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  • The Fireman

  • A Novel
  • Written by: Joe Hill
  • Narrated by: Kate Mulgrew
  • Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (99 ratings)

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The Fireman cover art

The Fireman

Written by: Joe Hill
Narrated by: Kate Mulgrew
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Publisher's Summary

From the award-winning, New York Times best-selling 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 firefighter'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.

©2016 Joe Hill (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about The Fireman

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

overall good

As always Joe Hill kept me interested. I decided upon the fireman after reading NOS4A2 and horns. this one was not my favorite of the bunch, bit thay being said I still enjoyed it start to finish.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Kate Mulgrew takes an amazing book and makes it stellar.

I loved the story and concept of the novel. I bounced between the electronic, audible, and paper version depending on where I was.

I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to connect with the story because Ms Mulgrew was reading it, but I was pleasantly surprised. As a result, I will now go out of my way to find something she has read for audible and purchase it. Her intonations. Her changing inflections. Her different voices all made the story so much better.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I loved this so much

This was such a good listen, I wish it would have never ended. The story went places I didn't see coming, there were characters I loved and despised. I had not read anyrhing about this audiobook before starting it, and knowing Joe Hill I thought it would be horror. It is post apocalyptic, but also so much more than that. Give this a listen, you won't regret it!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

All I can say is WHAT A MASTERPIECE

This story had my fiance and I enthralled from the first chapter to the last. Joe Hill is such a talented author. His talent shines through throughout the story with no loose end being left untied. Concepts we had forgotten about came back at the end of the story and everything said was said for a reason; even "small talk" had deeper meanings that would show later in other chapters.

I think we can all hope that Joe will come out with a second book to add to this crazy unique world he created in The Fireman.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

I loved this production. The story is heart breaking and beautiful in the most amazing way. Very relevant given the current Covid-19 pandemic

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

honestly not a banger

More like a slow burn distopian depression novel then a horror story. As always props to Kate Mulgrew's narroration, but negative points for them choosing not to sing small lines in a novel that uses music lyrics an important and often somewhat dramatic parts of the story.

Not a recommendation after 2020, my fault for picking it I guess. Honestly enjoyed N0S4A2 way more.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

simply wonderful

I loved every minute of it , and especially the audio version of it. just magical!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Beautiful Read

I loved this, unexpected events and a great story.
Thank you and I hope many people get the chance to read.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Download NOS4A2 instead, or first.

After listening to Joe Hill’s novel NOS4A2 . Maybe I expected too much . Ok novel. He capable of better.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Joe Hill is a fantastic story teller.

I found the tale terrible, gripping and heartwarming. I loved every minute. I'm a huge fan of Stephen King and now Joe Hill.

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