| Title | : | The Fireman |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 006220064X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780062200648 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 768 |
| Publication | : | First published May 17, 2016 |
| Awards | : | Locus Award Best Horror Novel (2017), Goodreads Choice Award Horror (2016), RUSA CODES Reading List Horror (2017) |
The fireman is coming. Stay cool.
No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.
Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. To Jakob’s dismay, Harper wants to live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. At the hospital, she witnessed infected mothers give birth to healthy babies and believes hers will be fine too. . . if she can live long enough to deliver the child.
Convinced that his do-gooding wife has made him sick, Jakob becomes unhinged, and eventually abandons her as their placid New England community collapses in terror. The chaos gives rise to ruthless Cremation Squads—armed, self-appointed posses roaming the streets and woods to exterminate those who they believe carry the spore. But Harper isn’t as alone as she fears: a mysterious and compelling stranger she briefly met at the hospital, a man in a dirty yellow fire fighter’s jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted . . . and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.
In the desperate season to come, as the world burns out of control, Harper must learn the Fireman’s secrets before her life—and that of her unborn child—goes up in smoke.
The Fireman Reviews
-
Well, that was a spoonful of nonsense.
It had a promising start with the outbreak of a disease known as Dragonscale which first manifests as dark marks on the skin. Getting a free tribal tattoo might not sound that bad, but the real problem is that eventually infected people burst into flames and burn to death. The damage caused by walking blowtorches and the fear of being infected have society teetering on the brink of collapse.
Harper is a young nurse who discovers that she has contracted Dragonscale and she’s pregnant. If that isn’t bad enough her jerk-face husband Jakob goes coocoo for Coco-Puffs and thinks they should just kill themselves. During a desperate moment Harper finds help in the form of a mysterious guy dressed as a fireman who leads her to a hidden community of infected people who have found a way to survive the disease. Unfortunately, discord within that group proves as dangerous as the vigilante Cremation Squads that have started murdering the infected.
It’s a strong premise, but unfortunately there’s a number of factors that drag it down. First and foremost is that it’s way too long. Hill can’t seem to commit to one main story, and he keeps adding on to it like a late-night TV commercial promising, “But that’s not all!” This causes a lot of drift with a long swath of the book not even touching on what’s going on in the outside world and forgetting what should be major characters for long periods of time. It’s also like one of those action movies that never seems to know when to end that goes on 20 minutes past the point where it should have wrapped things up.
I also wasn’t a fan of Harper, and since this whole story is built on the idea of a plucky heroine trying to survive a civilization ending plague then I needed to have at least have some respect for her. Unfortunately, she comes across as twit who never seems to wise up until something terrible happens. Which it does. Repeatedly. I lost count of the number of times where she is shocked by the bad intentions of someone and says things like, “You can’t!” It’s the apocalype, lady. They can, and they will. Her infatuation with Mary Poppins, and Hill’s constant use of it and its songs are also way overdone.
In fact, there’s just too much goddamn music in this book overall with constant quoting of lyrics and talking about various musicians. It's a crutch Hill leans on far too often. Plus, it’s all Jurassic Rock with a smattering of ‘80s pop in there with even an old VJ from MTV having a role to play. It’s 2016, Joe Hill. I don’t need your main character, who is supposedly in her early twenties, lecturing me on what the preference for the Rolling Stones or the Beatles says about a person.
Another piece that flies off this jalopy of a book once it gets up to speed is the nature of the disease itself. There’s a lot of effort spent to convince us that there is a rational scientific reason that people would turn into Zippos, and I can suspend disbelief enough to go with that concept. But when more and more is added to the point where we’re into ideas like people being able to generate and control fire without their clothes burning and even more weirdness then you don’t need Neal deGrasse Tyson to call bullshit on it. Just as he couldn’t seem to commit to one story or another Hill can’t seem to decide if he wanted a more grounded concept with some science behind it or if he wanted to jump full-on into the supernatural pool.
Hill also opted to run home to Daddy in this because the entire book is absolutely rotten with Easter eggs of Stephen King’s work. A few references can be fun, but when Hill essentially ‘borrows’ a character from The Stand including a cute little name trick to underline it then it’s crossed the line. (Harold Cross? For a character who is essentially Harold Lauder? That's weak.*) After a while it started to seem desperate, as if Hill knew things weren’t going well and hoped he might use fan familiarity of his father's books to invoke some of his magic. Hill also seems to have inherited his father’s trait of having a bunch of characters claim that they’re are critically short of time only to have them waste most of it with idle chit-chat and banter that is supposed to be funny and make you like the characters. It’s not, and it doesn’t.
So at this point Hill is 2 for 4 with me, and after this I’m going to need a really good reason to pick up his next one.
* And I didn't think about this until I read Edward Lorn's
review where he pointed out that there's also a deaf character named Nick. Come on, Joe Hill. You're better than that. -
The people in charge can always justify doing terrible things in the name of the greater good. A slaughter here, a little torture there. It becomes moral to do things that would be immoral if an ordinary individual did ‘em.
They have been trying to take us down for quite a while. Some may enjoy the end of the world (EotW) arriving in the form of an incoming asteroid. Hey, it worked for the dinosaurs. Alien invasion is always popular. Very big in the 50s, whether by maleficent alien civilizations or maybe a nice juicy mobile plant of the triffid variety. Viruses have been pretty big the last few decades, global pandemics, whether of alien or Terran origin. Zombie apocalypse is all the rage today, whether the zombies are animated by a force of nature or not. How an author takes us from the pre-disaster here through the horrors to there, wherever or whenever there may be, is the fun. But many of these entertainments carry a stowaway. EotW tales exist not only to titillate, and elevate our blood pressure, but to deliver a core of perspective along with the fun. The collapse of civilization is a favorite mechanism for writers looking at the core of human nature. Imaginative tales go to extremes to point out things about the here and now.
Joe Hill - from USA Today
Joe Hill has come up with a truly ingenious mechanism for bringing about his apocalyptic vision. Draco incendia trychophyton is a spore with some unusual properties. (smoothly rolling off the tongue not being one of them) The skin of people who have been exposed to it erupts in what looks like burger meat that has been way, way overcooked, interspersed with lines of gold. The affliction comes to be called “Dragonscale,” or ‘scale for short. It gets worse. Not long after initial exposure, most of the afflicted spontaneously combust. The spore spreads like wildfire, and soon the entire world is ablaze.
This Freightliner snow plow could be better called a Frightliner for its use here
Harper Grayson, a school nurse, is practically perfect in every way. She is both kind and firm with her young patients, an admirable combination she employs when dealing with adults as well. Her hero is, of course, Mary Poppins. Throughout the 747 pages of this book (the page count may vary with the edition), there are many references to P.L. Travers’ magical nanny, too many to list here. But you should know that Harper totes her belongings in a carpet bag, once had a dog named Bert, and in the imagined film of the story of her life, she wants to be played by Julie Andrews. In an interview for his last book, Hill saidI was thinking about Lon Chaney who had line about, “There’s nothing funny about a clown at midnight.” I think that’s part of the horror writer’s job: to create unsettling juxtapositions. You find something that seems harmless and innocent, and pair it with aspects that are disturbing. Christmas is a joyous occasion, it’s a time of pleasure and family, but there’s something about Christmas songs in the middle of the summer that’s not quite right.- from Nightmare Magazine interview
The juxtaposition of Harper’s Disney-ish aspect, which stops just short of animated bluebirds chirping away on her shoulders, adds a nice dollop of sweet to the sour of the apocalyptic landscape.
Harper and her husband, Jakob, have talked about ending their lives themselves rather than burning to death like the Dragonscale sufferers. But when she discovers that she is pregnant, the appearance of tell-tale black-and-gold on her skin presents not a death sentence, but a challenge. She has seen ‘scaled mothers deliver uninfected babies, and hopes she can too. Jakob has other plans.
The Fireman of the title is John Rookwood. Harper first encounters him when he insists on crashing the very long line outside the hospital where she is working, (after the school has been shut down) carrying a boy with a severe illness. Later, as vigilante groups spring up to exterminate the infected, so-called Cremation Squads, he leads her to a place of safety. John’s talents extend beyond being handy with a halligan, being kind and protective toward children, and looking steamy in a yellow slicker. He can control his dragonscale, and do some pretty interesting things with it. You wouldn’t want to make his blood boil. John still carries a torch, though, for his old flame.
It may not be a roque mallet, but John’s halligan comes in pretty handy
The Fireman can be read on at least two levels. On the surface, this is a can’t-put-it-down amazing scifi/horror adventure, a barn-burner of a read, exciting, fun, and very, very scary. It will keep you flipping the pages so fast you might generate sparks. (I recommend reading with a glass or bottle of non-alcoholic liquid near to hand) Harper is a wonderful character. I mean, really, a young nurse, pregnant, fleeing dark forces, while trying to figure out how dragonscale works and how it might be controlled, a woman who is the epitome of cheerful and positive, in a very bleak time, just hoping to live long enough to deliver her baby into the hands of people who can care for him or her. Add a damaged hero in John, an ally who can help her find a haven, if one really exists, but who comes with a bucket brigade of baggage. Good guys, bad guys and plenty in-between, a lot of action and a wealth of creativity.
All that said, there is something more going on here. This is not just some cozy catastrophe in which a group of survivors carve out a manageable modus vivendi in the shadow of global horror. Hill is not only looking to give his readers a good scare. He wants to offer something more substantive. The Fireman delivers what the best speculative fiction provides, a look at contemporary reality through the lens of fantasy.
John brings Harper to a place where others with ‘scale have come together, for group support and defense. The place is called Camp Wyndham. And for those to whom the name is unfamiliar, it might help to know that John Wyndham was the author of a 1957 novel,
The Midwich Cuckoos. You might know it better as the film
Village of the Damned. The lovely kids in this tale, of dubious parentage, are possessed of a group consciousness. Members of the Camp Wyndham community, all with ‘scale, have found that under certain circumstances the spore allows them to join into a joyous group rapture they call The Bright. This entails a loss of self, which not everyone is all that thrilled about, somewhere between the ecstatic experience of a full-bore revival meeting and a hive mind. Hill also references Jack Finney’s book, made into multiple film versions, The Invasion of the Body SnatchersCarol said, “Sometimes when I’m in The Bright, I would swear I feel my [late] sister standing right next to me, close enough so I could lay my head on her shoulder, like I used to. When we shine, they all come back to us, you know. The light we make together shows everything that was ever lost to the darkness.
When we lose ourselves in a group-think situation, morality goes out the window. Why have a head at all if you only use it to ditto someone else’s psychotic rage? The relevance to our world is blazingly clear, whether the group be political or religious. There be dragons there. And there is a very real question of whether cooler heads will prevail.
Harper clamped down on a shudder. When they spoke of The Bright, they had all the uncomplicated happiness of pod people.
There is consideration as well of how people reach out to help those in pain or in danger. Maybe like the way Chris Christie locked up a nurse returning to the USA after she had been helping Ebola victims in Africa. In addition to seeing the ‘scalers as infected, see them as unwanted immigrants, as a despised class. See them as Syrian refugees fleeing civil war. See them as Costa Rican children fleeing north to keep from being forcibly drafted into drug gangs. Even a Trump-sized wall cannot keep out a global pandemic. Fear can usually be counted on to drown out most kinder impulses, often with the assistance of small arms. We get a taste of this here, as Cremation Squads do for spore victims what the SS did for Jews and others, or what, I am sure, many Tea-Baggers and militia groups would love to do to progressives, immigrants, members of the LGBT community, and ethnic and religious minorities here in the USA. Erstwhile residents of Auschwitz might recognize how some of the constabulary treat their prisoners in Hill’s dark landscape. All the nastiness is done with the eager support and encouragement, even participation, of a particularly sociopathic hate radio jock, broadcasting on a radio station with appropriate call letters.
Hill tips his hat to luminary writers who have written about despotism and apocalypse. In addition to John Wyndham, noted above, a boat is named for Margaret Atwood, author of
The Handmaid’s Tale and the
MaddAddam series. Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of
The Gulag Archipelago gets a mention, as does Cormac McCarthy, for
The Road. There are almost certainly more of these.
Over his entire oeuvre, Hill has demonstrated considerable glee in referencing the popular culture in which he was raised. MTV VJ Martha Quinn gets a lot of ink. Song, TV and movie references abound. But his largest source of material here is Disney. The Mary Poppins references in support of Harper’s character are legion. But there are plenty of others, including Toy Story, and a somewhat more oblique reference to Pinocchio. A ref to a classic Coke commercial also resonates, creepily. He even references his own work a bit. I spotted one link to NOS4A2, but I bet there are plenty more. I did not check the DNA of character names against the Stephen-King-Joe-Hill-character-database (there probably is one) of names used in their books, but generally, Joe has taken to tossing in refs to his dad’s work. These are always fun to spot. The writing of one particular character here is very reminiscent of Jack Torrance’s magnum opus in The Shining. Not so much the form, but the impact, and the revelation it contains about that character. As with the haunted Torrance, this guy blames others for all his problems. And shining is referenced as well, although of a sort different from that possessed by Danny at the Overlook, when the Camp Wyndham folks link up in The Bright. Hill has even said of The Fireman “it’s my version of The Stand, soaked in gasoline and set on fire.”
So what comes next? Fire is often used as a cleansing image, in nature and religion. Burning the earth, as Maine, and the world, is scorched, may allow new growth, in the same way that new growth arrived in the years after Mount St Helen’s blew. Is that a factor here? Cleaning via fire so something new can grow? I won’t burn the ending for you, but it did suggest that Hill will be adding some logs to the flames of this story in future volumes. No inside intel, just a guess.
I am tempted to suggest that readers of The Fireman will feel the burn, but that might imply that Hill has indicated a preference in the Democratic primary for Bernie Sanders.
He has not. But I can say that The Fireman is certain to be both one of the hottest books of the year, and one of the coolest.
Review posted March 25, 2016
Publication date – May 7, 2016
=============================EXTRA STUFF
In the epigraph to the novel. Hill includes three diverse quotes, one from Springsteen, one from Mary Poppins, and one from Fahrenheit 451. All were sources of inspiration. It should come as no surprise that before settling on the final title, the original name for Bradbury’s classic was “The Fireman.”
Links to the author’s
personal,
Instagram and
Tumblr pages
You can read
an excerpt from the book on Entertainment Weekly
Interviews
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Joe Hill Calls Bullshit On The Crazy Artist Cliché on Buzzfeed – by Haley Campbell
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Pouring Gasoline On the Fire With Horror Author Joe Hill on Writers Bone – by Sean Tuohy
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Interview: Joe Hill (Part 1) by The Geeks Guide to the Galaxy for Nightmare: Horror and Dark Fantasy
Reviews of other Joe Hill Books
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Full Throttle
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Strange Weather
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NOS4A2
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20th Century Ghosts
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Heart-Shaped Box
December 6, 2016 - The Fireman is voted the GoodReads Choice award winner for Best Horror book of 2016 -
Did you read about the bacterium that thrives in volcanoes, right on the edge of boiling rock? That's us. Humanity is a germ that thrives on the very edge of catastrophe.
It shows up on your skin looking like a form of stripes. Beautiful black and gold markings. Dragonscale aka Draco Incendia Trychophyton is a contagion in which the person will end up being burned alive. There is no cure.
Harper is a nurse who has been working in a hospital day and night as a volunteer, trying to help anyone with the Dragonscale. One night a fireman brings in a young deaf boy, both of them are infected but the boy later disappears. Harper had stepped forward to help the two of them and the fireman told her that if she ever needed help with a fire that he hoped to help her.
The hospital that Harper is working at later burns. Everything is burning. Too many people combusting and it can't be stopped. She goes home to her wanna-be author husband. They get the freaky deaky going and Harper becomes infected and then realizes she is also pregnant. (This isn't really spoilery) Jakob, her husband wants to just go ahead and end things before Harper burns and is convinced that he is also infected with Dragonscale.
Harper does have a spine despite her Mary Poppins infatuation and tells him to screw off.
Jakob tries to help out Harper with her problems anyways. Jakob is an asshole.
Harper is alone, pregnant and has a psycho trying to kill her and her unborn child. Enter in The Fireman.
whew..it just got hot up in this review.....
The fireman takes Harper to a camp where people infected with Dragonscale have learned a few tricks to dealing with the condition. They aren't burning. They are flourishing. The fireman is a totally different thing/person/who the hell knows all to himself.
I'm going to admit. I think this book could have lost some pages, because it is a big old chunk, it does tend to run on in some spots. Then in some spots I was glued to the pages and lost sleep. All through the book though I was entertained. Hill told a story and I thought he did a damn fine job of it.
I LOVE this type of story and I've seen people comparing it to Joe Hill's dad's book "The Stand"...I just didn't see that. I saw a story all in it's own. Why does everyone continue to insist on comparing the two authors? I think Joe Hill has earned his frigging stripes. Stop it.
There were some touches that reminded me of stories I've heard before, but I ate it all up like candy. It didn't seem like he was trying to copy dear old dad.
There is a bit of humor mixed in with the terror. Little tidbits of other books I've loved. (Joe Hill is a total Harry Potter fan) and I think I have to take back my early hate of Joe Hill. (I didn't like anything he wrote up until
NOS4A2)
"Do you think Keith Richards is still alive?" he asked.
"Sure. Nothing can kill him. He'll outlast us all."
Booksource: Edelweiss in exchange for review.
Not many reviews are up for this book at the time of my posting. I couldn't wait once I got my greedy hands on this one and neither could
Mallory Hearts Reviews because we know what is the good stuff. :D -
2.5 stars
Ehhhhhhh.
Boy, that ending petered out like a squeaky fart, didn't it?
I mean, the beginning was good. I got sucked in by the whole Dragonscale/apocalypse thing. The middle was goodish, but it meandered around too much. Then the last part leading up to the ending had a bit of the nail biter going for it, but the actual ending?
WTF, dude? Where's my payoff for reading this enormous fucker?!
In the interest of transparency, I should mention that I'm the kind of reader that gets butthurt by endings I don't understand, like, or agree with.
So. There's that.
Ok, for everyone who loved this book, I hope you don't think I'm belittling Hill, or your taste. I really loved
Locke & Key, but this is the only other thing I've read of his, and (while I think he's probably a good writer) I'm not really sure what the hell just happened here. For such a promising start, I really felt like he shit the bed by the last page.
Ok. Maybe that's not a fair assessment of this book, but I did feel disappointed when it was over.
So. Yeah. I didn't get the hype. At. All.
Also, fuck all the Mary Poppins references. It's not that awesome of a movie, and I have very little respect for a grown woman who imagines herself to be a budding Ms. Poppins.
In the end, I'd say it's just not my type of book. It's not horrible, but I can't see myself recommending it, either.
Psst...if you're hoping for this kind of Fireman, you're going to be sorely disappointed.
Not that I thought this was about a sexy fireman. Nope.
*cough*
But, seriously. I wouldn't have complained.
-
I finally picked up The Fireman for a Buddy Read with my dear friend,
Shannon. Considering everything the world has been through over the past year, it was an excellent choice.
We certainly never ran out of things to discuss.
Following a group of characters, after a worldwide pandemic decimates the population, this book is a chilling example of society stripped bare of its conventions.
The plague itself is spread by a highly contagious spore, physically representing itself on the human body as scaly skin discolorations and sores that come to be known as, Dragonscale.
Obviously, in my head I pictured, Greyscale, from Game of Thrones.
The most interesting aspect of this disease is the cause of death: spontaneous combustion.
Fires are erupting everywhere. There's no advanced warning. Anyone could blow at any time. There's no cure. Can you imagine the stress!?
Harper Grayson is a nurse in New Hampshire, who continues working long after the plague begins, in spite of great personal risk to herself.
As many other frontline workers, she feels compelled to help people as long as she can. Unfortunately, her husband Jakob isn't crazy about her choice.
The couple make a pact, that if they become infected, they'll take matters into their own hands. They'll decide when they die, but when Harper finds signs on her skin that she has contracted the disease, she doesn't want to follow through with it. She wants to live.
She's pregnant and believes she can give her baby a fighting chance. In the hospital, she watched infected mothers give birth to healthy babies. She knows it's possible.
When Harper expresses this to Jakob, he loses it. He comes completely unhinged, revealing a side to himself he previously kept hidden.
He believes Harper has gotten him sick, even though he has no symptoms yet. Jakob turns on her, blaming her for everything and ends up abandoning her.
With vigilantes, known as Cremation Squads, out hunting those infected with Dragonscale, Harper knows it is unsafe for her to stay alone.
Luckily, she is approached by some friendly infected people, who offer her a place to stay within their survivor's camp.
I found this to be an incredibly riveting story. To me, it feels sort of like The Stand-2.0. I did notice a few nods to that classic; my favorite book of all time.
The Stand was written in the late-1970s; The Fireman was published in 2016. A lot has changed in our society since then, but simultaneously, not much has changed at all.
As the rules and norms of society are broken down, people are returned to their more primal instincts in order to survive. It's interesting to think about how people would arrange and conduct themselves following an apocalyptic event.
While this wasn't as impactful for me as The Stand, I still think it is a great post-apocalyptic story. Hill definitely has a narrative style that keeps me engaged and wanting more.
I also appreciated how layered this story was. You could deep dive into it and analyze so many different aspects.
Shannon noticed a lot of feminist themes woven throughout and that definitely fueled some of our more vibrant discussions.
Overall, I had a really good time reading this and do recommend it to those who enjoy a long-form, post-apocalyptic story!
I'm really looking forward to seeing what Hill comes up with next. He's definitely an autobuy author for me.
-
”...Her left arm was sheet music. Delicate black lines spooled around and around her forearm, bars as thin as the strands of a spiderweb, with what looked like golden notes scattered across them. She found herself pulling her sleeve back to look at it every few minutes. By the end of the following week, she was sketched in Dragonscale from wrist to shoulder.
When she got over feeling winded and sick, she had to admit to herself that it was curiously beautiful.”
When Harper Grayson comes down with Dragonscale, A.K.A. Draco Incendia Trychophyton, it is a death sentence. The contagion spreads quickly through the body, wrapping its tendrils around the skin, leaving behind these beautiful shimmering scales that eventually start to smoke until they reach a certain maturity or the person comes under a large amount of stress. They then spontaneously combust, experience cellular combustion, develop contagion points, and disease vectors are produced. We can be as scientific as we want to be, but the end result is the infected turn to ash.
This disease is highly contagious.
When one person lights up, it can cause a chain reaction where anyone with dragonscale in the area joins the inferno.
When the crisis hit, Harper volunteers at the local hospital wanting to help anyway she can. She is careful, wears a hazmat suit, but the problem is there is a lot of conflicting information on how the contagion is spread. Almost simultaneously with learning she has dragonscale, she discovers she is pregnant.
Joy crushed by the certainty of death. The disease moves so fast in most people that it wouldn’t be the right time to start reading War & Peace or Infinite Jest. You might want to think more in terms of The Bridge Over San Luis Rey.
Her condescending, but loving, husband Jakob is furious. He becomes fixated on them ending their lives now even though he doesn’t have the contagion. There is much more to be learned about Jakob, so as you read the book, be sure to keep a baseball bat hidden down the back of your leg because you are probably going to need it.
”Harper supposed it did not pay to be too impressed with a man just because he could ride a unicycle.” A good rule of thumb for every woman to keep in mind. :-)
People are dying so fast in such numbers few are not directly affected. Those who live lose as much or more than those who die. Too many people are gone too quickly. ”We are taught to think of personality as a singular, private possession. All the ideas and beliefs and attitudes that make you you--we are raised to believe them to be a set of files stored in the lockbox of the brain. Most people have no idea how much of themselves they store off-site. Your personality is not just a matter of what you know about yourself, but what others know about you. You are one person with your mother, and another with your lover, and yet another with your child. Those other people create you--finish you--as much as you create you. When you’re gone, the ones you’ve left behind get to keep the same part of you they always had.”
You may still have that part of the people you have lost, but it is like having a garden without water or having a flower in the window that the sun never reaches. Without seeing that person, revitalizing that connection, eventually it will wither and die.
With the help of a man referred to as the Fireman, Harper finds her way to a small community of followers who have figured out how to control the disease. ”Cortisol kicks off spontaneous combustion. But oxytocin--the social-networking hormone--puts the Dragonscale at ease.” In other words, stress releases cortisol which inflames the disease, but oxytocin, produced by say singing together, turns the disease into a benign light show.
I’d be humming the Sound of Music 24/7.
On the outside of the community is a radio personality who calls himself the Marlboro Man. He has assembled a crew of executioners who travel around looking for the infected so they can eradicate them. There are always those people who are kept in check by society, but once civilization starts to crumble, their true nature emerges, and we discover that what they really like to do is kill people. The fear of the infection is just an excuse for them to drop the pretenses surrounding their own warped and blackened soul and be who they have always wanted to be...a killer.
Things go well at the community of the infected for a while, but as always seems to happen with human beings, eventually a power struggle breaks out. The camp breaks into factions. The one man who can actually control the dragonfire and use it as a weapon, the Fireman, is the man they all respect/fear. He lives with the community, but on an island away from the rest of them. He has his own demons he is wrestling with, and fire is just one of them.
As the world goes up in flames and the sanctuary community starts to come apart, the only beacon of hope is Martha Quinn’s voice, a blast from MTV of the 1980s, broadcasting over the radio about a sanctuary on an island off the coast of New England. To get there will become an odyssey as arduous as navigating the terrain from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
[image error] -
3.5 Stars
The world was suddenly catching fire........such a promising beginning........such a wonderfully threatening title and book-cover, but........
THE FIREMAN just wasn't what I was expecting or at least hoping for. Without giving any part of this "entertaining" story away; yes, it was indeed entertaining....entertaining, but often predictable and a bit ludicrous here and there, but still very entertaining!
After the excellent beginning, the story travels a different path that I won't divulge here except to say I wanted to experience more of the whole world's post-apocalyptic existence, and I wanted THE FIREMAN himself to be, well, more than he was.......
Overall, I enjoyed it, snickered at the many King-isms along the way, and really didn't mind the 747 pages, but truth be told, sadly, it just didn't light my fire.
Thank you Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC!
-
5 Stars.
An absolutely stellar novel by Joe Hill! Vastly different than all of his other books & superbly well written! I didn't want it to end.
REVISED: 6.12.17.
I listened to the audiobook version in two days last week (which is now available on Hoopla) even though I've already read the book. I couldn't help myself - the incredible Kate Mulgrew narrated it and she also narrated Joe Hill's NOS4A2. She made that book sound even scarier than it already was - thus listening to The Fireman was kind of irresistible. The audiobook version of The Fireman and "Dragonscale" was much more horrific, more real. When I was listening, I could see it happening all around me. Like in a Science Fiction novel.. one I couldn't run away from and oddly enough, given the premise, didn't want to.
Draco Incendia Trychophyton, aka, Dragonscale, or the 'Scale. It's kind of like a superbug that everyone catches because it's highly contagious and it's discovered by interesting black and gold markings on one's skin, causing those who are afflicted to burst into flames. It's caused by a spore that floats through the air via ash, and once everyone catches it, they spontaneously combust into flames, The premise is totally wicked. And scary as hell.
The Fireman, is in my opinion the most sophisticated novel Joe Hill has written to date.
The main characters are extremely well developed and well written: Nurse Harper Willowes is a fierce, strong willed, standout heroine. Allie is one heck of an incredibly tough teen who doesn't take any sh&t from anyone. The Fireman, John Rookwood's, ability to control the fire burning from within is truly amazing but all of his human flaws, that is what makes him a man. And Nick - the little boy who lost his mom and shut down against almost everyone - and then in the face of the gravest danger, does what he has to do to take care of the only family he has left. That's powerful stuff! And then there's Jakob, Nurse Willowes, husband. He's becomes obsessed; with trying not to contract Dragonscale, and trying to murder his wife because she is a carrier of the disease and is also pregnant.
In my opinion, this novel flows in a way that none of his other books have yet to achieve.
And even with that, I can't say that this is my favorite Joe Hill novel, though I liked it a lot. I gave it 5 stars for his writing style being much improved and for the truly interesting idea of a spore that is highly contagious causing people who come into contact with it, to incinerate. It's ingenious and the characters in the storyline are pretty interesting too. Harper, John, Renae, Allie, Nick, Father Storey, Jakob: These people: They are this story. And it is well worth the read!
For me, Joe Hill's NOS4A2, was my favorite book of the last few years, no question. Vic McQueen was the best heroine ever. Every part of that book was a wild ride. But not every part was smooth and beautifully well written. NOS4A2 was a bumpy ride. And it was a ride you didn't want to get off. With five stars for the amazing characters, crazy heart stopping moments and lots of tears. -
...THE FIREMAN IS COMING.
I gave the book 4 stars because there is a part that lagged for me, but it's still awesome!
I'm assuming everyone knows there is a disease going around and if you catch the spore your skin becomes dragonscale. And then later on you burst into flame! Yay! NOT!
One of the main characters in the book is Harper and she is a very nice nurse. She sings to kids and people at the hospital and she's just a very nice person. She has an arse of a husband named Jakob and I loathed him. I was hoping someone would just set him on fire!
The Fireman himself doesn't make too many appearances in the book, but when he does he's always helping someone and bringing them back to the camp. Which turned into some kind of psycho cult place after the leader was sick. The Fireman stayed away from the camp until he was needed and there are reasons that he didn't come help when things went bad. I won't tell you, spoilers and all.
The people at the came have found a way to control burning in a blaze of glory. It's called the Bright and you need to read the book to learn more about that as well. I think it is totally cool. BUT, there is something else they can do, well some of them can do that is really cool. There are certain benefits of having the disease and I would like to be on the winning side!
There are a lot of characters in the book that I really loved and some I didn't of course. I loved little Nick, he's a deaf boy at the camp who becomes close friends with Harper. Renee, The Fireman, Allie, some really cool peeps. At one point though someone is stealing special things from each person. I was really mad when I found out the story behind that issue.
Overall, the book is really good and I'm glad it's part of my collection :-)
Enjoy! ♥
PS ~ Read all of the stuff at the back of the book because there is some extra book included :-)
MY BLOG:
Melissa Martin's Reading List -
A very interesting take on post-apocalyptic! Would recommend!
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If you dislike unpopular opinions, then please don't read this review. I'm breaking from the pack on this one.
I didn't want to, trust me. But here we are:
This is the book I've been eagerly awaiting since I finished his five-star NOS4A2, only it wasn't.
Joe Hill's THE FIREMAN.
Rambling, corn-pone, cartoonish.
Unlikable characters, interminable dialogue, zero forward momentum.
Other than a mild dislike of the second half of HORNS (which was basically a retelling of the first half), I'm a huge fan of Joe Hill's work prior to this book. 20th CENTURY GHOSTS is one of my all-time favorite collections, and NOS4A2 is a Top-10 novel for me.
But THE FIREMAN has left this reader's love affair singed, if not in total ashes.
Bear in mind, this review is coming from someone who hasn't been able to find his way to the end of a Stephen King novel since TOMMYKNOCKERS (UNDER THE DOME being the sole exception, and that just barely), so I'm likely an outlier in opinion on this one. I like my fiction lean and mean, and this book was neither. If you're a fan of Stephen King's output from the last couple of decades, then by all means ignore this review and go enjoy THE FIREMAN. This book is for you. It very much emulates the modern King's unhurried storytelling style (although the down-home voice is somewhat less successfully replicated).
It's a shame though, at least to this reader, because the premise of this book was certainly intriguing enough and "Book One" (the first 113 pages) delivered on that promise with sleek, gripping prose.
Then it appears as though the editor fell asleep on the job or quit altogether, because the story literally ground to a halt, caught in a morass of endless inane character backstories conveyed in some of the corniest cheeseball dialogue I've seen this century. There is some damn fine prose laced throughout this slog of a story, to be sure; like his dad, Joe Hill can write like nobody's business, but Joe Hill deserves an editor with an iron fist and bloody scalpel-shaped red pen.
The unrelenting parade of forced references littered throughout struck me as cloying, not clever, and only served to remind me of the fact that the entertainment value of little Easter egg games diminishes rapidly while literally hundreds of pages are grinding by with nothing more happening than people acting cute while the world burns. Bored to the breaking point, I stoically pushed through to the end after concluding "Book Five" (page 388) hoping to find something of interest, yet my frantic search left me empty-handed.
Some serious editing could have turned this book into an exceptional 350 page novel, rather than the 750 page mess it ended up being. Here's to hoping Joe Hill doesn't follow closely in his father's footstep of releasing increasingly muddled doorstop novels, but I'm guessing that ship has already sailed. He's got bigger ambitions than being a horror writer, I suppose, and the success of this book is likely to propel him much further in that direction.
Godspeed, Joe. Hope to see you around these parts again someday. -
Sometimes I really enjoyed this apocalyptic horror tale, but many other times, I really struggled to continue. I've now finally realised why Hill's story of a 'Dragonscale' virus that leads to millions internally, and externally burning up in flames is a great constructed reality; but the problem for me is the specific story he tells, feels like one of the least interesting of the many stories such an apocalypse would evoke. I just noticed, that in the end it took me six months to finish this!
2018 read -
This was an honestly fascinating ride of a novel. I wasn't entirely certain what to expect because of some reviews, but I'm certainly happy I got to read it. I was also a bit more satisfied with the ending than I thought I would be.
So what's the big deal with Hill's big novel?
Is it really an origin story for a handful of firestarters among a whole world's spontaneous combustion? A survival tale against the hate and fear riddled remnants of "clean" humanity? One of those ever-decreasing remnants of post-apocalyptic SF that's actually designed for adults?
Yeah, it's all of those, and more. I really enjoyed having an 26 year old MC nurse who's pregnant and learning how to live with or become a human flamethrower.
It's just not that common.
Comic books aside, of course, but this novel is not a comic book origin story at all. It's a survival fiction and it's also a pretty tight commentary on sheeple and social media and popular pundits. It's also pretty heartwarming and horrifying and an oddly powerful and persuasive argument for finding peace in our hearts. :)
I liked that bit the most. It kinda rocked.
Everything is going to hell, but the only way through it is by peace. Um... With benefits. :)
I had a really good time with this one. Thank goodness I gave it a shot. :) Maybe it's better because I lowered my expectations, but whatever, it's good. :) Loved the pyrotechnics. :) -
Joe Hill made quite the 'spark' with this novel, which garnered a significant following in 2016, culminating in winning one of the Goodreads awards for its genre. With curiosity piqued and a gap in my reading requirements, I chose to dive in while trying to steer clear of the ripples and spoilers that others have left around me. Harper Grayson is a school nurse with little of interest going on in her life, though the world is coming apart at the proverbial seams. People from every corner of the earth are developing what the medical profession has labelled draco incendia trychophyton, known in the vernacular as 'dragonscale'. It appears on the skin as a grey scaly rash and can progressively envelop more of the carrier's body, changing colour at times as well. Dragonscale is highly contagious, though no one seems sure how it passes from one human to another. What everyone has come to see is that carriers can show signs of billowing smoke from their hands and feet, like a small collection of dry kindling. As the carrier's illness develops, spontaneous combustion is also possible, though the general public has been given little knowledge of the events and this leaves them to turn against the infected. Carriers are pariahs and try to hide their plight, fearful of 'cremation crews', tasked to seeking to kill those who carry the condition before it can spread further. One such crew is headed by the Marlboro Man, who encapsulates the rugged cowboy and keeper of the peace while slaying the sick as quickly as he can locate them. Harper soon realises that she has been infected, which places an irreparable wedge between her and husband, Jakob. Even after he finds out Harper is expecting their first child, Jakob tries to banish her and does all he can to push added levels of isolation. Harper rages back and soon encounters a fireman-cum-pyromancer, John Rookwood, who has a small following of infected individuals. They lead her to an abandoned and secluded camp where other carriers are living. This camp, a collective of sorts, struggles with the daily worries around being hunted by 'cremation crews' and the inner struggle of any group seeking self-sustenance. Fractures within the group develop and soon Harper witnesses a mutiny, all while she tries to learn more about draco incendia trychophyton. Rookwood remains distanced from the group, though he and Harper share a strong connection and his insights are supported by a previous collective member who was murdered for his attempts to push back against the societal ostracism. While she learns how to tame the progress of dragonscale in a melodious manner, Harper has major hurdles ahead if she wants to survive, while the world is bent on killing those who differ too greatly. Hill does a fascinating job of developing this story on many levels and lures the reader in, be they interested in the story, the metaphors, or the microcosm found within the narrative. Well worth the hype it has received and should be high on the list of readers who need a little horror and entertainment any time of year.
Hill has writing pulsing through his veins, with both parents highly acclaimed authors in their own rights. He does not try to grab hold of their coattails to be effective, carving out a niche all his own and remains highly successful in this venture. His writing does have some parallels to that of his father, perhaps in the oddities in which he places his characters, but there is a definite uniqueness in the flow and the tangents presented to the captivated reader. The invested reader will see this novel as being something other than a collection of sick individuals who are in hiding, finding parallels with the proverbial leper colony in which people are thrown when the general public is not aware or given sufficient information on which to base an educated decision. The struggles are not unique or off the wall, though Hill effectively creates a character base to lure the reader into significant sympathy. Additionally, Hill touches on the in-fighting of any isolated community as group and personal politics cloud the larger struggle, that of survival. Hill's ever-advancing narrative and swath of different characters provides the greatest Petri dish for effective political meltdown. Again, one might see this as a great microcosm of the larger human struggle for success, where those who are too alike tend to clash and forget the thread that ties them all together. I know I used to bemoan English teachers who asked students to look below the story to find these themes, but they seem so apparent and Hill develops these struggles so effortlessly that the reader cannot help but peer through the smoke and blazing to notice them. Hill does not shy away from generalities, perhaps painting the English as a potty-mouth group who curse so uniquely that North Americans could tear out a page from their verbal playbook. However, it has moments of humour, alongside a protagonist whose unusual obsession with Julie Andrews and her depiction of Mary Poppins keeps readers constantly shaking their heads. If this novel is anything like the other work that Hill has produced, I will be sure to rush forward to dive headlong into those, though my reading list is growing daily.
Kudos, Mr. Hill for a wonderful way to start my 2017 reading journey. You offered a light at the end of the tunnel, though tossed in enough smoke and mirrors to keep me guessing.
Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/ -
4.5 stars!
Dragonscale! It's a disease, a plague really, that etches one's skin with what looks like black hieroglyphics. Unfortunately, at some point the hieroglyphs light up and burst into flame and when they do, it's all over for you. If you happen to be standing next to anything flammable, it all over for that, (or them), too.
The world as we know it falls apart due to the 'scale, and people react much as you think they would. Picture how Donald Trump would react to people bursting into flame and how he would deal with those infected, in an effort to quell the disease.That's exactly what happens here. Hatred and fear of infection takes over and leads to even more deaths-most of which were unnecessary.
I'm a big fan of Joe Hill and when I heard about this book, I went about making it my life's mission to get an advance copy and I'm so glad I did. The Fireman is, in my opinion, his best book yet. The characters are the most developed we've seen from him so far, which makes it difficult to witness the trials Hill puts them through.
Mr. Hill excels at writing extremely strong women and Harper is no exception. She is a nurse who willingly helps treat those with the 'scale, while many in the medical field, and her own husband, want to run headlong in the opposite direction. Turns out Harper's husband is nothing like what she thought he was, and when she, herself, becomes infected, he makes it out to be her fault, and his true self is finally revealed. Fighting the disease, fighting her husband, trying to fight against the spread of the 'scale, Harper is a true hero and she owns this story.
Populated with other strong characters, both good and bad, this story reflects an imagination with a broad scope and a penchant for suffering. Although, at times Hill's prose rambles, I never found myself bored or losing interest; only becoming more agitated, worried and excited about what was going to come next. Would Harper make it through this? What about the plucky survivors, both good and evil? What about her horrible husband? You'll have to read this book to find out!
The Fireman was an epic tale, populated with characters you love and hate, highlighting what's both good and bad in society today. Somehow, though, I came out of the experience with a sense of hope and also a sense of excitement regarding what Joe Hill will do next.
Highly recommended for fans of post- apocalyptic tales and fans of Joe Hill!
*Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for providing a free e-ARC of The Fireman in exchange for an honest review. This is it!*
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Wow! I’m glad I read this when I did. It seems everyone has read The Fireman.
I didn’t go into this book expecting much due to mixed reviews.
I love Joe Hill’s writing because he loves short chapters and well thought out plots. His imagination is fantastic and I’m always excited to read another book by him.
Because of the mixed reviews on The Fireman, it brought down my expectations a bit.
Maybe that’s why I liked it so much! I went into this book neutral.
The Fireman starts off with the world literally burning to death. The human race has been infected with Draco Incendia Trychophyton. It’s a highly contagious and deadly spore that causes people to burst into flames. Not much is known about the disease except that it marks people with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies. If you’re infected with “Dragonscale”, you’re unable to hide it.
My only complaint:
The Fireman felt a bit too much like The Stand with some of the characters. A little boy named Nick who was deaf, unlikeable Harold Cross and the “pregnant” Frannie, uh I mean Harper.
So yeah, the characters and descriptions of them were REALLY waaaaay too similar in my opinion.
Maybe Joe Hill was writing a love letter to his dad’s famous book?
Honestly, I’m mixed on it. I like both books!
I liked that he did it and at the same time, felt like it was a bit “too much”.
Other than that, that’s the only thing that I can bitch about with this book.
Things that I liked:
The characters (lots to love and also HATE), the action and tension that keeps building.
I loved the unsettling moments of horde mentality and cult-like actions that were going down in Camp Wyndham.
I loved how the book shows civilized society breaking down with cremation crews along with the overall stupidity and fear of not understanding something.
Joe Hill does really well showing this to the readers in The Fireman! He really racks up the tense and crazy in this book!
If you want to see society collapse, introduce Dragonscale to the world and just watch it ignite in hate, fear, crazy propaganda and misinformation.
I would definitely recommend this book if you’re into post apocalyptic themes! -
Joe Hill, what have you gone and done?! I have been waiting a long time for your new book to be published and then you went and made it so good that I couldn't put it down and now I've finished it! That was quite a trip.
Joe Hill has total mastery of this story. His writing is witty and his cultural referencing is spot on. There are many references to Harry Potter (he must be a child of the generation who grew up reading those volumes) and to his dad's works, John Grisham and of course Mary Poppins.
'Just because you've read John Grisham, it doesn't make you a Supreme Court Justice'.
Hill has created a cast of flawed and fascinating individuals and managed to come up with a main character, Harper, who was perfectly balanced : while often compared to and quoting Mary Poppins and Julie Andrews, she still managed to avoid being a Mary Poppins character.
And as a study of people and the psychology of human kind, we see the Lord of the Flies-esque take on how we behave under peer group pressure and how we thrive on approval, whatever the cost. 'Law is whoever is holding the nightstick' some one observes at one point.
Hill has a great way of ending most chapters that leads you right on to the next one and the next. until you end up finishing it too soon and having a long old wait for the next book by this author. Which is where I came in with this review and a good place to finish! -
Joe Hill's last novel,
NOS4A2 was an engaging horror romp which lasted for more than seven hundred pages, but maintained to keep both tension and interest in the reader to the very end. In comparison, Hill's latest novel is completely unlike its predecessor, with whom it only shares its enormous length. To put it simply - The Fireman is an overly long, convoluted, uninteresting and ultimately very disappointing effort.
At its heart, The Fireman is a post-apocalyptic novel, with a premise that has by now been done hundreds of times: the majority of humanity is inflicted by a ravaging disease, leaving only a small group of survivors trying to scrape by. This time humanity is afflicted by a disease which becomes known as Dragonscale - its symptoms include dark marks on the skin, which spread across the body and eventually cause the individual to literally erupt into flames and burn to death. Dragonscale spreads rapidly, and soon consumes millions of people - as well as the environment, causing uncontrollable forest fires and so on. Although the demise of humanity is not a new theme, you have to give it to The Fireman - it is probably the world's first novel about human extinction by spontaneous combustion.
The problem with the book is that not much else about it is new, or even particularly interesting. As we read the The Fireman, we get the sense of crossing through familiar territory - one which has been done many times before, and much better so. Since every post-apocalyptic story requires a bunch of survivors, we find ourselves in a tight spot. Consider this - how does one escape a disease which literally consumes human bodies and turns them to ash? Easily - by learning how to not be unharmed by it. And not only that - it turns out that you can learn how to control the disease and use it to your advantage.
That's right. The disease kills most of humanity, but luckily for a selected number of people - who happen to be the characters which the book focuses on - it can also provide handy superpowers. Joe Hill said at a panel that his book would be "less like Matheson, and more like Crichton" and cited Crichton's first novel,
The Andromeda Strain as an example. The only link with Michael Crichton that I can find in this book is Joe Hill's attempt at quasi-scientific explanation of Dragonscale and how it affects human bodies - something which he later totally throws out of the window by essentially allowing several characters to overcome its malicious effect by their own feelings, as apparently this is all what it takes (and somehow we have to believe these same characters never thought about broadcasting their solution to the problem to the entire world, but then again if they did we would not have a book to read and review).
As I mentioned, people in this book not only escape death by learning to coexist with a disease that should burn them to death, but also learn how to control it and use it to their advantage. This means that later in the book characters in the book are able to generate fire literally from their fingertips, control and shape it - throw fireballs and whatnot, or in case of one character create creatures made of fire. This is why the supposed inspiration by Michael Crichton was so puzzling - Crichton was a writer interested in science and technology, famed for his research and the ability to plausibly convey and explain his theories, and would not employ a purely fantastical cop-out as a solution to them. What made his books interesting was not his prose style , or the depth of his characters- he was a passable writer at best, and his characters are forgettable cardboard cutouts - or even in most cases the story itself, which usually consisted of little more than a bunch of frenetic action sequences. What made Crichton's novels so interesting were the ideas within them, which usually focused on mankind's technological progress and the way it affects our life and society. Usually, Crichton would have his characters engage in long discussions about the nature of what they were experiencing - its moral, ethical and scientific implications - and these formed the most interesting part of the book; it is especially evident in books such as
Sphere, which is probably his best novel.
This is precisely what The Fireman lacks - any kind of complexity, something to chew on, somethink would give readers a lot to think about. This is a novel which does not give any answers except the most obvious ones, and does not ask any questions. Its characters are very forgettable and barely, and there is no real reason to care about any of them. Even the eponymous character, en English guy who wears a fireman's suit and is henceforth nicknamed "The Fireman" is little more than a convenient plot device to rescue our protagonists in their moments of trouble - he rarely makes an appearance throughout most of the book until the very end, and spends most of his time hiding away in a remote cabin. Interactions between these characters are boring and simply unimaginative, including what is probably a most ham-fisted romantic relationship written in recent fiction. Poorly designed characters who do not grow as people hurt the book twice, as they make it hard for us to care about the story, since it is difficult to care for what these uninteresting people experience. Because why should we?
Not that the story itself is complex and interesting; it really is not, and the vast majority of it reminds me of a very (pardon the pun) watered down version of
The Stand. It is darkly ironic that Joe Hill began writing under a pseudonym because he wanted to escape his father's shadow, yet in this book he falls completely under it. The Fireman features all of the classic Stephen King tropes - the constant foreshadowing at the end of the chapter (in the vein of "it was a good plan, until everything blew up", "he never saw her again), many references to popular culture, endless references to music that the author likes (which sound completely unbelievable when put into minds of the characters many years younger - how many 26 year olds think about the difference between The Rolling Stones and the Beatles?), a crazed sociopath ex-husband/lover, crazy religious woman leader who seems to find her way here from The Mist...there is even an unsympathetic character named Harold who is almost a carbon copy of his namesake from The Stand, not to mention a mute character named Nick who is the epitome of innocence and good, just like the mute Nick from The Stand. All this can be explained as a homage or an Easter egg, of course, but if the book features little else than homages and Easter eggs, what is left? Not much.
Yes, despite all this, The Fireman is the longest of all of Joe Hill's novels so far, and perhaps his most disappointing ones. Its length is in no way justified, and feels padded to the bone; I do not think I exaggerate when I say that you could skip entire chapters and not miss out on much, if anything. It reads well and fast, since Joe Hill is a good and able writer, but there is little point in reading most of it. There is nothing enlightening or innovative in this book; neither the story or the characters are deep enough to become memorable and worth revisiting. For a novel focused on the element of fire, it inexplicably lacks the spark to keep the flame going; and it eventually goes out, quietly and without much smoke. I have given the book two stars only because of my sympathy for its author, and because it is not completely terrible - but it definitely is uninspired, unimaginative, uninteresting and definitely unworthy of your time. -
A horrible malady is spreading like wildfire through the human population. Caused by spores from a fungus called Draco Incendia Trychophyton.
The illness - named Dragonscale - is manifested by gold and black scales on the skin. On the upside, the scales are rather pretty and decorative.
On the downside, they cause victims to spontaneously combust.....to suddenly burst into flames and incinerate. And there's no treatment or cure.
Harper Grayson is a twenty-something nurse who's tending to Dragonscale patients in Maine's Portsmouth Hospital. Like other caregivers, Harper wears a protective rubber suit to shield her from the spores.
One day a fireman carries an ailing boy into the hospital, and Harper - suspecting the child has appendicitis - helps them jump the line to get help. This turns out to be a pivotal event in the nurse's life.
Despite her precautions, Harper starts to see gold and black streaks on her skin.....and knows she's doomed. The nurse has an added concern, however. She recently got pregnant and desperately wants to see her baby born, in the belief that fetuses don't contract Dragonscale from their mothers.
When Harper's husband, Jakob, sees her Dragonscale marks, he's enraged. He blames Harper for bringing the illness into their home and - afraid of being infected - takes off.
Harper quarantines herself in the house, but is running out of food and supplies when Jakob suddenly returns - with a gun. He thinks he has Dragonscale, and plans to kill Harper and himself before they spontaneously combust.
Harper escapes from Jakob and is rescued by the fireman (a British man whose name is John Rookwood), a teenage girl, and the boy from the hospital - who happens to be deaf.
The trio leads Harper to an out-of-the-way enclave called Camp Wyndham, which houses a secret community of Dragonscale victims. The group, led by a man called Father Story, has learned to tame the disease.
According to Father Story, 'if you create a feeling of security, the Dragonscale lives in harmony with you'.....and you don't burn to death. The people at Camp Wyndham attend services every day, where they sing together. This engenders a peaceful feeling that makes the people glow - a condition called 'The Bright.' And one spore-carrier, John Rookwood, has even learned to ignite parts of himself - with no permanent damage. This is a formidable weapon when the fireman needs one!
Most of the story is set at Camp Wyndham, which contains a variety of inhabitants - some good, some bad. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but I will say that, in time, the community gets a new leader and becomes a kind of dictatorship - with harsh, medieval punishments for people who break the rules.
In part, this is to ensure the residents' safety. The outside world has gone crazy, and rogue 'cremation squads' make it their business to hunt down and shoot Dragonscale victims - who they call burners.
Jakob has become an ardent member of an assassination crew and is determined to kill his wife, among others.
There are some exciting, action-packed scenes where kill squads meet up with burners.
As in any community, love sometimes blooms in Camp Wyndham. Harper and Rookwood are attracted to each other, but - for various reasons - their relationship is very complicated.
Another couple bonds as well - two people who'd probably never meet in the real world. It's all very sweet.....and fans of romance novels will probably enjoy these minor plotpoints.
Harper experiences a host of difficulties in the course of the story, but is driven to survive - at least until she gives birth. The nurse hopes to give the child to a healthy couple to raise. This seems a tall order to me. Who would believe this baby wasn't infected? I understand a mother's hopes though, and the drive to reproduce.
"The Fireman" - in which a community of 'survivors' is divided into 'good' and 'evil' factions - was clearly influenced by Stephen King's book "The Stand." This isn't a surprise, since King is the author's father.
Still, "The Fireman" is very original in its chosen catastrophe - an illness that causes spontaneous combustion is certainly unique (and horrifying)! And the story plays out much differently than The Stand.
There are a lot of interesting characters in the book, including: a delusional leader who wants to maintain total control; acolytes who'll do anything to please the boss; a man on the side of the angels; chauvinist burner-bashers who think they can do whatever they please; a sweet orphan who longs for a mother; bullying teenage girls; hormonal teenage boys; escaped convicts; and more.
The book is perhaps a bit overlong, but the story moves along at a good clip and held my attention. The tale has many references to popular culture, including: well-known celebrities and politicians (many of whom go up in flames); Mary Poppins; Harry Potter; and others. These were fun and added a touch of humor to the story. I had an idea about what would happen at the climax - and I was right - but this didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book.
Very good horror/thriller, highly recommended to fans of the genre.
You can follow my reviews at
https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.... -
So I've read all of Joe Hill's books (other than some rare stories and some of the comics), and of course when The Fireman came out I had to get a copy immediately. It did take me a few months to get to it. I didn't know what it was about, except that it had something to do with a fireman. But I trust Joe Hill and he hasn't let me down yet.
So right away we were seeing that something was very wrong. The apocalypse was nigh, as we learned pretty early on that some dreaded disease was sweeping across America and Canada. Something called Dragonscale, which caused scaly marks to form on the skin. Sometimes they would smoke, and the victims would quite frequently burst into spontaneous infernos.
The pacing of this book is a comfortable, slow burn. It's really easy to sink in and become attached to the characters and their situations. It reminds me in several places of Stephen King's The Stand, though focused on a smaller group of point of view characters. I often suspected that these similarities were intentional as homage to King's book (and other works), as well as to other apocalyptic themed authors and stories.
I've found that it's very difficult to write a review for a book like this, one that packs so much heat in just over 700 pages. I don't want to give away any spoilers, so it's hard to go into the story that much. I will say that I love the main character, Harper, as she adapts to the changes in her life and the world she's forced to survive in. That being said, her story and that of the supporting characters, is highly recommended. As the winter sinks in, it might even help warm things up for a bit...
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By Jove, reading this was as much fun as a laundry basket full of curious kittens. It is a virtual treasure trove of pop culture references, a tip of the hat if you will to J.K. Rowling, George R.R. Martin and of course his father, plus many, many more, not the least of which is Mary Poppins. Be careful where you step as you will find yourself tripping over them during the course of your reading experience. Such fun!
Okay so first the premise:
A plague of sorts is sweeping across the civilized world. Its proper scientific name is Draco Incendia Trychophyton but it is more commonly referred to as Dragonscale. It is highly contagious, marking its victims with black and gold scroll like marks across their bodies before they eventually burst into flames and are devoured by fire. Once infected there does not appear to be a cure and no one is entirely sure how it is spread from one person to another causing wide spread panic and the inhumane treatment of those showing signs of infection.
Harper Grayson, our protagonist, is a nurse working at a local hospital when she first meets The Fireman and assists him, against the odds and hospital protocol, in getting timely medical care to a young boy in his care suffering from abdominal distress. Shortly after finishing her stint at the hospital she learns that she is expecting. On the heels of this happy news Harper sees the tell tale marks of the Dragonscale upon her own body. Her husband is convinced that Harper brought this plague upon herself and no doubt him as well, as a result of her work at the hospital. He is incensed and things do not go well between them.
Now Harper is running for her life and that of her unborn child. But The Fireman does not soon forget past kindnesses and steps in to rescue her from her murderous husband. The Fireman it would seem can control the fire burning beneath his Dragonscale and use it as a weapon against those that wish him and others harm. He delivers Harper safely to a backwoods summer camp called Camp Wynward, where the residents have found a ritual that keeps the flames of spontaneous combustion at bay.
But the world around them is in chaos and there are Cremation Squads out there determined to stop this fiery spore by eliminating all those infected.You had a hold on me
Right from the start
A grip so tight
I couldn't tear it apart
My nerves all jumpin'
Actin' like a fool
Well your kisses they burn
But your heart stays coolThe Boss
If you are a young aspiring writer and your father just happens to be Stephen King, well let’s just say those are some mighty big boots to fill. Joe Hill tackles this challenge head on and make no mistake he is getting better and better.
If you are looking for an entertaining summer read that demands little, beyond suspension of belief, and delivers a few chuckles along the way, then by all means pick up this high octane thriller.
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This is a perfect book. I downloaded the review copy with a bit of trepidation - the length, the genre - I read it, devoured it, in two days. 200 pages on Saturday and 513 pages on Sunday. The pacing is perfect and the occasional humor makes for a very enjoyable read.
Dragonscale is a sickness that is highly contagious and can cause people to spontaneously combust. Half the world is burning down and people with Dragonscale are being hunted before they can infect others. Harper is a nurse who is treating people at a local hospital, where she meets a few unusual characters - Reneé, the volunteer who walks out the door one day, completely lit up from the inside but not burning; The Fireman, who brings in a little boy needing surgery. When that hospital burns down and her husband turns into a crazy person, Harper seeks out a community of others suffering from Dragonscale.
This is where the book could have started to feel like other apocalypse/disaster novels, and in some ways it does - cultish community, people turning insane with power, weird religions - but these are the things I love about apocalypse books. But the choices that are made and the very unique properties of Dragonscale keep it interesting.
Dragonscale also may be a metaphor
This book was discussed on
Episode 065 of the Reading Envy Podcast.
The one downside to having a review copy is that I can't put little quotes that made me laugh here in this review, but when I buy the book for myself, I'll come back.
I was provided a review copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. I appreciate the chance because I had yet to read a novel by Joe Hill, and was surprised at how much I liked it. -
Holy fuck. This book.....
WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD AMAZING!!!
Spoilers marked in review :)
I was a little nervous about starting
The Fireman because of how long it was. I often find that books more than ~400 pages have a tendency to feel diluted and I usually end up skim-reading or skipping entire pages.
If anything, I wished
The Fireman was longer than 768 pages.
A deadly pandemic sweeps across the globe, infecting people with Draco Incendia Trychophyton, aka Dragonscale. It marks the hosts with black and gold marks all over their body before making them spontaneously combust.
Some people start off by smoking a little...
.... while others catch on fire without any warning.
Harper, our main character, is a nurse in this increasinglyfuckedmessed up world who discovers the marks on her own body.... straight after finding out she's pregnant. I found this really cool - a person suddenly gifted with new signs of life and death. From the synopsis, you probably already know that douchebag hubby, Jakob, loses it a little when Harper decides to live for the baby instead of killing herself with him.
I personally ADORED Harper. She was independent, brave, smart, kind, witty and tough. She felt very real and there was none of that Mary Sue/Martyr Complex/Choosen One bullshit that is so popular in books today. I think Harper reminded me of Claire from
Outlander.
Now enter The Fireman.
While the rest of the world is all:
He's more:
I loved him too! He was a little cocky, very cheeky, and extremely down to earth.
I did consider giving it 4 stars for a couple of reasons:
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 - (biggest spoiler that you should stay away from if you have not read the book)
So yes, I had a couple of problems with it but overall, this book was absolutely fantastic. Every character was expertly developed, the story was well paced and MY. GOD. Joe Hill can write! I'm totally blown away. There's honestly nothing else on my mind right now.
The Fireman should have a warning on it instructing readers not to drive a motor vehicle or operate heavy machinery for a day or two after finishing the book.
10/10 would recommend.
Thank you so much Edelweiss and William Morrow Publishing for this ARC :) -
Awesome book. I expect no less from one of my favourite authors
Whilst entirely different to his other works, this still hits the mark. Less of his trademark horror (although he does a good job of creating terror and suspense when required) but not quite the stereotypical post-apocalyptic story we've all become used to.
The conditions that cause this story to unfold are all very well thought out. Harper, our main character, has to be up there with one of the best characters I've read (I was going to qualify that as one of the best female characters I've ever read but I think she's one of the best overall, male, female, dragons, robot, all).
Hill's writing style is perfect in my view. Very easy to digest, never any long waffling exposition or needless information. The story flows very nicely and chapter size is perfect.
Highly recommended for all Hill fans.
I did, however, have a couple of very minor gripes with it. Not nearly enough to knock it down a star but two things that irritated me (I'm nitpicking but thought they are worth calling out as it would be interesting to find out if anyone feels the same).
1 - Comparisons to the Stand were always going to happen. His dad wrote my favourite book. Whilst I think it's cool that Hill gave minor nods to his dad's works in NOS4R2 (and maybe others I can't remember), he did it a bit too much here. In the Fireman we have:
A deaf person called Nick
A person called Harold Cross - who keeps a diary
A Frannie
A pregnancy
And probably a few others I can't quite remember
It's not a huge problem, I just didn't want to be reminded of the greatest post apocalyptic book of all time whilst reading a post apocalyptic book.
2 - This one is a bigger problem and one I want to get your thought on, as King does it in a few of his novels and I'm sure there are others. I refer to a spoiler sentence right at the end of a chapter. As in:
but that was the last time he was seen alive
but when they returned, everything will have changed forever
Etc.
Anybody else get really annoyed by this? You're going to kill someone in the next chapter so let me feel the shock of it happening as it happens in the story. Don't take the impact away from me in a sentence. To be fair, the Fireman isn't nearly as bad for this. It does it a few times but it still irks me.
Minor moans aside, you should read this and Hill remains on my automatic buy list. -
I was torn on this book. While it had some stellar, 5 star+ moments , most of the rest was one or two star filler that would have improved the book greatly if edited down.
The book is called The Fireman, but I wasn't all that into his character .
I guess I just expected to be more wowed, but I found myself daydreaming a lot - not a good sign!
Interesting observation - two Post-apocalyptic novels with a deaf mute hero named Nick - The Fireman and
The Stand. Coincidence? -
I just realized that it took me almost a month to finish this novel. I read the whole ASOIF series in a span of about 25 days, meaning about 5 days each for a 1000+ page novel. This novel is only 700+ pages long but I didn't finish it soon enough. I can blame my busy schedule or my occasional lack of interest to read, but honestly, the novel has a lot of weak spots.
I read NOS4R2 by the same author and I didn't like the book that much. When I read about this book though, I was completely stoked and bought the novel as soon as I saw it at my local bookstore. I read it the same day that I bought it, but sadly it didn't take me that fast to finish it. While I enjoyed this a lot more than NOS4R2, I'm still honestly a bit disappointed. Hill still hasn't wow-ed me, but hopefully the third novel would be the charm.
The novel has a lot of fillers and it could've been 200 pages shorter. The first 1/3 of the novel really had me at the edge of my seat, but then the middle slacked off. Then the middle started to become interesting, then it started to slack off again. Then it became interesting again not until about 75% in the novel. The novel is highly inconsistent, and sadly that really affected my reading mood.
While the plot is inconsistent as hell, thankfully the characters made up for that huge flaw. I really liked almost all of them. I hated Allie at first, but I learned to like her in the end. Harper is your typical neutral protagonist who tries to be a hero, but doesn't really qualify to be one. John is honestly both the strong and weak point when it comes to the characters. While he is interesting and plays a huge role in the novel, he is as inconsistent as the plot. The antagonists are also interesting, especially Jakob. Carol on the other hand really annoyed me. I wanted her gone a few paragraphs in.
The Sci-Fi aspect of the novel really stood out in my opinion. I understood most of the things that Hill incorporated because I studied mycology just a few months ago. I know that this new fungal species that Hill created is clearly fictional, it still entertained me. The apocalyptic aspect of the novel resembles some novels I've read before, but overall for me it can be considered original. It's not one of those annoying sci-fi/apocalypse that are really predictable and laughable.
I was really confused as to whether this novel deserves a 3 or 4 star rating, but I had already established that it clearly deserves a 3.5 rating. This is one of the reason why Goodreads really needs to add the half star option. I opted to rate this novel 4 stars because while there are a bunch of bad parts, the entire novel is really interesting and commendable. The characters would leave you yearning for more, and honestly the ending did not satisfy my curiosity. A bunch of short stories might help with my curiosity, but it seems like Hill wanted this to be a standalone. I'm not particularly happy with the ending because it has a lot of loopholes that Hill didn't really fix. I think maybe he opted for an open-ended novel, but I'm not happy with it.
If you're a Sci-Fi fan and really likes novels that heavily depend on the premise and the characters to make it interesting, then this is for you. I myself forgave the author for the boring parts, and I'm sure that you guys can too. I know it seems that a 4 star rating is too high for a novel that I didn't really enjoy, I'm honestly still recommending this. It's too long, but still fun overall. -
What a read! Seriously, this is not at all what I was expecting. I have come to expect a certain bit of gore from Mr. Hill and this book had almost none. I’m not saying it was an easy read. It wasn’t. It’s basically an apocalyptic novel so who could expect happiness and light? Keeping in mind the topic and Hill’s other novels, if you were looking for a sweet story you have a screw loose. Or two.
The world has been overcome by a devastating plague. What the symptoms make no never mind, the fact that it is highly contagious and often ends in grisly death is the most important thing about this plague nicknamed “Dragonscale”, or “‘scale” for short. Our protagonist, Harper, is a “look on the bright side” nurse out to save the world. In her efforts, she not only contracts “scale", but catches pregnant as well. Talk about rolling snake eyes! We follow Harper through a year of Dragonscale. Hill shows us how one little piece of the world reacts to it and the consequences.
I don’t want to summarize the plot because I hate spoiling a good read for others, but trust me, this is a GOOD READ. Hill paints the diseased landscape perfectly. He shows us how the disease is almost beside the point. The real danger is from the other survivors. Not only the other infected but those left healthy as well. This seems to be the case in most cataclysmic fiction. Much like Kirkman’s The Walking Dead, Hill shows us that the “bad guys” in the situation are often the “good guys” with their masks removed. Hill even goes so far as to use actual masks to drive his point home. Do-gooders wearing masks to remain anonymous and people doing very bad things wearing masks to protect their identity. We wear masks for many different reasons.
I was fortunate enough to see Hill recently and he described his reasons and inspirations for this book as society’s reaction to social media. He said when he first stumbled upon Twitter he felt he had found an online home. Now he feels people use it to abuse others anonymously. Not only do we draw strength from online communities comprised of those that share our interests, which was the beauty of Twitter in the early days, but we create mobs by hiding behind their anonymity. We say things online to others we would never say in real life because we are protected not only by our online facelessness but because it’s easier to go with the group mentality in an online situation. Jump on the bandwagon. You aren’t looking at the face of the person you are shaming, bullying, or hurting. You are looking at a screen. There is a built-in distance. Great concept and very, very true.
Back to the actual novel. I grew to genuinely care about the characters, even the characters I disliked, I wanted to know what became of them. I wanted many of them dead, but that still counts as caring about their welfare, right? One of the things I love about Hill’s father, Stephen King, is how he inserts references to his other novels in his writing. He gives you the feeling this is all happening in some other world. Hill does the same here. He makes references to “forgetting the face of her father/mother” which we all know is a recurring Dark Tower theme. It matters not that The Dark Tower is his dad’s world. You think Hill didn’t grow up with it? Of course, he did. A character remembers the taste of Nozz A La cola which is another DT reference. That particular reference makes me feel The Fireman may take place in the DT world on a different plane of existence than ours. It could, right? Oh, and Hill also mentions Christmasland, a place of his own design. I love that!
I may have started reading Hill because he was his father’s son, but I will keep reading him because he is a terrific writer. I can’t wait for “Strange Weather” to be released next year! -
It took me two attempts to read this. That Hill can write is a given. But this book doesn't have any heart. It's not enough of anything to make it memorable. I found myself greeting the ever more depressing and dangerous paths of the plot with little more than a shrug. At the final denouement, I honestly couldn't care less who lived or died. Perhaps because there was little surprise in it, the format of the book was well trodden. Definite points for the creation of Dragonscale, now that was a fun change to the usual dystopian fare.
I can see why people will love it, but it's far from my favourite of his books. It was too long, too derivative, and too unremarkable outside the one main hook. Still, I felt the same way about
The Passage, which everybody else seemed to love, so what the hell do I know?
In any case, thanks to Orion/Gollancz and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review. -
Now this is what I call a GOOD book. In fact it is a brilliant book especially if, like me, you have a liking for dystopian stories. You could say that it is yet another story in which the world is being ravaged by a plague of some kind, which is killing people off in their millions. That is exactly what happens but the "plague" in this case is fresh from
Joe Hill's vivid imagination and it is totally original and very cleverly done.
The fireman of the title is a wonderful character - an ordinary man with super powers who does what he can to save his little bit of the world or at least some of the people in it. I loved Harper and Nick and Allie and even Sarah who only really has one scene but it is an amazing one
The book is long but I never felt that it faltered. It is a great story with masses of action and pages which practically turn themselves. Loved it. -
Washington DC and Manhatten are on fire. The CDC has burned to the ground. Dragonscale is the disease. It appears on the skin as rather high-end tattoos, intricate scrollwork, the devil's handwriting in black and gold. You may not have time to admire it for long, it is almost always a harbinger of spontaneous combustion. You will breathe fire as you die.
Oh, those King genes! Long may they reign! I do think that NOS4A2 is a superior read, but this was still smokin' good.
