Stirling, S M

Entry updated 5 August 2024. Tagged: Author.

(1953- ) French-born author in Canada from childhood; he took out US citizenship in 2003. He began publishing work of genre interest with Snowbrother (1985), the first volume of the Fifth Millennium fantasy sequence, which continued with The Sharpest Edge (1986) with Shirley Meier, The Cage (1989) with Meier, and Shadow's Son (1991) with Meier and Karen Wehrstein. It was, however, with his second series, the Alternate-History Draka sequence – Marching through Georgia (1988), Under the Yoke (1989) and The Stone Dogs (1990), all assembled as The Domination (omni 1999), plus Drakon (1990) – that Stirling came to notice because of its considerable violence (undeniable) and his right-wing convictions (seemingly clear). In an Alternate-History twentieth century generated in part by the success of Charles Babbage's Difference Engine, a group of British loyalists, having previously escaped the consequences of the American Revolution by emigrating to South Africa, have established there a racist feudalism, the Domination of Draka, which soon comes to dominate the entire continent. In the first volume the start of World War Two sees Draka allied with America against the Nazis, and winning a crushing victory against the German hordes in Soviet Georgia; subsequently, Slavery is extended to newly conquered territories. This nightmare (which Stirling presents with seeming affection) continues in subsequent volumes, with the Domination seemingly ineradicable and a post-war conflict between the Drakans (who have mastered Genetic Engineering) and America (expert in Computers) extending outwards, where Space Stations and orbital factories flourish.

Stirling has also contributed to Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars Shared-World anthologies, with work in Man-Kzin Wars II (anth 1989), Man-Kzin Wars III (anth 1990) and Man-Kzin Wars IV (anth 1991) [for these titles see Larry Niven], plus a novel in the sequence, The Children's Hour (1991) with Jerry Pournelle. Also with Pournelle, to whose CoDominium sequence the tale belongs, he wrote Go Tell the Spartans (1991) about Falkenberg, the series' main protagonist. Other novels include The Forge (1991), The Hammer (1992), The Anvil (1993) and The Steel (1993), all with David A Drake, the first volumes of The General, a military series.

His later career has been divided among ties as above, works and series of fantasy (not here discussed), and The Change sequence, which has itself bifurcated into two main subseries: The Change: Nantucket series comprising Island in the Sea of Time (1998), Against the Tide of Years (1999) and On the Oceans of Eternity (2000), in which the small city of Nantucket Timeslips three millennia into the past, where its citizens must learn how to survive in the Stone Age; and The Change: Emberverse series, beginning with Dies the Fire (2004) and ends [for the several intervening volumes see Checklist] with Lord of Mountains: A Novel of the Change (2012), where the inexplicable timeslip of the earlier subseries is complexified when all Technology fails in the our early twenty-first century world, and Americans find themselves coping with a Ruined Earth. Long narrative sequences, perhaps unduly attentive to quasi-dynasty quarrels, gradually unpack a sense that the events shaping Homo sapiens in the overall Change sequence may originate in some sort of Godgame, though its magus or civilization in control remains uncertain. The Lords of Creation series, comprising The Sky People (2006) and In the Courts of the Crimson Kings (2008), is an Alternate History in which Mars and Venus, having been Terraformed aeons earlier by an Alien civilization, for reasons unknown, into venues for Planetary Romance adventures involving Terrans and native species.

Stirling has also edited Fantastic World War II (anth 1990) and The Fantastic Civil War (anth 1991), both with Martin H Greenberg, Charles G Waugh and Frank McSherry Jr, and Power (anth 1991). [JC]

see also: Canada; Future War.

Stephen Michael Stirling

born Metz, Moselle, France: 30 September 1953

works

series

Fifth Millennium (excluding titles by other authors)

Snowbrother (New York: New American Library/Signet Books, 1985) [Fifth Millennium: pb/Ken Kelly]
- Snowbrother (New York: Baen Books, 1992) [exp of the above: Fifth Millennium: pb/Larry Elmore]
The Sharpest Edge (New York: New American Library/Signet Books, 1986) with Shirley Meier [Fifth Millennium: pb/Ken Kelly]
- Saber and Shadow (New York: Baen Books, 1992) with Shirley Meier [vt of the above: Fifth Millennium: pb/Larry Elmore]
The Cage (New York: Baen Books, 1989) with Shirley Meier [Fifth Millennium: pb/Larry Elmore]
Shadow's Son (New York: Baen Books, 1991) with Shirley Meier and Karen Wehrstein [Fifth Millennium: pb/Darrell K Sweet]

Draka