GREAT follow up!

after following the stories of the Sun, Star and Moon dwellers this series came in my suggested list. it sat in my wish list for a while,I was not convinced I'd enjoy it. how much is too much? after a break for some other adventures I figured I'd give it a try. starting with the first of these three it took me just 2 weeks to devour them.
I don't think it matters which series you start with as after finishing this one I believe it would've been okay either way. though there ARE things that I caught in this series that made me glad I'd heard the Dwellers saga first.
give it a go, if you liked The Dwellers you'll like this!

2 people found this helpful

Imaginative take on post-apocolyptic society

Fire Country follows a small village of hunters who live in post-apocalyptic America hundreds of years after a meteror strike. The main character, Sienna, is a girl who is an outcast and ultimately doesn't want to follow the path expected of her by her father or her society.

This book is full of action and some mystery. It not only covers Sienna's struggles, but also her village being in several battles and attacks from those who mean to eradicate them. Most of the characters were very interesting and some showed some amazing growth. A few were somewhat flat the whole way through (Sienna's father, for one). Unfortunately, Sienna's situations are often of her own doing, and she doesn't grow quite as much as she could of.

The novel tries to tackle a lot of complex themes like family, law, what is expected of you, choices one must make to survive, etc.

When I first heard the narration, I was taken aback by the very strong southern accent. It wasn't at all what I expected of the character and I found it quite distracting. However, after a few hours I got used to it and Ms. Hvam actually did a great job expressing SIenna's sass and those moments of extreme duress.

This is one of my favorite series and only gets better in future books.

2 people found this helpful

Love this series!!!

Wow, this book blew my breath away. It had everything I wanted in a book. I’m confused about which series of David’s I love more. The Dwellers or this one. I will say as much as I love Adele and Tristan (and their circumstances were quite different), I love the relationship between Sienna and Circ. It was just, amazing.

The story had me on an emotional runaway train. There were highs and lows and everything in between. Siena was a strong character which much to lose and little to gain, yet she did what needed to be done when needed. She’s the kind of character I admire. And it’s been a long time since I felt this way. (Rose from Vampire Academy the only other one).

There are many lessons to learn and several characters to love and an equal number to hate. It will be interesting to see where this series goes. I absolutely can’t wait.
Overall, FANTASTIC!

My book boyfriend Circ.

The narration was fantastic. I've listened to this narrators as Jane in the Jane Yellowrock series as well as another urban fantasy series. So it took a moment to hear those voices and not associate them with the other characters.

2 people found this helpful

Brilliant performance, loved this!

Having read Fire Country twice before in print, I still wasn't prepared for the breathtaking performance of Khristine Vham as Siena. This is without a doubt my favorite audiobook EVER!

I was driving home from a late night work meeting when I got to those final chapters. The emotional depth of Khristine's performance was so brilliant and I was so immersed in this world and her voice that I almost missed my turnoff. Plus to make it worse, my eyes were leaking and full of water. I'm surprised I made it home in one piece, not even counting that I was an emotional wreck. Such a beautiful story even without the incredible narration.

So what's this story about? From my first review from my print read: The Heaters tribe live in a hard cruel world full of toxic air that gives them each a life expectancy of about 32 years. Siena is a 15 year old girl who is a pre-bearer and will become a Bearer shortly after her 16th birthday. The story follows Siena's journey and at times I laughed out loud at her antics, especially conversations with her friend "Perry". And, dang you, Estes... I cried like a baby at other parts of Siena's hard journey!

Estes' creative descriptive writing talent had me gagging, sweating, laughing and crying right along with his wonderful characters. And the slang he's created had me giggling and I've even found myself using bits and pieces of the Heaters' more unsavory terms myself. ;-)


Now I have to wait a couple of weeks before the audio of Ice Country is released. I'll be pacing waiting for the audio to drop into my audible app! Based on the sample we got a taste of at the end of Fire Country, I'm in for another ride!! Can't wait!!

2 people found this helpful

Great narration enhances story

3.5 stars. Solid start to a new series. I am a huge fan of strong female leads so of course I just loved Siena. Having read the Chaos Walking series it was very easy for me to jump into the strange dialect here and think it added to the world building. Speaking of world building, I really liked the world Mr. Estes created and was able to picture it in my mind easily. I do feel there is still a lot of unexplained portions of this "new world" but then again this is the first book in the series and I am more than certain we will get some answers as the books progress. I liked the humor thrown in and enjoyed all the main characters.SPOILER I did feel her father's repentance at the end was a little off because he seemed to have no heart to me but he was dying so who knows! . This was a re-read for me as an audio and the narrator did a fantastic job capturing Siena.

1 person found this helpful

Love this story

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, it's a great story

What was one of the most memorable moments of Fire Country?

The wilds. I just want to be with them!

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Range of voice.

Disliked how old the narrator sounded. Didn't mesh well with the idea of Sienna being young.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

idk

Any additional comments?

Love this story.

1 person found this helpful

Exceptional narration

Let me start by saying that I was given this book for review by the author. He's a friend, but my opinions are my own.

This was my second time to follow Siena on her adventures in Fire Country. But this time I did it through the voice of Khristine Hvam, who was fantastic. I'm an avid audiobook listener and I am picky about narrators. But Hvam was spot on with every inflection, every phrase, every character. She brought this story to life in a way that far outdid my experience with the ebook. If I were to rate the book on the narration alone, it would easily get 5 stars.

But I'm not rating this on the narration alone, and the book has some flaws. It's as if it gets in its own way thru the telling of the story. It starts with language that is unique to the world of Fire Country. This includes not just terms for various things, but also a lot of slang and curse words that are done in the vernacular of the world. The dialogue is done with an accent that, while familiar somewhat (backwoods Southern America), was hard to understand. I felt like I needed to learn a new language in order to listen and that held me back from being drawn into the story.

Siena as a main character is difficult describe because she is drawn in such a contradictory way. She daydreams in class and gets punished, which makes me think she's got her head in the clouds. She comes home and wants the comfort of her mother's arms after having been in an altercation with classmates, so she's a softer soul. But when her father calls her to account for her actions (and how they embarrassed him as a community leader), she speaks back to him disrespectfully. The softer daydreaming mouse is suddenly is talking back to her dad when she knows he will beat her? Where did this backbone come from? From what we knew of her earlier, she should have been terrified of her father to the point where she'd cower. There was no continuity there with her personality and no observation from others around her to give her behavior any credence.

Siena's father is generally a villain. And yet at one point Siena states that he has become someone that is not the father she once knew when she was small. Apparently then he was loving, caring, a great dad. But the character we get to know has no trace of that kind of person in him. We don't get the connection from that person to the villain because there isn't enough back story or commentary from secondary characters to establish the change. Again, there is a lack of continuity in the development of the character.

Despite those flaws, the story is an entertaining one. There is somewhat of a disconnect between the harsh treatment Siena receives and her response to it. It's a bite with no sting. The story tries hard to be rough and edgy. But Siena's optimism and youth gives it a softness that lightens up the plot too much. It's as if it can't decide what it wants to be.

The plot is full of action which plays out nicely. The world is vivid. It's easy to envision and the book is generally hard to put down. Estes is good at tension as a scene develops, even working with characters that are undefined. And in the end, it's an enjoyable read - especially with Khristine Hvam at the microphone.

1 person found this helpful

Sync to Echo

I loved the book, but the sync to the Echo doesn’t work right for this book. I’ve not had issues before, but figured I’d let y’all know.

i like this authors books, but this one was hard.

7 hrs of abuse and attempted rape, even in a constructed culture, is hard reading.

Vivid characterizations Brilliantly performed

This is my first experience with this performer but it will definitely not be my last! With very good material she was able to bring our protagonist to full life! Not since "Hunger Games" have I wanted to hug and care for a character. I will never forget her or this powerful performance by a very talented artist!