Dies the Fire (Roc Science Fiction)

Alternate Title: A post-apocalyptic love letter to the Society For Creative Anachronisms (SCA) and Wiccans from S.M. Stirling.

I have sort of a love/hate relationship with post-apocalyptic stories. I know they're inherently silly, explained most clearly by the marvelous short story "The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)" by [a:John Varley|27341|John Varley|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1346593830p2/27341.jpg]. But I like them anyways.

So what do I want out of a Post-apocalyptic story?
Interesting Research: Check, this story has some good stuff, on Wicca and medieval weapons/armor, etc.
An Interesting Premise: How does the world end? This is an interesting premise, but it's never really explored.
Watching the dominoes fall: The actual "how" - this is so-so.
Interesting Characters: So-so - the characters are...decent, but this book could really have benefited from an editor. There are points where things bogged down so much I started skimming, which I normally never do.

There some seriously large gaps in the plausibility in the breakdown of society, and the number of just staggering coincidences becomes simply laughable.

If you can't ignore circumstances like:

(not actual quote, but does actually happen in book)
"What's that, you've found a man injured in the woods who is not only a SAS (Special Air Service) commando, but's he's also a master bowyer and archer, capable on churning out longbows with the yew wood you also just happen to have stacked in your woodpile?"

Or several of the characters going on (and on, and on) about Wicca...multiple times.

Then these are not the books for you. Enjoyable read, but I read fast, and as noted above, even I had to "skim" (and did more of it in second book)