I’m Back (condensed version)

Greetings all.

This post has been a long time coming, and thanks to a lack of time right now will not follow the previous format. Hopefully I can get it together and start posting again, as I have been remiss.
The last time I posted a review (back in February?!?) I was in the middle of the book ‘In Search of Captain Zero’, which if you dig wonderfully written prose about surfing, is a must read, I found the story arc running through those descriptions to be anti-climactic, but I’d go as far as to say that if that if surfing interests you, it’d be worth picking up.
Around the time I was reading that book I underwent a serious life change, that being I left my job of 24 years to be a stay at home Dad for my two sons. I won’t go into too much detail, but my wife and I decided that for the sake of the kids, and for the continued sanity of the entire family, this would be the way to go.
This change disrupted my reading for quite some time as I became acclimated to the new routine. It was sometime in the spring that I was in the book store when I happened upon a display of various post-apocalyptic novels, many of which (including ‘Alas Babylon’ and ‘Earth Abides’) I had already read. One series, written by S.M. Stirling caught my eye, but thanks to the numbskulls at his publishing company, it wasn’t readily apparent which book was the first in the series, so I made a note, picked up something else (the excellent ‘World War Z’ by Max Brooks), went home and did a little research.
Good thing, too, because Stirling is a prolific author with several series to his name, including two related series that included the book I was looking for.
That series (known as the Emberverse) starting with ‘Dies the Fire’ has to do with a world beset by a mysterious, apocalyptic “change” that renders all electricity, internal combustion engines and explosives useless. It starts in the late 90s and progresses more than a decade over the course of the first three novels (numbers two and three are ‘The Protectors War’ and ‘Meeting at Corvallis’).
Stirling’s books drew me in right away. He has a real talent for plotting, creating compelling characters and researching the hell out of just about every topic covered in the novels.
I’ve read complaints about one of the major characters/settings in these books, but they didn’t bother me as much as the fact that if these books have a fault it’s an excess of “medieval battle porn”, i.e. constant, deeply detailed descriptions of arms and armor that got to be a little repetitive after a while.
That said, if you have an interest in good stories in the post-apocalyptic subgenre, I would recommend the first three novels in the Emberverse series. I read straight through all three (more than 1500 pages) and decided to take a break and read some other stuff before moving on to the next two (more are planned) which take up two decades after the end of ‘Meeting at Corvallis’.
After finishing those books I rambled and meandered through bits of non-fiction, magazines etc, before starting Cormac McCarthy’s ‘Blood Meridian’. I only got about two-thirds of the way into it when I decided that it was too dark and depressing, but vowed to pick it up and finish it soon.
Right now I’m reading the autobiography of comedian Tom Davis (of Franken and Davis) which was a fathers day gift. I’m enjoying it so far and will report back as soon as I’m finished.

Next up – 39 Years of Short Term Memory Loss