The Faithful

By: S. M. Freedman

Narrated by: Tanya Eby

Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

FBI agent Josh Metcalf believes he has uncovered a decades-long conspiracy involving missing children. His obsession has led him to compile hundreds of cases. All involve children rumored to have psychic abilities - and all have no witnesses, no leads, and no resolution.

Meanwhile Rowan Wilson, a meteorite hunter for NASA's Spaceguard Program, is losing her grip on the past. Memories of the childhood she thought she'd had are vanishing, and dark recollections of kidnappings, mind control, and an isolated mountain ranch are taking their place.

When Rowan's shadowed past converges with Josh's research, they uncover a deadly plot to reshape humanity. With the world's survival dependent on stopping a vast network of conspirators, can they decipher - and expose - the truth in time?

©2015 S. M. Freedman (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Bad on a cracker

This book desperately needed an editor and a decent narrator. That might have raised it to 3 star levels. The plot starts out intriguing, with an interesting premise, but the author just couldn't pull it off. It devolved about half-way through into unbelievable, annoying and tedious.

It needed to be edited to rid itself of the tedium, and a decent narrator to improve the "annoying" factor. Ms. Eby was simply not up to the task of reading all those characters (especially the male voices, of which she appears to have about two.)

I'm not sure, however, what Freedman might have done with the unbelievable, but there was a lot of it. I'm OK with fantastic and can suspend disbelief with the best of them, but this author wants the reader to accept actual violations of the laws of physics and that makes any *adult* story merely silly, bordering on stupid. It also suggests an author who either doesn't care about maintaining even a modicum of reality - or doesn't know how.

And, finally, it turns out that this isn't a stand-alone novel. In order to tie up the loose ends, we have to buy another book. This is a serial, not a series - and that makes it a rip-off. I have a number of favorite series, but when a novel doesn't *end*, but merely stops, and requires you to pay for the next installment, it's dishonest.

Audible gets this one back. Unfortunately, I can't get back the hours I wasted on this mess.

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

A Little Uneven, but pretty good for a first novel

This listen was good in spite of being a little uneven. It was pretty good effort for a first novel. I feel that it would have been easier to track the plot if the characters had had more depth. This read/listen will probably resonate better with adolescent audiences than old codgers like myself.

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

Interesting premise, but I couldn't finish it

Would you try another book from S. M. Freedman and/or Tanya Eby?

Unlikely

Would you ever listen to anything by S. M. Freedman again?

Maybe. The premise of The Faithful was intriguing, but it felt like it could benefit from a lot more editing. It dragged on without covering what could have been much more interesting areas.

What didn’t you like about Tanya Eby’s performance?

Her male voices made all of the male characters sound like slow witted buffoons. Impossible to reconcile the voices with the author's descriptions of the male characters' traits

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The idea of a cult who bred supernatural abilities seemed great. But there were far too many superfluous items that didn't add to the story or didn't make sense.

Any additional comments?

I hate giving up, but I just couldn't justify spending time getting through the rest of the book.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Bland Characters, Plot and Narration-a Meh.....

S.M.Freedman, whoever he/she is has given we listeners and readers what appears to be the first novel of his/her writing careen..at least I HOPE it's the first novel. If the author has a load of books under his belt, he has a great deal to answer for!

Characters are cardboard, his story arcs are unfinished and uneven and leave the reader/listener with dangling threads.

About an hour into my listen I thought "Ah-ha-Eugenics rears its ugly head once more"...it took the book until chapter 70 out of 79 to finally actually bring Eugenics out to the light...along with climate change and the end of the world as we know it.

Thats what I mean about uneven writing. It takes an OBVIOUS idea such as Eugenics and beats it to death.

As for the narrator..I think she did as well as the lifeless plot gave her the words to do. Eby has never been a sterling narrator for male voices and she hasn't improved.

I got this book as a Daily Deal and did the grind working my way thru it..but it's going back to Audible..thank goodness for the liberal return policy.

I really disliked the book, hook/line & sinker..it's a stinker!

Don't waste your credit!

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Fantastic!

Would you listen to The Faithful again? Why?

I will definitely read The Faithful again. Just as soon as the sequel is published! Great story. The villains were properly villainous and occasionally you couldn't tell whom to trust. Exciting, with many twists and turns. I want to know what happened to the Sheriff!

Which scene was your favorite?

Without giving anything away, I guess the rescue at the farm.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Can we be saved?

Any additional comments?

Don't waste time considering! Buy this book!

61 of 77 people found this review helpful

So stupid

I feel like this is ridiculous to say about a supernatural thriller but this is just stupid. It starts out interesting and given the nature of the book, I was willing to suspend my disbelief. However, the author destroyed any good faith you offer as a reader with shitty, annoying characters and unforgivable dialogue. The narrator wasn't great but the horrible howlers she had to read made her mediocre performance plummet to cringe worthy. Even worse is the tedious, uninspired romance which literally had me fast forwarding through whole sections. Most egregious is the fact that this whole book is a set up for a series. I mean, really? How about concentrating on make one good book instead of a series of crappy books. Whoever, SM Freedman is, you owe me 9 hours of my life.

9 of 11 people found this review helpful

I TRIED... I HONESTLY TRIED...

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I TRIED... I HONESTLY TRIED... to get through this book, but I just couldn't. Perhaps the printed version of the book would have been better.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The initial idea of the book is interesting but that interest quickly fizzled out.

How could the performance have been better?

This narrator should never, EVER attempt male voices. All male voices seemed to have the same speech impediment and were basically the same poor attempt. I think this is only the second time I have ever had to just quit a book because of the narrator

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

None at all

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

pedophilia

this story has a lot of rape and sex with children. I'm a father so maybe I'm soft but I really didn't want to hear the gory details. I had to skip ahead through the bad parts. I still made myself finish the book and after I was done in still didn't like it. the plot wasn't very good and there where holes in the story and most of the idea of the book is not only unbelievable but not likely even if the things in the story could happen. my take is it sounds like a weird version of these women sex books but aimed at men in a child raping sort of way.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Not a scenario that bears any credibility

So I was relatively interested throughout the book, until we get to the "final count down" which turns out to be completelyridiculous. The idea that people can breed psychic capable people is one thing, but the big picture of this book was just too much to swallow. The powers of the psychics went from ridiculously overwhelming to weakly useless.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Solid Page-Turner

This is a great suspense story with lots of twists and turns. Reminiscent of some of Dean Koontz's works. Really enjoyable. Leaves you wanting more.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Fantastic Narrator! Fantastic story

Don't always write reviews on here but not only did I enjoy the story, the narrator needs special mention. She does a range of voices, most fantastically there is a scene in the book where someone is flicking through different TV news stations reporting on something and she does many different distinctive newsreader voices. Bravo! As far as the story goes, I really enjoyed it and for don't understand why it's such an unknown book. Kidnapped psychic kids, a creepy cult, scary reverends, repressed memories, a romance, potentially the end of the planet...what's not to like?