''The Sword of the Lady'' (2009) is an alternate history,

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...

novel by American writer

S. M. Stirling Stephen Michael Stirling (born September 30, 1953) is a Canadian-American science fiction and fantasy author who was born in France. Stirling is well known for his Draka series of alternate history novels and his later time travel/alternate hi ...

. It is the sixth book in the

Emberverse The Emberverse series—or Change World—is a series of post-apocalyptic alternate history novels written by S. M. Stirling. The novels depict the events following a mysterious—yet sudden—worldwide event called "The Change" that occurs at ...

series. Rudi Mackenzie and his group leave

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

, heading through

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, out onto the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

, into what was once

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

and finally to Nantucket. All the while they are pursued by the

Church Universal and Triumphant The Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) is an international New Age religious organization founded in 1975 by Elizabeth Clare Prophet. It is an outgrowth (and is now the corporate parent) of The Summit Lighthouse, founded in 1958 by Prophet's ...

(CUT), led by a High Seeker (a CUT priest with supernatural powers) and Major Graber.

Plot summary

Rudi Mackenzie and Edain Aylward Mackenzie head out through post-Change

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

on a mission given to them by the Bossman of

to recover Ingolf Vogeler's wagons that he abandoned there. They break up an ambush by Knifers and save three Southside Freedom Fighters (Southsiders), descendants of survivors from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, including their leader Jake. Rudi adopts the tribe and they help him bring Ingolf's wagons back to Iowa. Along the way, Rudi and Edain teach them how to make bows and arrows, then train them as military archers. Southsiders listen to them sing and add the songs to their story-poor culture. Soon the Southsiders consider themselves part of Clan Mackenzie. Meanwhile, Mary and Ritva Havel are trying to find a way to break Ingolf out of the Bossman's prison. Then Captain Denson of the Iowa State Police has a conversation with Ingolf and offers to release him from prison if he lures the CUT troops from Des Moines. When Ingolf agrees, Denson takes him out while his men kill the other prisoners who witnessed the conversation. When Rudi reaches the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

, Denson meets them on the east side of the river. He brings Ingolf with him. They cross the river and meet the Bossman and the rest of Rudi's party in Dubuque. Meanwhile, the Corvallis Meeting is fighting CUT and

Boise Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown area' ...

invaders. The Prophet's troops are converging on the Meeting lands from several directions. While the Meeting nations can slow the invasion down, they have been unable to drive the invaders back. News that the Portland Protective Association are losing castles due to the strange abilities of the CUT High Seekers causes morale to drop. Back in Iowa, the Major Graber and his CUT forces attempt to kill Rudi and his allies. Though Rudi survives, the CUT manage to assassinate the Bossman of Iowa. Thanks to Mathilda Arminger's efforts, however, she manages to encourage the Bossman's wife to take power as

Regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

, creating a new ally for Rudi and his group. Rudi and his group leave Iowa heading north along the

. While en route, Rudi's companions swear loyalty to him as the High King of "Montival", the new name the group has chosen for the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

. Rudi reluctantly accepts. Rudi and his group arrive in the nation of Richland, Ingolf's home. While there Ingolf makes amends with his estranged brother, a local sheriff, who agrees to help Ingolf and his friends reach Nantucket. Heading north around the

using skis to move over the snow, the party is attacked once again by CUT forces who are allied with French-speaking savages from former

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. Though they succeed in driving off the CUT forces, Jake is killed in the battle. Arriving in

, Rudi and his followers are taken in by survivors who have adopted a

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

-like culture. They agree to help Rudi reach Nantucket, but upon arriving at a coastal town, they discover it under siege by Major Graber and Muslim Corsairs. Rudi and his forces succeed in lifting the siege and capture one of the pirate leaders, but Odard Liu is killed during the battle. Rudi convinces the pirate captain to take him and his followers to Nantucket. They are chased there by Major Graber who has commandeered another pirate vessel. As both ships arrive at Nantucket, reality begins to change as alternate versions of Nantucket begin to appear at random. Rudi and his followers fight their way onto Nantucket. There Rudi is transported into the presence of Maiden, Mother, and Crone who have taken the form of Rudi's mother (Juniper Mackenzie) and Marion Alston and Swindapa from the ''

Nantucket series The Nantucket series (also known as the Nantucket trilogy or the Islander trilogy) is a set of alternate history novels written by S. M. Stirling. The novels focus on the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts which was transported back in time ...

''. They explain the reason behind the Change, alluding at humanity's importance (the

Fermi paradox The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high a priori likelihood of its existence, and by extension of obtaining such evidence. As a 2015 article put it, ...

) and that certain forces saw the need for humanity to mature more before it self-destructed due to abuse of technology. They also explain the powers that are aiding CUT as a result of a disagreement between those forces on how best to guide the changed humanity. Rudi is last seen removing the Sword of the Lady from its sheath. Back in Montival, Juniper calls on the help of the gods against the CUT in a ceremony ( Cone of power). During the ceremony visible light emanates from Juniper's hands and she proclaims the coming of the High King.

Literary significance and reception

As of September 3, 2009, ''The Sword of the Lady'' has ranked 13th on the New York Times Best Seller List. This is the first time that a Stirling novel has reached the top 15 on the list.

References

External links

Sample Chapters
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''The Sword of the Lady'' review
by

Harriet Klausner Harriet Klausner (May 20, 1952 – October 15, 2015) was an amateur reviewer of books and a newspaper columnist. She was the #1 ranked reviewer on Amazon.com for many years, and at the time of her death held the No. 1 spot in Amazon's reviewer "Hal ...

Review by Romantic TimesReview
by the

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sword of the Lady, The The Emberverse series 2009 American novels American alternate history novels Novels by S. M. Stirling Post-apocalyptic novels Roc Books books