de Joe Hill
From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling 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 fire fighter'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.
From the award-winning, New York Times bestselling 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 fire fighter'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.
Critiques-
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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. -
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.
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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. -
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.
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George R. R. Martin on THE FIREMAN
"Original and gripping, a page-turner." — George R. R. Martin on THE FIREMAN
"[A] superb supernatural thriller . . . 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." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) on THE FIRMAN
"Hill has a talent for depicting fascinating characters caught in terrible situations. . . . With a full cast of characters and multiple story lines to keep the reader hooked, Hill's enthralling fourth thriller hits another home run." — Library Journal (starred review) on THE FIREMAN
"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." — Lauren Beukes, author of BROKEN MONSTERS on THE FIREMAN
"Fascinating and utterly engaging, this novel is sure to leave readers wanting more. One thing is for certain, however. After reading this book, readers will never hear Christmas carols in quite the same way again." — Library Journal (starred review) on NOS4A2
"[An] undeniably readable work." — Booklist (starred review) on NOS4A2
"Read it with the lights on and your children locked in a closet." — BookRiot.com on NOS4A2
[Hill]'s got horror down pat, and his debut is hair-raising fun." — Kirkus on HEART-SHAPED BOX
"[A] wrenching and effective ghost story . . . reads like good, early King mixed with some of the edgier splatterpunk sensibilities of David J. Schow . . . [HEART-SHAPED BOX] has genuinely touching emotional moments as well as action-packed confrontations with the dead." — Library Journal (starred review) on HEART-SHAPED BOX
"A genuinely scary novel filled with people you care about; the kind of book that still stays in your mind after you've turned over the final page. I loved it unreservedly." — Neil Gaiman, author of THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE on HEART-SHAPED BOX
"[HORNS is] a creepy murder mystery, a tragic love triangle, and a sweetly wistful coming-of-age story. It's the kind of book that has you laughing on one page, crying on another and making sure the doors and windows are safely locked on a third." — Miami Herald on HORNS
"[Horns is] devilishly good. . . . Hill is a terrific writer with a great imagination. He has a special talent for taking us and his characters to very weird places." — USA Today on HORNS
