The Fireman

Narrator Kate Mulgrew adeptly handles this apocalyptic tale. Dragonscale, a horrifying disease that causes the infected to spontaneously combust, is burning through the human population. Harper Grayson, a young nurse, is infected--what's more, she's pregnant. Determined to survive long enough to give birth, she flees her violent husband and ends up at a community that claims to have a cure for the illness. But life at the camp isn't as rosy as it first seems. Mulgrew's voices and accents are less than consistent, but she makes up for it with excellent pacing and expressive tones. Hill's writing ranges from lyrical to action packed, and Mulgrew infuses her voice with emotions to help propel the story. E.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Starred review from February 15, 2016
In Hill's superb supernatural thriller, the world is falling apart in a maelstrom of flame and fury. A spore dubbed Dragonscale infects people, draws patterns on their skin, and eventually makes them spontaneously combustâand it's rapidly spreading. School nurse Harper Grayson volunteers at a local hospital in Concord, N.H., until it burns down. Soon she discovers that not only is she infected but she's also pregnant. As the beautiful filigreed markings of Dragonscale start to flourish on her body, she vows to do anything to bring her baby safely into the world. Her husband, Jakob, doesn't want the baby and attacks Harper when he realizes she wants to keep it. Harper flees and encounters John Rookwood, a near-mythical figure known as the Fireman. He takes her to Camp Wyndham, where the infected have learned to control and harness what they call the Brightâthe flames that smolder just beneath their skin. Harper finds purpose there, but Jakob has found a purpose too: he's joined the Cremation Crews, brutal marauders who kill the infected on sight. When the peace of the camp is threatened, Harper, John, and their friends band together. The good-hearted Harper is a captivating heroine, the peaceful eye in a storm of evil that threatens to harm everyone she holds dear, and it's impossible not to root for her. Hill has followed 2013's NOS4A2 with a tremendous, heartrending epic of bravery and love set in a fully realized and terrifying apocalyptic world, where hope lies in the simplest of gestures and the fullest of hearts.

July 25, 2016
Hill’s ultimate survivor tale follows Harper Grayson, a young nurse adrift in a savage, not-very-distant postapocalyptic New Hampshire. She has contracted dragonscale, a rapidly spreading disease that causes its victims to spontaneously combust. She’s on the run from her homicidal husband as well as Cremation Crews, self-assigned “patriots” trying to destroy all infected humans. And she’s pregnant. Fortunately, she crosses paths with the magical, almost legendary John Rockwood, the Fireman, who leads her to a community that has developed a method for controlling dragonscale. But Camp Wyndham is not the safe harbor it seems. Hill has packed his epic novel with thrills, suspense, action, and adventure, and actress Mulgrew (best known for her roles on Star Trek: Voyager and Orange Is the New Black) delivers a dramatic rendition that intensifies all of Harper’s emotions—her selfless care for her patients, her fear of her husband’s wrath and the perils of a dangerous world, and her fierce determination to have a safe birth for her baby. She also has the versatility to provide satisfying voices for the unusually large cast of young girls, mean teens, bickering adults, and, yes, a few sweetly kind and gentle souls. Mulgrew is particularly effective in capturing the tougher, gruffer characters, particularly the stalwart, powerful Rockwood and the snarling, hate-spewing leader of the Cremation Crews. A Morrow hardcover.

Starred review from February 15, 2016

Like his father, Stephen King, Hill has a talent for depicting fascinating characters caught in terrible situations. In his latest novel (after NOS4A2) a terrifying infection is causing humans worldwide to spontaneously combust. The bacteria, nicknamed Dragonscale, marks the skin of its victims with black and gold tattoo-like ribbons before they burst into flames. While working as a volunteer at the local hospital, elementary school nurse Harper contracts Dragonscale; she also discovers that she is pregnant. To escape the Cremator Squads hunting and killing infected people, she is aided by a mysterious man known as the Fireman, who brings her to a secret colony where victims of the disease have learned to enter "The Bright" and avoid self-combustion. As readers might imagine, this colony has dark secrets and things are not as they seem. A blossoming romance between Harper and the Fireman grows along with the suspense. VERDICT With a full cast of characters and multiple story lines to keep the reader hooked, Hill's enthralling sophomore effort hits another home run. [See Prepub Alert, 11/2/15.]--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2016

Humanity worldwide is afflicted by a condition known as Dragonscale, with victims displaying beautiful black and gold markings that will eventually cause them to burst into flames. Nurse Harper Grayson knows it's incurable, but she's also seen infected pregnant women deliver healthy children--which is why she conceals her own markings, determined to give birth before the disease consumes her. As she flees uninfected vigilantes bent on her destruction, she discovers a group of fellow sufferers led by a madman, The Fireman, who can control the fire. VERDICT Horror buffs will take note of this latest offering by the Bram Stoker Award winner. (LJ 2/15/16)

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2016

America is burning-people and entire cities are going up in flames, thanks to a spore called Dragonscale that is infecting humans worldwide. Nurse Harper Grayson is in her element trying to help the afflicted at the local hospital, but when she becomes infected around the same time she discovers she is pregnant, her husband goes insane and tries to kill her. Harper escapes and finds refuge with other infected people at a rural camp. With the help of The Fireman (a mysterious man who can shoot fire from his fingertips) and others, Harper discovers the cause of Dragonscale and how to control it. While this entry is not as scary as Hill's Horns or Heart-Shaped Box, the horror of mob mentality will remind teens of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, and the author's father Stephen King's The Stand. With likable characters, glib dialogue, suspense, and inevitable doom, the book feels like a popular television series script, and teens will appreciate the pop culture references-Harry Potter, Narnia, The Walking Dead, Mary Poppins, and more. VERDICT An apocalyptic tale for fans of suspense and horror, even though the long length will deter reluctant readers.-Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon, IL

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2015

Terrifically virulent, Draco incendia trychophyton, aka Dragonscale, leaves victims covered with striking black and gold marks before they suddenly shudder into flames. When Harper Grayson finds that she has the damning marks, she determines to stay alive long enough to birth her child, even as Cremation Squads hunt down the infected and one man--the Fireman, a victim who's learned to keep the fire at bay--protects the hunted. With a 200,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2016
Pleasing mayhem from horror/thrillermeister Hill (NOS4A2, 2013, etc.), the chip-off-the-old-block son of Stephen King. When J.K. Rowling gets it, you know things are bad. And not nicely, either: she's gunned down by a firing squad, and "her execution had been televised on what remained of the web." George Clooney has already burst into flames. Why? Well, Clooney was doing his humanitarian thing, and Rowling was just trying to help young people unfortunate enough to come down with a scorching case of Dragonscale, a manifestation of a very unpleasant malady caused, as the epidemiological portion of Hill's yarn details, by a runaway spore. The worst effects of the illness make themselves known to school nurse Harper Grayson when a street person bursts into flames: "His head tipped further and further back," Hill writes with graphic glee, "and he opened his mouth to scream and black smoke gushed out instead." About the only positive thing that comes of this pyromaniacal display is that Glenn Beck torches, too. But then, so do thousands of innocents, causing the usual end-of-the-world scenario, as good Christians form fundamentalist posses to round up and, well, isolate anyone who shows signs of the illness. Against them are arrayed the victims, not all of whom spontaneously combust. Harper's encounters with this horrible disease, which brings her into the orbit of a mysterious Brit called The Fireman--hero and villain all rolled up into one--are overall less trying than dealing with her nasty husband, a master of passive-aggressive put-downs. Hill shares his father's ability to write well and sympathetically of and for women, especially the hero of the piece, Harper, who has resources and intelligence far above and beyond what the menfolk suspect. But he also shares dad's fondness for long, long stories; heft may be a genre convention, but Hill's narrative too often grinds to a near halt under its own weight. A satisfying tale overall, just right for the beach. Be sure to wear sunscreen.

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 1, 2016
Joe Hill is back with his original take on the apocalypse. Harper is a school nurse who fancies herself an American Mary Poppins, but when a deadly fungus starts infecting humanity, causing people to spontaneously combust, life as we know it ends, and a fight to survive begins. Harper, now sick and pregnant, is just trying to make it until she can deliver. When her husband tries to kill her out of fear, Harper is saved by the unlikely and mysterious superhero of this new age, the Fireman, who brings her to a community where the sick have learned to live symbiotically with the fungus. But is it really the safe haven it appears to be? This is a long book, but with a curiously ominous tone set from the very first line, a brisk pace throughout, and dozens of detailed action scenes, readers will be hard-pressed to stop turning the pages. Add in the well-developed cast of characters (both good and evil), fun pop-culture references, and a satisfying but open ended conclusion, and the story becomes infectious. Channeling Michael Crichton, Hill presents a strong scientific explanation for most of the dread but also includes a healthy dose of the fantastic, arming the heroes with a dangerous power much as he did in Horns (2010). Take the ideas, characters, and tone of Station Eleven (2014) and add a large helping of the action, villains, and unrelenting menace from Doctor Sleep (2013) and you have The Fireman, an excellent example of the very best that genre fiction has to offer readers today.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)