Customer Reviews

Fire Will Fall

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a great read. FIRE WILL FALL was just great fun, although I have to complain a little about it keeping me up too late at night. In fact, the tension was so great at one point that I had to resolve not to read the book too close to bedtime because it was freaking me out.

The story is a follow-up to a previous book --Streams of Babel-- that I haven't read, but which I am definitely going to track down. It's principally about 4 teenagers who are recovering from a poisoning that took place in the previous book where terrorists dumped toxic bio-hazards into their small town's water supply. Most of these teens lost parents and friends, and they are still barely surviving on a pharmaceutical cocktail of meds that have some odd side effects. They are brought to a restored house to recover with the assurance that they are out of danger from the terrorists. 'Dogs don't return to their vomit', they are told. BUT unfortunately that doesn't turn out to be the case as they just happen to have been settled near the next target site.

TALKING POINTS:::
I don't do "terrorists/spy" books, and I don't do popular thrillers (no Dan Brown for me), but maybe I should broaden my reading and take a look at more books in this genre, because I really enjoyed FIRE WILL FALL. I thought Plum-Ucci did a fabulous job with building tension and with differentiating the characters. In fact, I guess that's why I like the book: I got hooked on the characters and how they interacted. The mind-tingling excitement of trying to figure out who would die, was just delicious icing on that cake!

All good things said, this shouldn't be a book you pick up when your exhausted because the chapters are divided amongst 6 points of view, and first person at that. Everything flows brilliantly, but it won't be as much fun for you if you are tired and can't quite remember who is who.

NOTE: You absolutely do not have to have read the first book. This one stands on it's own.

Brilliant fun. A definite 'guilty-pleasure' read. Enjoy!

Pam T~
(booksforkids-reviews)

After slogging through a few hundred pages, I could not bring myself to care enough to finish the book. The initial premise is cool. Four teens recovering from a bio-terrorist attack go to a backwoods mansion in NJ to further heal and face unseen threats. I did not read the first book, and perhaps my opinion would be completely different if I had.

My major problem with the book was just that it was boring. The biggest thing that happened in a few hundred pages is two characters stole away to an amusement park and took pictures. (Oooooh, be still my racing heart.) I could not get into the characters. I actually didn't care what happened to them. They're constantly harping on things that happened in the previous book, which is fine, but there's no progression or insight gained for all of what I read, which was most of the book. The narration skips from one to another, which I like, but the voices weren't unique enough until about 3/4 of the way through. Cora and Rain blended into each other, Owen and Scott did the same.

The problem could be with me. I tend toward fantasy and science fiction stories where people die a lot and the conflicts affect the rise and fall of planets and civilizations. So, when I say I was bored with the "action" in the book, that could just be a matter of degree.

It's the year 2002, and Americans are hyperaware of international terrorism. The first attack by ShadowStrike came only months ago with the release of a designer bug into the water of one small town. The Q3 virus poisoned many and left four teenagers physically damaged but famous, branded as the Trinity Four by the press, for life. With stage IV poisoning, Cora, Owen, Scott and Rain are now under constant guard by USIC agents, confined to recuperate under monitoring while undergoing indefinite drug treatments. A cure has been promised but has yet to materialize. But ShadowStrike isn't done toying with them just yet. V-spies for the Americans have identified a new threat through the Web, an even deadlier biological attack that will fall like fire on the innocent.

Becoming actual survivors of a terrorist assault has left Rain, Owen, Cora and Scott simultaneously unified and scarred. All four are having difficulty processing their emotions, albeit in vastly different ways. Rain's bouts of sensitivity are driving the other three nuts; she cries or complains all the time while demanding the support of her friends. Owen is caught up in his own private psychological drama over God's role in their attack and an imagined Armageddon, beginning with ShadowStrike claiming the lives of their loved ones. Owen's brother Scott doesn't put much thought into such grand ideas but is definitely depressed and dejected even while he tries to remain grounded. Focusing on nothing but his physical agony is clearly affecting Scott's prognosis for the worst. And though Cora remains quiet and patient as always, she is undoubtedly suffering privately too. It's becoming clear to them that she's been hallucinating more on the drugs they're all on.

All four drive each other nuts as the question arises of whether they are likely to recover; statistically, they've been told that a full recovery --- and even survival for all of them --- is improbable. They begin to wonder if they're safe anymore and if USIC knows enough to protect Americans.

While those of the Trinity Four work out their feelings and recover, Shahzad and Tyler, USIC spies, also recuperate in private. They too were victims of a lesser-known bioterrorist attack, after infiltrating the ShadowStrike network and being discovered. Exposure to a hazardous substance by an operative left them scarred and blistering, and their wounds continue to seep all over the furniture. But the two continue to work for USIC in an unofficial arrangement as underaged agents who report anonymously to a single superior. No compensation has been offered, and they've received no official recognition or support. They're simply excellent hackers who couldn't live with the thought of allowing terrorists to use technology to attack innocent people.

Though FIRE WILL FALL, a sequel to 2008's STREAMS OF BABEL, centers on a particularly vicious and disgusting bioterrorist attack, the central focus is not on that so much as the effects of violence and fear on the human psyche. The motives and thought processes of the terrorist operatives are never revealed to the reader's satisfaction. But the thoughts and reactions of the victims are delved into deeply, especially the Trinity Four, who have been marked for life by the trauma. These experiences have also brought them together in unexpected ways, teaching them to be better friends and support each other openly. None, it seems, will ever find it easy to move on or forget the fear that has crippled them. Yet each is exceptionally focused on what they want out of life and has become much more serious about deciding who they'd like to spend it with, even though they're only teenagers. In a sense, being a victim has galvanized them to become tougher and face death without fear. It has allowed each to find his or her own direction and want something better for the world than what it is.

The book's pacing is slow, and it presents no surprises as far as action. But the characterizations are excellent (particularly Shahzad and Tyler) and show a bigger picture of terrorism than a simple thrill ride can. This is an expressive story that reveals our human failings as well as our abilities to rise above them when we choose to do so.

--- Reviewed by Melanie Smith

"Fire Will Fall" is a very special 'young adult' novel--- an entry in that genre of fiction that purportedly is aimed at an audience of teens.

It's special not because the story is especially compelling, although it's good enough; neither is it because the characters are well-drawn and alive. It's because author Carol Plum-Ucci respects her audience, something that is all too rare in the young adult book sector.

The second book in a series (often a problem when it's your starting point, as it was for me), enough of the back story is given to make things manageable. While it certainly would have been better to start at the beginning, it isn't really a necessity here as it seems to be in many another series.

In the first book, apparently, a group of four teens suffered the effects of a bio-terrorist attack; they drank water that had been contaminated. In the second book, they are fighting their illnesses while under government protection; they have become something of a group of celebrities; and medical labs around the nation are looking for a cure for them.

Now, a second attack from the same terrorist organization is in the works, again threatening the New Jersey shore area where the teens live.

This sounds like a great story, and there's a lot more to it: New York based hackers, intelligence agents, the whole nine yards. Yet the story is undertold and doesn't have the gripping excitement that it might have.

The narrative technique is multiple first person. This seems quite popular in recent books; the idea is that the various characters narrate the story, chapter by chapter, sometimes by turns and sometimes a few chapters in a row. This technique is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, we see things in a very personal manner, and the characters become alive as we engage directly with them. On the other hand, there is the danger of confusion, and unfortunately that happens here. The author titled each chapter with the name of the narrator, and the time and place; and that's a good thing, because I found myself flipping back to this description time and again. The narration style is uniform for each character, and without some differentiation, lacking in this case, it's hard to keep track of who's up in any given chapter.

It sounds like I'm headed for a negative judgment of this book, but nothing could be less true. In fact, I really liked the book, for the reason given above: it respects its audience. The author doesn't "tone down" the book in any way. There is gritty language, "adult" situations, and frank discussion of topics that are often "off-limits" for young adult fiction. But the author (herself the mother of teens) understands that high-schoolers have daily exposure to all of these things, and to pretend otherwise by "sanitizing" a young adult novel is pure silliness. Now, this book might not be chosen for a high school library by a fussy librarian; but it tells the truth, without fear, and for that Ms. Plum-Ucci deserves our thanks and respect.

And in the process of telling the truth, she lets the characters be real and alive and people about whom we can care. Despite some obvious flaws, the book becomes very much worth our time, and that's true whether you're a teen or beyond (and I happen to be a grandpa myself).

I definitely recommend this book for teens who want to see real, relevant issues dealt with in a real, relevant manner, and who enjoy having a good (though not great) story wrapped around it. I recommend the book for adults who aren't prissy and unrealistic, and who want to get to know four teen characters who are lifelike and believable. Ms. Plum-Ucci is an award-winning author and this book makes it easy to see why.

Plot: Four teens plus two of their parents are infected with a virus via their drinking water in a small New Jersey town by terrorists. Meanwhile two teen hackers are trying to track down the source of the perps through capturing "chatter" on the Internet. The book is split between the six teens, although there seems to be no pattern to the order in which they narrate. One character, perhaps the least interesting, gets one section, others get many more. Some drop out of the narrative for pages, only to pop back in at the end. While all the characters have compelling backstories, it can be confusing to keep in mind who's who. In fact, the backstories are so dramatic that there would easily have been enough material just to concentrate on three or four of the teens. While "Fire Will Fall" is an absorbing YA thriller on a timely and intriguing subject, it takes on too much. Removing some of the drama in each character's past would actually strengthen the book, not weaken it.