The Fireman

The chilling horror thriller from the author of NOS4A2 and THE BLACK PHONE

De: Joe Hill

Narrado por: Kate Mulgrew

Nobody knew where the virus came from.
FOX News said it had been set loose by ISIS, using spores that had been invented by the Russians in the 1980s.
MSNBC said sources indicated it might've been created by engineers at Halliburton and stolen by culty Christian types fixated on the Book of Revelation.
CNN reported both sides.
While every TV station debated the cause, the world burnt.

Pregnant school nurse, HARPER GRAYSON, had seen lots of people burn on TV, but the first person she saw burn for real was in the playground behind the school.
With the epic scope of THE PASSAGE and the emotional impact of THE ROAD, this is one woman's story of survival at the end of the world.

Read by Kate Mulgrew

(p) 2016 HarperCollins Publishers©2016 Joe Hill

Reseñas de la Crítica

If you haven't yet grabbed a copy of Joe Hill's THE FIREMAN, you need to. Original and gripping, a page-turner

I devoured this book as if the pages themselves were on fire...an end of the world
tale with a blazing heart of hope at its core. A contender for book of the year

Joe Hill really could set the world on fire with this book: cleverly imagined and a compulsive read

Joe Hill has always been good, but he's created something incandescent here,
soaring and original. He's a master storyteller who writes with fire in his veins

'Very well-drawn characters, some serious shocks, a great sense of humour and a willingness to break hearts as well as raise pulse rates.'

I would put money on this being huge. Can't put it down

You'll be instantly hooked if you're obsessed with The Walking Dead. It's got the whole post-apocalyptic world nailed...there is a brilliant humour amid the darkness, and the action scenes feel like a movie

Taps into fears we all have about the world coming to an end, as Donald Trump stokes the fires of racial hatred in America, wars continue across the planet and diseases such as Zika and Ebola spread with shocking speed.

Hill's writing has matured along with his ideas. He plays out the apocalypse so quickly and efficiently, through small-town witnesses and television broadcasts, that it feels absolutely devastating. And in the aftermath, he juggles a huge cast of characters with aplomb, giving each their time to shine, yet still managing to keep the tension high throughout

Original, compulsive and very frightening

Clever - but The Fireman isn't just clever, it's also a book with real soul... the deeper truths of The Fireman lie in the way it explores how we slowly build connections with those closest to us...a brave, bold and big hearted take on the end of the world

Set to blaze through bestsellers lists....exhilarating

Beautiful and aching and striking, a poignant exploration of human relationships and an ode to the simple things

A Lord of the Flies for the Twitter generation. Clever, gripping and packs a hell of a punch

Ominously superb

This book is incredible

Joe Hill (aka Stephen King Jnr) proves he's a chip off the old block with this epic post-apocalyptic adventure

The Fireman by Joe Hill is a thrilling, long-lingering, morally-striking book that set my heart and mind alight. A must read.

Breathless adventures, pulsing emotions, things that go bump in the night and so much more, with surprises lurking on the corner of every page

This is a huge cauldron of a novel that pulses with life, hope and decency as well as extreme fear and constant devastation

Pretty interesting but....

The idea of the book is nice. However it had quite a few cheesy parts that I didn't really like.

Great listen

Long. Very long. But nice, strong and fulfilling. The narrator did an amazing job! Will definitely pick up more of Joe Hill!

I wish I cared more ...

When I see any kind of plague, end of the world, type book I can't resist it ... I'm always fascinated by humanity at its most over-taxed. No more family or old friends to share memories, a day-to-day existence with no resemblance to what has been left behind, lack of food and the basic necessities -- so, for me, in a nutshell, it's the people who are left behind, inhabiting this unexpected and unwanted existence who are my conduit to this brave new world.
Alas, The Fireman just doesn't get there for me. Harper is adequate as a central focus, but she is lightweight, someone who things happen to but no ball of fire (excuse the expression) in getting things going herself. But it's The Fireman himself that really bothers me. Who cares about this guy! We're supposed to believe that he is, somehow, the face of the new existence -- Joe Hill even named the book after him. But I just don't get it. To me he's at best a rather underdeveloped secondary personality, one you don't really care about and who you'd be happy to leave behind after a few pages. A better title, if it described him, would be The Wannabe Fireman. This guy is all the way through the book, both in spirit and body, and at the end it's -- okay (?), can we go on now? But that's the end of the book!
On a positive note, the story itself was really well crafted and held together very well -- the basic premise of a plague defined by bursting into flames is unique and really, really scary, so no complaints about that.
I have read all of Hill's books and for the most part I really like his characters -- both fiery Vic in NOS4A2 and world-weary Jude in Heart Shaped Box were fabulous protagonists -- but this one, as epitomized by Harper, really lacks depth of character. Sorry, Joe ... this one just didn't float my boat.

Disappointing

Would you be willing to try another book from Joe Hill? Why or why not?

Maybe. If his other books are this long, then no, because I felt this was one of the book's big problems. It was way too long and hammered on silly details. It could have been half the length and much better.

Would you be willing to try another one of Kate Mulgrew’s performances?

Unlikely. I found her impression of the male characters a little annoying.

What character would you cut from The Fireman?

Ugh, nobody really. For what it's worth, the all contribute to the plot. Some of them annoy me, but that's no reason to cut a character.

Any additional comments?

Way too many easter eggs and pop-culture references, it dates the book and was a little annoying. Unbelievable dialogue, and prolonged stretches of plot that are pretty boring. Nick was one of the biggest reasons I kept reading. I got tired of the book after book 1, which was pretty disappointing.

Disappointing

Joe Hill can definitely write, but the story is limp and lacking originality. How many post-apocalyptic tales do we need? Mixture of good Cormac McCarthy's The Road and bad post-apocalyptic The Walking Dead. Very good performance by Kate Mulgrew.