I think that's fairly right Vultur. It was a single wave, not a field of anti-tech. As far as I know anyway.
In the days before they decided to be as efficient as possible fuel pumps operated off the cam shaft. The pumping action was purely mechanical. Model T's had the gas tank above the engine and didn't have a fuel pump at all. My father told me an amusing story about having to back a Model T uphill so it wouldn't run out of gas on a particularly steep hill. Jim is a great writer but his knowledge of the way things work is lacking.
Diesel engines have glow plugs, but can use the compression of air in the cylinder to ignite the fuel. One hazard is that the engines can run away and refuse to stop. If you have an older gas engine car you could have seen a gas engine do something similar. It's even called dieseling.
Very interesting! And I agree, a tad more homework for Jim might go well (or clearer explanations on why some bits are working and some are not).
Vultur, that's an interesting point. Clearly the Svartalves have some ideas on how to avoid such technology issues. But will they stand up to Ethniu's assault is the question.
It all depends on whether the government would be aware that Chicago was wiped out. They might only realise things by the time the Fomor have retreated or moved on to another city. Maybe even in another country...(who am I kidding, Jim will never write that).
But even assuming the government was aware of the destruction/sacking of Chicago. Would the Fomor just wait until a response came? Even so, who says they don't have the capability of taking out Nukes mid flight? Bit of telekinesis and they don't even land, or even get redirected. Or pull them into the Nevernever. Or through the Nevernever to inside the White House. Or transform them into snowflakes. Whatever Jim will write. The whole problem is what are the limits of the Fomor, what does the government know about the supernatural? etc, etc.
And yes, Ethniu apparently is invulnerable to purely mundane conventional damage. Perhaps even most magic.
But don't lose heart. Plenty of powerful good guys too. I don't think the Heaven and the various others who like the world would abandon humanity. Unless if course it became infected with Outsiders...then Uriel or one of the other Archangels has to get to work.
Huangjimmy - Don't forget that it really wasn't that long ago that the gods and monsters were out in the open. And humanity has never been collectively united, ever. Not once in history. Jim might have an alternate history event where that has happened, but as far as our history goes it has never happened. So why would it happen now? Humanity has great power and no idea how to use it. The thing is, the supernatural are not united either. It wouldn't be a big war with two opposing sides. It would be multiple wars, between multiple factions both mortal and supernatural. Constant sides changing, alliances being formed and destroyed, cats paws and manipulation, and whatever else. Maybe if an Old One or so showed up things might be different....but then again reality might collapse and physics might stop working. You can't fight the Sun, or a black hole.