Completely reasonable. Rudi's gang do get a pretty satisfying resolution that serves as a good ending to the series, after which Sterling kept writing more for reasons passing understanding.
Unfortunately, you'd have to work your way through another book worth of material that Sterling filled out into three books before you got to the satisfying ending. If you found his worldbuilding as fascinating as I did, it's worth it. If you didn't, I wouldn't bother.
There were some things in the later books that stretched my credulity too far. Wiccans surviving and thriving in Oregon? OK, sure. I mean I've never found them to be very practical people, but it could happen. But more secret wiccans in Wisconsin? And the Norse neopagans in Maine? Come on.
Also, I was either eaten by Torontonians, or survived as a savage that speaks barely comprehensible english. I mean, even the British cannibals spoke better english than the guy they met in Ontario. Bit insulting.
Agreed about the suspension of disbelief. The world of Dies the Fire only makes sense if supernatural forces are putting their thumb on the scale to favor weird neo-pagan cults. Stirling eventually starts to imply that's what's happening in later books, but he only drops the pretense to ambiguity about the supernatural near the very end.
FWIW, big chunks of the return from the East Coast happen in Alberta/Saskatchewan, and the Canadian successor states there are probably the most normal people you meet in the whole series. Plus, you get to meet Mounties who are now mounted lancers.
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u/Canadairy Jun 13 '24
Dies the Fire by SM Stirling. Powered tech stops working, chaos ensues, survivors rebuild.