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[JohnIan101]

Past Tense - Not A Blown Fuse Part II




Author S.M Sterling had his book "Dies The Fire" published (by Penguin) in 2004 ($7.99, paperback). The hero here is Mike Havel, ex-military who embarks on a mission to save the world. One of the folks he saves is a teenage girl, who is an expert archer. Sound familiar?

Here Mike is Miles Matheson (Burke) and the young woman, Eilir Mackenzie is Charlotte "Charlie" Matheson (Spiridakos), Miles' niece. Set in a world where the power went out, more extreme - gunpowder also fails to work. No steam power either; the laws of physics have changed. Just like the series, weapons are swords and the bow.

Anyhow, "Dies The Fire" is part of the Emberverse book series; still on ongoing novel series. The cause? Magic.

- - -

The story?

It is the year 2027.

We are now experiencing a world that has survived a major global event which has rendered all technology dead. As I wrote there is no electricity and it can not be generated. This is not supernatural based. It was an Department Of Defense tool which was used by a disgruntled employee to bring down the planet, a terrorist act.



One word - 'nanites'; energy disrupting nanites. The idea is to use this as a weapon, set them loose on a city or town and zap all electronics, send in troops to capture/gain control. You see, the troops will carry these pendants which neutralize the effects within a few feet of their proximity.

They are programmed to have location limiters (GPS). What our terrorist did was remove those parameters and the whole world was plunged into darkness. As they had two commands; disrupt power and replicate.

Who has these pendants - as only a few were made? This was a test run that went wrong. The pendants were not massed produced for the military. This also upset viewers as the pendants are revealed to be self-powered USB sticks. Yeah, I know.

And now.

The United States is a memory. What remains is California Common Wealth, Texas, Plains Nation, Georgia Federation and outland area known as the Wastelands. A good chunk of what was America is now owned...



By self-made emperor, Sebastian "Bass" Monroe (David Lyons). His nation is the Monroe Republic.

Monroe is a tyrant. Well - beloved by some since he made order from chaos. Brought back faster than his rivals - his land, into a functional society, early industrial.

But it came with a high price.



This is also a world where guns are not used since resources are limited. You have swords and arrows. Only in extreme situations are firearms used.

His army is draft based. They kidnap/recruit from surrounding areas (older teens) and branded (old school) as property of the Republic. Slaves which earn privileges with their deeds.

Here is the jump point.

Charlie and her family, farmers are visited by group of soldiers, lead by Captain Tom Neville (Esposito) who becomes our boogyman, the relentless right hand man of Monroe. A true believer.

He has come here to take her father Ben (Tim Guinee) away - he knows something valuable. Sebastian wants information about an object. This isn't working, so he might as well recruit the kid, Danny (Graham Rogers) for leverage.

The dad tries to stop Neville from taking his son and ends with Ben getting shot in front of Charlie. The boy still could still be beneficial for another scheme and is taken.

Danny is abducted into bondage.

We end up learning he has one of those pendants, not knowing... I won't spoil that. This was an excellent plot twist, tragic.

They leave Charlie to her despair; before dying, Ben tells her to seek out someone who could help - her uncle, Miles - a former soldier. She goes on a quest.



Traveling to Chicago she is joined by Aaron Pittman (Zak Orth); a different life, he was a computer programmer and a former Google executive. And accompanied by Maggie Foster (Anna Lise Phillips), a British doctor who got stuck in America when the blackout occurred; Maggie is Ben's girlfriend. As close to a mom Charlie has.

The four is later joined by Rachel Matheson, Charlie mom - not dead as Ben claimed. And there is a solid reason why Rachel was dead to him. But that would be spoiling a good twist. She's very complicated; friend - foe? Her morality can slide easily.

Together they uncover a conspiracy to change the world - in the worst way. Monroe knows about the existence of the power pendants. And wished to amplify them beyond a few feet. He's been, slowly in secret, accumulating military gear, including a gunship.



He plans to attack the Georgia Federation, not with the helicopter (Neville pictured above), but with an acquired nuke; gotten from another group with their own plans - to detonate in the capital, Atlanta.

But what he needs first is a pendant.

Before you ask - no I haven't ruined it for you. So much more happens. I gave you a taste.

The series was born from Kripke desire to create a voyage show, a trek. A journey our characters need to transverse. Inspired by the odyssey that was the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy movies.



Walking from location to location, helping where they can and having grand adventures.

The series was pretty good, not great. No. But a solid show. I enjoyed it. Need to get season two.

Season two changed their Big Bad to what remains of America which had set up shop in Guantanamo Bay - "The Patriots". This was decent enough, but lacked the gravitas that the first year had. Less about nanites than stopping a take over - that is until the end when a much larger foe emerges, the result of our gang trying to turn back the power.

A game changer that would've taken the series into dark sci-fi territory. No, not aliens, the nanites gained conscience. Think SkyNet, but no robots... well not the metal kind.

I suppose we're lucky to have season two since 'one' didn't do that great in the ratings and that season two even had twenty episodes. The second did worse than the first. It could've been thirteen or less.

Anyhow, the mystery, explanation for the blackout was handled okay. I don't have issue with the tech, I accept that. But like many others was baffled by how humanity reverted. Making bullets isn't that hard. And why so much of the cities covered in overgrowth? And so much rubble, did folks just loose their mind when they couldn't Tweet?

"How can I get my 'Likes'? HOW!?!" Riot!!!!!!!!!!



One of the gripes that kept coming up is actress Tracy Spiridakos can't act. Okay, she's appropriate for the role. She is suppose to be awkward, pretty much most of Charlie's life was on a farm, not a warrior. Her character isn't all that sure of herself.

The casting of Spiridakos was good. She's not too pretty, reality based. A normal young woman, caught up in an extraordinary events with momentous consequences. All she wants is to save her brother, not the planet.

One last quote about the series. A nasty one...

This show is AIDS. To clarify my point - This is what you get when you **** a monkey in Africa for the fun of it, then come back to the United States and fu˘k as many dudes in the asshole as possible. Wait three years, then die a painful, pitiful death. Revolution is EXACTLY like that.

- Metroid_Fetish

He's not a fan.

One last thing.

This almost happened - for real. Not nanites, but a massive EMP (electromagnetic pulse). The world could've gone dark on July 23rd, 2012; fried electronics, everything with a computer chip. On that date, not one but two huge solar flares almost hit Earth. Want it worse?

NASA knew in advance, but didn't tell the public what was about to happen. This only came to light on March 19th, 2014 when Forbes published a story about the almost world changing disaster. Let that sink in...

If this were to happen again, that scale - you, would not be told. Welcome to the Dark Ages 2.0. Hope you can sword fight.

Come back here February 15th, 2018 for another example of a young woman who unlike Charlotte Matheson wants retribution to punish those who did her wrong - pain. See you then.