The Fireman in Apocalypse Whenever

Mar 22, 2016 Kdawg91 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I read a ARC of this, and I am a bit torn. First of all, Joe Hill can WRITE, (well duh..) I enjoyed this book cover to cover, I loved the concept, I loved the characters, the dialogue was crisp and realistic, and the world was deep and very interesting. These are all things, checkmarks for me wanting to read your stuff and buy your book.

He hits them all, and goes way above the mark in all counts, so Kevin, you ask, what's the damn problem?

In my opinion, it all feels too familiar, Mr. Hill's wri ...more

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Mar 05, 2017 Gertie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, library, apocalypse, unusual-abilities, scifi, scary

Listened to in audiobook form, narrated by Kate Mulgrew, who is a pleasure to listen to.

Before reading The Fireman, I had read only one other book by Joe Hill — NOS4A2. I enjoyed that book a lot, but did not think at the time "this is an author I have to follow". However now that I've read this one, I'm going to have to see what else he has written.

Using my usual "cold reading" approach (not rereading a blurb before starting book), it was a pleasant surprise me that this is actually a post-apoc Listened to in audiobook form, narrated by Kate Mulgrew, who is a pleasure to listen to.

Before reading The Fireman, I had read only one other book by Joe Hill — NOS4A2. I enjoyed that book a lot, but did not think at the time "this is an author I have to follow". However now that I've read this one, I'm going to have to see what else he has written.

Using my usual "cold reading" approach (not rereading a blurb before starting book), it was a pleasant surprise me that this is actually a post-apocalyptic story. I like the idea of the dragonscale outbreak, and the various ways it affects people and manifests itself. Clearly some serious suspension of disbelief was required for some aspects of the story, but I felt it was acceptable.

As for our main characters, I like Harper, and appreciated her ability to be calm when things are just all going to hell around her. Her husband was enjoyable to hate , though I admit I had a few moments where I understood some of his feelings toward Harbor, because aside from her obsession with Mary Poppins, she was a very vanilla, timid person much of the time. I often wished she had more spine to tell people when they were being assholes. That said, she's also just a much nicer person than I am , or than most people really.

The Fireman himself was a drawback for me. He was narcissistic, sometimes selfish and thoughtless, and whined like a 9 year old.

Some of the other characters were interesting... Renee was one of my favorites. Sometimes she was a little booty-toity and patronizing, though it was typically when she was right, so it's hard to hold that against her. Allie was a bipolar (hyperbole there) teenager. She could be a real sweetheart one minute, then turn around and be a bitch the next. This made for good drama though. Nick was good, though I feel they could have given him more personality instead of him just being the deaf kid. Father Story and Carol were also interesting. I'm not going to talk about all the characters though… So moving on…

There are a couple of dogs to his father's book stand that I noticed, and suspected that there are more to go back and other books . They were fun to notice – such as the deaf kid Nick and the notebook keeping jerk like Harold.

There are some moments when I got frustrated and annoyed. However I had to think about it… was it because I didn't like the story, or because the characters were pissing me off? It turned out it was because the characters doing things that would make me angry such as when someone was being cruel to Harper. I'm going to file it under good frustration. At least it got a reaction out of me.

...more

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Jan 13, 2017 🥀 Rose 🥀 rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: absolute-crap, apocalypse, abandoned

I just can't pick this up again! It's killing me! I wanted to love this. I so looked forward to it. The whole premise of Fire being an epidemic and causing people to.l burn to death was unique and seemed like it was going to a creative difference from others of the genre.

Unfortunately this book is not only a slog where many pages are turned yet nothing happens, is leaving me dreading picking this up! It's not just that there is a lot of nothing happening, the characters are either so bland or j ...more

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Jul 13, 2016 Dannell rated it liked it · review of another edition

The beginning of the book was pretty slow for me, I could not seem to get invested in the characters but it picked up further on in the story. It was an interesting story driven by character interactions. I always enjoy seeing how characters will respond to certain stimuli and this book did not disappoint in that arena. I also enjoyed that it was messy, the characters were messy and it is not a 'everyone works out their differences and lives happily ever after' kind of story which was refreshing ...more

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