Dies the Fire

I picked up this book thinking that it was something else.  I had heard about S.M. Stirling's novels of the Change and thought that Dies the Fire was the first book in the series.  The book I wanted is Island in the Sea of Time, which is about an island on the eastern seaboard that it transported from the late twentieth-century to the seventeenth and the inhabitants are forced to figure out how to survive.  Cool sf premise.
This novel is the first in a spin-off series that narrates what happens to a different part of the United States.  An EMP has knocked out all of the world's electronics, forcing the inhabitants of this world to re-invent means of survival and re-discover many technologies and society.  As governments and civil order collapse, people coalesce into factions with competing drives.
The novel opens with Mike Havel flying a charter plane into rough Idaho backwoods.  He must land his now non-functional plane and hike the family in his charge our of the wilderness.  Havel is a capable ex-marine with a talent for bringing out others' skills.  Mike and this family make up the core of the first group in the novel.
The second main group is Clan Mackenzie, headed by Juniper Mackenzie, formerly a musician and high priestess of her coven.  Both groups gradually build their populations and adapt to their new world.  They re-discovery skills in archery and sword craft.
The two groups end up forming an alliance to fight against the Protector, a self-styled feudal lord who has taken over a nearby city.  All through the novel, the groups are in constant danger from roving bands of raiders, the Protector's army, other groups hungry for resources, and starvation as they figure out how to marshall the resources that they have and become more efficient in farming without powered equipment.
Stirling's skill lies in descriptions of combat.  The novel is littered with fight scenes and imaginative battle plans.  The novel is also notable in a certain lack of exposition.  Stirling does not let the reader know more than the characters do.  We see the perspectives of other groups, but we don't know what is going on outside of that.  Stirling doesn't reveal the true cause of the Change, nor does he reveal more of the outside world, aside from the gossip and speculation of characters in the novel.
The novel was enjoyable to read but I am not terribly interested in reading more in this spin-off series.  It runs a little closer to swords and magic fantasy (without the magic, of course), than I normally like.  I will likely check out the first novel of the Change in the main series, however.