DW: Pronouncing Doom by S.M. Stirling

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Discuss the story Pronouncing Doom by S.M. Stirling.

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Please do not discuss other stories in this thread.

[Andreas]

Civilization is broken down, machines don't work anymore (it isn't explained why), people settle in tribes and farm their homeland. In this community, people went for pagan religion. There was a crime that the external leader has to judge - without having an established judicial system.

It is only later clear what the crime was - but it is predictable like the punishment for it. More interesting than the story itself were the setting, atmosphere and moral implications.

My main problem was the basic assumption that after a year society would change in exactly that way - I found Nance Kress' post apocalyptic setup far more believable.

But maybe that is explained better in the novels of the series. Like other stories in the anthology it seems to be cut out of the series.

3* for it.

[Sky]

So, I've actually read Dies the Fire, and I remember not being impressed. Don't get me wrong, I liked the premise, but the execution was... boring.

This short story exemplifies everything I didn't like about the Emberverse series pretty well. No surprises, no twists, no especially likable characters... in short nothing that made me want to read it. Lots of names and terms are thrown around, the point of view character decides that she's going to start calling teenagers something else and then just begins using the word without explaining it to anyone but the reader, the bad guy is bad with no justification, in addition to being lazy and arrogant and... yeah, I'm done with this one. Wake me up when there's an interesting story.

At least I learned my lesson from previous stories in the anthology and started skimming about halfway through. Maybe I missed some kind of amazing moment, but I doubt it.

[Lee]

So I decided to finish up on the stories that I skipped and this was one of them. It was okay. Not bad. But not particularly good either. I actually did like the way that society reverted backwards like it did. But I also question the quickness of it happening. There might be an explanation. But it wasn't apparent in the story. I also liked the theme of justice and revenge. But thought the author could've used it in a more original way.

My biggest complaint would be, yet again there is no 'Dangerous Woman' here. Take the women and turn them into men... Would you consider them 'Dangerous Men'? Probably not.

I think it would've made a more interesting story if the rapists guilt was in fact in question.

[Suzanne]

I liked the basic skeleton of the story, but for some reason I felt like there was a lot of fluff - just people, names, gods and goddesses that were too much for me (but I was tired when I read it). I enjoyed it more once the trial began. I do agree with the above - doesn't fit the "dangerous women" theme very well - but so few of these stories do! Maybe they should have named the anthology something else.