S.M. Stirling A Meeting at Corvallis

A Meeting at Corvallis

S.M. Stirling

Roc, Sep 2006, $25.95

ISBN 0451461118

Ten years ago the "Change" destroyed technology leaving a shocked population behind to adjust or die. Some survivors want to live their live their lives in peaceful harmony with nature, but know others will remain aggressive taking whatever they want through force.

Former U.S. Marine Mike Havel leads the Bearkillers, neighbors working together to protect one another from invaders. At the same time that Mike's Bearkillers form an alliance with Juniper MacKenzie's pagan clan, ex-history professor Norman Arminger declares himself the Lord Protector of the northwest while establishing a neo-fascist feudalistic empire. The two cultures select different paths that lead initially to a cold war rivalry as two philosophies clash. However, the hostilities turn into armed combat with the winner goes the spoils (and the future history books).

The Third Change tale takes the previous recent alternative history tales (see THE PROTECTOR'S WAR and DIES THE FIRE) into the near future in an exciting and fitting end to this science fiction thriller trilogy. The action never slows down as the Bearkillers and their allies clash with the Lord Protector and his minion of followers. Though fun, readers should peruse the previous novels to obtain the full flavor of how society got to where it is in 2007. Though much of the key cast members seem two dimensional this is a rousing finale to a strong trilogy.

Harriet Klausner