The Fireman audiobook

The people in charge can always justify doing terrible things in the name of the greater good. A slaughter here, a little torture there. It becomes moral to do things that would be immoral if an ordinary individual did ‘em. They have been trying to take us down for quite a while. Some may enjoy the end of the world (EotW) arriving in the form of an incoming asteroid. Hey, it worked for the dinosaurs. Alien invasion is always popular. Very big in the 50s, whether by maleficent alien civilizations or maybe a nice juicy mobile plant of the triffid variety. Viruses have been pretty big the last few decades, global pandemics, whether of alien or Terran origin. Zombie apocalypse is all the rage today, whether the zombies are animated by a force of nature or not. How an author takes us from the pre-disaster here through the horrors to there, wherever or whenever there may be, is the fun. But many of these entertainments carry a stowaway. EotW tales exist not only to titillate, and elevate our blood pressure, but to deliver a core of perspective along with the fun. The collapse of civilization is a favorite mechanism for writers looking at the core of human nature. Imaginative tales go to extremes to point out things about the here and now. Joe Hill - from USA Today Joe Hill has come up with a truly ingenious mechanism for bringing about his apocalyptic vision. Draco incendia trychophyton is a spore with some unusual properties. (smoothly rolling off the tongue not being one of them) The skin of people who have been exposed to it erupts in what looks like burger meat that has been way, way overcooked, interspersed with lines of gold. The affliction comes to be called “Dragonscale,” or ‘scale for short. It gets worse. Not long after initial exposure, most of the afflicted spontaneously combust. The spore spreads like wildfire, and soon the entire world is ablaze. This Freightliner snow plow could be better called a Frightliner for its use here Harper Grayson, a school nurse, is practically perfect in every way. She is both kind and firm with her young patients, an admirable combination she employs when dealing with adults as well. Her hero is, of course, Mary Poppins. Throughout the 747 pages of this book (the page count may vary with the edition), there are many references to P.L. Travers’ magical nanny, too many to list here. But you should know that Harper totes her belongings in a carpet bag, once had a dog named Bert, and in the imagined film of the story of her life, she wants to be played by Julie Andrews. In an interview for his last book, Hill said I was thinking about Lon Chaney who had line about, “There’s nothing funny about a clown at midnight.” I think that’s part of the horror writer’s job: to create unsettling juxtapositions. You find something that seems harmless and innocent, and pair it with aspects that are disturbing. Christmas is a joyous occasion, it’s a time of pleasure and family, but there’s something about Christmas songs in the middle of the summer that’s not quite right.- from Nightmare Magazine interviewThe juxtaposition of Harper’s Disney-ish aspect, which stops just short of animated bluebirds chirping away on her shoulders, adds a nice dollop of sweet to the sour of the apocalyptic landscape. Harper and her husband, Jakob, have talked about ending their lives themselves rather than burning to death like the Dragonscale sufferers. But when she discovers that she is pregnant, the appearance of tell-tale black-and-gold on her skin presents not a death sentence, but a challenge. She has seen ‘scaled mothers deliver uninfected babies, and hopes she can too. Jakob has other plans. The Fireman of the title is John Rookwood. Harper first encounters him when he insists on crashing the very long line outside the hospital where she is working, (after the school has been shut down) carrying a boy with a severe illness. Later, as vigilante groups spring up to exterminate the infected, so-called Cremation Squads, he leads her to a place of safety. John’s talents extend beyond being handy with a halligan, being kind and protective toward children, and looking steamy in a yellow slicker. He can control his dragonscale, and do some pretty interesting things with it. You wouldn’t want to make his blood boil. John still carries a torch, though, for his old flame. It may not be a roque mallet, but John’s halligan comes in pretty handyThe Fireman can be read on at least two levels. On the surface, this is a can’t-put-it-down amazing scifi/horror adventure, a barn-burner of a read, exciting, fun, and very, very scary. It will keep you flipping the pages so fast you might generate sparks. (I recommend reading with a glass or bottle of non-alcoholic liquid near to hand) Harper is a wonderful character. I mean, really, a young nurse, pregnant, fleeing dark forces, while trying to figure out how dragonscale works and how it might be controlled, a woman who is the epitome of cheerful and positive, in a very bleak time, just hoping to live long enough to deliver her baby into the hands of people who can care for him or her. Add a damaged hero in John, an ally who can help her find a haven, if one really exists, but who comes with a bucket brigade of baggage. Good guys, bad guys and plenty in-between, a lot of action and a wealth of creativity. All that said, there is something more going on here. This is not just some cozy catastrophe in which a group of survivors carve out a manageable modus vivendi in the shadow of global horror. Hill is not only looking to give his readers a good scare. He wants to offer something more substantive. The Fireman delivers what the best speculative fiction provides, a look at contemporary reality through the lens of fantasy. John brings Harper to a place where others with ‘scale have come together, for group support and defense. The place is called Camp Wyndham. And for those to whom the name is unfamiliar, it might help to know that John Wyndham was the author of a 1957 novel, The Midwich Cuckoos. You might know it better as the film Village of the Damned. The lovely kids in this tale, of dubious parentage, are possessed of a group consciousness. Members of the Camp Wyndham community, all with ‘scale, have found that under certain circumstances the spore allows them to join into a joyous group rapture they call The Bright. This entails a loss of self, which not everyone is all that thrilled about, somewhere between the ecstatic experience of a full-bore revival meeting and a hive mind. Hill also references Jack Finney’s book, made into multiple film versions, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers Carol said, “Sometimes when I’m in The Bright, I would swear I feel my [late] sister standing right next to me, close enough so I could lay my head on her shoulder, like I used to. When we shine, they all come back to us, you know. The light we make together shows everything that was ever lost to the darkness.Harper clamped down on a shudder. When they spoke of The Bright, they had all the uncomplicated happiness of pod people. When we lose ourselves in a group-think situation, morality goes out the window. Why have a head at all if you only use it to ditto someone else’s psychotic rage? The relevance to our world is blazingly clear, whether the group be political or religious. There be dragons there. And there is a very real question of whether cooler heads will prevail.There is consideration as well of how people reach out to help those in pain or in danger. Maybe like the way Chris Christie locked up a nurse returning to the USA after she had been helping Ebola victims in Africa. In addition to seeing the ‘scalers as infected, see them as unwanted immigrants, as a despised class. See them as Syrian refugees fleeing civil war. See them as Costa Rican children fleeing north to keep from being forcibly drafted into drug gangs. Even a Trump-sized wall cannot keep out a global pandemic. Fear can usually be counted on to drown out most kinder impulses, often with the assistance of small arms. We get a taste of this here, as Cremation Squads do for spore victims what the SS did for Jews and others, or what, I am sure, many Tea-Baggers and militia groups would love to do to progressives, immigrants, members of the LGBT community, and ethnic and religious minorities here in the USA. Erstwhile residents of Auschwitz might recognize how some of the constabulary treat their prisoners in Hill’s dark landscape. All the nastiness is done with the eager support and encouragement, even participation, of a particularly sociopathic hate radio jock, broadcasting on a radio station with appropriate call letters. Hill tips his hat to luminary writers who have written about despotism and apocalypse. In addition to John Wyndham, noted above, a boat is named for Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale and the MaddAddam series. Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago gets a mention, as does Cormac McCarthy, for The Road. There are almost certainly more of these.Over his entire oeuvre, Hill has demonstrated considerable glee in referencing the popular culture in which he was raised. MTV VJ Martha Quinn gets a lot of ink. Song, TV and movie references abound. But his largest source of material here is Disney. The Mary Poppins references in support of Harper’s character are legion. But there are plenty of others, including Toy Story, and a somewhat more oblique reference to Pinocchio. A ref to a classic Coke commercial also resonates, creepily. He even references his own work a bit. I spotted one link to NOS4A2, but I bet there are plenty more. I did not check the DNA of character names against the Stephen-King-Joe-Hill-character-database (there probably is one) of names used in their books, but generally, Joe has taken to tossing in refs to his dad’s work. These are always fun to spot. The writing of one particular character here is very reminiscent of Jack Torrance’s magnum opus in The Shining. Not so much the form, but the impact, and the revelation it contains about that character. As with the haunted Torrance, this guy blames others for all his problems. And shining is referenced as well, although of a sort different from that possessed by Danny at the Overlook, when the Camp Wyndham folks link up in The Bright. Hill has even said of The Fireman “it’s my version of The Stand, soaked in gasoline and set on fire.” So what comes next? Fire is often used as a cleansing image, in nature and religion. Burning the earth, as Maine, and the world, is scorched, may allow new growth, in the same way that new growth arrived in the years after Mount St Helen’s blew. Is that a factor here? Cleaning via fire so something new can grow? I won’t burn the ending for you, but it did suggest that Hill will be adding some logs to the flames of this story in future volumes. No inside intel, just a guess. I am tempted to suggest that readers of The Fireman will feel the burn, but that might imply that Hill has indicated a preference in the Democratic primary for Bernie Sanders. He has not. But I can say that The Fireman is certain to be both one of the hottest books of the year, and one of the coolest.Review posted March 25, 2016Publication date – May 7, 2016=============================EXTRA STUFFIn the epigraph to the novel. Hill includes three diverse quotes, one from Springsteen, one from Mary Poppins, and one from Fahrenheit 451. All were sources of inspiration. It should come as no surprise that before settling on the final title, the original name for Bradbury’s classic was “The Fireman.”Links to the author’s personal, Instagram and Tumblr pagesYou can read an excerpt from the book on Entertainment WeeklyInterviews----- Joe Hill Calls Bullshit On The Crazy Artist Cliché on Buzzfeed – by Haley Campbell----- Pouring Gasoline On the Fire With Horror Author Joe Hill on Writers Bone – by Sean Tuohy-----Interview: Joe Hill (Part 1) by The Geeks Guide to the Galaxy for Nightmare: Horror and Dark FantasyReviews of other Joe Hill Books-----Full Throttle-----Strange Weather-----NOS4A2 -----20th Century Ghosts-----Heart-Shaped Box December 6, 2016 - The Fireman is voted the GoodReads Choice award winner for Best Horror book of 2016

”...Her left arm was sheet music. Delicate black lines spooled around and around her forearm, bars as thin as the strands of a spiderweb, with what looked like golden notes scattered across them. She found herself pulling her sleeve back to look at it every few minutes. By the end of the following week, she was sketched in Dragonscale from wrist to shoulder. When she got over feeling winded and sick, she had to admit to herself that it was curiously beautiful.” When Harper Grayson comes down with Dragonscale, A.K.A. Draco Incendia Trychophyton, it is a death sentence. The contagion spreads quickly through the body, wrapping its tendrils around the skin, leaving behind these beautiful shimmering scales that eventually start to smoke until they reach a certain maturity or the person comes under a large amount of stress. They then spontaneously combust, experience cellular combustion, develop contagion points, and disease vectors are produced. We can be as scientific as we want to be, but the end result is the infected turn to ash. This disease is highly contagious. When one person lights up, it can cause a chain reaction where anyone with dragonscale in the area joins the inferno. When the crisis hit, Harper volunteers at the local hospital wanting to help anyway she can. She is careful, wears a hazmat suit, but the problem is there is a lot of conflicting information on how the contagion is spread. Almost simultaneously with learning she has dragonscale, she discovers she is pregnant. Joy crushed by the certainty of death. The disease moves so fast in most people that it wouldn’t be the right time to start reading War & Peace or Infinite Jest. You might want to think more in terms of The Bridge Over San Luis Rey.Her condescending, but loving, husband Jakob is furious. He becomes fixated on them ending their lives now even though he doesn’t have the contagion. There is much more to be learned about Jakob, so as you read the book, be sure to keep a baseball bat hidden down the back of your leg because you are probably going to need it. ”Harper supposed it did not pay to be too impressed with a man just because he could ride a unicycle.” A good rule of thumb for every woman to keep in mind. :-) People are dying so fast in such numbers few are not directly affected. Those who live lose as much or more than those who die. Too many people are gone too quickly. ”We are taught to think of personality as a singular, private possession. All the ideas and beliefs and attitudes that make you you--we are raised to believe them to be a set of files stored in the lockbox of the brain. Most people have no idea how much of themselves they store off-site. Your personality is not just a matter of what you know about yourself, but what others know about you. You are one person with your mother, and another with your lover, and yet another with your child. Those other people create you--finish you--as much as you create you. When you’re gone, the ones you’ve left behind get to keep the same part of you they always had.”You may still have that part of the people you have lost, but it is like having a garden without water or having a flower in the window that the sun never reaches. Without seeing that person, revitalizing that connection, eventually it will wither and die. With the help of a man referred to as the Fireman, Harper finds her way to a small community of followers who have figured out how to control the disease. ”Cortisol kicks off spontaneous combustion. But oxytocin--the social-networking hormone--puts the Dragonscale at ease.” In other words, stress releases cortisol which inflames the disease, but oxytocin, produced by say singing together, turns the disease into a benign light show.I’d be humming the Sound of Music 24/7. On the outside of the community is a radio personality who calls himself the Marlboro Man. He has assembled a crew of executioners who travel around looking for the infected so they can eradicate them. There are always those people who are kept in check by society, but once civilization starts to crumble, their true nature emerges, and we discover that what they really like to do is kill people. The fear of the infection is just an excuse for them to drop the pretenses surrounding their own warped and blackened soul and be who they have always wanted to be...a killer. Things go well at the community of the infected for a while, but as always seems to happen with human beings, eventually a power struggle breaks out. The camp breaks into factions. The one man who can actually control the dragonfire and use it as a weapon, the Fireman, is the man they all respect/fear. He lives with the community, but on an island away from the rest of them. He has his own demons he is wrestling with, and fire is just one of them. As the world goes up in flames and the sanctuary community starts to come apart, the only beacon of hope is Martha Quinn’s voice, a blast from MTV of the 1980s, broadcasting over the radio about a sanctuary on an island off the coast of New England. To get there will become an odyssey as arduous as navigating the terrain from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The author Joe HillI am a huge fan of post-apocalyptic books. It is a part of me I’m still exploring to determine exactly why I find them uplifting. Is there a twisted part of my psyche that wants the civilised world to end? Am I as crazy as the Cotton Mather followers of the early 18th century? Am I so bored with my existence that I feel a good end of world scenario would shake me out of my doldrums? I don’t think I suffer from any of those things, but self-delusion is always a good possibility. I think what is more likely is that I like seeing humanity when their backs are against the wall, their ass is stuck in the darkest, deepest crack, and absolute annihilation of the human species is on the verge of becoming a reality, and we find a way to survive. If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.comI also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten

5 Stars.An absolutely stellar novel by Joe Hill! Vastly different than all of his other books & superbly well written! I didn't want it to end. REVISED: 6.12.17.I listened to the audiobook version in two days last week (which is now available on Hoopla) even though I've already read the book. I couldn't help myself - the incredible Kate Mulgrew narrated it and she also narrated Joe Hill's NOS4A2. She made that book sound even scarier than it already was - thus listening to The Fireman was kind of irresistible. The audiobook version of The Fireman and "Dragonscale" was much more horrific, more real. When I was listening, I could see it happening all around me. Like in a Science Fiction novel.. one I couldn't run away from and oddly enough, given the premise, didn't want to. Draco Incendia Trychophyton, aka, Dragonscale, or the 'Scale. It's kind of like a superbug that everyone catches because it's highly contagious and it's discovered by interesting black and gold markings on one's skin, causing those who are afflicted to burst into flames. It's caused by a spore that floats through the air via ash, and once everyone catches it, they spontaneously combust into flames, The premise is totally wicked. And scary as hell.The Fireman, is in my opinion the most sophisticated novel Joe Hill has written to date. The main characters are extremely well developed and well written: Nurse Harper Willowes is a fierce, strong willed, standout heroine. Allie is one heck of an incredibly tough teen who doesn't take any sh&t from anyone. The Fireman, John Rookwood's, ability to control the fire burning from within is truly amazing but all of his human flaws, that is what makes him a man. And Nick - the little boy who lost his mom and shut down against almost everyone - and then in the face of the gravest danger, does what he has to do to take care of the only family he has left. That's powerful stuff! And then there's Jakob, Nurse Willowes, husband. He's becomes obsessed; with trying not to contract Dragonscale, and trying to murder his wife because she is a carrier of the disease and is also pregnant. In my opinion, this novel flows in a way that none of his other books have yet to achieve. And even with that, I can't say that this is my favorite Joe Hill novel, though I liked it a lot. I gave it 5 stars for his writing style being much improved and for the truly interesting idea of a spore that is highly contagious causing people who come into contact with it, to incinerate. It's ingenious and the characters in the storyline are pretty interesting too. Harper, John, Renae, Allie, Nick, Father Storey, Jakob: These people: They are this story. And it is well worth the read!For me, Joe Hill's NOS4A2, was my favorite book of the last few years, no question. Vic McQueen was the best heroine ever. Every part of that book was a wild ride. But not every part was smooth and beautifully well written. NOS4A2 was a bumpy ride. And it was a ride you didn't want to get off. With five stars for the amazing characters, crazy heart stopping moments and lots of tears.

A very interesting take on post-apocalyptic! Would recommend!

This was an honestly fascinating ride of a novel. I wasn't entirely certain what to expect because of some reviews, but I'm certainly happy I got to read it. I was also a bit more satisfied with the ending than I thought I would be.So what's the big deal with Hill's big novel? Is it really an origin

Joe Hill, what have you gone and done?! I have been waiting a long time for your new book to be published and then you went and made it so good that I couldn't put it down and now I've finished it! That was quite a trip.Joe Hill has total mastery of this story. His writing is witty and his cultural referencing is spot on. There are many references to Harry Potter (he must be a child of the generation who grew up reading those volumes) and to his dad's works, John Grisham and of course Mary Poppins.'Just because you've read John Grisham, it doesn't make you a Supreme Court Justice'.Hill has created a cast of flawed and fascinating individuals and managed to come up with a main character, Harper, who was perfectly balanced : while often compared to and quoting Mary Poppins and Julie Andrews, she still managed to avoid being a Mary Poppins character.And as a study of people and the psychology of human kind, we see the Lord of the Flies-esque take on how we behave under peer group pressure and how we thrive on approval, whatever the cost. 'Law is whoever is holding the nightstick' some one observes at one point.Hill has a great way of ending most chapters that leads you right on to the next one and the next. until you end up finishing it too soon and having a long old wait for the next book by this author. Which is where I came in with this review and a good place to finish!

A horrible malady is spreading like wildfire through the human population. Caused by spores from a fungus called Draco Incendia Trychophyton.The illness - named Dragonscale - is manifested by gold and black scales on the skin. On the upside, the scales are rather pretty and decorative.On the downside, they cause victims to spontaneously combust.....to suddenly burst into flames and incinerate. And there's no treatment or cure.Harper Grayson is a twenty-something nurse who's tending to Dragonscale patients in Maine's Portsmouth Hospital. Like other caregivers, Harper wears a protective rubber suit to shield her from the spores. One day a fireman carries an ailing boy into the hospital, and Harper - suspecting the child has appendicitis - helps them jump the line to get help. This turns out to be a pivotal event in the nurse's life.Despite her precautions, Harper starts to see gold and black streaks on her skin.....and knows she's doomed. The nurse has an added concern, however. She recently got pregnant and desperately wants to see her baby born, in the belief that fetuses don't contract Dragonscale from their mothers.When Harper's husband, Jakob, sees her Dragonscale marks, he's enraged. He blames Harper for bringing the illness into their home and - afraid of being infected - takes off.Harper quarantines herself in the house, but is running out of food and supplies when Jakob suddenly returns - with a gun. He thinks he has Dragonscale, and plans to kill Harper and himself before they spontaneously combust.Harper escapes from Jakob and is rescued by the fireman (a British man whose name is John Rookwood), a teenage girl, and the boy from the hospital - who happens to be deaf. The trio leads Harper to an out-of-the-way enclave called Camp Wyndham, which houses a secret community of Dragonscale victims. The group, led by a man called Father Story, has learned to tame the disease.According to Father Story, 'if you create a feeling of security, the Dragonscale lives in harmony with you'.....and you don't burn to death. The people at Camp Wyndham attend services every day, where they sing together. This engenders a peaceful feeling that makes the people glow - a condition called 'The Bright.' And one spore-carrier, John Rookwood, has even learned to ignite parts of himself - with no permanent damage. This is a formidable weapon when the fireman needs one!Most of the story is set at Camp Wyndham, which contains a variety of inhabitants - some good, some bad. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but I will say that, in time, the community gets a new leader and becomes a kind of dictatorship - with harsh, medieval punishments for people who break the rules.In part, this is to ensure the residents' safety. The outside world has gone crazy, and rogue 'cremation squads' make it their business to hunt down and shoot Dragonscale victims - who they call burners. Jakob has become an ardent member of an assassination crew and is determined to kill his wife, among others. There are some exciting, action-packed scenes where kill squads meet up with burners.As in any community, love sometimes blooms in Camp Wyndham. Harper and Rookwood are attracted to each other, but - for various reasons - their relationship is very complicated. Another couple bonds as well - two people who'd probably never meet in the real world. It's all very sweet.....and fans of romance novels will probably enjoy these minor plotpoints.Harper experiences a host of difficulties in the course of the story, but is driven to survive - at least until she gives birth. The nurse hopes to give the child to a healthy couple to raise. This seems a tall order to me. Who would believe this baby wasn't infected? I understand a mother's hopes though, and the drive to reproduce."The Fireman" - in which a community of 'survivors' is divided into 'good' and 'evil' factions - was clearly influenced by Stephen King's book "The Stand." This isn't a surprise, since King is the author's father.Still, "The Fireman" is very original in its chosen catastrophe - an illness that causes spontaneous combustion is certainly unique (and horrifying)! And the story plays out much differently than The Stand.There are a lot of interesting characters in the book, including: a delusional leader who wants to maintain total control; acolytes who'll do anything to please the boss; a man on the side of the angels; chauvinist burner-bashers who think they can do whatever they please; a sweet orphan who longs for a mother; bullying teenage girls; hormonal teenage boys; escaped convicts; and more.The book is perhaps a bit overlong, but the story moves along at a good clip and held my attention. The tale has many references to popular culture, including: well-known celebrities and politicians (many of whom go up in flames); Mary Poppins; Harry Potter; and others. These were fun and added a touch of humor to the story. I had an idea about what would happen at the climax - and I was right - but this didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book.Very good horror/thriller, highly recommended to fans of the genre.You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....

By Jove, reading this was as much fun as a laundry basket full of curious kittens. It is a virtual treasure trove of pop culture references, a tip of the hat if you will to J.K. Rowling, George R.R. Martin and of course his father, plus many, many more, not the least of which is Mary Poppins. Be careful where you step as you will find yourself tripping over them during the course of your reading experience. Such fun!Okay so first the premise:A plague of sorts is sweeping across the civilized world. Its proper scientific name is Draco Incendia Trychophyton but it is more commonly referred to as Dragonscale. It is highly contagious, marking its victims with black and gold scroll like marks across their bodies before they eventually burst into flames and are devoured by fire. Once infected there does not appear to be a cure and no one is entirely sure how it is spread from one person to another causing wide spread panic and the inhumane treatment of those showing signs of infection.Harper Grayson, our protagonist, is a nurse working at a local hospital when she first meets The Fireman and assists him, against the odds and hospital protocol, in getting timely medical care to a young boy in his care suffering from abdominal distress. Shortly after finishing her stint at the hospital she learns that she is expecting. On the heels of this happy news Harper sees the tell tale marks of the Dragonscale upon her own body. Her husband is convinced that Harper brought this plague upon herself and no doubt him as well, as a result of her work at the hospital. He is incensed and things do not go well between them. Now Harper is running for her life and that of her unborn child. But The Fireman does not soon forget past kindnesses and steps in to rescue her from her murderous husband. The Fireman it would seem can control the fire burning beneath his Dragonscale and use it as a weapon against those that wish him and others harm. He delivers Harper safely to a backwoods summer camp called Camp Wynward, where the residents have found a ritual that keeps the flames of spontaneous combustion at bay. But the world around them is in chaos and there are Cremation Squads out there determined to stop this fiery spore by eliminating all those infected. You had a hold on meRight from the startA grip so tight I couldn't tear it apartMy nerves all jumpin' Actin' like a foolWell your kisses they burn But your heart stays coolThe BossIf you are a young aspiring writer and your father just happens to be Stephen King, well let’s just say those are some mighty big boots to fill. Joe Hill tackles this challenge head on and make no mistake he is getting better and better. If you are looking for an entertaining summer read that demands little, beyond suspension of belief, and delivers a few chuckles along the way, then by all means pick up this high octane thriller.

Awesome book. I expect no less from one of my favourite authorsWhilst entirely different to his other works, this still hits the mark. Less of his trademark horror (although he does a good job of creating terror and suspense when required) but not quite the stereotypical post-apocalyptic story we've all become used to. The conditions that cause this story to unfold are all very well thought out. Harper, our main character, has to be up there with one of the best characters I've read (I was going to qualify that as one of the best female characters I've ever read but I think she's one of the best overall, male, female, dragons, robot, all). Hill's writing style is perfect in my view. Very easy to digest, never any long waffling exposition or needless information. The story flows very nicely and chapter size is perfect. Highly recommended for all Hill fans. I did, however, have a couple of very minor gripes with it. Not nearly enough to knock it down a star but two things that irritated me (I'm nitpicking but thought they are worth calling out as it would be interesting to find out if anyone feels the same). 1 - Comparisons to the Stand were always going to happen. His dad wrote my favourite book. Whilst I think it's cool that Hill gave minor nods to his dad's works in NOS4R2 (and maybe others I can't remember), he did it a bit too much here. In the Fireman we have:A deaf person called NickA person called Harold Cross - who keeps a diaryA FrannieA pregnancyAnd probably a few others I can't quite rememberIt's not a huge problem, I just didn't want to be reminded of the greatest post apocalyptic book of all time whilst reading a post apocalyptic book. 2 - This one is a bigger problem and one I want to get your thought on, as King does it in a few of his novels and I'm sure there are others. I refer to a spoiler sentence right at the end of a chapter. As in:but that was the last time he was seen alivebut when they returned, everything will have changed foreverEtc.Anybody else get really annoyed by this? You're going to kill someone in the next chapter so let me feel the shock of it happening as it happens in the story. Don't take the impact away from me in a sentence. To be fair, the Fireman isn't nearly as bad for this. It does it a few times but it still irks me. Minor moans aside, you should read this and Hill remains on my automatic buy list.