I think I prefer a world where a small woman can protect herself from a large man.

Several years ago, I discovered John Ringo's work.  Not through his Posleen books (excellent, but horrifying in places), nor through his Ghost books (oh, John Ringo, no!), but through the Council Wars books, beginning with There Will be Dragons.* 

Talk about an excellent argument for the existence of guns.

The world is set so far into the future that we can't see it from here.  Nanotechnology and wireless transmission of information and electrical power combine to form a society where, if you want something, all you have to do is tell the AI that runs everything what you want, and you'll have it before you can blink.  Body and genetic modification are common--mermaids, anyone?--and so is instantaneous travel to anywhere in the world.

Until, suddenly, it isn't.

And chaos sets in.

Sometime in the less distant future, there were wars so terrible that the designers of the AI created protocols that prevent the manufacture of electricity through industrial means--and prevent the use of firearms.  Totally prevent it.  For everyone.  Like, the cartridges just won't fire.  Black powder weapons don't work.  Something about how the AI detects the build up of pressure, and bleeds it off to power other things.

This sets up a world where strong men--and only strong men--rule.

The characters are well drawn (literally, in some cases: Ringo writes in Bun-Bun from Sluggy Freelance as a rogue AI).  The situations are, if not realistic in the beginning, certainly realistic in what happens when technology comes crashing down to a pre-industrial, pre-firearms level of civilization, where civilization manages to hang on in the first place.  

It is quite a fun book, and a fun world to spend some time in.

As a small woman, however, I do not want to live there. 

*The first two books are free to download from Baen's free library.