Rudi, the son of Chief McKenzie, is all grown up. Since he was born there has been a big prophecy surrounding his life. This time, the prophecy comes true, and he has to get out of Oregon and the Willamette Valley, out to travel to Nantucket. A man from Nantucket had the vision of his prophecy and traveled walking and by horse, to Oregon, and now Rudi is going back with him, along with the usual childhood friends.

This is the first part of a second trilogy. I guess the first trilogy was about the parents getting used to the change, and settling in. This trilogy is now about people used to being part of the change. There’s still old people, of course. I am interested in the fact that Signe Larsson, while Juniper McKenzie and Sandra Arminger are ever present in the book. This time around, it’s their children who are at different risks, however, parents and older people are also part of this book, even if just at the beginning.

I’m still impressed at how people have “grown” to learn how to use other stuff instead of what we have been used to. Here I am, writing to you from a computer, when I couldn’t do it if I was living their life. I would, though, definitely take up archery lessons if I had time!

All in all, this was one book I couldn’t put down. I finished it in a week! Usually took me around a month. I blame The Boy for that. Making me read the Hyperion series was a difficult read, and now, everything else seems easy enough to finish quickly!

Extrapolating this book to the Emberverse universe which I have also been reading for some time, it would be a very useful book, in the case there’s no more electrical and everyone has to fend for themselves.

The Zombie Survival Guide showed me how to fend myself, how to get myself ready literally for an apocalypse where we would have to defend from something that could kill us in seconds.

This book is serious. Gives you how much food, what kind of places you can and can’t live in and how you can defend yourself. Shows you how you HAVE to trust the people you have survived with and who might be in charge of carrying/working on what.

I do recommend it, even when we would probably never afford to find the kind of fortresses and the kind of weaponry we would need to save ourselves from zombies.

However, humans always find a way to keep on living.

I could go on, and on, and on about how difficult it would be for each and everyone of us to get readjusted into a no-electricity world. Probably most of us would freak out completely and a lot of us wouldn’t really make it. (a part of me is considering taking up archery, though I have no idea how expensive that would be).

However, the time is past for that rant… it IS the third book, for crying out loud! I have discussed this several times on the other posts referring to the Emberverse series. No, this time, I want to focus on two particular things:

First and foremost, the types of leadership. The Protector tends to be quite annoyingly evil. Evilness, coercion and spite are not what really make up a good leader. As I’ve learned, a good leader CAN be feared, even hated, but will always get results because their people know they are right. The Protector, Lord Arminger, was actually just thinking of himself and his close relations, not of the rest of his domain. This could very much lead ANY leader to disaster. Remember, if the people you work for feel screwed, they will leave when your hold on them is the weakest.

Juniper Mckenzie, the Queen Witch. I tend to side with her type of leadership more than the other two types. Juniper follows the “Threefold Law”. Point a finger at someone, something… do you see it? There…� you’re pointing one finger to them, but three to you. If you do something bad, it will come back three times as bad, likewise for the goodness. I REALLY believe that we reap what we sow, and her style of leadership leads you to that thought. She is strong. She takes care of her people, and tries to harm as little as possible, in fact, she despairs in the thought of warring several times.

Finally, Mike Havel. The Lord Beard himself. A trained marine, he survived against the horrible possibility of crashing an airplane during the Change. He’s as strong and concerned of his people as Juniper, though his leadership style is somewhat more strict. He is more analytic, while Juniper leads more through her heart.

Throughout the books, I have watched each of these three styles, and I am sure the one I feel most comfortable with is Juniper’s style, however, through lots of life lessons, I am very much aware that I have acquired a whole lot of organized, analytic leadership points I probably didn’t have at the beginning. And why not, maybe a little bit of evilness could also be reflected in myself. Some of them would fight for their people, some of them would die for their people not to laugh at them.

Another point in this book would be homosexuality. Thinking about Proposition 8 and how it was passed in the U.S. (remember I am not a U.S. citizen) leaves me appaled, but I am also extremely saddened by the reality that my country doesn’t really like gay people, and I know a few of them who are excellent examples of a beautiful heart.

In the McKenzie Clan, you can find several people who are homosexuals, and they can freely show their affection like a “normal” couple. They live and die by their beliefs, and they are as brave as anyone who would have to fight would be.

The Bearkillers also don’t seem to find Homosexuality a problem. Even Lord Bear himself laughs about a gay Bearkiller always finding boyfriends that sort of look like Mike Havel himself. It IS a high compliment.

However, the Protectorate could be part of our current homo-hating, god-fearing, church goers of our era. The Protectorate follows only one God, and they have their own Pope and everything. So, if you’re gay, or lesbian, you have to hide your preferences at every turn, EVEN when you’re one of the nobles surrounding Lord Protector.

All told, this series has been very interesting to read, and I am already thinking of ordering the next installment. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading.

However the Protector’s War starts 9 years after The Change. Our Rudi McKenzie, conceived on a one night stand by Mike Havel and Juniper McKenzie (damn, no contraceptives on the new medieval times) is now 8 years old and positively looks like he’s both Juniper’s and Mike’s kid, to Signe’s (Mike’s wife) distress.

However, once again, I don’t plan to talk about the book in itself…but but I want to think about the differences in each of the tribes, clans, groups or whatever you want to call it.

Mike Havel and his Bearkillers… Mike is straightforward, honest, strong fair with his tribe members but quick to anger if any part of their code or rules is broken.

Juniper McKenzie and her McKenzie Clan. These guys are extremely religious, but not in modern times way. You see, Juniper is a Wiccan. She’s THE McKenzie, The Chief, the High Priestess and the interesting thing is that, if you anger her and she curses you, you REALLY die. However, she is usually a very fair leader who gets along pretty well with everyone in her clan.

Mike is practical, and Juniper is spiritual. I kept reading The Protector’s War even though it was extremely complicated to read, more so than Dies the Fire, because I was impressed by the different leadership techniques I could see in each of them.

I would definitely recommend people read the trilogy, even though I haven’t began (but already ordered) A Meeting at Corvallis. It seems the last book in the trilogy will be 20 or 25 years after The Change, so we will see lots of new faces, but probably also a lot of old but well known faces.

Now, I shall start reading “Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture“

So I just finished reading Dies The Fire, the first book in the Emberverse Universe by S.M. Stirling. I won’t really talk “about it” in the sense of what the book is about.

It got me thinking… would I be able to do anything if this happened for real? I hope I wouldn’t die in the riots that most probably ensued after the Change, however, I don’t think I’m prepared for something like this.

For those who haven’t read any of the Emberverse books, these center in something that happened, some say it’s an electrical storm, some say it was aliens or god or whatnot… whatever, it ended up in leaving the human race with no electricity, no cars, no guns, nothing modern.

I think I would try to survive. I would learn new stuff. As probably some of you might now, I was sort of a girl scout some time ago. At least I know how to turn on one of those Coleman lanterns, and to “build” different furniture with logs tied up in different kinds of knots. I’m not afraid to rough it out. I do wonder how a shower would go, or whenever us girls get into “that time of the month” when we feel so yucky. But I guess we would just learn to deal with it some way or another.

However, how would we defend ourselves? These most recent generations are used to an “easy” life. Easy in the sense that we wouldn’t know what to do if we found ourselves in front of a Bear. How would we kill it? How would we get our food? Kill animals? Become Eaters (cannibals)? How would we defend ourselvse from those that are much stronger and much more capable?

There has always been evil people in the world. And definitely, the evilness in people will probably flourish even more in those trying times where there is nothing handed to us for some amount of money, where survival of the fittest is the norm.

What would YOU do if this happened right now?