The Fireman by Joe Hill

The Fireman is a post-apocalyptic novel, where the culprit is a spore called Dragonscale (a bit of a Game of Thrones ripoff for the name although the disease is far different). Dragonscale causes those who carry it to light on fire under stressful conditions and propogates itself by transferring the spore to others through the ash. It’s really kind of an ingenious spore. This wipes out much of the population and brings out the worst in people. The infected are in a camp in New Hampshire trying to survive but they also learn how to control the spore, which has its pluses and minuses.



I thought this was probably the best Joe Hill novel that I’ve read, which have been a little hit or miss. The writing is strong and the characters are well-developed. The disease brings out the worse of the survivors. By and large, they are trying to kill the infected, without having a full understanding of the disease. The worst character is Harper Willow’s husband. Even before she contracted the spore, he was a total nitwit. The only redeemable characters in the novel are a small circle of those close to Harper, including the Fireman, a British microbiologist who has complete mastery of the spore and can even manifest it out of his body. Both the concept of the execution of the story are good. I did have a couple of issues with the novel. For one thing, the whole stone in the mouth thing at Camp Windham was supremely irritating. Also, it was a bit too dim of a view of humanity for my liking. I would think some of the non-infected would be redeemable. But on balance this was a strong novel that I would recommend.