A Meeting at Corvallis by S. M. Stirling (2006, Hardcover)

I'm glad to see that this third book in this trilogy (Dies the Fire, the Protector's War preceeding this book) has returned to the compelling writing and story that the first book had.

The author seems to enjoy alternate history; and in this series, explores the idea of how humanity would react if all of the comforts and convenience offered by our technologies suddenly stopped working, and we were faced with having to return to the level of the dark ages in order to survive. These stories are set in the Pacific Northwest (Willamette Valley, Portland/Eugene area), so it has a particular draw for me since I live around here.

In this third book; set a number of years after the 'change'--our heroes have established independent 'states'--and are standing against a powerful faction that occupies the larger portion of the region. The books all have plenty of long-winded politics that tend to run dry (much like the way people complained about the new Star Wars movies)... and the political infighting and dialogues are very talky. You'll also find yourself reading pages upon pages of descriptive or historical narratives about hauberks and glaives and all other terminologies the author loves to share. In the second book, it seemed that was the whole book; but in this book, he reined in his tendency to ramble on about these things a bit more--and therefore the book has a better, more readable pace.

It takes a slow start--the first oh, eleven chapters or so (there are a few exciting scenes within those chapters that make it worthwhile), but after that, the war really takes on an edge, and you jump from settign to setting, from character to character as they take on the challenges of winning a war against a seemingly undefeatable enemy. It is very, very good writing.

The only thing I can say about the end is that it tends towards the cheesy in regards to the prodigal son. The author did this at the end of the first book as well. If you overlook that, I think you will enjoy this book. If you like medieval related subject matter; and enjoy fantasy or end-of-the-world scenarios, you'll enjoy this series.

PS... Having read all three, if I had skipped the second book, I really don't think I would have missed much coming into this one.