Group read: The Fireman by Joe Hill

Welcome to the group read for Joe Hill's The Fireman.
Hopefully you've grabbed a copy and can join us for the spooky month of October!

Some discussion questions to start us off.

Have you already read any of Joe Hill's books?
Of the ones you have read which ones did you love or dislike?

Did you know that Joe Hill is Stephen King's son? After reading some of his works did that surprise you to find out?

Joe Hill

Born Joseph Hillstrom King
June 4, 1972 (age 46)
Bangor, Maine, United States
Occupation Novelist, short story writer, comic book writer
Nationality American
Alma mater Vassar College
Period 1996–present
Genre Horror, dark fantasy, science fiction
Spouse Leanora King (1999–2010; divorced)1
Children 3
Relatives Stephen King (father)
Tabitha King (mother)
Owen King (brother)
Website joehillfiction.com

>2 ChelleBearss:
I've read two of Joe Hill's books. Heart Shaped Box and NOS4A2, both of which were creepy and awesome.

I think I read NOS4A2 before I found out he was King's son by randomly picking it up from the library. Knowing that he was King's son first might have actually made me not want to read him, as sometimes kids can become famous off their parent's names without actually having any talent (can you say Kardashians?!) . I'm glad that Hill has managed to make a name for himself off of his own talents before being outed as King's son.

Here's an article about hiding his associations and trying to break out on his own until he was outed in 2007.

I’m in. I’ve read Heart-Shaped Box, NOS4A2, and a collection four short stories/novellas. Loved them all!

This thread’s on the group wiki now.

Thanks, Jim! Glad to have you joining us!
I started it last night and it's heavy! My arms were sore from holding it :-)

Hey Chelle, Thanks for starting this up. I listened to NOS4A2 a couple of years ago. As you say, creepy!
I've downloaded the audio for The Fireman. It will be an awesome October read/listen. An awesome 22 hours worth of listening. :/

Thanks for setting this up, Chelle and finally nudging me into reading/listening to The Fireman, which I will start next week. I have read most of Hill's work and have enjoyed all of it. Like Jim, I loved Strange Weather, Hill's last novella collection. I wish he would scale back on the length of his novels though, he might be starting to mimic his father's tendency to go LONG. What is wrong with compact and tidy?

>7 Carmenere: Thanks for joining us, Lynda! Those King/Hill guys don't write short novels, eh! 22 hours is a whopper!

>8 msf59: Thanks for encouraging me into a group read, Mark! I haven't read Strange Weather yet, as I have an aversion to short stories, but I do love Hill and King so perhaps I'll have to find a copy
It's too bad their books weight so much! I have a trade paperback copy and it's huge at 752 pages! My arms start to hurt :)

Okay, I'm in too. But probably not till next week. My library has it on audio. I'll grab it when I'm done with his Dad/Brother's book Sleeping Beauties

I too loved Strange Weather and would recommend it, even if you don't like short stories.

The son of Stephen and Tabitha King. What else could he do but write??

>10 mahsdad: awesome, glad to have you join us
How are you liking Sleeping Beauties?

>11 EBT1002: ha, right!?

I finished this a few days ago and this is my mini review that I added. No major spoilers here but a couple thoughts that might influence you if you haven’t started yet

I really enjoyed this, although I wouldn't say it's great writing or even very unique. I found a lot of similarities to The Stand, which I guess if you are going to follow a standard for a post apocalypse story The Stand is a great one to take from. Even though it's rather huge I found it to be a quick read and I really loved some of the characters. Unfortunately I predicted the ending pretty exactly, which I was a little disappointed about.
Overall I recommend it if you like post apocalypse books, but don't expect spectacular writing and just enjoy the story for what it is.

>12 ChelleBearss: Sadly I didn't think it was was King's best work (in full disclosure, I've never read any of Owen's work). I liked it (I must have it was a 25+ hour audiobook), but I didn't love it.

I'm about an hour into The Fireman (out of 22 hours), and I'm enjoying it a lot more. Very interesting premise.

I'm about 50 pages in and agree with opinions above - nothing new or innovative here, but a reasonably good read. I'm a bit disappointed in that I've come to expect more from Joe Hill, but I'll keep going and probably will enjoy the time spent with it.

I've been listening to this with Kate Mulgrew narrating. So far, 25% into it, I'm hoping Jacob gets his comeuppance in a big way. Mulgrew's voice is quite irritating especially the voices she creates for a number of characters. The writing seems juvenile and the F bomb is overused. That said....I'll continue on and see where this book goes.

Interesting that there was a fat loner kid character called Harold Cross, that caused a lot of problems, it made me immediately think of Harold Lauder, a fat loner kid that caused lots of problems in Hill's Dad's seminal work...The Stand. Coincidence, probably not.

Finished today - not Joe's best, but pretty good. Lots of nods to The Stand, which is ok, but also well able to stand alone. But seriously, Martha Quinn? Of all the things to drag out of the 80s... 😀

>16 mahsdad: Did you also notice that Harper's middlename was Frances... some of the similarities with characters between the two books bothered me. Something so simple as choosing different names could have made a difference

>17 drneutron: I wasn't familiar with Martha Quinn but I did notice a bunch of the Stand nods. Some bothered me but I still enjoyed the book overall