Started on audio but switched to ebook. Kate Mulgrew is cool, but I didn’t love her portrayal of the male characters. And there are a lot of male characters.

Not my favorite Joe Hill book. The idea was interesting, and he did neat things with it, but the story didn’t need to be told at such length, and it dragged in parts. And the baddies were pretty over-the-top.
I liked the references to children’s literature and Harper mentally comparing people she met to characters in her favorite books. That element of her characterization, along with her love of Mary Poppins, was fun.

I didn’t hate it, but I liked Heart-shaped Box more—ghosts are more up my alley—and his Locke and Key series most of all. ( )

I just returned from the first part of my vacation. On this part of my vacation, I brought only one book with me and that was Joe Hill's The Fireman. This was the book that has been haunting me all summer. I purchased it when it released in May and it has been sitting on my shelf taunting me with its 700 pages, daring me to take the time to read it.

Last week, was the week I would finally do it. I started it on a Monday in Vermont, took it to Montreal for two more days, and finished it in NY on a Thursday. I am not sure how many hours it took, but I know I was jumping up and down for doing this feat. I normally have book ADD, so I am jumping between books like crazy, so sticking to one book was quite an achievement. So, how was it?

There has been a plague which has wiped out much of the human population. This plague called Dragonscale causes people to start to smoke and then eventually catch fire. The more people gathered together, the bigger the fire to the point of monuments disappearing.

Harper is a nurse who becomes pregnant with her husband Jakob's baby. Harper wakes up one day with Dragonscale. She has made a pact with Jakob that if she has it, she will kill herself. With a new baby, she changes her mind and runs from Jakob.

While in exile, she learns about a commune of people who have learned how to control the Dragonscale, so they do not catch on fire. One of their people, John, has learned how to control it so much that he can set parts of himself on fire without burning.

As things move forward, there is a group led by the Marlboro Man who is out to hunt and kill all those with the disease. There is also a division beginning in the commune that is loosely held together by their spiritual leader. When he falls under an attack and is injured, the commune starts to come apart at the seams. Can John step in as the rightful leader or is he too focused on his past? What about Harper as she learns about this commune and a member who left their community, what will she do as the group divides?

I have been describing this book to friends as a giant summer block buster movie in book form. It is a bit long, has a lot of background characters that don't get developed, has some parts that simply don't make sense (why shoot flaming arrows for fun while two groups are looking for you?), but is one of the summer block busters that are a lot of fun and well worth your time.

I think the only negative, besides the length, is that the main story of the commune is one that has been told many times- the rightful leader won't be leader because he is struggling, so a zealot takes over tearing the camp apart, but that also may be a good thing in that the story doesn't get in the way as the characters are developed.

This is a great adventure story and wound up being a lot of fun. There is a bunch of action and even though there are unbelievable moments, it isn't something out of the realm of a big action book. It is a mammoth though.

I gave this one 4 stars.
( )

Harper Grayson was only trying to help others the day she became one of the infected. Now that she has the tell tale signs of contagion, her husband blames her and wants nothing to do with her. Scared and pregnant she has nobody to turn to. She considers trying to make it to her brother's house but does not want to put his family at risk. The cremation crews make it nearly impossible to leave home but when she is forced to run she meets up with a group of people who may be her salvation, or they may be too good to be true.
Joe Hill knows how to tell a story. On par with "The Stand" and my all time favorite "Swan Song" is my new favorite The Fireman. Fast paced and heart pounding action packed. It's the end of the world as we know it. A plague of epic proportions brings out the best in our unlikely heroes and the worst in others. This book is full of twists and turns that left me never knowing who to trust from one minute to the next and I loved every minute of it. 5 out of 5 stars from me.


I received an advance copy for review ( )

DNF. I really should not have picked this up at the library. I've seen better train wrecks. I've read better train wrecks (YA is full of them). I'm not going to waste my time on a book that doesn't get better. Or contain another train wreck. ( )

I enjoyed the premise and thought it would be an interesting read. It was actually kind of a struggle to get through, there are several inconsistencies that ripped me right out of the story.
It feels like each portion of the story was written by someone different, like a handful of people wrote it and didn't read each others work before adding their own.
The lead character feels a bit bipolar from section to section. Responding to situations can differ from case to case, but her reactions are intelligent to idiotic. From being a competent nurse to failing basic first aid.
The dialogue is also confusing at times. The scene may be a time sensitive moment and the author seems to forget that, having characters interact for pages while immediate danger waits around to continue. ( )