Burning Stones [Paperback]

Steven Mills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2006

In a world already desolated by an avian influenza, paramedic Alex Gauthier's twenty-one-year-old daughter, Gemma, afflicted by the so-called Lucy virus, is devolving-turning into a proto human-while forest fires besiege the valley where they live. When Gemma asks Alex to kill her-perform a mercy killing-when she is no longer human, he finds himself making a promise he doesn't want to keep. At the other end of the valley, Veronica "Ronnie" Sapriken, the only remaining RCMP officer, is struggling to keep the peace in a disintegrating town while the rest of the world is falling apart, only to discover that someone has been trafficking in devolving kids. Locked away in a FEMA camp outside Spokane, Sage Van Peldt, whose husband and children were among the first to be infected with the strange virus, plans escape back to the valley of her childhood, not knowing whether she will survive the trip, or what she will find once she gets there. Burning Stones is the harrowing story of devolution, and of making choices no one wants to have to make.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In contrast to Hollywood's fondness for dramatizing the effects of catastrophe on major cities, first-time novelist Mills examines the ways that smalltown inhabitants of a valley on the Washington State/British Columbia border deal with a trio of worldwide disasters: a deadly avian flu; an additional virus that turns people into simian, proto-humans (or "lucies"); and the wildfires that break out once the population is too diminished to prevent or control them. Mills presents stark, harrowing descriptions of injury and death while chronicling ex-librarian Sage Van Peldt's struggle to survive a prisonlike FEMA camp, and the efforts of paramedic Alex Gautier and RCMP officer Ronnie Sapriken to fight the fires and deal with a gang that sells captured lucies as slaves. This grim near-future tale showcases the best and worst of humanity while never falling prey to the tyranny of the happy ending. (Sept.)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 249 pages
• Publisher: Cosmos Books (April 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809562863
• ISBN-13: 978-0809562862
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,062,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars End of the world, December 6, 2009

By 

Goddess "Goddess" (Portland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Burning Stones (Paperback)

Original end of the world novel. But no sense of hope, or possibility at the end of the book. Completely negative and depressing. No glimmer for the reader to hold on to.

Very fast paced, and seems to tie into current events to build up a believable probability for the catastrophe.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fire falling to earth shines bright, October 30, 2008

By 

Eleanor Skinner (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Burning Stones (Paperback)

This is a really superb first novel by the author of a very good story in Tesseracts Eleven: Amazing Canadian Speculative Fiction (Tesseracts), a yearly Canadian sf/f anthology. It is very depressing, as not only has civilization collapsed, but most of the human race is 'devolving' due to a virus & much of the immediate area is being destroyed by a wildfire, but the writing is very very good. The book is a character study about a firefighter whose daughter is devolving, a woman trying to make it to post-apocalyptic Canada to find her parents, & a female mountie who is trying to keep some semblance of order & protection in her small town area of Canada, which has been abandoned by whatever government is left. The burning stones of the title are asteroids that the firefighter & his daughter always watch.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great novel..., November 1, 2006

By 

R. Kirk "beadbabe 49" (Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Burning Stones (Paperback)

I was surprised to find this was a first novel, although the author is a published writer. The plot was very well done and the characters interested me from the first page. The story moved along at a brisk pace and I found I couldn't put the book down until I'd finished it. I was hoping for a sequel as soon as this first book ended. This is a great read for anyone, not just speculative fiction fans. Highly recommended!