The Emberverse Books in Order: How to read S. M. Stirling’s Change series?

Written by Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author S. M. Stirling, The Emberverse is a series of post-apocalyptic alternate history novels telling stories set after a mysterious worldwide event called “The Change” that occurs at 6:15 pm Pacific Standard Time, March 17, 1998.

The Change affects the course of history and the laws of physics. As a result, all the electricity, firearms, explosives, internal combustion engines, steam power, and most forms of high-energy-density technology on Earth no longer work. It’s a new world and surviving it will be a challenge.

How to read The Emberverse Books in Order?

1. Dies the Fire – Michael Havel was flying over Idaho en route to the holiday home of his passengers when the plane’s engines inexplicably died, forcing a less than perfect landing in the wilderness. And as Michael leads his charges to safety, he begins to realize that the engine failure was not an isolated incident. Juniper McKenzie was singing and playing guitar in a pub when her small Oregon town was thrust into darkness. Now, Juniper is determined to create a farming community to benefit the survivors of this crisis. But even as people band together to help one another, others are building armies for conquest…
2. The Protector’s War – Ten years after The Change rendered technology inoperable throughout the world, two brave leaders built two thriving communities in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. But now the armies of the totalitarian Protectorate are preparing to wage war over the priceless farmland.
3. A Meeting at Corvallis – In the tenth year of The Change, the survivors in western Oregon have learned how to live in a world without technology but there are those who would exploit the new world order. On one side stands Michael Havel’s Bearkillers and their allies, Clan MacKenzie under the leadership of Juniper MacKenzie. On the other is the Lord Protector, Norman Arminger-the Warlord of Portland, whose neo-feudal empire rules over much of the Pacific Northwest.

4. The Sunrise Lands – Young Rudi Mackenzie has grown up knowing that he will one day assume leadership over the Western Oregon survivors of the technological disaster called the Change. But a prophecy made at his birth spoke of an even greater destiny-a destiny that is about to be fulfilled.
5. The Scourge of God – Rudi Mackenzie-son and heir of the High Priestess Juniper Mackenzie and the Bear Lord Michael Havel-continues his trek across the land that was once the United States of America. His destination: Nantucket, where he hopes to learn the truth behind the Change, which rendered technology across the globe inoperable.
6. The Sword of the Lady – Rudi Mackenzie has journeyed long and far across the land that was once the United States of America, seeking the shore where the sun rises, hoping to find the source of the world-altering event that has come to be known as the Change. His quest ends in Nantucket, an island overrun with forest, inhabited by a mere two hundred people, who claim to have been transported there from out of time. Only one odd stone house remains standing. Within it, Rudi finds a beautifully made sword seemingly waiting for him.
7. The High King of Montival – When Rudi Mackenzie reaches his destination, he will face the legions of the Prophet. To achieve victory, Rudi must assemble a coalition of those who were his enemies just months before, then forge them into an army that will rescue his homeland and tear the heart out of the Church Universal and Triumphant once and for all.

8. The Tears of the Sun – Now Rudi Mackenzie is Artos, the High King of Montival, and his final destiny awaits him. He must face and defeat the forces of the Church Universal and Triumphant. Everything in the present, everything in the future, depends on the outcome of the conflict.
   
9. Lord of Mountains – Rudi Mackenize, now Artos the First, High King of Montival, and his allies have won several key battles against the Church Universal and Triumphant. But still the war rages on, taking countless lives, ravaging the land once known as the United States of America. Artos and his Queen, Mathilda, must unite the realms into a single kingdom to ensure a lasting peace.
10. The Given Sacrifice – Rudi Mackenzie has won the battle that expelled the enemy from the new High Kingdom of Montival. Now he must free the people who live in the state once known as Idaho from occupation by the legions of the Church Universal and Triumphant and pursue them to their lair over the mountains. There he will finally confront the forces behind the Church-the Powers of the Void.

11. The Golden Princess – Princess Órlaith, heir to Rudi Mackenzie, Artos the First, High King of Montival, now wields the Sword of the Lady-and faces a new enemy. Fortunately, she also has a new ally in Reiko, Empress of Japan, who has been pursued to America by a conquering army from Asia. To combat their mutual foe, Órlaith and Reiko embark on a quest to find the fabled Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword, one of the three great treasures of the Japanese Imperial House.
12. The Desert and the Blade – Reiko, Empress of Japan, has allied herself with Princess Órlaith, heir to the High Kingdom of Montival, to find the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword, a legendary treasure of an ancient dynasty that confers valor and victory to its bearer. Órlaith understands all too well the power it signifies. Her own inherited blade, the Sword of the Lady, was both a burden and a danger to her father, Rudi Mackenzie, as it failed to save the king from being assassinated.
13. Prince of Outcasts – John Arminger Mackenzie wanted to be a troubadour, but fate made him the son of the king of Montival. His sister Princess Órlaith will deservedly inherit the throne of the High Kings, and it will only pass unto him in the event of her death, leaving the young Prince on an unknown path to discover his true role in the family. The opportunity to prove his mettle comes when John’s ship, the Tarshish Queen, is caught in the fierce storm raised against the enemies of the alliance.

14. The Sea Peoples – The spirit of troubadour Prince John, the brother of Crown Princess Órlaith, has fallen captive to the power of the Yellow Raja and his servant, the Pallid Mask. Prince John’s motley band of friends and followers-headed by Captain Pip of Townsville and Deor Godulfson-must lead a quest through realms of shadow and dreams to rescue Prince John from a threat far worse than death.
15. The Sky-Blue Wolves – Two generations after the Change, Crown Princess Órlaith struggles to preserve the hard-won peace her father brought to Montival-the former western North America. But the Change opened many doors, and through them Powers strong and strange and terrible came, to walk once more among humankind.

• The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth – An anthology collection of short stories set 50 years after the Change written by S.M. Stirling, Harry Turtledove, Walter Jon Williams, John Birmingham, John Barnes, Jane Lindskold, and more…

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