From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of NOS4A2 and Heart-Shaped Box comes a chilling novel about a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion that threatens to reduce civilization to ashes and a band of improbable heroes who battle to save it, led by one powerful and enigmatic man known as the Fireman.The fireman is coming. Stay cool.No one knows exactly when it began or … 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.
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The horror of the dragonscale spore pulled me right in. The story of Harper and the Fireman and there campground hideout and there journey to find safety told a very good story.
From Joe Hill, the son of legendary horror write Stephen King, comes a memorable and imaginative tale: a virus called Dragon Scale causes those who catch it to spontaneously burst into flames. Score 1 for originality here. Don’t let anybody tell you talent isn’t hereditary.
“He’s not my ex. We’re not divorced.”
“You are now. By the power vested in me.”
“What power vested in you?”
“You know how captains of ships can marry people. Little known fact, firemen can divorce people as well.”
There were a number of strong themes throughout The Fireman, which hints that Joe Hill was going more for highly quotable literary fiction rather than a simple plague-driven dystopian novel. However the themes and imagery were quite forced. Each time we’re introduced to one, and since it doesn’t quite fit, we notice and think “Huh, I guess we’re going to see that again”, and sure enough, we do. It felt almost like reading an overly-fleshed-out and repetitive creative writing project from a college student who was given an enumerated list of themes to include in his project, and BY GOD he wrote and wrote until he could make room for them all.
The only thing that kept me hiking up this mountain of a novel was Kate Mulgrew’s narration in the Audible version, which was perfection. Mulgrew could make a comic book sound like literary fiction, and this was The Fireman’s saving grace. If I had been reading, instead of passively listening to the Audible book, I wouldn’t have made it past the first quarter of the book.
Loved it
From page one you can’t put it down
This is the latest sleep-robbing book I’ve read, I also recommend “Station Eleven” and “The Night Circus” among others. Station Eleven The Night Circus
This book is very interesting. There are some parts that I didn’t like but was glad the truth finally came out. Was a little disappointed on how the book ended but I guess not all heroes get to live.
The Fireman is Joe Hill’s best (and most developed) novel to date. While many authors have spun tales of post-apocalyptic woes, Hill’s is unique in both what takes down society (it’s not zombies or a run-of-the-mill virus nor is it a wayward asteroid) and in how unexpected some of the ‘expected’ tropes are: zealot religious types/cults, and the false hope of rescue. Plus the fireman himself is just plain cool.
While I enjoyed the book along with the great characters & world building, there just wasn’t a lot of story going on here to warrant almost 800 pages.
There were moments that just dragged on endlessly, but those were balanced by some spectacular sequences and plot twists.
In short: Entertaining, but overblown.
In THE FIREMAN, A terrifying new plague is spreading across the globe and no one seems to know where it came from or how to stop it. The media has nicknamed the deadly disease Dragonscale. It marks its victim’s skin with beautiful black and gold marks before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected, and cities around the world are burning. When Harper Grayson becomes infected, she fears for her life, and the life of her unborn child. She’s terrified of being hunted by the armed self-appointed posses that seek and kill those with the disease. But there are stories about one man–only known as the Fireman–who has learned to control the flame within him, using it as a shield to protect those who are hunted, and to avenge those who are wronged. In a race to stay alive, Harper must learn the Fireman’s secrets before her life goes up in smoke.
To start, Joe Hill’s THE FIREMAN is a complex, post-apocalyptic book filled with depth, horror, and humor. At almost 800 pages, it is not so much a book as it is an epic. There is very little build up to the disease’s outbreak. Page one starts with the Dragonscale already spreading around world and the story races on from there. In THE FIREMAN, Hill confronts the reader with a terrifying concept: a disease that literally will burn you alive. He also presents us with a large cast of characters, some who represent the very core of human condition at its worst. The very idea that uninfected people would hunt and kill those that are infected is almost more terrifying than the disease itself.
It’s easy to lose one’s self in THE FIREMAN. There are characters that you can’t help but be drawn to, such as the pragmatic Harper and the enigmatic Fireman. There are also antagonists that you quickly grow to loathe. If I had one complaint, it would be that there are too many antagonists. This epic tale comes with a rogue’s gallery of evildoers, one coming right after the other. There were a few spots where it felt like the book was about to end, only to have yet another antagonist arrive to challenge the book’s heroes on their quest. It got a bit maddening at points to feel like the story was ending to only have yet another story arc begin.
Although THE FIREMAN was released several years ago, it seemed particularly poignant considering current affairs. Going through this book in the midst of a pandemic was, at the very least, eye-opening. Hill describes a nightmare scenario that seems a little too real at the moment, reminding the reader that humankind could be only a few steps away from impending doom and destruction. The ideological cruelty that THE FIREMAN portrays is strikingly realistic, and, to be honest, a bit frightening.
One additional note on this book. I listened to the audiobook of THE FIREMAN, all twenty plus hours of it. It was narrated by Kate Mulgrew, best known as Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager. Mulgrew provided an outstanding experience with a wide range of voices to distinguish the characters. Her narration enhanced THE FIREMAN tremendously, and is well worth a listen.
Just very original. Loved the concept. Different.
I was engaged by this story immediately.
A talented writer; I wont be a spoiler by revealing the surprise at the end.
I wanted the characters to succeed yet they were in an almost unbelievable pandemic sci-fi scenario!
Interesting and entertaining read. Kept my attention. Disappointed at the ending
I enjoyed this bookalot.
Slow moving and couldn’t keep my interest
Fantastic awesome
The premise of this book will blow your mind! A wild ride you won’t soon forget!
Excellent novel by Joe Hill. He has his father’s knack for drawing me into a tale, into his world. This tale is of an apocalyptic event unfolding amid personal crises, and mysterious events, leaving me eager to read what happens next, with enough twists to keep me surprised. I highly recommend this!
No one knows when it began or where it originated but a new plague started spreading around the world hitting city after city with devastating results. It became known as Dragonscale because of the colorful strip across the skin of the carriers which was beautiful but deadly. Those stripes could cause the host to burst into flame with no warning. This is the story of a pandemic that threatens to reduce civilization to ashes right along with its population. A small group of survivors have found a way to live with it and hope that they can save a corner of the world to live in.
I think I was expecting a lot from this book after reading some of the reviews and it did not deliver as they insinuated. Now that is not to say that I did not enjoy it just the same. There were some things that annoy me about some novels in general that happened here.
No one knows when it began or how it originated. A new plague is spreading across the country moving from city to city. It is called Dragonscale and is a highly contagious spore that marks its hosts with beautiful striping, almost like tattoos across their bodies before causing them to burst into flames. This is the story of a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion which threatens to reduce civilization to ashes and the band of survivors who battle to save what they can from that lost world.
First, the things that kind of made me not so happy as I read. I really dislike books with an overabundance of chapters (147), especially when chapters ended up being 1-2 paragraphs in some cases. I have read longer books that not seem to be so long because they were broken down differently. While I love detail, sometimes it can go a bit overboard with more than is needed to lay your case out. While the title alludes to the Fireman the book is not really so much about that character.
I do love the characters in this book, every single one which is very odd. They all are so well rounded as to who they are and what they stand for in this world. I am also being drawn into the world that they reside in which is post-apocalyptic in many ways and not in some others.
A good story that keeps your interest and has some really good moments as well as some slow-moving moments. It is entertaining and worth the time it takes. I listened as well as reading and have to say that Kate Mulgrew made me want to listen because she made the characters, both male and female come to life in the best way. If you have the choice I am going to say get that audible book and let Kate take you on this journey, it will give you a chance to relax and really fall into that world.
I’ve loved all of his books. Once I start one I hate to put it down.