Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Fireman: The chilling horror thriller from the author of NOS4A2 and THE BLACK PHONE
    Unavailable
    The Fireman: The chilling horror thriller from the author of NOS4A2 and THE BLACK PHONE
    Unavailable
    The Fireman: The chilling horror thriller from the author of NOS4A2 and THE BLACK PHONE
    Audiobook22 hours

    The Fireman: The chilling horror thriller from the author of NOS4A2 and THE BLACK PHONE

    Written by Joe Hill

    Narrated by Kate Mulgrew

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Nobody knew where the virus came from.

    FOX News said it had been set loose by ISIS, using spores that had been invented by the Russians in the 1980s.

    p>MSNBC said sources indicated it might've been created by engineers at Halliburton and stolen by culty Christian types fixated on the Book of Revelation.

    CNN reported both sides.

    While every TV station debated the cause, the world burnt.

    Pregnant school nurse, Harper Grayson, had seen lots of people burn on TV, but the first person she saw burn for real was in the playground behind the school.

    With the epic scope of The Passage and the emotional impact of The Road, this is one woman's story of survival at the end of the world.

    Read by Kate Mulgrew

    (p) 2016 HarperCollins Publishers

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette UK Audio
    Release dateMay 17, 2016
    ISBN9781409149972
    Unavailable
    The Fireman: The chilling horror thriller from the author of NOS4A2 and THE BLACK PHONE
    Author

    Joe Hill

    Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Fireman, NOS4A2, Horns, and Heart-Shaped Box; Strange Weather, a collection of novellas; and the acclaimed story collections Full Throttle and 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the Eisner Award–winning writer of a seven-volume comic book series, Locke & Key. Much of his work has been adapted for film and TV, including NOS4A2 (AMC), Locke & Key (Netflix), In the Tall Grass (Netflix), and The Black Phone (Blumhouse).

    More audiobooks from Joe Hill

    Related to The Fireman

    Related audiobooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Fortean Follow-ups

      Apr 18, 2024

      Fortean Follow-ups
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Load Of Bollocks

      Oct 3, 2021

      A Load Of Bollocks
      2 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Wrap This Up

      Jul 15, 2021

      Let’s Wrap This Up
      11 min read

    • Article

      Comedian Sam Hyde Not ‘Behind’ Spread of Coronavirus

      Jan 27, 2020

      A meme falsely claims comedian Sam Hyde is responsible for the spread of the new coronavirus. Researchers are still working to determine the source of this latest coronavirus, though evidence suggests it was first transmitted to humans from an animal

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Prophecies of Q

      May 14, 2020

      If you were an adherent, no one would be able to tell. You would look like any other American. You could be a mother, picking leftovers off your toddler’s plate. You could be the young man in headphones across the street. You could be a bookkeeper, a

      33 min read

    • Article

      The Comet Year

      Apr 26, 2023

      The Comet Year
      14 min read

    • Article

      Invasion Earth

      Nov 4, 2021

      Now that UAPs are serious business, especially for those willing to exploit the gullibility of the public, the threat of alien invasion has been highlighted. It’s bad enough that UAPs might be sophisticated drones or other forms of aircraft built by

      3 min read

    • Article

      Were The MAGA Hat Teens At The Lincoln Memorial Victims Of The Trump Effect?

      Feb 16, 2019

      Remember the "red hat" kids? Remember the video-recorded face-off between students from Kentucky's all-male Covington Catholic High School, some of whom were wearing bright red "Make America Great Again" hats, and a drum-beating Native American activ

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 7, 2023

      Bravo to David Hambling for his precise response to Barry Baldwin on climate change causes [FT434:14]. Are there any places online where we can find the sources he mentions, especially the satellite tracking of how much energy reaches us from the Sun

      9 min read

    • Article

      Circuses – And A Lot Of Bread

      May 18, 2023

      UFO festivals and conferences are now back in full swing after the COVID crisis, and we can actually meet face-to-face again. In the US there is a penchant for holding annual festivals at UFO hotspots: these locations inevitably include Roswell; then

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Viruses Among Us

      May 29, 2020

      The Viruses Among Us
      9 min read

    • Article

      Father Of The Atomic Bomb

      Aug 4, 2023

      Father Of The Atomic Bomb
      8 min read

    • Article

      10 Quick Questions

      Jul 18, 2021

      1. Which American statesman is remembered for his prominent signature on the Declaration of Independence? ❑ Thomas Jefferson ❑ John Hancock ❑ Benjamin Franklin ❑ John Adams 2. Which musical group released a hit song that begins: “I don’t wanna talk/A

      1 min read

    • Article

      Fortean Follow-ups

      Jan 25, 2024

      In September, Mexican UFO YouTuber Jaime Maussan persuaded parliamentary deputy Sergio Gutiérrez Luna to sponsor his presentation of what he claimed were two “alien corpses” to the Mexican Congress. His dramatic presentation of the “remains” in coffi

      5 min read

    Reviews for The Fireman

    4/5

    745 ratings74 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I like Stephen King, and Hill proudly demonstrates being one of his dad's constant readers throughout this book to a degree I haven't seen before. King references were a rapid fire constant through the narrative - and the book itself pretty much answers the question "What would it look like if The Stand and Firestarter had a baby, in 2016?".

      There was a pretty long lull in the middle that left me wondering if I wanted to continue. Think of half of The Walking Dead, season two (no really - think of it, because he's aiming directly at tWD fans with this book). I like moving into a book and living there a while, but not when it feels like sating this desire is the only reason for the page count.

      It's not clear why the book is even called The Fireman. He's not the main character... and remains, to the end, almost one-dimensional.

      The story seems to carefully follow a Walking Dead trajectory. Perhaps Hill wants to write for tWD, or maybe the sets, scenes, effects and pacing seem custom fit for a screenplay (small screen) that made Hill's proud declaration that the film rights were sold seem like the real goal - and therefore a little cringe-worthy... seeing as though I just read the book.

      If you wanted it to be primarily enjoyed on screen, and celebrate this in a first edition of your book... maybe it isn't suited for prose? Is that an illogical assumption?

      I'm going 3 stars though, because I liked the little pokes at Constant Readers - and I loved seeing the mechanics of earlier work expanded upon and made modern for a readership 30ish years after the originals. Firestarter was in 1980... so the vibe feels sort of zeitgeisty, in a world where Stranger Things recently made a splash.

      I really hope his work continues to improve, and that he continues to be the Constant Writer his family of readers wants to grow older with. Maybe don't have 9 months pregnant women literally carrying grown men around on their shoulders so much in future efforts, though.
    • 4/5
      The Fireman is a post-apocalyptic novel, where the culprit is a spore called Dragonscale (a bit of a Game of Thrones ripoff for the name although the disease is far different). Dragonscale causes those who carry it to light on fire under stressful conditions and propogates itself by transferring the spore to others through the ash. It’s really kind of an ingenious spore. This wipes out much of the population and brings out the worst in people. The infected are in a camp in New Hampshire trying to survive but they also learn how to control the spore, which has its pluses and minuses.I thought this was probably the best Joe Hill novel that I’ve read, which have been a little hit or miss. The writing is strong and the characters are well-developed. The disease brings out the worse of the survivors. By and large, they are trying to kill the infected, without having a full understanding of the disease. The worst character is Harper Willow’s husband. Even before she contracted the spore, he was a total nitwit. The only redeemable characters in the novel are a small circle of those close to Harper, including the Fireman, a British microbiologist who has complete mastery of the spore and can even manifest it out of his body. Both the concept of the execution of the story are good. I did have a couple of issues with the novel. For one thing, the whole stone in the mouth thing at Camp Windham was supremely irritating. Also, it was a bit too dim of a view of humanity for my liking. I would think some of the non-infected would be redeemable. But on balance this was a strong novel that I would recommend.Carl Alves - author of The Invocation
    • 4/5
      Well now, Joe Hill has thrown me for a bit of a loop with The Fireman. It fascinates me that he has managed to write an entirely different sort of book than I expected, and yet it still has me entirely enraptured. This book was excellent, and further proves to me that Hill's books will always be an auto-add to my reading list.

      If you want to know a secret about me, I'm thoroughly intrigued by the concept of group think. The fact that people have the ability to completely lose themselves in fanaticism is terrifying and yet fascinating. Hill already had me sold with the idea of the Dragonfire sparking the end of the world. When he took it a step further, into the territory of cult behavior, I was helpless to look away.

      Better still, are the somewhat paranormal elements that play a part in this story. Harper's story already had me hooked. A pregnant woman, burning from the inside out, caught up in a place where the people aren't at all who they seem. Then she was introduced fully to John, the fireman, and everything took on a whole new sheen. There was no possible way I was going to be able to resist this story. It grabbed my emotions by the reins and pulled. Hard. I was immersed from beginning to end.

      Let's be honest, I already knew I was going to enjoy this book. What really impressed me was how much I enjoyed it, despite it not being at all what I expected. I was anticipating horror. I got that, for sure. Just not quite in the manner I was expecting. Hill is teaching me that sometimes the horror that people can create is often much more terrifying than any monster could ever be. Long story short, this was great. It needs a spot on your reading list.
    • 5/5
      The Fireman by Joe Hill is a novel about a plague, Draco Incendia Trychophyton, also known as Dragonscale.I love how Hill brings his characters to life, and the world he creates is chilling. With incredible writing, I recommend this book to anyone who loves dystopian tales.
    • 5/5
      I can't think of a single thing that I didn't like about this book, and I'm not sure what took me so long to read it. I loved the premise, the writing is solid, the characters are fantastic, and the story just flows along wonderfully.
    • 4/5
      This was good. Really good. I have had this book for years but for some reason, I never got around to reading it. I should not have waited so long because this book is fantastic. I was hooked by this story right away and there was never a dull moment. I listened to this book every spare moment that I could find and really enjoyed the experience.I probably read this book's summary back when it was released but I went into this book with no idea what it was about. Based on the title, I thought it was about a fireman. There is a fireman in the book but this story is really about a whole lot more than that. This story follows Harper, a nurse, as the world tries to deal with the new outbreak everyone is calling Dragonscale. People with Dragonscale seem to spontaneously burst into flames killing themselves and endangering those around them. I do enjoy a good end of the world story and I appreciated the fact that this one is a little different than anything I have read before. The Dragonscale is dangerous and people are scared and some are taking things into their own hands. When Harper is infected, she must fight for her life and ends up finding her way to a community filled with others like her. She doesn't do it alone though. She has help from the fireman. This book took me on quite the journey. At the start, I was really curious about this new illness and was kind of mesmerized by how it was described. I loved seeing how the world was dealing with the situation at the hospital and in the world. I understood Harper's need to survive and keep going. The community she found was fantastic until it wasn't. I found the community's changing dynamics to be very well done. There was plenty of action and things that really couldn't be explained that kept the story really interesting. Kate Mulgrew did a fantastic job with the narration of this book. She was able to handle a large cast of characters incredibly well. Each character had a very distinctive voice and I felt a lot of emotion in her reading. She has a very pleasant voice and I thought that she read the story at a perfect pace. I found this book easy to listen to for hours at a time. I think that her performance increased my enjoyment of the novel.I would recommend this book to others. This was an epic story filled with great characters and a lot of excitement. I am so glad that I finally decided to pick this one up and cannot wait to read more of Joe Hill's work.I received a digital review copy of this book from William Morrow via Edelweiss and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library via Hoopla.
    • 3/5
      Disappointing. A big book that felt suffocatingly claustrophobic. Interesting premise, without doubt, but ultimately plodding; it needed to be at least a third shorter. Even the 'genetic' use of cultural markers used so successfully elsewhere to anchor the story in the everyday were overused -- buckets instead of deft brush strokes.
    • 4/5
      Great story. Really deserves 4 1/2 stars, but loses 1/2 a star for getting Dire Straits stuck in my head.

      And honestly don't know what book the blurb on the back was describing, but it sure wasn't this one.
    • 4/5
      I was lucky enough to get a review copy of Joe Hill's next novel from the publisher. It's set in an apocalyptic world, where an infectious fungus causes people to spontaneously combust. The main character is an infected and pregnant nurse who is aided by a fireman with the ability to control fire. The nurse escapes from a psychotic husband to a campground full of infected people who have learned how to avoid combustion by group singalongs.The the book drags quite bit. It's obvious that the camp is only going to be a temporary solution. The infected are surrounded by people who would kill them if they were discovered. The camp's leader seems to be turning into a religious fanatic. Anyone who doesn't fit is ostracized. It's blatantly obvious after a couple of chapters that things are going to fall apart there, but we still spend about half the book in the camp before the hero sets out on a quest to find a new refuge in Martha Quinn's Island.Frankly I don't think this is Hill's best work. The novel suffers from a bit of bloat, and would have been much better if the camp scenes had been trimmed a bit. That said, it was still enjoyable if predictable read.
    • 4/5
      I'd heard good things about this book so as my first Joe Hill thought I'd try it. I did enjoy it a lot.
    • 5/5
      "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, a nurse, is tending the sick at a hospital when she first meets The Fireman. When she become infected with Dragonscale, herself, she's upset (especially because she's newly pregnant), but her husband becomes unhinged. Forced to run for her life, Harper encounters a group of people with Dragonscale who are learning to live with the spore, seemingly in harmony. Harper even finds The Fireman again, living nearby. However, all is not quite right with this group of people, as she discovers when things start to take a sinister turn.When I first read this book, I devoured it, gulping down page after page. I found this story to be intensely readable; the story is compelling, the characters are interesting, and I wasn't always sure what was going to happen next. Hill weaves together these elements, along with the plague that is constantly lurking in the background. There is no cure for Dragonscale, but can it truly be mastered? There's horror in this story, to be sure, but there's also a lot of bravery, and moments where characters find strength within themselves to stand up for what they feel is right. I liked that Hill made this plague sound realistic, and how it spreads and the disastrous effects that it has. The pace is steady, but unrelenting, and you never quite feel like the main characters are completely safe. Like real life, though, it's also not always completely awful; there are moments of wry humor. For example, here's this bit of dialogue:"Do you think Keith Richards is still alive?" he asked."Sure. Nothing can kill him. He'll outlast us all."Kate Mulgrew is an amazing reader, making all of the characters come to life, completely distinctly. This is a long audiobook, but it was so good that I'd get to wherever I was going and sit in the car a few extra minutes, just to get a few more minutes of audiobook. Top-notch.
    • 4/5
      Joe Hill has created another amazing and creepy world, with realistic characters in a dire situation. Harper thinks the dragon scale that adorns her skin is a death sentence. But, it opens her eyes and mind to a new reality. She is a strong, determined character who has lived her whole life in her husband's world, but the infection changed that. I don't want to give the story away, so I won't say much. I loved the characters and the story. It's a long book, but worth every page. It's not nearly as creepy as NOS4A2, but scary in its own way. I will say that one of the characters mentioned Christmasland and I shivered (so that book still affects me...). Anyway, if you like Joe Hill, read this, you won't be disappointed.
    • 5/5
      If you loved Cell by Stephen King, you have to read this book! Just like everything else Joe Hill has written, the character development and pacing of this are spot on! It isn't overly gruesome, but frightening and touching at the some time. I am amazed that spontaneous combustion could seem so plausible and realistic.
    • 4/5
      A bit bloated but very effective overall. A post apocalyptic story, cool infectious disease story, a love story, a meditation on religion and shared emotion -- when does communal spirit become cultism?
    • 5/5
      This is a great book. I would not have guessed I would enjoy it so much. The first Joe Hill book for me. I don't tend to read horror so pretty much avoid authors known to write horror but I had heard that it was really good and it had made several best of lists. This is great story set in contemporary times. There is a lot of references to what is occurring in the world today. This is an apocalyptic story and the author makes it so believable. I liked the beginning where the author references J.K. Rowling, Mary Poppins, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Bradbury. And finally his mother for the mycology that makes the story so believable. The story grabs right away and pulls you along. It's a tense, action story that will make a sit on the edge of your chair movie. A lot of great characters in the story. Very little sexual explicit subject matter yet present in the the story which makes the author even more skilled in my opinion. The writer gives us the details of this virus and how people might react. The setting is the U.S. and it is New England setting. Very readable, I listened to the audio, performed by Kate Mulgrew, who did a great job! I think the author delivered a great book. The story would be one of overcoming the monster. It used mythology (phoenix, etc).
    • 4/5
      Joe Hill is growing on me. I wasn't crazy about "Heart-Shaped Box," but enjoyed "NOS4A2." I will write his books do have "dragging" sections. Fireman is better than those two other books. The last sentence of these chapters got a bit predictable - in the sense they were semi spoilers for what is to come. The few times things happened where there were no warning were enjoyable. Especially when the lead female's evil husband showed up. I nearly dropped the book when that happened.
    • 4/5
      The Girl with All the Gifts meets Stephen King (and yes, I know the relationship, but a guy who repeatedly invokes how people have “forgotten the face of their fathers,” has the pregnant lead adopt a deaf boy named Nick, and names a journal-keeping, loutish character Harold Cross cannot complain—if you can’t escape comparison, why not lean in?). A fungal infection is destroying the world; the people who have it eventually start to smolder and burst into flames. Harper’s realization that she has it is closely tied to her realization that she’s pregnant. The dual revelations drive her turns-out-to-be-loutish husband into abuse and insanity; Harper escapes to a community of the infected who have figured out how to survive. But survival, which requires feeding the fungus with oxytocin, has its own costs—oxytocin can be produced in a lot of ways, including by attacking outsiders. A good, fast read with pretty standard “many people are awful in extremis and a few are very good” and “way too many men are sexist assholes, but the heroes aren’t” features, as is consistent with the models.
    • 4/5
      This hefty novel kept me engrossed for the entire length of its 747 pages. The story is about a contagion spreading throughout the world which causes people to spontaneously combust, and it focuses on a small group of infected people in New Hampshire. There are touches of true horror and evil, but also humor, strength, loyalty and love. As I neared the end of the book, I was concocting alternate endings in my mind, because I thought it was probably going to be an annoying, disappointing cliche. Instead, it was a gut-clencher and very satisfying. To those who like the horror/suspense/thriller genre, I would recommend this book.
    • 5/5
      A disease known as Dragonscale has grown to epidemic proportions. The infected have black and gold scrollwork markings on their skin which sometimes heats up. Sometimes the person goes up in flames. This can cause a chain reaction among those infected with the 'Scale so that an entire building can burn to the ground. Or a forest.Harper is a nurse trying her best to help those infected when she first meets The Fireman, who brings a deaf boy into the hospital for an illness not related to Dragonscale. Later, when Harper herself becomes infected, it is The Fireman who leads her to a commune full of infected who have learned how to live with the Dragonscale without burning up. While this community is welcoming to newcomers, it is of course cautious not to be found by outsiders who may lead the authorities to their doorstep.This book is terrific. While it won Goodreads' Readers' Choice Award for Horror books, I agree with the author that his isn't really a horror story. It's a survival story set in an apocalyptic world. I can't express enough the love I have for the main characters, or how much I want to punch the main antagonist.
    • 5/5
      The Fireman by Joe Hill is a very highly recommended apocalyptic novel about a pandemic, cults, and the end of the world.We are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion and there is no cure. Draco Incendia Trychophyton, nicknamed Dragonscale, is a spore that marks its human host with black and gold-flecked marks, like a fine intricate tattoo that spreads. Once infected those with Dragonscale are also quite likely to burst into flames. People and cities are on fire and the highly contagious plague is rapidly spreading. But panic is spreading faster and people can be even more ruthless than Dragonscale.Harper Grayson is a nurse who loves Mary Poppins. She was at an elementary school, until the school closes after a man wanders onto the playground and bursts into flames. She goes to work at a hospital, wearing full biohazard protective gear, in Concord, NH, until the hospital burns down. At the hospital, she met an enigmatic fireman with a British accent who brought in a child with appendicitis.Harper and Jakob, her husband, had a pact to take their own lives if either of them became infected. When Harper discovers that she is pregnant and then finds the telltale black and gold-flecked filigreed markings of Dragonscale, she decides she wants to live for the sake of her baby. At the hospital she saw infected mothers deliver healthy babies and she is sure she can survive long enough to do this. Her husband Jakob has other plans. He is losing his tenuous grip on his sanity and is sure she has infected him and that they both must die.Harper is rescued by The Fireman, aka John Rookwood. He, along with some masked helpers, takes her to Camp Wyndham. It used to be a summer camp, but now it houses a group of 'scale-marked survivors who have found a way to control the Dragonscale, although not to the extent that The Fireman can use it for his purposes. The camp has a cult-like hive-mind atmosphere, as the members sing to the Bright. But there are other cults developing across the land and Jakob joins with the Marlboro Man as part of the Cremation Squads who seek out those infected with Dragonscale and kill them.All people, left, right, pacifists, militant, any religion, racial group, or sexual orientation, are susceptible to cult-like group-think behavior. All of us. Even as some of us see or acknowledge the behavior, on all sides, that doesn't stop it. Hill has captured this truism with clarity in The Fireman while giving us a rousingly clever, brilliant story that is part science fiction, part horror, and part social commentary. It is a perfectly epic apocalyptic thriller. At 768 pages, I was surprised at how quickly I read The Fireman. I give credit to the exceptional writing, captivating story, wonderful, fully realized characters, and the astute, chilling realism of people's behavior in an inconceivable situation.There are a plethora of pop culture and literary references included in The Fireman. I found myself smiling when spotting them, and saying "Nice one, Joe." It'll be fun for other readers to find them while enjoying The Fireman.Disclosure: My trade paperback copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
    • 5/5
      I tentatively stepped into this story and was soon swallowed up by it. The characters were achingly real and the book so fast paced that I had to slow down when I reached the half-way mark so that I could savor it - I did not want it to end! Joe Hill is an amazing author who's been gifted with a talent that few possess. I always share my books with the few reader friends I have but this one will be hoarded for my personal library to be reread some day.
    • 5/5
      I am a huge fan of post apocalyptic novels. What would the world be like if it all went to crap one day? It all does in Joe Hill's novel, The Fireman, newly released in paperback. And I'm kicking myself for not reading this book in hardcover. Twenty pages in and I knew it was going to be an amazing read.A contagion referred to as Dragonscale is infecting people and causing them to, well, go up in smoke. Yes, it burns people alive. Most people that is. But there's a group who have figured how to survive and yes, even control the affliction. See it as a blessing even. They're in hiding from those who are healthy and determined to kill them off.Okay, that was a quick in a nutshell outline, but it doesn't even begin to touch the breadth, width, depth, scope and inventiveness of Joe Hill's plotting. Epic saga is a good descriptor. The reader's heart is firmly in the camp with the infected. Hill's cast of characters is just as deep and detailed as his plot. The Fireman is at the heart of it - a man who has figured out how to use the fire, to control it. Nurse Willowes is the other main character, a woman who gets calmer and cooler when the situation heats up - all the while singing Mary Poppins songs. They're our main two, but Hill has populated the book with a rich, wide, varied cast of characters - all detailed and each with their own part to play in the book. Good and bad. I love ensemble novels and The Fireman has a wealth of memorable players.So, I'm speeding through The Fireman - literally I can't put it down - and I hit page 500. And realize I am racing towards the end. And I don't want to finish the book. But I was helpless to stop reading. Hill is one heck of a storyteller. There was no 'down' time. The plot changes and evolves and keeps running faster and faster towards the inevitable outcome. Duplicity, danger and action are woven tightly together with love, friendship, loss - and survival. The final pages did not provide quite the ending I had hoped for, but it was the right one. Everything - plot, dialogue, descriptions and more flows so easily and effortlessly - Hill really has a way with words.One of my all time fave reads is Stephen King's The Stand. The Fireman has that same epic quest, journey of the embattled underdogs, post apocalyptic survival, battle of good and evil tone mixed with a little Lord of the Flies, The Walking Dead and a dash of Fahrenheit 451. Yup, one helluva hot read.It took Joe Hill four years to write the 750 pages of The Fireman - and it took me four days to devour it. Fans of The Stand and Justin Cronin's Passage series need to add The Fireman to the 'keeper' shelf of their home libraries. Now, this was my first Joe Hill book, but it sure isn't going to be my last.
    • 5/5
      Sometime in the near future/recent past, a deadly spore has begun spreading across the globe. When it embeds itself in a human, it creates distinctive tattoo-like skin markings and eventually causes its host to spontaneously combust. Nurse Harper Willowes, newly pregnant and newly infected with the Dragonscale spore, flees the "cremation crews" that roam the countryside and stumbles into a hidden community of infected people who have somehow learned to harness the infection without bursting into flames.The seeming utopia, in the tradition of literary utopias everywhere, turns out to be not quite what it seems, and Harper isn't sure who she can trust after all. The titular Fireman is the wiseacre fellow who brings Harper to the community, and who seems to have learned not only how to avoid going up in smoke but actually to control and direct the incendiary infection, although he's reluctant to share that particular secret with the group.I really enjoyed this one. It's weird and suspenseful and funny, and it didn't overly strain my suspension of disbelief. The only thing that would have made it better for me would have been a little more attention to the "big picture" of how the Dragonscale spore was affecting the world outside of the little corner of New England where the book is set. Highly recommended for fellow fans of dystopian fiction.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this one, but it definitely dragged at times. It reminded me of The Stand in a lot of ways. The disease that is infecting everyone is called Dragonscale and it was beautifully described! There are also some similarities with The Walking Dead. In extreme situations people don't really change, they just become a more extreme version of themselves. People who are cruel become more so. I loved some of the characters, from a pregnant woman, to a grieving mysterious man, to a young mute boy, to an older woman who finds love; the cast was diverse.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this, although I wouldn't say it's great writing or even very unique. I found a lot of similarities to The Stand, which I guess if you are going to follow a standard for a post apocalypse story The Stand is a great one to take from. Even though it's rather huge I found it to be a quick read and I really loved some of the characters. Unfortunately I predicted the ending pretty exactly, which I was a little disappointed about.Overall I recommend it if you like post apocalypse books, but don't expect spectacular writing and just enjoy the story for what it is.
    • 5/5
      I received an e-arc of this book last week. I finally started to read it last night and couldn't put it down. Nowadays, that kind of book, one so good, is a very rare find for me. Even good books, I can put aside when I should be sleeping but not this one.

      The novel is a fascinating twist on the 'end of the world as we know it' genre. It isn't a prepper tale- a weak frame of a novel supporting prepping instructions (what foods to store, how to store them, what weapons to stockpile, etc.). While the novel explores shades of religious fanaticism and 'end times' human psychology, it is done in a recognizable setting with a tint of fantasy and horror that cushions the lessons the author wants you to leave then novel with.

      The ending surprised me- not exactly the way I wanted the end to be for certain characters that I couldn't help but become invested in, but it was done very well. I can't recall the release date for this novel, but I think it is soon. Go pre-order a copy, you won't be disappointed.

    • 5/5
      The book that goes on and on and on. Great story. World building is great with an incurable disease. Likeable and hateful characters move the story along,
    • 3/5
      Was prompted to listen to this after listening to an interview with Joe Hill about it that I found intriguing. Had not read any of his books before. Kate Mulgrew narrates the audiobook and she is phenomenal. Some great passages that were quotable and thought provoking, and found the basic premise interesting, but too much gore and absurdity for me.
    • 2/5
      I have read and enjoyed Joe Hill's previous work. The best thing I can say about this book is that I finished it. The premise sounded great. A plague has infected the world in the form of dragon scale which causes it's sufferers to burn alive. Nurse Harper Willows finds herself pregnant and infected. She barely escapes from an attempt on her life by the baby's father and she is determined to bring her baby into the post apocalyptic hell. She begins a journey to find a safe place to have her baby and along the way encounters the titular fireman who some how has manged to control his dragon scale. The bulk of the book is filled with characters who deal with the affliction in very different ways. At times the book had a very Walking Dead vibe, kill the inflicted, fear those who aren't. The last 100 pages were probably the best of the whole book. It gave a glimpse into how great this story could have been if the author had tightened the story and removed about half the book. Like his father Joe loves to throw in random pop culture references like Harry potter (a lot), Game of Thrones, and Hunger Games. He went too far when he killed J.K. Rowling who of course nobly spent the last months of her life trying to save as many dragon scale victims as possible. I don't know what Joe Hill's fascination is with Martha Quinn, a person I have not given a thought to since the 80's. The thought that the book would get better is what drove me to the end. I think there was a really good story here but it got lost in a lack of editing. The characters were not developed and I didn't care about any of them and couldn't describe them because they were all indistinct. The one character I cared about, the orange cat, was killed off, thanks Joe. That pretty much sums it up for me, I cared more about a cat in this book than any of the characters. It will be a long time before I pick up another Joe hill book. I am sincerely hoping your daddy doesn't let me down with The Outsider.
    • 4/5
      So I read this as it was someone else’s pick for the ‘Horror Postal Book Club’ I’m in, and my first reaction when I received it was ‘oh my goodness, this book is huge’. It happened to be the first Joe Hill novel I’ve got around to reading, and it really was a wild ride. A long one.It feels dystopian, apocalyptic, and sometimes sci-fi, and has huge sections that have a lot of action, but then it also felt quite slow in parts. I definitely feel like it could have been a lot less than 762 pages to get the story told. Since I’ve journaled my way through my reading of this for my book club (we are mailing the book to each other; all the way from Singapore to me in Seattle, and back to out to Asia by way of BC, Germany, and Spain), I won’t babble too much here, especially since there are tons of reviews. My next Joe Hill will have to be NOS4A2, so I’d love to see how his writing compares between novels. This is entirely entertaining (and depressing, in too many ways!), but not the quickest read. *Note: I don’t like it when the Space Needle gets hurt in books...