Highfire, Eoin Colfer
Highfire, Eoin Colfer
2 Rating(s)
List: $26.99
On Sale: $5.99

Highfire
A Novel

Author: Eoin Colfer

Narrator: Johnny Heller

Unabridged: 9 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/28/2020


Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series comes a hilarious and high-octane adult novel about a vodka-drinking, Flashdance-loving dragon who lives an isolated life in the bayous of Louisiana—and the raucous adventures that ensue when he crosses paths with a fifteen-year-old troublemaker on the run from a crooked sheriff.

In the days of yore, he flew the skies and scorched angry mobs—now he hides from swamp tour boats and rises only with the greatest reluctance from his Laz-Z-Boy recliner. Laying low in the bayou, this once-magnificent fire breather has been reduced to lighting Marlboros with nose sparks, swilling Absolut in a Flashdance T-shirt, and binging Netflix in a fishing shack. For centuries, he struck fear in hearts far and wide as Wyvern, Lord Highfire of the Highfire Eyrie—now he goes by Vern. However...he has survived, unlike the rest. He is the last of his kind, the last dragon. Still, no amount of vodka can drown the loneliness in his molten core. Vern’s glory days are long gone. Or are they?A canny Cajun swamp rat, young Everett “Squib” Moreau does what he can to survive, trying not to break the heart of his saintly single mother. He’s finally decided to work for a shady smuggler—but on his first night, he witnesses his boss murdered by a crooked constable. Regence Hooke is not just a dirty cop, he’s a despicable human being—who happens to want Squib’s momma in the worst way. When Hooke goes after his hidden witness with a grenade launcher, Squib finds himself airlifted from certain death by…a dragon?The swamp can make strange bedfellows, and rather than be fried alive so the dragon can keep his secret, Squib strikes a deal with the scaly apex predator. He can act as his go-between (aka familiar)—fetch his vodka, keep him company, etc.—in exchange for protection from Hooke. Soon the three of them are careening headlong toward a combustible confrontation. There’s about to be a fiery reckoning, in which either dragons finally go extinct—or Vern’s glory days are back.A triumphant return to the genre-bending fantasy that Eoin Colfer is so well known for, Highfire is an effortlessly clever and relentlessly funny tour-de-force of comedy and action.

About Eoin Colfer

Eoin Colfer is the New York Times bestselling author of the Artemis Fowl series as well as two adult crime novels, Plugged, which was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Screwed. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Amy on November 02, 2020

This was not at all what I expected. A lot more swearing, a lot more body humor, and a LOT more swamp-lifestyle dialect and bizarre POVs than I was prepared to read. It was good? But not for me? Concept: super original Writing: really polarizing Overall impression: not for me, but probably a great boo......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on February 01, 2020

Have you ever read a book about a dragon? One who flashdances? And likes vodka and lives in Louisiana? Sounds fun, right? But even more fun ensues when he meets a teenage troublemaker on the lam. Highfire is quite the different read for me, but I’m so grateful I picked it up! It would make the perfec......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on September 23, 2024

*screams with delight* *stares around to see who else wants to talk about this book* *finds no one to talk to about it* *screams with delight again anyway* Imagine, if you will, an epic story of a the last dragon, a lonely figure hoarding ancient gold . . . Now imagine, if you will, that this dragon is......more

Goodreads review by Peter on November 02, 2019

With a narrative voice somewhere between Huckleberry Finn and the Dukes of Hazzard, and a keen sense of pop-culture awareness, Highfire is certainly something different. It's a charming, funny, but sometimes brutal look at poor Cajun life and crime in the Louisiana bayou. Is it really fantasy, thoug......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on March 21, 2020

Highfire is being marketed as Eoin Colfer's first adult fantasy book but to be honest, apart from the swearing, excessive violence and chapters in the bad guy's point of view, the actual story felt pretty juvenile. I remember really enjoying the Artemis Fowl series when I read it years ago so I was......more