Booklog 6/2018 - Sean Grigsby: Smoke Eaters

[jacey]

This is a mash-up of science fiction and fantasy. It's a blazing debut, well worth your time. The Smoke Eaters fight dragons and dragon-fires with high-tech gadgets in a post-collapse 22^nd century America. It's a bleak future vision. Firefighter captain Cole Brannigan is pressed to take up service with the Smoke Eaters after 30 years in the fire service because they discover that he can breathe dragon smoke without choking on it. He'd been planning his retirement with his wife, but now his future looks very different. Dragons emerge from below, destroying neighbourhoods and eating the population. They've destroyed the infrastructure, made travel by road too dangerous to contemplate, and turned the USA into a collection of autonomous, isolated city states. And then there are the wraiths, ghosts of the consumed who manifest electrically and attract dragons like I attract mosquitos in summer. Brannigan goes from being a seasoned firefighter to a Smoke Eater rookie as he has to learn the job all over again, but he brings with him thirty years of firefighting experience, a stubborn attitude and a deep hatred for the mayor who seems to be intent on sacking public servants and replacing them with droids and drones. Brannigan is a great character. Strong on attitude but weak of bladder. How nice to have a sixty year old hero who gets the job done out of sheer cussedness and commonsense. The author is a firefighter and it shows in the detail and the knowledge – and very probably the attitude. Loved it. NOTE: I had this as a pre-release review copy from Netgalley.