Fear the Future (The Fear Saga #3)

Book 1 and 2 are great. This book however, well it ruined the series for me. The writing style was very different and tended to linger far to long on unimportant crap. I could easily forgive that, so long as the conclusion to the book / series is well done. Heck, I would be fine with a just okay ending. That is unfortunately where the book fell apart. I\’m not sure what happened but the author seemed to have forgotten about writing the ending and tossed something together real quick as an after thought. I\’m going to describe this without spoiling the plot. Think of Starwars. The rebels are getting ready to attack the deathstar. Then instead of seeing Xwings fly off to fight, it just cuts to the award ceremony with princess Leia handing out metals. That is what the author did. He forgot to write the ending.

I think the story of what went on behind the scenes at the publisher between books 2 and 3 is probably a lot more interesting than what ended up happening in this book, because there is no way this is the exact same writing and editing team that made the first two books. The writing style is a complete 180 from the first two episodes in the trilogy. The best way I can describe Fear the Future is meandering and self indulgent on the authors part. It just seems like he had all of these ideas on alien technoligy and other things that he wanted to put into the book, but they were totally irrelevant to the story. A perfect example is there is a significant portion of the book dedicated to the creation of what basically amounted to a giant alien construction crane. It was completely unnecessary and the book is riddled with moments just like it. It\’s all such a shame because books 1 and 2 are fantastic.

I cannot say how much I enjoyed this series. The author invested great energy, skill and true science concepts in crafting this wonderful story! Stephen Moss\’ achieves that most important of qualities when crafting a complete storyline … he makes the reader CARE about the characters! Good or bad, one is deeply immersed in the storyline as it gradually presents layer upon satisfying layer of a truly and carefully crafted work of literary art. The reader is swept up in the plot and pursues each page after page with an anticipation bordering on obsession! I am so gratified to discover there is another episode to this fine story because in all honesty, I didn\’t want it to end! Begin reading the first book and you will see what I mean. ENJOY!

It\’s difficult to review this work, without remembering the previous 2 of the trilogy. Among the most unfortunate things about the work is it\’s name. For me the \”Fear…\” series, sounds a bit hokey or schlocky. Sorry Stephen, but it\’s IMHO! There\’s the only criticism I have about this. Characters were well developed and periodically complex; Stephens worlds were, to me utterly believable and mainly plausible. Lots of intrigue and surprises. My sci-fi must be hard and it must be sophisticated. Both criteria reasonably met and many times exceeded. Those who were altruistic (especially the alien \”John Hunt\”) lived their altruism to a heartbreaking reality. Their sensitivity, consciousness, and conscience were as believable and heart rending as were, those sadistically evil, who the epitome of anything vile I could imagine, all of which, made for a roller coaster ride throughout this magnificent, spellbinding trilogy! So, here you have the aliens who so covet the earth for it\’s beauty that they MUST own it, no, conquer it, and the Alien saboteurs who, shockingly (to us earthlings) want to undermine their own race\’s evil intent to save our relatively primitive humanity. Cool. I did have a bit of trouble with the 6 year old orphaned \”Banu\” piloting the enormous, unspeakably powerful, alien inspired \”Skalm,\” against the alien invading force, as I did with the other orphaned children who became the rest of the recruited pilots. But this was not a deal breaker. I am really not a much of a fan of military sci-fi, or do I steep myself in the political (with the exception of Robt Heinlein). Bad news: this has some of both. Good news: it\’s presented in a way that was totally capturing to me, and loved it! You must be among my favorite authors Stephen, really! If you are into hard, sophisticated, reasonably fast past Sci-fi, if you want an occasional \”OMG…WHAT??!\” You\’ve gotta read this work! No, I mean the whole \”Fear\” trilogy

This is one of the best sci-to series I\’ve read in a long while, and I will definitely look for more from Mr. Moss. Just one peeve with this book, as many others: too much reliance on spell check! For example, the use of \”taught\” for \”taut\” several times… and others that should have been caught by a good editor. It does not take away from the story line, but it is annoying in an otherwise well written story. That said, this is a fascinating and frightening glimpse of an alien invasion. It brings to mind a quote from Stephen Hawkings, who said : \”The history of advanced races meeting more primitive people on this planet have not been happy, and we\’re the same species. I think we should keep our heads down.\” Life on earth evolved through competition and there is no reason to believe life elsewhere did not. Here is a very plausible scenario of first contact. You won\’t be disappointed!

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member