Audible Where Are The Rest?!

I really enjoyed Fear The Sky. The plot is original and character development is so good as we watch a young man turn into a hero through hard work and force of will. I was invested in the series immediately. I knew the author had completed at least three books in the Fear Series so I felt comfortable with my investment. (waiting for a good series to publish the next one is something I try to avoid!)
Yet now as I go to get the other two bestselling books in Mr. Moss's series I discover they are not available through Audible!? Each book is a best-seller on it's own and several years old. The narrator is putting our new works. The thing is it is not just one series. I myself have the same issue with three GREAT series Audible starts then dropped.
I am very eager to continue : Trevor H. Cooley's, Bowl of Souls series is completed through book 8 yet only 3 are available on Audible, each VERY successful and Author Sara King has a popular bestselling series thar Audible only taped one of.
Still, this book deserves 5 stars and is worth the cost.
Beware when you're looking for a good series, just because this series has been completed and the narrator is working do not assume Audible has picked up

366 people found this helpful

Caught me by surprise, and held me till the end.

Every now and then I like to peruse a narrator's work to see if they might have narrated something else I'd be interested in, and on a whim I grabbed Fear the Sky expecting a middling sci-fi story, I'll be honest the cover art looked like a C level self publish job. But RC Bray did a great job with the martian so why not.

And then the book grabbed me and pulled me through the 20 odd hours till I was wondering why the heck the other two book werent on audible yet because I wanted more.

153 people found this helpful

amazing

paid for the whole seat, only used the edge. R.C. Bray is a fantastic narrator.

97 people found this helpful

So close to excellence

The Good:
The first 2 and 1/2 books of this series are excellent. The story follows key figures reacting to a hostile alien invasion who have a plausible plan. While there are certainly instances of technologies that don't exist, nothing in these parts falls so far from what we know to be called magic (well, maybe one exception but I thought it was reasonable for a scifi).

The characters are varied, engaging, and very believable. There are consequences to mistakes and characters that have genuinely opposed interpretations of morality. Not just "good" and "bad" guys, but hard questions about how far to go, what can be done, to save the species.

The Fugly:
About half way through the third book a big event happens. Something that was built up to that I was looking forward to. An event that could have been an excellent arena to speculate on morality in the face of annihilation. Not only does that event get skipped over, once the book gets past that point all of the morally "wrong" actions that were going on are then continued by the characters who wanted to stop the "wrong" behavior that they were so upset about. Further, the plot is largely resolved with "technology" that can only be compared the author waving a magic wand and shouting "TA-DA!!!"

If you can accept that the ending is going to be silly and the author will abandon all moral speculation at the said point, then these are must read books. But I have a hard time recommending a series that ends so badly.

The Narrator:
Come on, this is R.C. Bray. He's excellent. I bought these books looking for books that he narrates. He's that good.

86 people found this helpful

A great book that trips over itself.

Mankind is infiltrated by powerful, greedy aliens who are going to wipe humankind off the planet so they can use it for themselves. However, they need to do this subtlety and efficiently, so mankind doesn’t find out, panic and launch nukes. No sense taking over a planet if it is spoiled. The aliens plant personalities into eight, super-strong, smart androids who can and do infiltrate the Earth’s countries with nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, stealthy satellites watch overhead, assisting the androids and zapping anyone who threatens their plan. It is a lucky, misanthropic astrophysicist who discovers the plot and recruits some unlikely friends to protect the Earth.

Fear the Sky starts off so well, so engaging, you just can’t stop listening. Funny, quirky, likable characters that are refreshing and real, and you know you are in for a great book. About a third of the way in, they seem to lose their shine and start become two dimensional. The plot, so interesting and engaging at first begins to flatten, becoming linear and predictable. There really is no doubt during the listen who is going to prevail.

But by this time, the story has so much momentum it is easy to slide into home. The book itself is not disappointing; rather it is fun and entertaining, well worth the listen, just that it could have been so much more. It never felt all that long, even at 20 plus hours (almost double most audio books), but it might have benefited from “less is more,” with some thoughtful editing.

R.C. Bray is the Narrator and he is brilliant. He has a unique, deep breathy voice that just keeps you wanting more. He could narrate a cookbook and make it exciting. Bray is one of those narrators you will follow regardless of the book.

This is a flawed great book, well worth the listen. Will you want to listen to volume 2? It seems likely, if simply to find out how the completely over-matched Earth will fight the aliens.

Audiobook purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at audiobookreviewer dot com

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75 people found this helpful

Highly Enjoyable

Would you listen to Fear the Sky again? Why?

As one who prefers my science fiction to be within the realm of possibility with minimum hokiness, Fear the Sky delivers on both accounts. This modern day War of the Worlds is how an Earth invasion may actually take place in today's modern internet age. Along with the cool technology, there is no shortage on character development, which combines through R.C. Bray's narration into an enjoyable read. Definitely worth the investment in money and time, and I am so waiting on the next installment in Audible.

60 people found this helpful

I Loved This Book

Ok, so I started reading this book because of RC Bray. But once I got into it, I couldn't stop listening to it. The sci-fi was great, very interesting spin on some of the technology. Also the story line was interesting. Great character development. Not all of the bad guys are really bad. Lots of detail in the story, really well fleshed out. Cannot wait for the second book in the series.

54 people found this helpful

Wow!!! How did I miss this until now!

I had randomly saw the title on one of the audible emails and after seeing the summary, bought and started the book. Fantastic!!!! I have over 100 titles in my audible library and except for the 9/11 commission report, all the titles are military sci fi or zombie. This has risen to my top 10 list along with my John Ringo books. Really interesting take on an invasion book. FYI, it did take me about 30-40 min to get used to the narrator but love him now. Enjoy!!!

50 people found this helpful

Did not want to stop listening

What did you like best about this story?

The amount of research that Stephen Moss must have done in regards to the technical detail is amazing - it made the whole story more compelling because it sounds so believable and scientific. But there are things that still need to be resolved and I really hope that the next book is on audible soon - I was very disappointed when I saw that it was not available on audible (crossing fingers) yet.

Have you listened to any of R.C. Bray’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I heard R.C. Bray first in The Martian and was how I found Fear the Sky. This book really shows off his talents in creating different voices for the characters, something that was not required as much for The Martian.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I normally listen to podcasts during my commute and gym sessions but took up listening to Fear the Sky because I did not want to stop listening to it.

42 people found this helpful

Promising storyteller desperately needs editing.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. I appreciated the potential for great storytelling here, and R.C. Bray's narration. But the absence of basic editing quickly turned this story into a trial of grim endurance. It was like trying to cross an interesting landscape with a guide who casually tossed rocks at my head the entire time. There is a very creative mind here, trying to get out. But the writing regularly and abruptly descends into inexcusable awfulness. After a while, I couldn't bear listening to this poor innocent story trying so hard to escape yawning pits of garble along the way. I bought this book hoping that the bitter complaints on Amazon about dire lack of editing were from nitpicking grammar thugs. Unfortunately, they are not.

The downfall of self-publishing has always been that new writers tend to ignore the need for unbiased professional help. New authors don't want to know that friends, fans and relatives are the cheerleading squad. They are no substitute for a rigorous editor. Obviously, most of the audience did not mind the unbridled sprees of brutal language-mangling. But I found it ruinous, as will others with the quaint belief that writers ought to know at least something about good writing.There is an underlying war to the death here, and I don't refer to the story line. I mean the one between the nascent imaginative storyteller- and the writer's utter indifference to relentless misuse of language. I will tell you how this war ends. The bad writing very handily strangles the innately good storyteller, over and over and over again.

What do you think your next listen will be?

No idea. The rave reviews for this book are deeply discouraging to someone who is far from being a book-snob. I like all sorts of books, and generally know how to translate reviews fairly accurately. So I assumed I was at worst buying a minimally competent work. But it is not. And if this kind of extreme cognitive dissonance between reviews and reality turns out to be the future norm, then my every choice will be reduced to a useless wild guess.

Which scene was your favorite?

That is like asking what my favorite scene from a sprawling mad-made catastrophe was.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Good movies have been made from simple outlines, and very bad movies from great books. The end result is never known ahead of time.

Any additional comments?

Stories are software. Language is the hardware supporting it. Good stories and good writing are two different elements, and both are essential. This is the first time I was ever forced to return a potentially interesting and well-narrated story because of periodic excursions into the depths of execrable writing. Meanwhile, I can imagine the author might very well be thinking: "I'm very popular. I have many great reviews. I am selling books. Who cares?"

Indeed. Good question. Why should a highly rated first-time author care that he is also, at present, a fantastically careless writer? After all, there will always be readers who care about good writing, and readers who don't. So whether or not this natural storyteller ever decides to learn how to write is entirely up to him. Either way, he will always need a good editor with sharp pruning shears and well-honed surgical skills.

41 people found this helpful