until it becomes completely inconceivable.


Also I'm not sure if I was just imagining it but the writing this time around felt like it escaped some very much needed editing. SM Stirling often ends up rambling and overly describing things in a purple prose kind of way. I remember the last entry had me counting every time I went "Oh my god" over every single rambling story derailment that devolved into just describing objects.


This time around there's a lot less of it, but there's also a lot more just plain nonsense descriptions or comparisons. There have been descriptions that don't make sense, objects described in ways that don't make sense, other objects described in contradictory ways, characters reacting to things inappropriately, or characters using old sayings or trueisms that either make no sense or are used wrong, and there's no indication that this is intentional or something new that emerged from their new culture.


For this book around I found myself going "What the hell?" or "What the hell are they talking about" as much as I had in the previous book. The only coherent explanation I can come up with is that the author accidentally slipped some stuff from his other works into this one without realizing it, or a lot of content was cut and the author didn't get around to fixing up all the loose ends.


As for the rest of the story, by this time it feels like it's been done before, with Rudi MacKenzie's quest, only with more of a wasteland theme since they are headed deep into California where there have been almost no post-Change societies that emerged compared to the north and midwest like the Republic of Des Moines, the United States of Boise, the new Lakota tribal confederacy, and so on. Nothing particularly new or different happens compared to that.


Additionally, I hadn't mentioned it in the review for The Golden Princess, but it's now been two whole books and I should bring it up:

Very early in the previous book, The Golden Princess, we had a chapter that inexplicably went to Australia, to the new kingdom called Darwin, where we met the old king and his heir and the stereotypical beer-swillin "ozzie ozzie ozzie" type culture that had been building up there, as well as references to how the Oceanic region was becoming a major trade hub and the new leader in India committing genocide.


We never got back to this in that book nor in this book. Why did it suddenly come up and get dropped? If it's meant to play a role in a future book, then why introduce it so soon?

[Shelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need a break. This book was easy to put down, and I felt like I was torturing myself to finish it. I think I am just tired how this series has gone from post-apocalyptic to high fantasy. I like both genres, but the way this series has blended them (from about #4 in the series) kinda bores me.

I just don't care about the characters or what they do. Bums me out, I really still enjoy the first 3 books in the series.

[Mitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...

This is just the same story told again with minor tweaks in plot and names of characters. Plodding. Constantly thought of stopping or "Lemming" the book.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel worth the read, foes confronted and defeated, objectives accomplished, new allies wooed and made.

[Joanna Calder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable, but not up to the standard of his earliest books about the Change or the Nantucket trilogy. I sometimes think that Stirling should wrap this series up and tackle something new.

[Martha · Rating 1 out of 5]

it didn't seem to go anywhere, I couldn't get past the 1st chapter.

[Warren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb questing

The Desert and the Blade is another superb novel in the Change series.  We start after the High King Artos has been killed and the transfer of the Sword of the Lady to his daughter Princess Órlaith, who it turns out, is quite capable, despite her age, and is someone who has been learning at her father’s knee.  Of course having the sword does not hurt.  She teams up with the Empress Reiko (who also lost her father on the shores of Montival) and her entourage to first visit Portland and mom, who is grieving her loss and is now the High Queen until Órlaith becomes of age and becomes High Queen.  While there the two young royals conspire to go on their own quest for Empress Reiko’s sword, the “Grass-Cutting Sword,” an ancient sword that has been lost and according to dreams in in the southwest of the former United States (Mojave Desert).

Gathering a group of young faithful’s, and a sea captain with a ship in Newport, the two royals and their entourage head off down the coast.  The High Queen Mother does not approve and tries to intercept them and turn them around.  Others are en route to join the royals and will meet them in former San Fran (which is controlled by eaters).  There is an epic battle to blood our new heroes and point out the though their Father and Mother had beaten the Prophet and eliminated that threat, a new one has risen…from Korea (where the rumor of the survival of Kim Jung Il through the change and his transformation to the same, or similar, evil as the Prophet).   The Koreans under the spell from Kim have been at war with Dai Nippon since the change and in fact sent ships against the Emperor as he tried to come to Montival in search of the Grass Cutting Sword.  The Korean influence in the story is heavy filling in for the Prophet and portends the plot for the follow on novels.

The Band of Questers head south, meet new settlements, expand Montival and have more epic battles…some small, but all significant.  This is a good read…even with the Japanese lessons.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, the promise of the previous book's feeling of introduction and prelude totally paid off in this volume of the Emberverse series. Again, we see a broad and interesting assortment of characters exploring a wide variety of cultures. I have a particular affinity for Deor, and I adored that Stirling worked in a line from the historical poem "Deor's Lament" in when we first meet him. In fact, I loved that line enough to have it tattooed on my arm a few years ago. The depth of exploration into Japanese folklore and history was really fascinating, and Stirling does not tokenize his characters at all, no matter which culture they hail from. The Topangans made me laugh a bit, as I believe was intended, and as a member of the Tribe by marriage, I was glad to see the Jewish folk depicted with such personality and skill. My only confusion is that this year, 2021, is the year 5782. I listened to the audio book and it sounded like the narrator said it was the year 5084 of the Hebrew calendar when I'd expect it to be 5804 in CE 2044, but perhaps that was a misprint, and probably would only be noticed by someone who actually knows what year it is. Perhaps they're a Jewish sect that numbers the calendar differently? I was fascinated by the fate of the family that had possessed the grass-cutting sword, but perhaps the lack of information there is intentional so we can let our imaginations run wild with what abominations took place in that house.

In any case, another fascinating and compelling volume. I'll be back for the next one soon.

[Richard Tolleson · Rating 4 out of 5]

After the previous entry in this series, The Golden Princess, I was just on the verge of giving up on S.M. Stirling. I felt, as I wrote here, that that book was a lot of exposition and explanation, and little in the way of plot or action. That complaint is certainly not true of The Desert and the Blade. There are several battle sequences, as well as a long trek across the desert by Princess Orlaith and Empress Reiko. If you've made it this far through this series, you already know who these characters are. I'm writing this primarily for people who, like me, may wonder if the series is worth continuing. I say yes, enthusiastically. If you haven't read any of this series, I think you'd be hopelessly lost trying to pick it up here. Much better to go back even before the "Emberverse" to "Island in the Sea of Time", which contains the cataclysmic event that kicks off the entire series.. One note--this is a beast of a book, clocking in at over 600 pages. I have read all but two books in this series on my Kindle, and for me, that's the way to read a book this big. God bless our Amazonian overlords.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the 13th book in this series before this the 12th. It did not seem to make much difference in being able to follow the story line. This novel like Stirling's other's later in the series drags at times when he goes into detail describing the post apocalyptic society variations and traditions. If I were editing the book I might have taken out 25 or more pages of this type material to get to the action sooner. Make no mistake his fights are interesting and entertaining. There is a mix of magic and monovalent evil with his villains. His heroes and heroines have the magic of a sort too. I will probably read book 14 if it comes out.

[Brandon Kurtz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this entry in the series to be as engaging as the previous books, generally. The characters and locations are certainly interesting. My one major criticism is that the pacing seems off. While the events in the first part of the book are covered in extreme detail, it seemed like the last bit wasn't given the same space. It's almost as if the author ran out of space and started being more economical with his words and writing shorter scenes. In some cases, the reader thinks there's going to be something significant that happens, and the whole thing is over within 5-10 pages. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does seem "off" when compared to the first part of the book.

[Nathan Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Road trips! Yay! Stirling brings back one of the things I loved about some of the previous volumes of the Emberverse saga. To that, he adds naval battles! Making it kind of like Horatio Hornblower meets Lord of the Rings. Alas, I felt there was far too much recap, though not quite as egregiously as in a few of the previous books. And then toward the end, things just got weird. I kinda feel that the author is starting to jump the shark a little. With three more books left in the series, I'll keep reading, but it seems to be running out of steam--and pre-industrial cultures to build upon--to a point.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like these books were starting to drag out and get repetitive and cliche. But then this one came along and I liked it a lot better. Though I do agree that less time should have been spent on the subjects of the first half of the book and more with the second half and the strange tribes of Southern California. Also fwiw the chatsworth lancers could have easily killed all the topangans a decade or two before the book with one red ember and a good Santa Ana wind. But that wouldn't have made for a good story so that's ok.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me this is one of those series that you want to see through to the end. The people after the change are now in their third generation and there are few pre-Changelings left. Stirling is masterful at exploring how language and cultural references might evolve in such a scenario. I enjoyed this book, though not as much as the earlier stories. The protagonists aren't quite as complex, and the final action in this one started and stopped too abruptly for me. The whole saga is still engaging, such that I'm looking forward to the next one.

[Janet L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wove in the past from Japan into the Princess' mission really well. It also moved you father down the coast of California then east. It also explained how the post change survivors scavenged the cities for metal, tires and material that could be fashioned into things that helped the live. It also pulled in the many animals that were released from the many zoos and very successfully multiplied and survived.

The ending chapters will bring a new element in and a new religion into play as long as new animals. Very good ending to tie into to the next book.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Great Change occurred two generations ago devastating the world. The ruler who led the Great Quest has been murdered by a spared prisoner of war as was the Japanese ruler who was on his quest. The two female heirs of these fallen leaders are on their own mission to recover a magical sword for the Japanese in the wilderness that used to be California. Evil from an alternate plane is still about.

[Dennis Huff · Rating 5 out of 5]

STIRLING DELIVERS!

Wow! I read the first few books in my local Public Library when they first came out. I found the Emberverse Saga riveting. I looked and looked and finally found the series in its entirety on Amazon.com. Book 12 delivers the same action filled, smoothly flowing storytelling finesse that Stirling brought to the Saga from Book One. If you haven't read this series... give it a go. Indulge yourself!

[Ceh131973 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is one that I always come back to. It is like meeting old friends. I have watched Stirling create this world since the original plane crash and now I am entranced by the adventures of the grandchildren of the original characters. The story keeps evolving. Although sometimes it gets a bit too supernatural for me the story and the characters keep me hooked!

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another quest book for another sword. But this quest is quickly done so that the main characters can carry the story on to new parts of the globe. But this does not mean that there are not the required dangers and fight scenes required of an Emberverse book. If you like the series, you are likely to enjoy this book.

[Justin Brightbill · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are decades when nothing happens and weeks where decades happen. The preceding book in this series is the first part of that quote. This book was the second. There are around 100 pages dedicated to one pitched battle on the outskirts of Los Angeles. What can I say, Stirling writes the combat well so I enjoyed it. We'll see how the next one goes. There are only three left, apparently.

[Debbie Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahh, the end of another great story. I cannot believe how far this series has gone. I enjoyed this one, especially since I have traveled more in the areas of the story which helps me picture the setting better. I am looking forward to the next installment.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recent Reads: The Desert And The Blade. S.M. Stirling's Change saga heads into southern California on a quest for another magic sword. Up Topanga, into Death Valley and beyond. Much excitement and nation building ensues.