The Fire Sermon

By: Francesca Haig

Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang

Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

The Hunger Games meets Cormac McCarthy's The Road in this richly imagined first novel in a new postapocalyptic trilogy by award-winning poet Francesca Haig.

Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has turned primitive following a nuclear fire that laid waste to civilization and nature. Though the radiation fallout has ended, for some unknowable reason every person is born with a twin. Of each pair one is an Alpha - physically perfect in every way - and the other an Omega burdened with deformity, small or large.

With the Council ruling an apartheid-like society, Omegas are branded and ostracized while the Alphas have gathered the world’s sparse resources for themselves. Though proclaiming their superiority, for all their effort Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: Whenever one twin dies, so does the other. Cass is a rare Omega, one burdened with psychic foresight. While her twin, Zach, gains power on the Alpha Council, she dares to dream the most dangerous dream of all: equality. For daring to envision a world in which Alphas and Omegas live side by side as equals, both the Council and the Resistance have her in their sights.

©2015 De Tores Ltd (P)2015 Audible Inc.

Cannot make it!!!

Rarely do I stop a book, but this one I can't finish. It's painful.

The writer had a good concept but overwrites constantly with similes and metaphors. The character is not developed. You only meet the main character for a long time.

It reminded me of a wanna-be Divergent or Hunger Games, but very little development of plot.

The reader -- yawn -- fell asleep twice. Again - she read exactly like Hunger Games with very little change in pace or voice. To be fair - there were few direct quotes.

It's mostly an author telling about a story rather than letting her characters speak.

It's one of my worst reads, and I love this genre. I generally am pretty accepting of new ideas.

Disappointed.

Disappointing

I had high hopes for this and liked the concept, but it never really panned out. At points it was like reading to Thoreau. Too much descriptive detail without much plot.

fantastic narration Lauren Fortgang

It would seem that if you compare a new book to the Hunger Games my interest will be piqued. Maybe I am a sucker, maybe I simply yearn for another series that will completely transport me to another reality.

The Fire Sermon did just what I wanted it to, in the beginning that is. The Earth has been transformed by nuclear war or fallout or something to that effect. The remaining survivors have been plagued with an interesting dilemma. There are no more only children, there are only twins being born. What Haig has termed as an Alpha and an Omega. Alpha’s are perfect in every way and the Omega’s are deformed in some fashion and it is not always obvious.

The Omega’s are driven from the normal society because everyone is afraid of them, or their deformities. Here’s the real kicker. If your twin dies, you die. It is that simple.

Beyond this interesting take on a post apocalyptic storyline it is a basic rebellion story. The outcasts form their own society and become overcome with hatred for those that shunned them. They rise up to try and smash those they hate and in the process loose many of their ranks.

I kept listening because I wanted something spectacular to happen. For me, it didn’t. Fairly shallow characters that left some to be desired. There was a love triangle that was contrived by Haig and never really developed.

I didn’t see the ending coming, right away, and was a good conclusion to the first book in this series. Not sure if I will continue on with it or not.

If you are craving a young adult post apocalyptic audiobook with fantastic narration, The Fire Sermon will quench it. Even though the story left a little to be desired.

Where The Fire Sermon really shines is with the performance by Lauren Fortgang. From the first second she was able to grab my attention and wouldn’t let go. There have been only a handful of narrators that I would be happy listening to them read tax law or the phone book, Fortgang is now one of them.

Audiobook provided for review by the publisher.

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Great Story!

I'm looking forward to finishing the series. I'm totally hooked. If you liked Hunger Games and Divergent, you'll love this.

Good plot but..

Really good book, however the author forced a love triangle that wasn't really there. painful

Everyone has a twin. Your twin dies? You die. A+!

Would you listen to The Fire Sermon again? Why?

I already have. I've listened to it twice, and would consider listening to it again!
Why?
Well because it's a very interesting storyline, though while somewhat predictable (IMO), never caused me to lose interest.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Fire Sermon?

One of the most memorable moments of The Fire Sermon, was discovering how you can determine the approximate age of the Omega Twin's split, based on the size of the branded mark on their forehead, as the brand is made for marking Omega Twins, while they're infants.

Have you listened to any of Lauren Fortgang’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I'd never heard of her until this. I've not listened to anything else of hers.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I actually did not want to listen to this, in just one sitting. I often found myself wanting to just sit and think about all that I'd just heard and learned. You know... allow it proper time to marinate, prior to revisiting the story, again and again.

Any additional comments?

I believe the narrator did an excellent job, and I could hear her developing along with the characters, as the story progressed. I hope this same narrator will be used, for future installments. Similarly, I hope the future installments are released, soon.

Yawn.....boring

I am over five hours in, little has actually happened and I am finding it hard to keep going. This story better start picking up soon.

Captivating story...

The story is a dystopian Sci-FI thriller/drama...the story is compelling and pulls you in so that it is difficult to think of going on with your ordinary life. The characters are well developed and interesting. I didn't want it to end...
The narrator is perfect and the way she changes her voice a bit for each character is not awkward or weird, but just right.
I loved it. I feel lost right now as I will have to find another book equally or more wonderful as this to listen to/read...

Run of the mill

What to say about "The Fire Sermon"... It's a decent listen. The narrator is good and brings across the right inflection to the female and male characters. The thing about this book is that it's in the same sort of vein as Divergent and the other "run-of-the-mill" post apocalyptic types of stories.

What stood for me the most was the beginning in how the protagonist describes how everyone is born with a twin and the sets of twins are separated at some point in their lives according to their traits (normal or mutant). This sounds so much like a part of Stephen King's book: Wolves of the Calla where sets of twins are also separated. The author, Francesca Haig, even writes how riders on horses come to take a twin away (much like what happens in Wolves of the Calla). It made me wonder if this is where Haig got the general idea for her story. In Haig's story, the twins are separated into Alphas and Omegas. The Alphas are the royalty and Omegas the peasantry. One interesting aspect is that the twins remained linked forever and if a twin dies, the other twins dies. If one feels pain, the other feels pain.

The protagonist discovers that she has a power as a seer and for that she is imprisoned and tortured to try and "see" into the future. She escapes and meets up with another Omega twin and they take off together in search of a safe haven. Here's where you get into the "run-of-the-mill" type of story. The characters inexplicably are able to ride horses, despite never haven ridden before. They meet up with various groups who are either friend or foe or both. There wasn't much that stood out in the story as it's all been told before. It's the same tried and true story arc that so many of these types of novels go through.

Of course, it ends in a manner that hints at a sequel (as most of these types of books do these days) but I didn't find it interesting enough to care if there is a sequel. Not the best. Not the worst. Just kind of mediocre.

Got really annoying...

I think it was the narrator. I had a hard time getting to the end, the narrator's voice combined with the writing just started to get on my nerves. whiny and annoying. story has an interesting concept.. but i will not be buying the next volume