I read this for two reasons. One, because it seemed like the true G David Drake thought well enough of SM Stirling to co-write The General series with him. Since then, I've come to the conclusion that that pairing must have been something the publisher pushed at Drake with a nice deal. Apparently, judging by the reviews here, Stirling's books have a fanatical following reminiscent of Twilight. Except, instead of terrible vampire books, he writes awful speculative historical scifi.

Which brings me to the second reason I read this book: I've always loved crappy scifi and fantasy. To give you some background, the first actual novel I read as a kid was a Piers Anthony turd. But I think this book is so bad that it has finally made me stop carrying the torch for trashy scifi. Which makes me kind of hate Dies the Fire.

Anyway, here's the book's premise, because that's all it's got going for it:
Imagine you're driving your car around town and suddenly, your engine stops running. Your watch stops. Planes are falling from the sky. Your local steam-driven locomotive can't get enough pressure. You try to shoot an attacking accountant (he's been instantly driven to screaming cannibalism, of course), but your gun won't even fire! But it's cool if all this stuff just happens, and society goes back to the medieval times for whatever unexplained reason. It's not only cool, but great, because you are a dedicated member of the Society for Combat Anachronism (SCA), meaning you swing padded sticks around like in the movie Role Models. You're also great looking and charismatic. And an athlete on the level of LeBron James. In short, you're Sterling's idea of the average SCA member. And you've been dreaming of the day you can take your rightful place!

So you get your trusty hand and a half sword, your targe (you know what these things are!) and full chain mail suit, and you're ready to take your rightful place. With your skills and kit, you can easily take on and kill 4 similarly armed cops simultaneously to impress local gangbangers. You can go on to conquer your local mundanes and remake them in the image of: 1500's France, a medieval Scottish clan of Wiccans, or a group from the Lord of the Rings. I'm not joking. These things are actual events in the book. Sterling actually expects the reader to swallow all this!