My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
The Sunrise Lands: A Novel of the Change (Emberverse #4)
Rudi MacKenzie has grown up knowing that he will one day assume leadership over the survivors of the technological disaster known as the Change. But a prophecy made at his birth spoke of an even greater destinya destiny that is about to be fulfilled. A mysterious traveler from Nantucket, long rumored to be the source of the Change, arrives on a mission to bring Rudi back ...more
Paperback, 528 pages
Published
September 2nd 2008
by Roc
(first published 2007)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,957)
I loved the idea of a follow up to the Dies the Fire books that centers around the younger generation. Most of the characters were either born after the Change or were very young when it happened, so to them, the post-Change traditions and factions seem normal. But at the same time they have a direct connection to the earlier world in the stories of their parents, even if they don't always understand some of the concepts or references.
The book is about the start of a quest. A strange...more
The book is about the start of a quest. A strange...more
I love the Change Novels, the setting is very interesting to me and Dies the Fire was a great, startling, thought provoking book; and its sequels all lived up to its example while takeing the story in slightly different directions.
However I can't help but feel that Mr. Stirling was reaching for a second series for some reason, and he just didnt pull it off with this book. He steps away from the harsh realities shown in Dies the Fire, and into a more mystical realm here, and it didn...more
However I can't help but feel that Mr. Stirling was reaching for a second series for some reason, and he just didnt pull it off with this book. He steps away from the harsh realities shown in Dies the Fire, and into a more mystical realm here, and it didn...more
** "The Sunrise Lands" (Emberverse #4, but my first) by S.M. Stirling explains enough alternate western/ medieval technology-less future U.S. background to incorporatet earlier "Change" books. But I have divided the star rating for demanding I read a sequel. After major bloody fights, the ending leaves the questers heading east to Nantucket for answers in a big pickle. Ingol gets to Oregon and finds the Clan Mackenzie Chief's successor to be called "The Sword of the Lady...more
S.M. Stirling is an expert at creating worlds. In this book, we are given a glimpse at what the future might be like after “The Change” – a time when all technology has been taken from us, supposedly by aliens. Society has devolved into clans, sects, small democracies, or whatever form of government the locals deem worthy. In this book, we are focused mainly on the Mackenzie clan from Oregon and Rudi, the son of the High Priestess.
The basic plot is a quest. A stranger, Ingolf,...more
I was really excited to start on this next chapter of the Emberverse series and it doesn't disappoint! Rudy MacKenzie is finally all grown up and having his own adventures in pursuit of peace. Now that the Protectorate is essentially neutered, a new menace sets in to fill the vaccuum. Enter The Prophet, a faceless entity who rules the downtrodden and helpless by making them his slaves and imposing a bizarre religion with himself as the word of God. As the Prophets army spreads itself like a plag...more
We're now 20+ years after "the change" (as the characters name the event in 1999 when the laws of physics changed out of nowhere and prevented electricity and internal combustion) and the first generation of "changlings" has grown up. Rudi, son of Juniper McKenzie finds himself on an unanticipated and not quite desired quest which takes him to parts east, thus letting us see how other parts of the former US have fared. The various societies that have formed and shaken out ar...more
The Sunrise Lands is the first book in Stirling's 3rd set of 3 interconnected series. I love the idea behind the sets of series, so I thought I'd jump in. In the "Island in the Sea of Time" trilogy, the island of Nantucket is flung backwards in time to 1250 BC. In the "Dies the Fire" trilogy, Stirling tells what happened to the world left behind: The Change has caused electricity, high gas pressures, and fast combustion (including explosives and gunpowder) to stop working in...more
This is book one of Stirling's Emberverse Series II. The conceit of the novel is that high-energy technology on Earth no longer functions. Nobody knows why, it just doesn't. So long as you accept that, you're basically okay.
The prose is good. Stirling has a knack for politics and world-building. He's clearly quite enamored of the Pacific Northwest, and of all things medieval. Which is fine as far as it goes, but he does have a bit of a tendency to go full-metal Clancy when describing...more
The prose is good. Stirling has a knack for politics and world-building. He's clearly quite enamored of the Pacific Northwest, and of all things medieval. Which is fine as far as it goes, but he does have a bit of a tendency to go full-metal Clancy when describing...more
The Sunrise Lands by S. M. Stirling
This book can be considered a sequel to Meeting at Corvallis or the beginning of a new Change trilogy. Whatever the category, the book is excellent. Set in a post Apocalyptic world where technology has been truncated by some unknown source. This story focuses on the children of the initial survivors featured in the Dies the Fire, the first three books. The kids or young adults are on a quest demanded by the powers speaking through Juniper who i...more
This book can be considered a sequel to Meeting at Corvallis or the beginning of a new Change trilogy. Whatever the category, the book is excellent. Set in a post Apocalyptic world where technology has been truncated by some unknown source. This story focuses on the children of the initial survivors featured in the Dies the Fire, the first three books. The kids or young adults are on a quest demanded by the powers speaking through Juniper who i...more
Stirling is so hit or miss I had forgotten how much I loved the Dies The Fire series. I picked this one up, and, oh yeah, remembered. Now, I love my post-apocalyptic books, but this is The Next Generation. Stirling's description of the varied cultures that have arisen since the Change are vivid and engrossing, even when they're not nearly as much fun as the MacKenzies or the Dunedain.
Minor complaints: I *cannot* believe that they have enough extra time to fight each other as muc...more
Minor complaints: I *cannot* believe that they have enough extra time to fight each other as muc...more
This book was good, but not a page-turner. Unfortunately, it's the first book of a trilogy, and the trilogy is an extension of another trilogy! I was able to follow the story without having read the first trilogy, but of course, the ending left me hanging. I'm just not sure if I care to read the rest of it or not!
It does fascinate me that a lot of the apocalyptic fantasy novels are based on some type of event where all technology just quits one day. There apparently was a painful f...more
It does fascinate me that a lot of the apocalyptic fantasy novels are based on some type of event where all technology just quits one day. There apparently was a painful f...more
I very much enjoyed the "Dies the Fire"series and this picks up 15 or so years later in the next generation. He has developed some very interesting cultures out of the fragments of what is left of america. I wish more had happened in the book it felt more like an introduction with limited action. I'm not at all disappointed because it was good character development and cultural development.
It makes me very curious to get to the next book. It is interesting how the supernatural ...more
It makes me very curious to get to the next book. It is interesting how the supernatural ...more
I seem to have started in the middle of this series by accident, though I liked the novel well-enough anyhow. Apparently it is one of many set in a semi-post-apocalyptic world where technology has been mysteriously and oddly curtailed. I enjoyed this story, which seems to be the beginning of a multi-book quest tale, and the world in which is was set. I'd have given it another star except that it felt like a late novel in a series of novels that had already seen the peak of creativity. I managed ...more
Ahh, the fourth book in the series, depending on how you classify it. I guess it could be the seventh if you count the Nantucket series. Anyway, its 10 years after the events of A Meeting in Corvallis. Rudi is grown up and fairly swashbuckling. The twins are super stealth warrior elf ninjas, in a sense, and a quest has been taken. My favorite part is the C.U.T. cult and their crazy fundamentalist military society. Scary! Overall, fun adventure, with great battle writing, and of course the whacky...more
I like the Change Series by this author. This book picks up a second series 15-20 years after the first three.
It is pretty solid and interesting; I would have given it 3 1/2 stars if I could have. The one major problem I have with it if the fantasy element of what is mostly a post-apocalyptic / alternate-history world is increasing.
As always, SM Stirling is very strong and detailed with the details of the extrapolated technology, combat, and societies. If you aren't in...more
It is pretty solid and interesting; I would have given it 3 1/2 stars if I could have. The one major problem I have with it if the fantasy element of what is mostly a post-apocalyptic / alternate-history world is increasing.
As always, SM Stirling is very strong and detailed with the details of the extrapolated technology, combat, and societies. If you aren't in...more
the first 3 books in this series were my absolute favorite books of last year. i couldnt get enough of them and everyone i lent them too really got into the story as well.
This trilogy starts off 10yrs after the last book and is just as engaging as the last books. i cant wait to get the next 2.
i STRONGLY recomend reading these books. They will have you thinking about all the things around you in a whole new light. it really makes you think about how dependent we are o...more
This trilogy starts off 10yrs after the last book and is just as engaging as the last books. i cant wait to get the next 2.
i STRONGLY recomend reading these books. They will have you thinking about all the things around you in a whole new light. it really makes you think about how dependent we are o...more
This book is the beginning of a new story arc set in the same world as the first three books of the Emberverse but the main characters are the children of the ones in the first story arc. It starts out 12 years later and we quickly find out that Rudi Mackenzie, Mathilda, Mary, and Ritva are all going to take center stage with a couple of new characters and a scary new group as villans. This story is going to let Stirling explore more of the country and is set up as a quest early on. The action i...more
It's been 22 year since The Change that set civilization back hundreds of years and life has fallen into a steady rhythm the Willamette Valley in what was once Oregon That is about to change when a stranger from the East arrives and tells them of what's been going on in the rest of the former United States.
There are strange events taking place on Nantucket Island, long though to be the source of everything that's happened. Added to the mix is a brewing war between The United Stat...more
There are strange events taking place on Nantucket Island, long though to be the source of everything that's happened. Added to the mix is a brewing war between The United Stat...more
My biggest complaint about this book is the same one I've had about every book in this series after Dies the Fire: it's not as good as the 1st book. However, Dies the Fire is in my list of top 10 favorite books, so not living up to it isn't quite a surprise.
S.M. Stirling develops a cast of well-developed and interesting characters who are going on a (long, drawn-out and possibly pointlessly sci-fi) adventure across the continental U.S. on foot after the fall of civilization as we kn...more
S.M. Stirling develops a cast of well-developed and interesting characters who are going on a (long, drawn-out and possibly pointlessly sci-fi) adventure across the continental U.S. on foot after the fall of civilization as we kn...more
I thoroughly enjoyed this continuing saga of the human race after the great "Change". Stirling does a fine job of transitioning the focus of the novel from the old generation who had lived through the tumultuous times immediately following the Change to the younger generation who have never known things like electricity and gunpowder. He continues to explore other nations that were established after the Change in the old USA.
His descriptions of combats, battles and weapon...more
His descriptions of combats, battles and weapon...more
I believe this is my first book by S.M. Stirling and I liked it very much. I thought this was a stand-alone book so when I got to the ending I realized that another book must follow. I did some research and find out that the next book (The Scourge of God) is not coming out until the end of the year!
Oh why did I pick up this book? why! I'm the kind of reader who likes to read a series from beginning to end without waiting for a book release. That is why I look for completed series.
...more
Oh why did I pick up this book? why! I'm the kind of reader who likes to read a series from beginning to end without waiting for a book release. That is why I look for completed series.
...more
view 1 comment
I really enjoy this series. Solid characters, good plotting and interesting concept. If you're not already familiar with these books, the basic concept is that civilization has collapsed after a mysterious change in the laws of nature which allow modern technology to function. New societies have risen from the ashes and develop their own customs and traditions based largely on the customs, habits and quirky ideas/hobbies of their founders. This one is set more than 20 years after "The C...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
All right, I bogged down a bit during John Galts dramatic 2-hour radio address at the end of Atlas Shrugged and took a break with some cotton candy to a while. I'm a sucker for Stirling's stuff, despite the interchangable characters (almost all of his hero's are square-jawed non-nonsense military types who fall for blond busty nordic types - even the African American lesbian in the Islands in the Sea of time series).
This book was his continuation of the Dyes the Fire series, where o...more
This book was his continuation of the Dyes the Fire series, where o...more
First of the second Change trilogy, Stirling has sort of gotten out of his own way and allowed his characters to be themselves. It helps to have read the other trilogy first, but you don't have to. The villains here are going to be so very, very creepy, and Tolkien would facepalm at the free borrowing of his companions aspect. Not bad; I'd keep the second book handy for when you finish this one.
Bill
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Stirling fans, post-apocalypse fans
Recommended to Bill by:
David Lowe
Stirling felt there was a lot of unfinished business in the land of the Bear Killers and the Lord Protector's Portland. "The Sunrise Lands" is the first of yet another trilogy in which a younger generation of heroic young warriors go on a quest from the West Coast to a badly savaged East coast - Nantucket Island, specifically.
Stirling's post-apocalyptic world is carefully designed and, frankly, an unlikely response to the world-wide failure of electricity and other phys...more
Stirling's post-apocalyptic world is carefully designed and, frankly, an unlikely response to the world-wide failure of electricity and other phys...more
Well it has been awhile since I had read the stories leading up to this one so I had forgotten a few of the characters but overall it was a good story. It picks up a few years after the Change and how the Western half of the US was reacting and adapting to the Change. It has had several nice twists and turns and a couple of areas where you sort of expected it to happen.
Overall well written and I am looking forward to reading the next one.
Overall well written and I am looking forward to reading the next one.
I have been working on my dissertation chapter on Joseph Conrad during the day and I am too word-fatigued to get into most books in the evening, but I have been flying through these books by Stirling because they are intersting without being very taxing. Lots of action and lots of description but all offered in a fairly straightforward way that is easily digestible.
See my review of "The Protector's War."
The Sunrise lands is moderately more interesting than the previous books in the series in that the characters begin to get hints about the nature of "The Change" and start to explore it.
I won't talk about the plot except to say that Stirling appears to be repeating / drawing heavily on the quest for the holy grail.
The Sunrise lands is moderately more interesting than the previous books in the series in that the characters begin to get hints about the nature of "The Change" and start to explore it.
I won't talk about the plot except to say that Stirling appears to be repeating / drawing heavily on the quest for the holy grail.
The story of the second generation focused around Rudi. Pretty good continuation of the series, and the basic premise of the series has lots of great permutations for the author to explore. Sterling writes well and has given the "what if...?" a lot of thought.
But start with #1, "Dies the Fire"!
But start with #1, "Dies the Fire"!
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Full name is Stephen Michael Stirling, currently residing in New Mexico.
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.
More about S.M. Stirling...
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.
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Likes to fight, does he?" Sandra said thoughtfully.
"Oh, yeah. He says there are only two reasons to fight."
"Which are?"
"Joy and death."
Her mother's brows went up. "Joy in death?"
"No, no... For joy, to stretch yourself with a friend; or death, to kill as quickly as you can. Nothing in between.”
—
2 people liked it
"Oh, yeah. He says there are only two reasons to fight."
"Which are?"
"Joy and death."
Her mother's brows went up. "Joy in death?"
"No, no... For joy, to stretch yourself with a friend; or death, to kill as quickly as you can. Nothing in between.”
“... and he kills without fear, or anger, or hate, with regret even, simply because its necessary. That's rare, and it's rare still among the really first-rate. God help the enemy that finally frightens him or makes him mad.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
