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Fire Season is an aspirational book: it tells a romantic, if not romanticized, story of being a fire lookout, something most dream of experiencing but few would be able to endure. The prose occasionally shifts from stirring, serene descriptions of the natural existence to a sudden litany of historical facts and figures that jarringly pops the reader out of their sylvan day-dreams. The good parts more than make up for these odd incongruities and leaves you with an almost restorative feeling of having been transported to a place of calm and harmony, a place that can be revisited in times of stress and anxiety.

When stripped of its many embellishments this novel is essentially about a beast let loose and an unlikely group of characters that help each other conquer the beast and save the day. In terms of genres this is much more a fantasy than science fiction and only barely steam punk, so steampunk/sci-fi fans might be disappointed by the setting.