The Protector's War

Last updated
The Protector's War
The protectors war.jpg
First edition
Author S. M. Stirling
Cover artistJonathan Barkat
LanguageEnglish
Series The Emberverse series
Genre Alternate history, Science fiction
Publisher Roc Books
Publication date
September 6, 2005
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Paperback and Hardcover)
Pages496
ISBN 0-451-46046-4
OCLC 58791229
813/.54 22
LC Class PS3569.T543 P76 2005
Preceded by Dies the Fire  
Followed by A Meeting at Corvallis  

The Protector's War is a 2005 alternate history, post-apocalyptic, science fiction novel by American writer S.M. Stirling. [1] It is the second novel in the Emberverse series. The Protector's War describes the events of roughly a year, some eight years after the Change which altered the laws of physics in Dies the Fire . It describes the preparations of the Portland Protective Association for a war of conquest against the other communities of the Willamette Valley, their actions in response, and the arrival of three English refugees whose coming will help shape events in Oregon.

Contents

Plot summary

Eight years after the Change, Clan Mackenzie, led by Juniper Mackenzie, and the Bearkillers, headed by Mike Havel, have established themselves in the Willamette Valley. They have become bitter enemies of the much larger, expansion-minded Portland Protective Association (PPA), led by the Armingers. The barons of the PPA constantly violate a ceasefire with the other factions. During one of their raids, Eddie Liu, Baron and Marchwarden of the PPA, is confronted by a small group of Mackenzies, led by Eilir Mackenzie and Astrid Larsson. After a short skirmish, Liu leaves, again swearing revenge against the Clan.

In the meantime, in Great Britain, Sir Nigel Loring is imprisoned by the mad King Charles III, but is rescued by his son Alleyne Loring and John Hordle, formerly of the Special Air Service. They leave England aboard a Tasmanian sailing ship, which is conducting a worldwide survey. On their arrival in Portland, Arminger pressures Sir Nigel, who is the closest thing to an expert on nerve gas, to help him recover some of it to use against his enemies. The British trio outwit Arminger and escape to the south.

Mike Havel and his wife Signe Larsson Havel try to lure Crusher Bailey, a bandit who has been raiding and taking slaves, into a trap by masquerading as travelers with a herd of horses and a wagon of valuables. When Bailey takes the bait, Mike and Signe's reinforcements are delayed and they have to retreat to the ruins of an abandoned pornographic video store. Just before they are overrun, they are saved by the timely intervention of the Lorings and Hordle. Sir Nigel and his son meet the Mackenzies and their old friend Sam Aylward, who was formerly a sergeant under Sir Nigel. The Mackenzies tell of their raid, where they ambushed a horse-drawn train and unexpectedly captured Norman Arminger's only child and heir, Mathilda.

Soon after, Eddie Liu and his massive bodyguard Mack arrive on a diplomatic mission to negotiate Mathilda's release. Astrid Larsson and Eilir Mackenzie and their small band of Rangers discover signs of a PPA group hiding nearby. Liu fires nerve gas at the guards, killing all of them, and frees Mathilda. Despite the danger, Liu searches Rudi Mackenzie's tent for a book that Mathilda gave Rudi, which contains the key needed to decode PPA plans that have fallen into Clan hands. A fight breaks out. Mack seriously wounds Rudi before he is killed by Hordle, and Liu is killed by Eilir Mackenzie. The Bearkillers arrive soon after and mop up the remaining PPA knights. Rudi is saved by Signe, who overcomes her distaste for him and saves his life with an immediate blood transfusion. The book ends with Rudi's initiation into Wicca.

Characters

References to other works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish clan</span> Kinship group among the Scottish people

A Scottish clan is a kinship group among the Scottish people. Clans give a sense of shared heritage and descent to members, and in modern times have an official structure recognised by the Court of the Lord Lyon, which regulates Scottish heraldry and coats of arms. Most clans have their own tartan patterns, usually dating from the 19th century, which members may incorporate into kilts or other clothing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Harlaw</span> 1411 Scottish clan battle

The Battle of Harlaw was a Scottish clan battle fought on 24 July 1411 just north of Inverurie in Aberdeenshire. It was one of a series of battles fought during the Middle Ages between the barons of northeast Scotland against those from the west coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan MacLeod</span> Scottish clan

Clan MacLeod is a Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. There are two main branches of the clan: the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan, whose chief is MacLeod of MacLeod, who are known in Gaelic as Sìol Tormoid ; the Clan MacLeod of Lewis and Raasay, whose chief is MacLeod of The Lewes, are known in Gaelic as Sìol Torcaill. Both branches claim descent from Leòd, a Norse-Gael who lived in the 13th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stornoway</span> Town on the Isle of Lewis, in Scotland

Stornoway is the main town, and by far the largest town, of the Outer Hebrides, or Western Isles, and the capital of Lewis and Harris in Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan Mackenzie</span> Scottish clan

Clan Mackenzie is a Scottish clan, traditionally associated with Kintail and lands in Ross-shire in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional genealogies trace the ancestors of the Mackenzie chiefs to the 12th century. However, the earliest Mackenzie chief recorded by contemporary evidence is Alexander Mackenzie of Kintail who died some time after 1471. Traditionally, during the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Mackenzies supported Robert the Bruce, but feuded with the Earls of Ross in the latter part of the 14th century. During the 15th and 16th-centuries the Mackenzies feuded with the neighboring clans of Munro and MacDonald. In the 17th century the Mackenzie chief was made Earl of Seaforth in the peerage of Scotland. During the Scottish Civil War of the 17th century the Mackenzies largely supported the Royalists. During the Jacobite rising of 1715 the chief and clan of Mackenzie supported the Jacobite cause. However, during the Jacobite rising of 1745 the clan was divided with the chief, Kenneth Mackenzie, Lord Fortrose, supporting the British-Hanoverian Government and his relative, George Mackenzie, 3rd Earl of Cromartie, supporting the Jacobites.

<i>The White Company</i> Historical novel by Arthur Conan Doyle

The White Company is a historical adventure by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, set during the Hundred Years' War. The story is set in England, France and Spain, in the years 1366 and 1367, against the background of the campaign of Edward the Black Prince, to restore Peter of Castile to the throne of the Kingdom of Castile. The climax of the book occurs before the Battle of Nájera. Doyle became inspired to write the novel after attending a lecture on the Middle Ages in 1889. After extensive research, The White Company was published in serialised form in 1891 in The Cornhill Magazine. Additionally, the book is considered a companion to Doyle's 1905–06 Sir Nigel, which explores the early campaigns of Sir Nigel Loring and Samkin Aylward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan Brodie</span> Scottish clan

Clan Brodie is a Scottish clan whose origins are uncertain. The first known Brodie chiefs were the Thanes of Brodie and Dyke in Morayshire. The Brodies were present in several clan conflicts, and during the civil war were ardent covenanters. They resisted involvement in the Jacobite uprisings, and the chief's family later prospered under the British Empire in colonial India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan Sutherland</span> Highland Scottish clan

Clan Sutherland also known as House of Sutherland is a Highland Scottish clan whose traditional territory is the shire of Sutherland in the far north of Scotland. The chief of the clan was also the powerful Earl of Sutherland, however in the early 16th century this title passed through marriage to a younger son of the chief of Clan Gordon. The current chief is Alistair Sutherland who holds the title Earl of Sutherland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan MacCulloch</span> Lowland Scottish clan

The origins of Clan MacCulloch are unknown, but there is a consensus that the family was one of the most ancient families of Galloway, Scotland, and a leading medieval family in that region. Despite the obscurity of the early history of the clan, the history and genealogies of the family are well documented in Walter Jameson McCulloch's History of the Galloway Families of McCulloch, which provides extensive footnotes for original Scottish charters, correspondence, and other primary source documentation. The latter provides family history for the following lines: Myretoun, Ardwell, Killasser, Torhouse, Drummorrell, Inshanks and Mule, Torhousekie, Cardiness, Barholm, Kirkclaugh, Auchengool, and Ardwall.

<i>Dies the Fire</i> 2004 novel by S. M. Stirling

Dies the Fire is a 2004 alternate history and post-apocalyptic novel written by S. M. Stirling. It is the first installment of the Emberverse series and is a spin-off from S. M. Stirling's Nantucket series in which the Massachusetts island of Nantucket is thrown back in time from March 17, 1998, to the Bronze Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Munro, 1st of Newmore</span> Scottish soldier and member of parliament

Sir George Munro, 1st of Newmore (1602–1693) was a 17th-century Scottish soldier and member of parliament from the Clan Munro, Ross-shire, Scotland. He was seated at Newmore Castle. Between 1629 and 1634 Munro held command in the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War, and from 1642 in the Scottish Covenanter army during the Irish Confederate Wars before changing his allegiance to the Royalist cause of Charles I in 1648 during the Scottish Civil War and Irish Confederate Wars.

<i>The Sunrise Lands</i> 2007 novel by S. M. Stirling

The Sunrise Lands is a post-apocalyptic 2007 novel by alternate history author S. M. Stirling. It is the fourth novel set in the Emberverse series. The core of the story is a quest by the sons and daughters of all the main characters from the first trilogy, to travel across the face of a changed America all the way to Nantucket.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macaulay family of Lewis</span> Notable Scottish clan

The Macaulay family of Uig in Lewis, known in Scottish Gaelic as Clann mhic Amhlaigh, were a small family located around Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. There is no connection between the Macaulays of Lewis and Clan MacAulay which was centred in the Loch Lomond area, bordering the Scottish Highlands and Scottish Lowlands. The Macaulays of Lewis are generally said to be of Norse origin because of the etymology of their surname and also because of the islands' Viking Age past. However, a recent analysis of the Y-DNA of men with Scottish surnames has shown that a large number of Hebridean Macaulays are of Irish origin. In the 17th century, however, tradition gave the Macaulays an Irish origin. By the end of the 16th century the dominant clan on Lewis was Clan Macleod of The Lewes. Other notable Lewis clans were the somewhat smaller Morrisons of Ness and the even less numerous Macaulays of Uig. The Macaulays were centred in the area surrounding Uig on the western coast of Lewis, and had a deadly, long-standing feud with the Morrisons, whose lands were located on the northern coast around Ness. Today the Lewis surname Macaulay is considered to be a sept name of the Macleods of Lewis. There are two other nearby clans of Macaulays who may, or may not, be connected to the Lewis clan—the Wester Ross Macaulays, and the Uist MacAulays.

<i>A Meeting at Corvallis</i> 2006 novel by S. M. Stirling

A Meeting at Corvallis is a 2006 science fiction novel by S. M. Stirling. It is third novel in the Emberverse series that began with Dies the Fire and continued with The Protector's War. The story describes the events of roughly a year, some nine to ten years after the Change that altered the Laws of physics. It describes the war between the Portland Protective Association (PPA) and the other communities of the Willamette Valley.

<i>The Scourge of God</i> (novel) 2008 novel by S. M. Stirling

The Scourge of God (2008) is an alternate history, post-apocalyptic novel by American writer S. M. Stirling. It is the fifth book in the Emberverse series. The novel continues the journey of Rudi Mackenzie and his companions as they travel across the former United States, a generation after "The Change" killed off technology and plunged the world into a new Dark Age, on their quest to Nantucket where rumor says The Change originated. The novel's title comes from the title Sethaz gave himself at the end of The Sunrise Lands.

<i>The Emberverse series</i> Series of post-apocalyptic novels by S. M. Stirling

The Emberverse series—or Change World—is a series of post-apocalyptic alternate history novels written by S. M. Stirling.

<i>The Sword of the Lady</i> 2009 novel by S. M. Stirling

The Sword of the Lady (2009) is an alternate history, post-apocalyptic novel by American writer S. M. Stirling. It is the sixth book in the Emberverse series. Rudi Mackenzie and his group leave Iowa, heading through Wisconsin, out onto the Great Lakes, into what was once Maine and finally to Nantucket. All the while they are pursued by the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), led by a High Seeker and Major Graber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clan Munro</span> Highland Scottish clan

Clan Munro is a Highland Scottish clan. Historically the clan was based in Easter Ross in the Scottish Highlands. Traditional origins of the clan give its founder as Donald Munro who came from the north of Ireland and settled in Scotland in the eleventh century, though its true founder may have lived much later. It is also a strong tradition that the Munro chiefs supported Robert the Bruce during the Wars of Scottish Independence. The first proven clan chief on record however is Robert de Munro who died in 1369; his father is mentioned but not named in a number of charters. The clan chiefs originally held land principally at Findon on the Black Isle but exchanged it in 1350 for Estirfowlys. Robert's son Hugh who died in 1425 was the first of the family to be styled "of Foulis", despite which clan genealogies describe him as 9th baron.

This is the complete list of works by American science fiction author S. M. Stirling.

References

  1. "Fantastic Fiction.com: The Protector's War by S. M. Stirling". www.fantasticfiction.com.
  2. Dale Arnold. "The Scourge of God Review". Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2009-09-23. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  3. "The Protector's War by S.M. Stirling". Book Review. SF REVIEWS.NET. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  4. Carlos Aranaga (2005). "Book Review: The Protector's War by S. M. Stirling". SciFiDimensions.com. Retrieved 2008-10-30.