Fear the Future

By: Stephen Moss

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

Length: 20 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

A predator hunts the skies over Earth. Its intent is peaceful, and its mission is essential, but it is the deadliest machine humanity has ever created.

Piloted by a six-year-old girl, the godlike Skalm guards the Districts of TASC. Her family is long dead. Her adopted father is a synthetic copy of an alien, her nanny an artificial mind connected via subspace to every part of the globe, feeding the young girl information, finding prey to satiate her growing thirst.

But the young girl is an innocent, a victim, one of millions the war has already claimed. Her innocence has been sacrificed by a man with singular purpose: a man who will stop at nothing in order to prepare Earth for the coming conflict.

The armada is approaching, its far-off engines now bright as stars in the night sky. They mean to kill us. They have the power to do so. And as oblivion's maw opens up to engulf us, we brace ourselves for battle.

We will fight to the last. Live or die, we will leave a scar upon our attackers that will last an age, even if we ourselves do not.

©2014 Stephen Moss (P)2016 Podium Publishing

An OK end to an otherwise great trilogy.

Any additional comments?

One book has to be the worst of the 3. This one's it. Be warned, its painfully slow & hard to get through. The book can be edited from 20 hours to about 5 and still tell the same story - a lot of nothing happens. Also the author did not make me dislike the people who (I think) you are suppose to dislike by the end of the story. Their end seemed unfitting and I was actually still on their side... If you already read the first 2 than, of course, you have to read this... I found it a little disappointing; hopefully you like it better than I did.

This makes me question Audible

I really can't add much that the other detailed reviews has already covered. This installment was a jumbled mess that read more like a first draft outline than a finished work. The first two books were great and it made the third book that much more disappointing. But this book is getting a 4.5 star average review while most of the active reviewers are mostly negative. That makes me question Audibles star review system. Most of the people that read this book and were into this series would have acknowledged this poor offering by Moss. It makes me think that Audible is infested by bots that give good reviews to keep poor books viable to potential readers. Nobody new to the series is going to start the first book if they see that the series drops off at the end. So to sell the series they prop up a bad book.

Not much of an ending

The set up for the great battle was ok, but when it came, nothing much happened. The book set up the characters but they did not get to interact before, during or after in the battle. There was no great conflict, either in the battle or between the characters. No tension at the end at all.

Is this the same series?

Would you try another book from Stephen Moss and/or R. C. Bray?

Yes

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I would have stuck with the main characters, and on that note, I wouldn't have written them as completely different people with minor story lines. The focus of this just got terrible.

What about R. C. Bray’s performance did you like?

That voice... He ranks up there with Roy Dotrice for me.

Did Fear the Future inspire you to do anything?

Be upset

Any additional comments?

Books 1 & 2 are really great, I'm hopeful that book 4 will recover some of that lost focus.

Had it's potentials, but fell way short of it.

Bad character design and growth; a hard to follow timeline; and a disappointing, anti-climactic ending are among the reasons that makes this story slightly less than mediocre.

All of the characters seem to be filled with hatred and the hunger to kill. Even the children were apparently fine with all the killing, absurdly enough. Making the cast dull, feeling like nothing more than another paper cut-out. Constantly adding and removing casts didn't help much either.

We do experience some character development and growth, but only in the minimal. Characters seem to shape shift into whatever the plot demands of them. Leading to little to no affection to the characters, whatsoever.

The timing of the plot also jumps alot. being very hard to follow, especially on Audible. Listener will quickly lose the meaning of time in this story. 1 week, 5 month, 7 years, 2 decades; lost track of exactly how long the entire story took, or how long each sequence lasts.

The ending was mediocre at best. The story had now become, nothing if not predictable. Om the brinks of losing all hope when a character unleashes it's almighty-awesome power to end the plot. A rather cheap way to end things to be honest.

On the positive side, the build up and the action sequences were ok. Fight sequence that kept you listening, the plotting and conspiracy also makes the story thrilling. But that is about it.

What a colossal waste of time Mr Moss!

Disclaimer: I loved the first two books. LOVED THEM! At some point between book two and three Stephen Moss lost his mind.

Spoilers ahead, you've been warned.

1. Protagonist Rules - Stephen, you had an excellent protagonist. You took an everyman and threw him into extraordinary circumstances. He excelled and became the hero in book two. You placed him on a pedestal for everyone to worship as the protagonist we needed to carry the story forward. Then you started slowly chipping away at his armor in book two. But that's ok, we need our protagonist to have flaws and we need to see him fall and earn redemption. But instead of allowing the audience to revel in his fall and triumph you decided to make him into a modern day Josef Mengele. What the heck? How can you destroy your protagonist like that and expect anyone to feel fulfilled by this story? You had an excellent scapegoat in Ayala and a character that I imagine most readers would not have minded losing. Why was she not written to be the mastermind behind the vivisection of the Korean children? Why did you destroy Neal? It's one thing to kill a protagonist, but you destroyed him. This is unforgivable.

Furthermore, you toyed with your readers by bringing Neal back into the story when he was asked to give his opinion on the deep space images from his prison. Then you just left him there...you left him there with no conclusion except for two sentences in the end of the book. How can you take such a strong character and reduce him to nothingness? I found myself cursing you at the conclusion....not good for your future readership.

2. Mobiliei Exposition

I don't care about the Mobiliei. You spent two books building up human characters. In the last book you decide to introduce us to the opposition. But instead of giving us a few chapters of character development you go on ad nauseam about their sexual preferences and meaningless interpersonal quirks. Nobody cares about their personal lives unless they serve to link us to the main story. You could have spent a third of the time developing their characters (or no time at all) and the story would be no worse for it.

3. Character Overload

In the first two books you had a sum total of about 15 main characters (it's a rough estimate as I don't have time to go back and count.) You spent a lot of time developing these characters and suddenly in book two you introduce an entirely new lot of people, many of which are not even given proper introductions. We're just supposed to accept these people at face value without any knowledge of their motivations or morality. You bounce back and forth between these characters as as a reader I completely lose focus and start to drift away from the story. Much of this fault lies with the Mobiliei chapters which are, as I already mentioned, a complete waste of time.

4. Deus Ex Machina

Stephen, I really really really loved your first two books. It cannot be overstated how much your story enthralled me and kept me coming back for more every day. But the last few chapters of book three felt as if you took those books and slapped me in the face. What were you thinking? Until now I was able to suspend disbelief. Body transplants, check. Brains in a jar, check. Creating an inter-dimensional god-like Birgit? What the heck man? This is the worst kind of Deus Ex Machina I have ever seen. I kept hoping that Birgit was attempting to access the core of the IST to enable some doomsday weapon that would empower our fleets to become invincible or some such nonsense. But instead we're left with something that makes me think Stephen was late for a dinner party and had to turn in the book that evening. Why oh why could you not sacrifice some of the ridiculous amount of Mobiliei exposition and give us a somewhat plausible finale instead? I want to give you the benefit of the doubt here. Did you have a personal struggle while writing this book? Did you lose someone close to you? Were you kidnapped and forced to finish the book under threat of death? Are the Mobiliei real and did they force you to substitute this fake finale for the real one? Maybe they were afraid you would give away their weaknesses in your real final chapters? I hope that's it because I would rather think you were under duress when writing those chapters than to think that you just gave up.

Huge letdown

The first book was good, the second book was average and the last book a huge letdown. Story goes off on weird tangents that never go anywhere. Main characters built up in the first two books become minor sidelines in the third. All the tension built up over all three books comes to a fizzling, anti-climatic ending.

Not as good as the books before it

If you could sum up Fear the Future in three words, what would they be?

Okayish. But.

What about R. C. Bray’s performance did you like?

I always enjoy R C Bray's performances, and he didn't disappoint.

Any additional comments?

Sadly the last book wasn't as good as the first two. The ending and the process towards it isn't as well developed as the other books. In fact the ending was disappointing. For 2/3rds of the book you are wondering whether you are ever getting to the point, and then the actual reason you are there is rushed through in the last 1/3rd. Sad.

Very. technical and hard ro follow.

Too technical and hard to follow. 1st 2 books were great but I was lost in third.

What happened there?

I couldn't wait to hear how the author would wrap up this fine series and I had this finale preordered. Refreshing my email until about 3am it appeared! Without much sleep I went to work continuing to keep an ear bud secreted. Fantastic.... Until he sent my favorite character to an island for war crimes. I can't tell you how irritated that made me and how out of phase that was with the rest of the story. He was saving the world, the gloves are off. In order to keep the human race from extinction I'm thinking that leaving decisions to a tribunal representing the various countries around the globe would certainly abandon all hope for the survival of the human race. Especially when a group of A.I.s become the arbitrators, ugh. Perhaps I'm jaded but how could he do this to the man who was one, maybe the most important, character in the story? After the coo I lost my favorite character and I had to struggle to the finish. Please rewrite the outcome of the power struggle. I'm still aghast!!

Wow.....but what to do now?

Loved all three books.Great narration (RC Bray is a legend) and brilliant writing. Felt a real connection with the characters. The problem is (and it's the same after every good book) what do I read now?

Too many loose ends and not enough 'ending'.....

A little disapointed considering the first two book were actually very good indeed. The third book was the length of the first two combioned and really felt it. I found myself skipping whole chapters because the story continued to focus heavily on areas that didn't really add any value apart from padding the story out. I'm glad I did as the end was, as others have said, very anti-climactic.
I wont spoil it but there were whole chapters and many hours building up tech and characters only to find them simply unnecessary in the end. In fact one minor side story line ended up being the surprise big ending. There were simply too many loose ends from too many cul-de-sacs and the story... just ended. There was an attempt to wrap it all up but it and I felt empty and that I'd wasted a alot of time paying attention to detailed story lines and significant characters that ended up eitehr going nowhere, simply not being completed or just ignored.
However the whole series was worth the listen and I did enjoy the whole; just not the thrid book and ending.

What The???????????

First of all sorry for my english not my native language


I really dont know where to start, book 1 was really Great and promising I was really hook The characters that they introduced The story OH man that was really really good you gotta love The characters, second book was OK characters were developing and so on its was good and now???? Seriously this book??? This is a joke I have NO idea what happened on the writer and editors they really really messed this up!

So many characters they introduced and The hype on armada for what NOTHING! Absolutly nothing I have s tip for you writers and editors IF u are building something Great stories u should check arisen book 5 exodus!! THATS how should be!
I feel like even RC brat WERE bored doing this book felt sorry for him but hey he got payed for it he was really good but NO more NO more im gonna listen on this author or buy any of his books! IF you are reading this any of you i was once like you reading comments from. Other listener listen to them listen to me STOP at book 2 this endgame books are just full of Boring stories just waste of Time and IF you love The characters already so stop at book 2 due of book 3 destoryed them and ending?? U called that ending it was rush and just like The author just WERE so lazy or NO more fantasies

Anyway u guys been warned

Mark

Drawn out

I enjoyed this book in fact I enjoyed the series However I felt the ending was rushed almost as if the author ran out of time. Meanwhile there were whole segments of all three books that were very drawn out. At one point the whole count down was explained in detail every step from 10 to 0 which added nothing to the story and only served to fill pages.

The concept of people / aliens engaging in a machine world at gay abandon and loss of all morals was / is inspired.

I loved the aliens they were far more interesting then the one dimensional human characters. Honestly I got to the point were I was on the side of these brutal aliens who lived to have virtual drugged fuelled sex parties. They were so devious imaginative and operated on so many levels that I came to prefer them to the relatively straightforward humans.

A good read/ listen well narrated over all I enjoyed it.

Poor ending to a great story.

Unfortunately Stephen Moss lost his way in this 3rd book. So dragged out and then the battle we've been waiting 3 books for is over in a heartbeat. So many characters sidelined. Compared to book 1 and 2 this is almost like a different author wrote it.

Excellent finale!

A great finish to a fantastic series. Really pleased that the additional short story was included as I had made an assumption that it happily crushed. The story felt a little long at times, just a tad too much for my scifi limits in places. Overall tho, this was great. R. C. Bray was as fantastic as always. Read or listen to these three books!!!!

Amazing - ignore the reviews, finish the series!

The main thing I've seen reviews mention about this book is that it's "the worst of the trilogy" and has "a disappointing ending"..and I can understand some of the criticism. The interval sections aboard the oncoming alien fleet were a little confusing at times (some names blended together) and there was a lot of time jumping between very signicant events, leaving some questions unanswered and admitly sidelined some characters... But I loved it!

The ending was satisfying and powerful, if a little abrupt - if there hadn't have been the addition of the short story at the end the final paragraph of the book may have been a little jarring, but this added heart and hope to the end of the trilogy. Plot decisions made sense and I didn't feel that any passages or characters weren't significant to the final outcome - not everyone can be part of a space battle after all.

I really don't understand the criticism about the political storylines and the action in the final battle - if you've made it this far in the series (nearly 40 hours before this book) you should know what to expect by now! This is a sci-fi at its most "realistic" and I'm heartbroken that it's over!

Disappointing

Would you try another book written by Stephen Moss or narrated by R. C. Bray?

R. C. Bray did a good reading. I'm not sure I'd try another Stephen Moss

What could Stephen Moss have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The ending was just terrible. I thought of a better way you could have finished the story while listening, and I'm no author.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

I honestly can't think of any.

Any additional comments?

The ending is truly terrible. Once again it felt like the author got tiered of writing the book and instead of taking the time to think up a plausible ending just went for the quickest one he could find. The earlier two books of the series were gripping. This one failed them!

Worst part of the trilogy!

Whilst the performance from R.C Bray was great the story dragged. I found myself listening purely because I didn't want to give up on a trilogy during the third book.

Starts well, disappointing end

A must read if you've started the Fear saga. Finding out what happened to Earth and the characters was good. However the book went on and on about somewhat irrelevant scenes. The ending was also disappointing. Having built the armada's arrival for three whole books I was left feeling underwhelmed. That said, the book was performed well and all three books kept up my interest.