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June 2016-Group Read #1-The Fireman by Joe Hill
Kelly wrote: "Leah wrote: "Kelly wrote: "This is my first time participating in a group discussion for a book. Is there a way to see the spoilers in the comments?" Yep, just click on the link "view spoiler", w..."
Yes, that's one of the problems with the app-it doesn't allow you to see what they are.
NOS4A2 is fantastic, in both audio and in print. I just adore Joe Hill. But I'm glad that some people don't know that King is his father. When I see someone discover that, I know they are judging Hill on his own work and not constantly comparing him to his father.That said, I do see some similarities and for any King fans...keep an eye out for nods to The Stand.
YES! I was thinking The Stand quite often.
Pixelina wrote: "I just found this one as an audiobook at storytel so think I will listen to it. "I'm listening to the audiobook too. The reader is Kate Mulgrew, who plays Red in 'Orange is the New Black'. I think she reads it brilliantly.
Jenika wrote: "Pixelina wrote: "I just found this one as an audiobook at storytel so think I will listen to it. "I'm listening to the audiobook too. The reader is Kate Mulgrew, who plays Red in 'Orange is the N..."
Kate Mulgrew also narrated NOS4A2 and she did an exceptional job.
I'm in, should be starting today and will have lots of reading time on the beach! Taking the week off from copy editing for my vacation. :-)
Mod
Have a great week, Robert! :)
Just finished on a rainy day. Few books leave me feeling like I've been through an emotional roller coaster. This is one of those rare books that left me feeling like I just got dumped on the side of the road suddenly while they kept going with the story. That probably doesn't make sense. I mean it was over abruptly after I feel like I got to know the characters. They suddenly closed the blinds on their lives and kept living.I am not thrilled with how it ended but it seemed more believable (if that's possible in a story of this sort) than a Pollyanna ending. Things don't always end as we like. There were things I wished hasn't happened but life itself isn't tidy.
Some areas left me with questions. I don't want to put out any spoilers, but if A happens as a cause then why didn't A happen in the same circumstances later? Just little questions like that. I don't know how to discuss without putting spoilers our here. But if X causes a situation, why didn't X cause the same thing in those who thought they were combating the problem? Surely they were exposed.
I loved this book! It's one of the few I've encountered where I feel like I needed some time to recover before starting another. Well done, in my humble opinion.
Still not happy about the elimination of some characters. I did enjoy the emotional roller coaster. Not to be too critical but sometimes the characters' naivety didn't seem believable. I'm a gullible person and I still was often thinking, "How can you be so blind?
The author should have no worries of writing under his father's wing or shadow after this piece. Though i saw and beyond of similarity (The Stand), it was definitely its own piece imagination. I'll be looking for other works of Mr Hill in the near future.
Thanks for a great selection for June. It was memorable.
Kimberly wrote: "Robert wrote: "I'm in, should be starting today and will have lots of reading time on the beach! Taking the week off from copy editing for my vacation. :-)"Have a great week, Robert! :)"
Thanks, Kim! We're in Jamaica celebrating my wife having put up with me for 25 years, bless her heart! :-)
Mod
I'm just starting, too. :)
I've somehow managed not to finish this one yet. Finished the second to last book within the book, and have been taking a little break before starting the final section just to make it last all that much longer. It's a wonderful story, like The Stand but infused with a deeper sense of magic. (also got to see Joe Hill again on his book tour, and that was pretty special).
I read it the week it came out and thought it was awesome! Such a brilliant idea.Also note that in the "Credits" at the end, he sneaks in a post-epilogue paragraph! It's like an after-the-closing-credits bonus scene. I missed it the first time and was browsing it a day or so later and stumbled on it! Not sure if others caught it.
Jim wrote: "I read it the week it came out and thought it was awesome! Such a brilliant idea.Also note that in the acknowledgements, he sneaks in a post-epilogue paragraph! It's like an after credit bonus. I ..."
Thanks for the heads up! He did something like that with NOS4A2 as well, and 20th Century Ghosts.
It's not often that I get emotionally involved with characters in a novel. Most of the time I see the author at work in how they are crafted or how they are behaving but the characters in The Fireman felt so real I found myself laughing or scared or falling in love with them as the story unfolded. Harper is one of my favorite characters in a book in a great long while.
I didn't know that, Daniel! Now I have to go back to those books. NOS4A2 was mind-blowing to me. It was like a brilliant, nightmarish fever dream.
I'm about 42% in now, really enjoying the story. I love seeing those little 'nods' to his dad's work, it is kind of sweet. That being said, I think this book is fantastic. I already like it better than NOS4A2, which I found to be slightly disjointed time wise. The characterizations are superb and the plot has been flowing well throughout so far.
I picked it up today, but I probably won't start reading it until I get back from a trip next week. I wonder how long this discussion will be by then?
I'm 26% in, i'm taking my time with this one, enjoying it at a slow pace...
Jim wrote: "I didn't know that, Daniel! Now I have to go back to those books. NOS4A2 was mind-blowing to me. It was like a brilliant, nightmarish fever dream."Yeah, it was a nice little Easter egg in NOS4A2, and the bit in 20th Century Ghosts was a short story that essentially acts as a really neat reverse framing device for the rest of the collection.
Mod
Also note that in the acknowledgements, he sneaks in a post-epilogue paragraph! It's like an after cred..."
I have both of those others and never noticed! Thank you for the heads-up, Daniel and Jim!!!!
When I got the book I really wasn't sure I wanted to delve into such a long book. I started it just to take a little peek. Now I want to just take a day and read it. First Joe Hill book so I'm looking forward to his style.
I may be in the minority here, but I had to give up on this about 200 pages in. I rarely ever stop a book once started, and I have enjoyed Hill's other books, but this one stumped me. WAY too long, unlikable characters, the narrative was all over the map and some cringeworthy dialogue. As they say, I may not know art, but I know what I like. Hopefully he finds a better editor the next time round.
I'm a huge fan of Horns and NOS4A2, and I'm enjoying this so far, but I'm definitely getting more S. King vibes than I have from those other two. I mean, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm definitely reminded of Cell and The Stand.
Robert wrote: "Kimberly wrote: "Robert wrote: "I'm in, should be starting today and will have lots of reading time on the beach! Taking the week off from copy editing for my vacation. :-)"Have a great week, Rob..."
Happy anniversary, Robert!!
Jim wrote: "I didn't know that, Daniel! Now I have to go back to those books. NOS4A2 was mind-blowing to me. It was like a brilliant, nightmarish fever dream."I LOVED NOS4A2 so much! I discovered this graphic novel, Wraith which is all about Charlie Manx and Christmasland. I thought it was awesome and highly recommend it. :)
K.N. wrote: "I'm a huge fan of Horns and NOS4A2, and I'm enjoying this so far, but I'm definitely getting more S. King vibes than I have from those other two. I mean, that's not n..."I believe some of those vibes are designed to be there. I noticed quite a few nods to The Stand.
Andrew wrote: "I may be in the minority here, but I had to give up on this about 200 pages in. I rarely ever stop a book once started, and I have enjoyed Hill's other books, but this one stumped me. WAY too long,..."Sorry it didn't work for you, Andrew. :(
I bought this today, and read a little. I was hooked before I finished the short prologue. Hill's story-telling style is so engaging. Had to put it down after finishing Chapter 1 and 2, and I didn't want to. It's going to be a page-turner for sure.
I just started this last night--didn't realize it clocked in at over 700 pages, so I'll have to put in some man hours to finish it.I'm 40 pages in, and I've found it to be a pretty rough start ((view spoiler)). I've been a huge fan of Hill's other books, so hopefully this will pick up once I've settled into the story.
I am liking the spectacular gore, I must admit. :D
I finished this yesterday and plan on writing a review in the near future. I loved it thoroughly and would gladly explore more of this world. And that is my only complaint (and not truly a complaint, either): I wanted to explore the collapse of society through a wider scope. But the window this story offered, while narrow, still offered a haunting and at times beautiful view of a burning world. I'm damn thankful to have this story in my collection.
Now I created my own conflict. I had put this book as well as The Ritual (our alternate choice for June) on hold at my county library. I was #20 on a waiting list of 32 for The Fireman, so I opted to go out and buy that one. Now The Ritual is waiting for me to pick up at the library. Maybe I will have to put Fireman down in order to read and return Ritual before the due date.I'm only 35 pages into The Fireman, so I think I'll put it down until then.
Daniel wrote: "I finished this yesterday and plan on writing a review in the near future. I loved it thoroughly and would gladly explore more of this world. And that is my only complaint (and not truly a complain..."Glad you ended up enjoying it, Daniel. I did too. :)
The interesting thing is though, having studied SHC as part of my degree, the book isn't quite as ridiculous as you may think. And besides, it's normally the things that seem most unreal that turn out to be real ;-)
To Julian's point, here is an interview with Joe Hill, conducted by Paul Tremblay, (author of A Head Full of Ghosts), where Hill talks about mycology as it relates to Dragonscale.
On page 650 and planning to wrap it up tonight. I will post a review upon completion but for now I will say that I'm really enjoying it. It's better than I expected.
Interesting interview Charlene, thank you.
Just finished. I loved this book!!! This is definitely Joe Hill's best novel to date. I wasn't a huge fan of NOS4A2, so I was I bit cautious to jump into this one (given its size and all.) However, I know Mr. Hill is a great author and his development is evident from one book to the next. So I said yes to 759 pages, and I'm glad I did. Five days after I started it I was still glued to the final pages. I believe Mr. Hill has come light years since Heart Shaped Box and I can't wait to see what's next.
I couldn't put this one down and spent my entire day off reading it from start to finish. I absolutely loved it and am a little sad it's over
Apparently I must have missed the " Joe Hill " kool-aid. I think Heart Shaped Box was by far his best work.
Alison wrote: "I couldn't put this one down and spent my entire day off reading it from start to finish. I absolutely loved it and am a little sad it's over"I was sad too, Alison.
Jim wrote: "I read it the week it came out and thought it was awesome! Such a brilliant idea.Also note that in the "Credits" at the end, he sneaks in a post-epilogue paragraph! It's like an after-the-closing-..."
I caught that too, and I felt so happy when I did.
Jenika wrote: "Pixelina wrote: "I just found this one as an audiobook at storytel so think I will listen to it. "I'm listening to the audiobook too. The reader is Kate Mulgrew, who plays Red in 'Orange is the N..."
I will certainly go back and listen to the audio version at some point. I listened to Locke & Key and Kate read one of the characters...she is wonderful to listen to.
Stacey wrote: "I will certainly go back and listen to the audio version at some point."You know what is weird -- I like Kate Mulgrew the actress (I think more Voyager still than OITNB) and I find her fine at reading The Fireman, but I hated her narration of NOS4R2 so much that I returned the book to Audible and bought the e-book. I can't remember now which character she did that made me crazy -- he sounded learning disabled when he wasn't -- and I couldn't get my mind around the story with that character's narration. I also find her voicing of some folks in The Fireman a bit much, but no where near NOS4R2. Interesting how different narrators work for different people and for different books. (I think Charlene and I had a conversation about this at some point given her luv of Mulgrew's narration).
VanillaSky wrote: "Leah wrote: "...I do have to say that I found (spoiler if not at about 25%) (view spoiler)."~30% Yeah, he's a jerk, but it's not like you can only fall in love with a saint and/or get married to ..."
Discussion of Jacob, answered with ~30% (view spoiler)
Maxine wrote: "I'm about 42% in now, really enjoying the story. I love seeing those little 'nods' to his dad's work, it is kind of sweet. That being said, I think this book is fantastic. I already like it better ..."Agreed about pacing and flow compared to NOS4R2 -- I think he is really starting to come into his own as a writer. And for all the remarks about the nods to dad and The Stand and DT in particular, at 3 hours left:
(view spoiler)
Kelly wrote: "Just finished on a rainy day. Few books leave me feeling like I've been through an emotional roller coaster. This is one of those rare books that left me feeling like I just got dumped on the side ..."I had to scan over this comment since I am almost done and do not want to know a thing (or get a hint), but I like your questions and will be back to answer if I can ever get through the last 3 hours. This is killing me!
Leah wrote: "Stacey wrote: "I will certainly go back and listen to the audio version at some point."You know what is weird -- I like Kate Mulgrew the actress (I think more Voyager still than OITNB) and I find..."
Leah, we sure did have that conversation. :)
Even though I got an advance copy of The Fireman, I used my Audible credit to buy the narration of it also, because I loved her voicing in NOS4A2 so much.
Lia❥ wrote: "So is everyone enjoying it? Because I'm tempted to put a hold on it at the library"
I think it's a very intriguing story, spinning in elements of potential natural horror/disaster, and the characters are interesting enough to keep you sucked into the plot. I would recommend that hold.
I think it's a very intriguing story, spinning in elements of potential natural horror/disaster, and the characters are interesting enough to keep you sucked into the plot. I would recommend that hold.
Horror Aficionados
Books mentioned in this topic
NOS4A2 (other topics)NOS4A2 (other topics)
Pygmy (other topics)
NOS4A2 (other topics)
The Fireman (other topics)
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I just found this one as an audiobook at storytel so think I will listen to it. 22 hours or so but perfect for these hot summer days, (oh noes not hot! must save it for a rainy day)