The Fireman

by Hill, Joe
ISBN: 9780062200648
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Used - Trade Paperback - 9780062200648

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Overview

From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling 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 fire fighter'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.

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Hill, Joe
  • ISBN: 9780062200648
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 7.90 x 1.90
  • Number Of Pages: 768
  • Publication Year: 2017

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  • A unique spin on the apocalyptic world

    Shelby M. - 1 year 2 months ago

    The Fireman, published in May 2016, is definitely my favorite work by Joe Hill so far. Although the writing style was reminiscent of his father's (Stephen King), the story was quite unique and original. Set in a world facing an apocalyptic crisis, the story follows Harper, a woman who has been infected with a quickly spreading disease that eventually causes its victims to burst into flames. Forced to leave her home, Harper joins a group of other survivors and meets a man known as The Fireman, who has learned to control the disease and the flames. The novel was an unusual and thought-provoking take on the apocalyptic genre, and I found the characters to be interesting and relatable. Hill's writing is extremely descriptive, so it was easy to become completely immersed in the novel. I would highly recommend The Fireman to anyone looking for a new adventure.

    HPB Staff Review

  • White-Hot Intensity Fuels a Satisfying Dystopian Thriller

    Andrew T. - 2 years 10 months ago

    The Fireman is the richest and most ambitious work to date from novelist Joe Hill, who has worked steadily over the past decade to distinguish himself from his famous father, horror legend Stephen King, and has established himself as a solid storyteller in his own right. In the near future, a virus named Dragonscale is spreading throughout the world, causing those afflicted to burst into flame. When school nurse Harper Grayson discovers that she's not only carrying the virus, but is pregnant as well, she bands together with a group of survivors (including the mysterious title character), as society crumbles around them. Because Hill is the son of Stephen King, "The Fireman" will undoubtedly invite comparisons to his father's own post-apocalyptic epic "The Stand" and there are admittedly a few characters and plot twists that are similar to the earlier novel. Hill, however, is skilled at establishing his own unique writing style and tone and is talented at creating memorable characters who seem real genuinely human and empathetic, even in the most fantastical of storylines and is a master of crafting a compelling storyline that keeps readers turning the page.

    HPB Staff Review