The Fearing, by John FD Taff

This is a review of a four part series, which I have received free copies of each novella from the publisher (Grey Matter Press) in return for an honest review. This in no way impacts my opinion.

I’ve reviewed each book separately on Goodreads, and you can find the links here:

Book I –   Fire and Rain 

Book II –  Water and Wind

Book III – Air and Dust

Book IV – Earth and Ember

According to the author (it’s in the foreword), he wrote what turned out to be a rather long novel that he was unwilling to cut, so he decided to release it in four separate novellas. Did it work? Well, I’ll get to that later. The story brings the apocalypse upon us, and those who survive find themselves subjected to their greatest fears. As the world collapses around them, people band together, just trying to survive, even the odds are stacked against them. Here’s my thoughts on the book(s):

• In the foreword (which is worth a read), the author claims he likes to put his characters through the wringer. He delivers – in spades. It’s not necessarily their “greatest fears” that do the damage either, but the general bad day-to-day things that seem to the damage. There’s also a looming darkness throughout the books, of which we learn nothing until the bitter end
• The characters are a mixed bag, some are more likeable than others. Like in life, I guess. Their “greatest fears” range from the very tangible, to the downright silly. On the plus side, they generally responded appropriately to threats, no matter how bizarre a threat may have been. I found the main antagonist to be somewhat flat, and his cowardly driver is far more interesting as we learn about his past. One thing that bugged me about one group was that one figured out what was happening early on, and the others in his group either bought into it with little to no argument, or didn’t believe they were smart enough to argue
• There was a scene in book three in which a refugee camp is attacked by vampires, and I thought it was dealt with was a bit silly, and made me concerned for the direction of the book (I was wrong). However book three also brought the self-appointed saviour of humanity – your typical nutjob – which spices things up some. In addition, it begs the question – is this guy someone’s greatest fear, or just humans being human?
• As I mentioned earlier, I liked the ending. Despite some misgivings for parts of the series, I found the ending to be satisfying, and after a lot of action scenes throughout, it was a massive change of pace. Speaking of action, they were generally well done, and our heroes often survived in spite of themselves instead of suddenly developing combat skills.
• So, the big question is – did this work as a series, or should it have been a single book? I like series. You can keep the story relatively narrow, as readers can finish a book, read something else, and pick up the next one in a week or so. I read it all over the course of about six weeks, and I didn’t feel any urge for a refresher when I picked up the next book (nor do you get one). So, the answer is, it does work well as a series, although I’d probably still cut it down a bit.

Verdict

A good read for horror and dark fantasy fans. An interesting plot with some fine moments, some compelling characters and strong (IMO) ending..