The Scourge of God is a novel of The Change series.

Rudi Mackenzie — son and heir of the High Priestess Juniper Mackenzie and the Bear Lord Mike Havel — continues his trek across the land that once was the United States of America. His destination: Nantucket, where he hopes to learn the truth behind the Change which rendered technology around the globe inoperable.

Dreams, visions, and the accounts of those who dared to set foot on the island hint at forces beyond comprehension...and with the competing agendas for the future of the human race.

During his travels, Rudi forges ties with new allies in the continuing war against the Prophet. Presiding over his flock, the Church Universal and Triumphant, the Prophet teaches his followers as he has been taught: God has punished humanity by destroying technological civilization. Now, the Prophet's Cutters perform the "holy task" of destroying any technological remnants they come across, and those who dare use them.

But one fanatical officer of the Sword of the Prophet has an ever greater mission: to stop Rudi from reaching Nantucket — by any means necessary.

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The "New York Times" bestselling author continues his "epic of survival and rebirth" ("Library Journal"), chronicling a modern world without technology.
Rudi Mackenzie has journeyed far across the land that was once the United States of America, hoping to find the source of the world-altering event that has come to be known as The Change. His final destination is Nantucket, an island overrun with forest, inhabited by a mere two hundred people who claim to have been transported there from out of time.
Only one odd stone house remains standing. Within it, Rudi finds a beautifully made sword waiting for him-and once he takes it up, nothing will ever be the same...

***

Rudi Mackenzie has returned to Montival with the Sword of the Lady, ready to face the legions of the Prophet. To achieve victory, Rudi must assemble a coalition of former enemies and forge an army that will rescue his homeland and tear the heart out of the Church Universal and Triumphant once and for all.

***

S. M. Stirling’s New York Times bestselling Novels of the Change have depicted a postapocalyptic wasteland in which all modern technology has been left in ashes, forcing humankind to rebuild an unknowable new world in the wake of unimaginable—and deliberate—chaos.

Now, in this new anthology, S. M. Stirling invites the most fertile minds in science fiction to join him in expanding his rich Emberverse canvas. Here are inventive new perspectives on the cultures, the survivors, and the battles arising across the years and across the globe following the Change.

In his all-new story “Hot Night at the Hopping Toad,” Stirling returns to his own continuing saga of the High Kingdom of Montival. In the accompanying stories are fortune seekers, voyagers, and dangers—from the ruins of Sydney to the Republic of Fargo and Northern Alberta to Venetian and Greek galleys clashing in the Mediterranean.

These new adventures revisit beloved people and places from Stirling’s fantastic universe, introduce us to new ones, and deliver endlessly fascinating challenges to conquer.

Contributors to The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth include
Introduction: The Change as Setting and Secondary World by S. M. Stirling
Hot Night at the Hopping Toad by S. M. Stirling
Rate of Exchange by A. M. Dellamonica
Tight Spot by Kier Salmon
Against the Wind by Lauren C. Teffeau
The Demons of Witmer Hall by M. T. Reiten
Bernie, Lord of the Apes by John Jos. Miller
The Seeker: A Poison in the Blood by Victor Milán
Grandpa’s Gift by Terry D. England
Fortune and Glory by John Birmingham
The Venetian Dialectic by Walter Jon Williams
The Soul Remembers Uncouth Noises by John Barnes
Topanga and the Chatsworth Lancers by Harry Turtledove
The Hermit and the Jackalopes by Jane Lindskold
The New Normal by Jody Lynn Nye
A Missed Connection by Emily Mah Tippetts
Deor by Diana Paxson