vision sequence. The connection between the Emberverse series and the Nantucket series has led to some confusion by readers. Science-fiction writer Paul Di Filippo appeared to miss the connection entirely: I'm a little baffled as to why Stirling set this book in 1998. It seems to me that it requires more suspension of disbelief to pretend the world ended in the past when we know it didn't. Paul Skevington, writing for SF Crowsnest, also missed the connection: Curiously, Stirling has set this novel in 1998 placing us firmly within the realms of alternative history. The reason for the use of this device is not clear, as it doesn't really impact upon the progress of the narrative. Perhaps the author sought after a sense of immediacy garnered by making the events take place in our past rather than our future. Perhaps he sought to avoid the work being viewed as a prediction of things to come – an obvious trap for many speculative works. However, Joan Field noted a basic connection: The basic premises of the two series are a precise mirror image of one another. In one, modern Americans are transferred to a past world without modern technology and must introduce this technology in order to survive; in the other, modern Americans are suddenly deprived of the same technology and their survival depends on re-learning and re-creating older skills and technologies. (...) In both, the main conflict is between those who try to build up a fairly decent society – though by no means perfect or flawless – and those who see in the crisis a chance for seizing complete, ruthless power. Major themes Leader's effect on a group Stirling explores a leader's impact on an organization. Havel's small group organizes along military lines, brought on by Havel's time in the Marines, as they travel from the site of their plane crash in Idaho to the Larsson homestead in Oregon. The Mackenzie group adopts a Celtic clan structure to farm and fortify Juniper Mackenzie's family homestead, influenced by Wicca and Mackenzie's Celtic heritage. Human dependency on technology Stirling also explores humanity's dependence on modern technology and to what conditions we might be forced to regress if we were denied our advanced technology. Thomas Wagner, reviewing Dies the Fire, said the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina gave the novel "a degree of gravitas stronger than it would have had otherwise." Fredric Smoler,