The Fireman

A Novel

By: Joe Hill

Narrated by: Kate Mulgrew

Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

From the award-winning, New York Times best-selling 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 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 firefighter'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.

©2016 Joe Hill (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

GOD'S WAITING ROOM; AKA FLORIDA

GLEN BECK BURNS TO DEATH ON TV, HIS GLASSES MELTED TO HIS FACE
This was a miss for Mr. Hill. He had plenty of pop culture from my age and I liked the references to Ray Bradbury. I was kinda of wondering why someone of his age would be enthralled with Mary Poppins? It is going to take more than a spoon full of sugar to get through this, as the book, smolders more than burns..

Mulgrew, like usual was a plus. She is one of my favorites.

No good

Well in the beginning I liked it. But it soon turned boring, and long winded. Maybe I was hoping for something more like his previous books- Which I loved!- But this one had nothing like those books. The last 5-6 hours I just wanted it to be over. Kate Mulgrew thoe is exelent!

// Daniel. Sweden

Good story idea but drags on on and unpleasant to listen too

This book just would not end - it seemed to go on forever and the narrator just didn't help. I love Kate Mulgrew but her voice is just too harsh and penetrating to make a pleasant listening experience. Her voice became terribly loud and grating when she read sections with shouting and the singing was painful to the ears.
I made it through but it was a real slog. I just couldn't get into this book.
The story itself was very intriguing and I think could be really great with some more editing. The other characters were OK but some were too over the top and one dimensional.
I wish I could have liked this book more.

Do you know your friends and neighbors?

This was a really thought provoking book. How well do we know the people we surround ourselves with? When things go bad do you know how your friends will act? How will you act?
Kate Mulgrew did a fantastic job reading this book as she always does. The narration and production value was top notch.

Meh

I’m a fan of Joe Hill but this book is super heavy on drama and not so heavy on interest... I’m not a fan of this story

Incredible Story Wonderfully Read

I have to wonder, could I survive an Apocalypse with nothing except for the clothes on my back?
Joe Hill truly is his Father's Son. Wonderfully believable story and Kate Mulgrew is Awesome as always.

A little disappointed

I didn't particularly care for the story overall. I thought with such a cool premise that Joe could turn out a much better written piece.

I've read Locke & Key, NOS4A2, and Horns (all of which I enjoyed), so I expected that I would enjoy this one, but I found the pacing slow and that the story never really went anywhere.

At times I found the reader's voice annoying. This is my first audiobook, and I'm not sure if the reading or the novel itself was the bigger issue. In the end, I decided it was the novel more than Kate.

I wouldn't recommend this novel if you're a Joe Hill fan—you'll be sorely disappointed.

Great story, terrible voice

Love Joe Hill and I loved this story! However I just could not abide the narration. Kate Mulgrew sounds like a 50 year raspy smoker which made her character voices almost unbearable. There are so many amazing female narrators out there that I'm really baffled by the choice. Still, a great book by a great author.

Well written but disappointing

I kept waiting for the awesomeness to shine, but it hovered just underneath. Liked the premise of the story and was eager to keep listening, but it never wowed me. Not a fan of the narrator... Her affected speech is beautiful, but felt like a distraction, and it sounded like the characters were always verging on tears.

Predictable and heavy handed.

Disappointed. I enjoyed Joe Hill's other books, but felt that this one is very predictable and heavy handed.