This is the direct sequel to Dies the Fire and The Protector’s War, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, though not without reservations. Somehow, with Stirling’s work, I always have some kind of reservation. But more of that anon.

Eight years prior to the beginning of this book, everything Changed. All high-technology ceased to function—electric power failed everywhere, cars were no longer driveable, guns no longer worked. Overnight, the tech level dropped alarmingly, and as recorded in Dies the Fire, almost everyone died. A variety of nascent states were born, including Clan Mackenzie, the Bearkillers, the Faculty Senate of Corvallis…and the Portland Protective Association, an ugly amalgam of SCA members and street gangs patterned loosely after the realm of William the Conqueror and driven by unbalanced ambitions of one Norman Arminger. Clan Mackenzie and Bearkillers bring about an uneasy stalemate in The Protector’s War when they capture Arminger’s daughter Matilda; the present volume covers what happens after.

My reservation about A Meeting At Corvallis are not, for a wonder, religious; yes, Clan Mackenzie are still wiccan, and yes, Arminger’s puppet pope, Leo, is overseeing a horrid rebirth of all of the Catholic church’s worst sins. But there’s nothing new here over the previous books, and Arminger’s diseased sect is more than balanced by the warrior monks of the Roman Catholic Abbey of Mount Angel, a group still loyal to the true pope (one former Cardinal Ratzinger, as it happens). There are serious, devout, and praiseworthy Christians galore.

Nor will I have much to say about Stirling’s tendency to highlight gay and lesbian relationships. There’s some of that here, certainly, and it plays a major role in the story, but less so than in the Island in the Sea of Time books.

No, my concern is about the story itself. There are, for a wonder, insufficient horrors. That is to say, the foreshadowing led me to expect horrors…which then failed to eventuate. At one point, for example, young Rudi, son of Juniper Mackenzie and the Bearkiller leader Mike Havel, is captured by Arminger’s forces. He’s a wiccan, like his mother, and Arminger’s demented Pope Leo dearly wants to get his hands on him.

And then, realpolitik and good sense win out. Arminger might be a nut, but his wife, Lady Sandra, is anything but. She might not have a better nature for anyone to appeal to, but she’s got a firm grasp on reality. And so, the horrors fail to eventuate.

In one sense, though, it’s appealing to read a book in which the bad guys are not all bent on evildoing for its own sake or for their own sadistic pleasure. And I enjoyed it thoroughly while I was reading it, as I said. And the ending was genuinely moving. Nevertheless, it all seemed just a little too easy.

Am I picking nits? Probably.

The next book in the series, The Sunrise Lands, is out in hardcover; it takes place quite a few years later, but involves many of the same characters. I’m looking forward to it.