Smoke Eaters

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Really, the case for you (or anyone) reading this book is simply and convincingly made in 13 words:

Firefighters vs. Dragons in an Urban Fantasy novel set in a futuristic dystopia.

Backdraft

Smoke Eaters

Disclaimer:

I received this eARC from the good folks over at Angry Robot via NetGalley in exchange for this post and my honest take on the book – thanks to both for their generosity and this rockin' read.

Pure escapism and I absolutely loved it. Kept me gripped throughout and the story was completely unique. Great wee debut novel but I'm not sure he'll be able to keep it up for a series... I'm hoping to be proven wrong though.

First off, let me say that this series is kick ass. I ended up reading the books out of order; first, I read Ash Kickers, and I liked it so much I came back to Smoke Eaters. Even though I gave Smoke Eaters a 3 instead of a 5, don't think that I didn't love the hell out of it. I did.

Smoke Eaters is the story of Cole Brannigan, intrepid firefighter and captain. A week before retirement, Brannigan gets to a call that changes his destiny and his plans.

Here is some relevant backstory. In the early 2100s, dragons rose from the soil and roared across the Earth. They wreaked havoc, razed cities, destroyed echo systems, and ravaged humanity. The US, government broken, has divided itself into nation states eschewing the restoration of governmental control.

Smoke Eaters, the novel, takes place in Ohio within the world, decimated by dragons. An offset of the fire department is created with individuals who, through a genetic miracle, can breathe dragon smoke and resist heat. Those individuals are called to serve in this elite fighting force called Smoke Eaters. Cole Brannigan, our main protagonist, goes on a call and is confronted with a dragon. The dragon eats some of his team, and Cole is confronted with dragon smoke, which he survives. He is roped into being the new rookie of the Smoke Eaters.

Cole is on one side, a father figure type character, and on the other, a wise sensei. The Smoke Eaters need cohesion, and they need the ethics and morality outside of just killing dragons. People live, and their lives are directly affected by the dragons that need to be taken into account. Grigsby, an Arkansas firefighter, invokes a lot of the imagery and real-world experience he has as a working firefighter. There is an absolute authenticity to the action sequences and firefighting scenes that can only be derived from living it.

My only caveat, and the reason I gave this a 3 instead of 5 stars is that I found the plot to meander a bit, and I got lost. We are here, and Brannigan is a quadriplegic, but only for a little while. But in the meantime, they need to go check out weapons in Canada. Why does Brannigan needs to go to Canada, while injured is beyond me? Then there is a human sacrifice, an evil mayor, robots, and a mega dragon. But, the story pulls it right back together, and everything makes sense again and ends with a grandiose finale that is exciting.

If you want all the fun, pick up this book and the next in the series Ash Kickers. It is a ton of fun. Like, ass-kicking whooping kind of fun. Check it out!

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SMOKE EATERS by Sean Grigsby

George Carlin once said “It takes a genius to point out the obvious.” In Sean Grigsby's debut novel, SMOKE EATERS, instead of the tired trope of using knights and warriors to battle a scaly menace, he has firefighters fighting dragons and ghosts (yes, I said dragons AND ghosts–it's pretty awesome). He might not be the first one to try that combo, but his execution of this concept is pretty genius, and it's a brilliant ride.

The main character, Brannigan, is on his way out of the job, a job that's only gotten harder since E-Day, the day the dragons emerged from underground. He's fought fires for thirty years, and it's time to retire, to settle down. However, just days before his retirement, Brannigan finds out he's a Smoke Eater, nearly immune to smoke and heat. From there, he gets tossed into the Smoker Eaters brigade, a sort of futuristic, power-suited, balls-to-the-wall brand of firefighters whose job is to kill dragons and defend people from wraiths, the ghosts of those killed by dragonfire.

If all that wasn't enough, there's something fishy about the goings-on of the higher-ups in the administration of Parthenon City, and Brannigan has to content with real dragons, as well as the dragons of a corrupt bureaucracy.

The prose is slick and easy. The dialogue sounds crisp and real. And, thanks to Grigsby's background as a firefighter, the technical aspects of the book feel very real, even if they're done in an over-the-top, worthy-of-an-action-movie-starring-The Rock-sort of way.

SMOKE EATERS, in many ways, is an homage to Scalzi's OLD MAN'S WAR (at one point in the book, Brannigan even reads that book). It's a worthy tribute because the head nods to Scalzi are not subtle, but at the same time, SMOKE EATERS blazes its own glorious path. Definitely worth checking out.

I really wanted to like this book more than I do. The concept is awesome and the action was fun, but unanswered questions and abrupt shifts in random directions kept pulling me out of the story. If you're less prone to falling into plot holes than I am, I still recommend the book.

Oh this was AWESOME. With the exception of the main character's name (Cole Brannigan) making me think of Zapp Brannigan from Futurama ALL THE TIME, this was a great read. The book is actually set in the near future of Earth - sometime after “E-Day” which they never actually said what the “E” stood for, but maybe Emergence Day? Because that was the day the dragons burrowed up from the earth and started destroying everything. (They referred to a song popular in the 80s as “ancient music”!) There's some new technology - androids are getting popular, robot dogs are common, and the Smoke Eaters have laser swords and laser cannons for taking down dragons. But firefighting is still mostly the same.

Not-Zapp Brannigan is about to retire when his (regular) fire fighting team unexpectedly encounters a dragon. Normally, normal fire fighters don't go in until the Smoke Eaters have taken out the dragon, but they didn't realize there was a dragon here until far too late. During the fight, Brannigan loses his oxygen mask and discovers he can breathe in the thick smoke and be fine. He's a literal Smoke Eater. When the actual Smoke Eaters arrive and discover him, he's shanghaied into joining up.

The book covers Brannigan's Smoke Eater training, what little of it he gets, and the trouble he gets into being on the Mayor's bad side. We get to see several different types of dragons, and also see how the experience of many years of fighting normal fires helps with dragon-fighting strategy. There's some theories on the dragons - where they came from, how they reproduce, how best to fight them.

Most of the book takes place in Ohio, but they take a jaunt to Canada and - well Canada's gone VERY WEIRD.

This book was great, and a fun ride start to finish. I hope he writes more in this world, though the book is a perfectly fine standalone.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

So if reading the blurb for the novel brings back flashbacks of Reign of Fire, I can't say I blame you - but I promise, this novel is MUCH better, and MUCH more fun :D. For one, the world-building's pretty solid and sensible - which, yes, I know this is about dragons, but even when there are dragons involved things still have got to make sense, and this world, fortunately, makes pretty good sense to me. And the story's got all the thrilling, breathless action you could possibly want, so it goes by really quickly and painlessly. The problem for me, though, is that the female characters kind of get the short end of the stick when it comes to development - not in a way that I find reprehensible, just enough that it's noticeable and makes me wish they'd been better-developed because they seem so awesome. Also there are times when the action goes by just a mite too fast for my liking, but that's more personal taste I think. Otherwise, though, this was a fun read, and I look forward to whatever Grigsby's got coming up next :D.