Book series some of you may enjoy...

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Wildewinds

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Nov 20, 2006
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Recently read this series: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?SID=366526&z=y

"Dies the Fire" series by S.M. Stirling. It's about what happens when all of a sudden, through some unexplained phenomena, electricity, gunpowder/explosives, and a few other technologies stop working throughout the whole world. People had to start living like they did a few hundred years ago.

Beware, it's much, MUCH more "Lord of the Rings" than "Lord of the Flies." I guess that's why it's in the fantasy section of the bookstore.

Not much practical survivalist stuff in it, but it was an interesting read and got me thinking about what I would do in a similar (if somewhat more realistic) situation.
 
I'm just finishing up the last book in the series. I liked them. Wasn't crazy about the Lord of the Rings type stuff, but thought that the story line was interesting. Not too much of real survival information but the no firearms aspest definately gave food for thought for the need for alternative hunting and defensive skills.
 
I read a book my dad insisted me on reading call "Earth Abides". It seems kind of like the Dies the Fire book from your explanation. A huge epidemic wipes out almost all the human life form and over the years he finds people and make a village and he gets older as his village becomes more primitive and such. I thought it was a pretty good book. Also I like a lot of Gary Paulsen books my favorite one was probably the Transall Saga when a boy that likes to hike and camp is transferred into the future but all knowledge was lost by some dieseases and theres like castles and stuff. He also has to survive by hunting and such and he makes a bow and arrow and a spear and he goes through different towns. That was a really good book I liked it alot.
 
"Earth Abides" is one of the classics of the genre, great read! For abook written in 1958 is holds it's own against more modern TEOTWAWKI books.
 
If you have not read Earth Abides and Alas Babylon by Pat Frank then I suggest you do.They are what got me started as a survivor.They are both old by todays standards but worth the time.Arnold
 
tobyrogers said:
If you have not read Earth Abides and Alas Babylon by Pat Frank then I suggest you do.They are what got me started as a survivor.They are both old by todays standards but worth the time.Arnold
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I'll second Alas Babylon as a great read.

Also Lucifers Hammer. :thumbup:
 
:thumbup: I remember my Dad and I reading Alas Babylon back in high school. It probably was the genesis of our interest (obsession) with wilderness survival. Is Earth Abides written by the same author?

I also remember a Sci-Fi series that went from TEOTWAWKI to Lord of the Rings as well. I believe it was called Horseclans.

-- FLIX
 
Well so far you guys have skunked me. I prefer to read my science fiction on my PDA (hate taking up physical space for non-reference books) but none of the titles you've suggested are out as eBooks. Bummer. Keep 'em coming though!
 
bulgron said:
Well so far you guys have skunked me. I prefer to read my science fiction on my PDA (hate taking up physical space for non-reference books) but none of the titles you've suggested are out as eBooks. Bummer. Keep 'em coming though!
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Do your eyes get strained reading from your PDA Bulgron?

(Waay off topic, but a pda should also have a book on tape function too, so when one is driving around they can listen to the book and then read it later)
 
bulgron said:
Well so far you guys have skunked me. I prefer to read my science fiction on my PDA (hate taking up physical space for non-reference books) but none of the titles you've suggested are out as eBooks. Bummer. Keep 'em coming though!
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Yup, I have the same problem. :thumbdn:

Andy
 
fixer27 said:
Do your eyes get strained reading from your PDA Bulgron?

(Waay off topic, but a pda should also have a book on tape function too, so when one is driving around they can listen to the book and then read it later)
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I don't want to hijack the thread, but I do want to answer fixer's comment.

No, I don't experience any additional eye strain from reading on the PDA, but your mileage may vary (YMMV). In my case, I have a Treo 650 smartphone, which has a fairly good resolution. The only thing I don't like about reading eBooks on it is that the screen is pretty small so I have to "turn the page" quite frequently. To fix the problem, I'm currently lusting after one of these:

http://store.palm.com/product/index...ickid=mainnav_handhelds_txt&parentPage=family

but even despite having contacts at Palm, and therefore access to their employee discount, I haven't found it in my budget to purchase one. Something about wanting to spend all my money on Wilderness & Survival gear, I think. ;)

A 1 gig SD card will hold all the fiction you could ever possibly want to read. Fiction actually printed on paper is only for when you're hanging out in the woods, far away from a power outlet. :D

As for books on tape, I see that at least some are available as MP3s. This means your palm pilot, or even your Apple iPod, should be able to play them. Push come to shove, burn them to a CD and play that in your MP3-capable car CD player.

Again, sorry for going so far off-topic.

Edit: Earth Abides is available as a MP3 audio book here:

http://ebooks.fictionwise.com/eBooks/GeorgeRStewarteBooks.htm
 
Just finished Lucifer's Hammer and Dies the Fire. Although Lucifer's Hammer took a while to get rolling, once it did, I was addicted. Dies the Fire I really enjoyed as well, especially for its no-guns SHTF perspective. Both really got me thinking about how quickly the mass paradigm shift would take place in the event of some TEOTWAWKI-type disaster.

Thinking about taking this question to the knifemaker's forum, but anyone know if all the metallurgy in Dies the Fire is accurate? I tho't automobile leaf springs were something like L6 steel, and aren't hardened enough for non-forged sword making/shaping. Anyone know what the critical temperature would be to shape a leaf spring into a sword blade without losing it's temper, and would it even have good enough edge holding properties for slicing through bone as Stirling suggests?
 
leaf springs are hard enough to make serviceable knives... once you get past the whole bent part. Heating it enough to forge it will ruin any heat treat it had. And Mild steel will slice through bone... just not as many times as good cutlery steel heat treated properly.
 
HellForged said:
leaf springs are hard enough to make serviceable knives... once you get past the whole bent part.
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Any idea how hard, and can the bent part be straightened without ruining the temper (by heating to several hundred degrees and hammering -- that's the process the characters in Dies the Fire use btw)?

If so, I might have to take a trip to the junkyard and start experimenting:D
 
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