Customer Reviews

Kindling (Fire-Us Trilogy)

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

 

 

The first book in a trilogy, The Kindling is an engrossing read with compelling characters. I immediately felt attached to this "family" of children trying to survive in the aftermath of a plague-like "Fire-Us" that killed off all the adults and was completely caught up in their struggles and hopes. It's a story so absorbing it's tempting to read the book in one sitting. The book, however late it keeps you up, is not only a page-turner, but a richly imagined account of a world that is somehow recognizably ours even as it has been made strange and often menacing. The Kindling plays on the fantasy all children have of being in charge of the world (there's something thrilling about the idea of scavenging for food and salvage in the unpeopled strip malls and abandoned houses of post-apocalypse America without adults to supervise or set rules even as such "hunting" (as it's called in the book) is a life-and-death necessity for these kids), but given the damaged landcape and psychologically scarred inheritors of this world, that fantasy is turned here to something perilous and completely absorbing. That the authors have made this world so strange, familiar, and utterly convincing is a testament to their fine prose and deep powers of imagination. We care about the way their characters must face this world and themselves in order to survive and when they take to the road in search of answers, we go with them, attuned to their every action and nearly breathless for their survival and success. I can't wait for part two!

This book was amazing The way the author made it sad and very exciting. The book made me want to read even more. But why were the adults the only ones to die instead of the kids. The book could've been better and more sad and exciting.

In the year 2002, a deadly disease killed out all adults in the world. Eventually, kids died because of the lack of food, shelter, and other things adults gave them. But seven kids got together and helped each other survive for five years. Now in the year 2007, the town they live in is running out of food and supplies, so when a boy named Angerman came to them wanting to search for the president, they jumped on the chance to leave. Now they are in the wilderness traveling from Lazarus, Florida to Washington D.C. in a world dominated by alligators, panthers, and the deadly disease!

I liked that occasionally they would switch the view of the characters to show different perspectives on the story. I also liked that I disliked the fact that they put Bad Guy in the story, when that just seemed to get me confused.

I would recommend this book for both boys and girls between the ages 12 and 14. I think you would like this book if you are into action or adventure. I really enjoyed this book, and I think you would too.

As an adult who loves children's fantasy and survival novels, this was a real page-turner. It sounds morbid to say I 'enjoyed' the book, but I don't think that was the author's intent. I felt a gloom and sense of foreboding dread the entire time. It's gritty, real, and very immersing, even heartbreaking at times to consider the story of these kids and how they would grow and develop without adults in the world. It was reminiscent of Lord of the Flies and Red Dawn, with a little bit of Stephen King's 'The Stand' thrown in for good measure, but it wasn't derivative of any of these.
I must also say that the style of writing was very different and engaging - these two authors have a great voice, style, and the prose flows right along - impressive without being obtrusive. I'm very excited about reading the rest of the series.

I think you should really read this book it was on e the best survival books i have ever read. "It is the year 2007 five years after a great plague swept the Earth". only a couple kids and adults survived seperated they strugle to survive they live in small groups scavenging for food and other needful things. but when a town runs out of food a group of kids mave to where ever they can find it.

I finished the Kindling last night, and loved it soooo much. The cliffhanger really made me want to read more. This is a really great book to read anytime, for anything. I suggest that anyone who wants a good book should read the Kindling.

The premise behind the FIRE-US trilogy is not new, disease has killed most of the human population in the world. Reminiscent of EARTH ABIDS or the STAND in the general context, FIRE-US looks at the survival of a group of children left on their own when all the grown-ups died. This is not a novel giving the nuts and bolts of their survival but more a story of how their group is changing given that the oldest members are now facing that radical change of puberty.

The story gives an exciting and surprisingly believable account of what children might do if left to themselves, given of course they still have all the stores to raid to keep alive. These children, Hunter, Mommy, Teacher, their names prior to the Fire-Us (virus) having been lost and their identities fully enmeshed with their new roles in life, are the older ones taking care of a number of younger children. They have lived these roles for five years but now forced by the failure of their food supply and the addition of three newcomers to leave their home and find the President of the United States, the grown-up who will save them.

The book, alright books if you insist, are fast paced action filled stories that should capture the attention and the imagination of young readers. Be warned though there are parts that are not for the squeamish. There are inferences to what can only be called the rape of adolescent girls and infanticide. Additionally it deals with the coming of age in the older children, their fears and tentative explorations. Nothing brutal or explicit, but there none the less.

In all a well done story, and while I can't say their a MUST read I can say I do RECOMMEND them for our young adult readers.

The Fire-Us trilogy is an entertaining post-apocalyptic thriller for those who are too young to remember the fears of nuclear annihilation that came to an end in the 1990's.

Unfortunately, in the final installment, the authors' political biases become all to clear.

For adult readers, this trilogy is an example of the kinds of evil allegations that our currend political Left is willing to spread about conservatives. If a conservative writer were to say such things about liberals he or she would be called a witch hunter, a McCarthyite, or worse. But so be it. The tale itself is entertaining enough on its own merits.

THE KINDLING, opens in the town of Lazarus, Florida. We learn that five years earlier, a mysterious plague called Fire-Us had wiped out every adult on the planet. Although the plague did not harm children, most of them have died of neglect. But a hardy band of survivors in Lazarus boast that "We're still here!" The eldest of them would seem to have been only eight or nine when the plague struck. They have been so traumatized that they only have dim recollections of their First Mommies and First Daddies, and their First Names are only dim recollections. But they have survived by taking shelter in an empty house and by raiding abandoned stores in the town.

We meet Teacher, with her holy scrapbook that records the history of the band and gives surprisingly good advice on the decisions of the band. There is Mommy, who attends to the needs of the younger children; Teddy Bear, Baby, and Doll. Hunter and his brother, Action Figure do the hunting for the group.

A stranger of dubious sanity who calls himself Angerman shows up and joins the group along with Bad Guy, a store mannequin that seems to be his alter ego. Soon afterwards, the group rescues Puppy and Kitty, a boy and girl who seem to be too young to have been born before Fire-Us (virus?). Puppy and Kitty cannot talk, only bark and meow. Angerman persuades the group to seek out President to learn what happened in Fire-Us. They set out. As this installment ends, they reach and abandoned shopping mall and encounter the first adults they have seen in five years.