The Fireman cover art

The Fireman

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

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

The Fireman

By: Joe Hill
Narrated by: Kate Mulgrew
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £15.87

Buy Now for £15.87

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 Dystopian Fantasy Fiction Horror Science Fiction Scary Paranormal Adventure
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

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
All stars
Most relevant
An epic, smoke-filled, blazing star of a book! Joe Hill brings something different to the post-Apocalyptic genre. A creeping disease of deadly fire backed with strong and fully rounded characters. A story that follows a small number of survivors as they try to negotiate the two tier society of the “infected” and the “healthy”.

Although epic in length Hill never really tries to encompass the global impact of such a crisis. Instead he works his characters through scenes that are increasingly harrowing and with growing levels of incendiary violence and poetically described horror. There are scenes particularly in the church that will have the hairs on the back of your neck quivering! He brings through the polarisation of human nature and at one point even seems to ape an Orwellian feel casting echoes of the brilliant Animal Farm. This is about journeys of discovery. It’s about people who can cope with the situation no matter what it throws at them, people whose baser nature is brought to the fore by the situation and even those that are crushed by it.

In amongst the tension, violence and horror there are genuine periods spent developing the characters and their relationships. These sections may at times seem flatter but I don’t think they are wasted and they add to the overall feel of the book. I’ll confess it did feel a bit out of place having a lead character with much of Mary Poppins within her. You’ll see what I mean not long into the book. Even that however won me over as it provided a delicious incongruence to the abject horror of some of the scenes. A spoonful of sugar to take to ward off the sheer nastiness and unrelenting hatred of some of the less pleasant characters. A really clever touch.

The narration by Kate Mulgrew is very, very good. I can only imagine how hard it is to keep up that level of intensity across practically a solid day’s worth of narration. She doesn’t have the greatest of variety in character voicings but she does convey tension, excitement and emotion extremely well.

In summary, an excellent novel, much like his father’s in many ways but with his own originality quite literally burned in. The acid test for a book I often find is how much I want the characters to come out of it and believe me I was cheering for these ones!

This book will keep you guessing right to the very end about who might survive and who might not. An excellent effort and I shall look forwards to more from Joe Hill. I guess we should expect no less from the son of the master of such fiction!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not stop listening when the credits start at the end . . . .

A Spark Off The Old Block!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is one of the best apocalypse/survival book I have ever heard. Some of the book premises stretch credibility but Joe Hills' attention to detail is sooooo good that you buy into his vision. Storyline consistently interesting which doesn't apply to some less imaginative authors. Kate Mulgrew provides an excellent sound track and has the rare ability of giving each individual their own character ... No mean feat when there are so many ... Making it easy to follow. Dramatic interpretation is excellent.

Words fail ( actually they don't really!!) as so excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I bought it by accident, thinking it was another book, but thought I'd try it, as apocalyptic genre doesn't normally interest me. But so glad I did. It is long but I become hooked. Basically it is a story of survival in a world divided by the infected with Dragon scale and the uninfected who are scared and just want to be rid of the infected. it is a tale of survival, friendships, betrayal, heroics (though a little far fetched at times but the whole story is!) And of course love.

Really enjoyed it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Back to the Joe Hill we all know and love. Fabulous characters, great story, well told and narrated. Who could ask for more? Unless there's a sequel in there somewhere. Don't leave me hanging Joe!

Amazing! More please!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What did you like most about The Fireman?

The narrator.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Kind of what I was expecting.

What does Kate Mulgrew bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

She is a brilliant narrator.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not really

Any additional comments?

I have listened to all of the books Joe Hill has written up to now and I was really looking forward to this one being released. I found myself a little disappointed with it, if I'm honest. I found it a bit predictable and whilst the characters were interesting, the story itself is a bit weak, in my opinion. It kind of reminded me of a cross between 'Lord of the Flies' and Stephen King's, 'The Stand', only being significantly inferior to both. I'm not quite sure what he was trying to achieve with this book and whilst I didn't dislike it, it's not something I shall be in a hurry to read again.

The saving grace for the book was that it is brilliantly read by Kate Mulgrew, who really is an excellent audio book reader. She probably lifted it beyond it's real level. All in all, I would say it's OK, without being brilliant. Would I recommend it? I'm not sure. Oh, and if you do make it to the end, make sure you listen past the credits because there is a final piece to finish things off.

Not his best work...enjoyable but a bit weak.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews