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Firestarter [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephen King
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)

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Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --  
School & Library Binding CDN $18.71  
Paperback --  
Mass Market Paperback CDN $8.54  
Mass Market Paperback, Jan 1 1981 --  
Audio, CD, Audiobook CDN $39.19  

Book Description

Jan 1 1981 Signet
Unabridged CDs, 16 CDs, 13 hours

Read by TBA

Charlie McGee inherited pyrokinetic powers from her parents, who had been given a low-grade hallucinogen called "Lot Six" while at college. Now the government is trying to capture young Charlie and harness her powerful firestarting skills as a weapon.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Review

'Stephen King's finest novel yet...the most tightly plotted of King's chillers, it is also the most terrifying' -- Cosmopolitan 'One of the most fertile storytellers of the modern novel' -- The Sunday Times 'King does this better than anyone else. We finished the book in about three non-stop hours after we picked it up' -- Playboy --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Stephen King, the world's bestselling novelist, was educated at the University of Maine at Orono. He lives with his wife, the novelist Tabitha King, and their children in Bangor, Maine.
--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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"Daddy, I'm tired," the little girl in the red pants and the green blouse said fretfully. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Ugh Jan 20 2004
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Having read a couple of King novels, I bought a copy of Firestarter because I thought that it would be an exciting science fiction novel. Boy was I wrong. Overall, the book was slow and lacked much excitment.

The story is a girl who inherited pyrokinetic powers from both of her parents who participated in a pyschology experiment in college. After the government discovers the telekinetic powers of the family, they seek to capture them. Agents murder the mother but the father and daughter--Charlie--escape. There run from the government encompasses the first part of the book, which is somewhat interesting. The two use there talents to manuever themselves around the country. The finally reach a safe haven in a family cabin, and unfortunately the book sends too much time on there daily life at the cabin and the government spying on them. Somewhere in the middle there is an incident where a farmer befriends them and doesn't seem to mind that Charlie burned down their farm. Eventually, there are captured.

After the first hundred pages or so, the book really takes a turn towards the boring side. Charlie and her father spend the rest of the book trapped in a government prison. Here we meet the horrible character John Rainbird, a Native American assassin who has a "fancy" for shoes. Rainbird is probably one of the worst characters I have found in King's writings. King characterizes him as a person who enjoys killing others, even little Charlie. Frankly, this is just sickening. Rainbird isn't even an interesting or devishly likable character. Too much time is also spent characterizing Cap Hollister, another boring villian.

The chapters in which the characters are in prison are slower than a turtle crossing the street. There are entire chapters in which Charlie's father is characterized as getting fat and losing his ability and basically just sitting around and doing nothing. Other chapters further detail the disturbing character of Rainbird or Charlie's events in prison. Who cares? Where's the action?

The action does pick up near the end, but it is woven into some type of stupid plot twist to try to free Charlie from enternment. I won't tell you how the story ends, but I found it thoroughly disappointing...even more disappointing that the endings of most King novels.

Overall, Firestarter just moves too slowly to maintain interesting. Novels that were more than twice as many pages as Firestarter (The Stand, IT) moved much faster and were quite readable. Firestarter wasn't. It took me about four months to actually finish it because it was so boring. I wouldn't recommend it. Check out some other works by King instead.

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By Eric
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I've read many books by Stephen King including "The Stand", the first five of the "Dark Tower" series, "Thinner", "Misery", etc. All of them have left me speechless about how someone could weave a story from nothing, into something that left me craving for more. After my completion of Firestarter however, I was not wanting more, and in fact, I could've done with less. Many of Stephen King's novels are written in a sense that he had some sort of great inspiration, but sadly "Firestarter" seemed to lack inspiration of any sort. If you've read the story, you're well aware that it's about a little girl named Charlie that has the ability to create fires using only her mind... I hope this strikes you as weird, considering it's so basic compared to some of King's other wiritings, such as "The Stand" where he wrote 1000+ pages about an apocolyptic plague that overthrew the better part of the planet, it just strikes me as funny that King would even joke about writing about a mutant who really can't even be called a mutant, seeing is that she has every human charactaristic everyone else did, except the ability to light fires. The plot was was well written, I can give him that, but his development of the characters was something I cannot give him. The story starts off talking about Andy and Charlie, and throughout the entire book, you only learn a few things about them. Overall I think this book could've been written better. I'm giving it a three out of five because I think King was in a slump, and we all get into those time after time.
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Format:Mass Market Paperback
I'm not going to write about the plot of this book because so many other reviewers have already done that but I will just give my opinion about Firestarter! My Favorite Stephen King book is the Shining but my second favorite is Firestarter and I agree with the reviewers who have said that this book is underrated, underappreciated and misunderstood. I think some people didn't like Firestarter because it wasn't as scary or weird as some other books by Stephen King and I agree that parts of the story are more mystery and suspense but it's a nail biting sit on the edge of your chair or sofa type of mystery and supsense book and I enjoyed reading it. I don't have this book anymore, I had traded it in at a used book store and I have really regretted doing that so I'm planning on buying it again and this time it's going to be a keeper! I also wish they had made an audiobook recording of Firestarter, I would love to listen to an unabridged audio recording of Firestarter but when this book was first published audiobooks weren't the popular product like today but anyway I still think they should consider doing audio recordings for Firestarter and also The Shining! There is a movie based on this book starring Drew Barrymore as Charlie and I enjoyed it even though they left out a lot of things from the book.
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Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Not King's best, but among his most emotionally compelling
Firestarter gets comparatively little attention among Stephen King novels. It doesn't make many readers' list of favorites, it's sometimes falsely dubbed a recycled version of... Read more
Published on July 14 2006 by Daniel Jolley
5.0 out of 5 stars Firestarter by Stephen King
Do you enjoy thrilling, horrifying, and exciting novels? I know I do because of a man with a mind that has no limits for creativity and horror, Stephen King. Read more
Published on Feb 16 2004 by ed
4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book For Anyone Who Enjoys Stephen King
Firestarter was very fun to read. I loved to read about Andy and Charlie through their perils with The Shop. Read more
Published on Jan 22 2004 by Alex Korecky
5.0 out of 5 stars A good King book
I found Firestarter very touching.The way Andy protected Charlie for over a year.The story wasn't scary but it was exciting.This is one of King's best books.
Published on Dec 2 2003
3.0 out of 5 stars A Thriller With Bad Character Development
As always Stephen King has thought up a great plot with great moments, then fowled it all up with bad characters. Read more
Published on Oct 29 2003
3.0 out of 5 stars King Thriller Fails to Light my Fire
Stephen Kingï¿s Firestarter is a thrilling, gripping story of a girl who can set fires just by thinking about it and her father who can bend minds. Read more
Published on Oct 6 2003
4.0 out of 5 stars Dont get Charlie mad, her fiery temper is explosive!
This book is the tale of Andy and Charlie McGee. A normal looking American father and daughter on the outside, in their own eyes ordinary people cursed with extradionary powers, in... Read more
Published on Jun 10 2003 by "iriley1979"
2.0 out of 5 stars lacks sparks of greatness
boy meets girl during an experiment. they later get married and have a kid. the man turns out to have a certain ability, but it's the kid that really has a "gift". Read more
Published on May 20 2003 by jan erik storebø
4.0 out of 5 stars Jill's review
I thought that the book Firestarter by Stephen King was one of the better books that I have read. The way that the writer writes really brings you into the book and allows you to... Read more
Published on May 13 2003 by Jill Sahrhage
4.0 out of 5 stars Jill's review
I thought that the book Firestarter by Stephen King was one of the better books that I have read. The way that the writer writes really brings you into the book and allows you to... Read more
Published on May 13 2003 by Jill Sahrhage
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