The Scourge of God: A Novel of the Change (Change Series)

The Scourge of God: A Novel of the Change (Change Series)

A touch of the George R R Martins?

I am a great fan of S M Stirling but he has fallen into the same trap as George R R Martin and Robert Jordan. The Nantucket series ran to three books and was not a page too long. This series is on its FIFTH book and the hero has reached Indiana on his cross country trek. In Martin's case it has become so ridiculous that I have stopped reading him. Stirling is still worth reading, barely, but needs a good editor to rein in some of his purple prose and get the series moving.

Stirling embraces the mystic (but doesn't tumble headlong down the rat-hole)

I've read all of Stirling's Nantucket and Portland story cycle. After Nantucket came to a (temporary?) ending, I was glad to see what happened to the rest of us. I was kinda wondering where the Portland series was headed, and now it's clear that the story has to embrace the mystic. We have yet to discover what malign influence is driving the Cutters, but it's 'way more than a cult. Stirling is painting a very plausible picture of de-civilization of North America, and has done well so far, balancing the SF with the spiritual. His characters are well constructed, and they're constantly surprising the reader with new facets. I can hardly wait for the next, oh, four or five books that should round out the series...

A deeper descent into fantasy

From chapter nine: "Long tables were set out buffet-style, with chefs in white hats waiting to carve the roasts and hams; whole yearling steers and pigs and lamb roasted over firepits behind them, the attendants slathering them with fiery sauce wielding their long-handled brushes like the forks of devils in the Christian hell." The writing is flowery, with long, complex sentences hiding much ado about little, as our heroes, who call themselves such, make their way, mostly on horseback, across a vast continent once peopled by a homogeneous citizenry, but now inhabited by cannibals, remnants calling themselves the United States government, local dictators, religious fanatics, devils and gods. That's enough of that. This series started, years ago in real time, as science fiction. It is now irretrievably fantasy. Or if it's not, the author has me completely fooled. The protagonists are on their way to Nantucket Island (remember that original series?) and, at the rate they are going based on the map in the front of the book, there are at least one or two more travelogs masquerading as novels to go before they get there. And then they have to find their way back. Sterling's imagination is almost without living peer, I'll give him that, but things used to happen in his novels.

Nothing to Advance the Story

I've got to be the dissenter apparently on this one as all other reviews are 4s and 5s. But I have read all the books in this series and most have accomplished quite a bit, but this one did nothing to help advance the story. Really, the overall plot between the beginning of this book and the end of this book hasn't advanced the story. It's moved geographically but not plot wise. Still no answers to what is going on and we'll probably never find out the cause of the change at this point. If you have never read any of the other books in this series you'll be highly confused here, and if you have read them and were hoping to get somewhere with this story in this book, sorry.

Book 2 of 4 of the Rudi MacKenzie Chronicle of the Sword

Rudi and his companions continue on their journey to Nantucket to retrieve the Lady's Sword. The nine (a true quest number) are just over the border from the US of Boise after getting in the middle of a family feud, not to mention a religious war. Having extricated themselves they then have to find away around Montana and the Church Unversal and Triumphant (CUT). The Cutters are a blood thirsty bunch who want to enslave the world. We now have the 'evil' ones for this quest. Their priests (Seekers) all share a 'demon' with the Prophet who is determined to prevent Rudi and his companions from getting to Nantucket and the Sword. His is being pursued by one of the Seekers and a group of handpicked men (think SS or KGB) called the Sword of the Prophet. Just like bad guys everywhere, you can never seem to kill all of them and they seem to multiple as you watch them (some how there is always two hundred of them). I hope they don't turn out to be part of the 'group' that caused the Change. We finally make some geographic headway though it takes about a year and a half for them to finally get to the Mississippi where some of captured by the 'bad guy' whose running Iowa. He reminds me of Prince John from the Robin Hood tales, except he's more sissified. This part isn't the better part of the story but it does move the story along. This was originally projected as a four book story, but in the last notes from Steve on his blog, it's going to get longer. Hopefully this won't turn into an ongoing quest without an end a la Robert Jordan or George RR Martin. Zeb Kantrowitz

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