A Spark Off The Old Block!

An epic, smoke-filled, blazing star of a book! Joe Hill brings something different to the post-Apocalyptic genre. A creeping disease of deadly fire backed with strong and fully rounded characters. A story that follows a small number of survivors as they try to negotiate the two tier society of the “infected” and the “healthy”.

Although epic in length Hill never really tries to encompass the global impact of such a crisis. Instead he works his characters through scenes that are increasingly harrowing and with growing levels of incendiary violence and poetically described horror. There are scenes particularly in the church that will have the hairs on the back of your neck quivering! He brings through the polarisation of human nature and at one point even seems to ape an Orwellian feel casting echoes of the brilliant Animal Farm. This is about journeys of discovery. It’s about people who can cope with the situation no matter what it throws at them, people whose baser nature is brought to the fore by the situation and even those that are crushed by it.

In amongst the tension, violence and horror there are genuine periods spent developing the characters and their relationships. These sections may at times seem flatter but I don’t think they are wasted and they add to the overall feel of the book. I’ll confess it did feel a bit out of place having a lead character with much of Mary Poppins within her. You’ll see what I mean not long into the book. Even that however won me over as it provided a delicious incongruence to the abject horror of some of the scenes. A spoonful of sugar to take to ward off the sheer nastiness and unrelenting hatred of some of the less pleasant characters. A really clever touch.

The narration by Kate Mulgrew is very, very good. I can only imagine how hard it is to keep up that level of intensity across practically a solid day’s worth of narration. She doesn’t have the greatest of variety in character voicings but she does convey tension, excitement and emotion extremely well.

In summary, an excellent novel, much like his father’s in many ways but with his own originality quite literally burned in. The acid test for a book I often find is how much I want the characters to come out of it and believe me I was cheering for these ones!

This book will keep you guessing right to the very end about who might survive and who might not. An excellent effort and I shall look forwards to more from Joe Hill. I guess we should expect no less from the son of the master of such fiction!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not stop listening when the credits start at the end . . . .

34 people found this helpful

This book is on fire...

Another brilliant book by Joe Hill read by Kate Mulgrew the only female narrator I will listen to. Reading the title you would expect the book to be something different. It is exciting and fast paced and something new. It gives you feelings of horror, sadness and empathy. Just couldn't put it down, was sorry when it ended.

8 people found this helpful

Easter Egg Bonus

Make sure you listen past the acknowledgements as there is a great wee extra.

It must annoy him to say, but he does take after his dad. This was Under the Dome via The Stand and the nutty religious woman in The Mist.

A plague has hit and various groups arise like Lord of the Flies, pretty much any man for himself in some cases. A pregnant nurse makes it to a safe haven where she meets The Fireman who seems to have a supernatural control of his plague.

A good listen, but again, a bad English accent from the American narrator.

7 people found this helpful

The Stand mk2?.....but nowhere near as good

A pregnant heroine & Nick the deaf mute travelling through Maine with a raggedy band fleeing plague. Big , bad Harold and his diary? "My life for you!"...and if I remember rightly there was even a Gasmask Man. It's a good job Stephen King is his dad or young Joe would be facing a massive lawsuit!
Otherwise, reasonably good story even if British accent is worse than Dick Van Dykes chimneysweep!

6 people found this helpful

Words fail ( actually they don't really!!) as so excellent

This is one of the best apocalypse/survival book I have ever heard. Some of the book premises stretch credibility but Joe Hills' attention to detail is sooooo good that you buy into his vision. Storyline consistently interesting which doesn't apply to some less imaginative authors. Kate Mulgrew provides an excellent sound track and has the rare ability of giving each individual their own character ... No mean feat when there are so many ... Making it easy to follow. Dramatic interpretation is excellent.

5 people found this helpful

On fire!

This is one of the best books I've ever had the pleasure of making my way through. Great self contained tale, superbly written and expertly performed. nothing bad to say about it. Gripped from the first chapter to the last!

4 people found this helpful

This is an awful book, badly performed

Weak main character, no development to speak of.
Extremely stupid premise.
Sluggish and dreary storytelling by the author.
Everything is tragedy 100 % of the time.
The "twist" about the fireman (phoenix) is intensely, insanely dumb and the effort to suspend your disbelief is impossible.
This felt like a complete waste of my time.
The narrator could have lifted this book by reading some life into the main character, but instead she made her sulky, whiny and generally intolerable.

4 people found this helpful

Not Good

This book is not good. It's so slow and just goes nowhere. I stopped after 5 hours. Just painful.

3 people found this helpful

Really enjoyed it.

I bought it by accident, thinking it was another book, but thought I'd try it, as apocalyptic genre doesn't normally interest me. But so glad I did. It is long but I become hooked. Basically it is a story of survival in a world divided by the infected with Dragon scale and the uninfected who are scared and just want to be rid of the infected. it is a tale of survival, friendships, betrayal, heroics (though a little far fetched at times but the whole story is!) And of course love.

2 people found this helpful

Not a classic, very poor narration

What would have made The Fireman better?

The narrator should not have tried to do accents, her English was cringe making. Joe's grasp of a story here was poor, filling it in with quotes from old songs to add a little atmosphere & some of the writing was adolescent at best.

Has The Fireman put you off other books in this genre?

no

What didn’t you like about Kate Mulgrew’s performance?

She was making the most of a really poorly written script, but her English accent was beyond the pale, every time the Fireman had something to say I wanted to fast forward.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It had potential to be a great story, but the narrator just put me totally off.

Any additional comments?

Really poorly written, including, at one stage, a woman who had just given birth being described as "sore".

2 people found this helpful