Book Review: "The Fearing: Book Four - Earth and Ember" (2019)
The best stories linger in the mind and the heart long after you close the cover; if they’re really exceptional they will also have another story being told below the surface. The great stories aim with their eye, shoot with their mind, and kill with their heart. The Fearing does all of those things in a clear, confident, and vicious voice. John F.D. Taff isn’t known as The King of Pain for nothing…
Frankly, it’s been a damn long time since I’ve read something that sucked me in and held me in thrall with this much intensity. I was looking backward instead of forward, scouring used book stores for the older authors that I looked over as a younger man. There’s nothing wrong with that, either- broaden your base by all means! Here’s the thing, though- I was suffering from FEAR. My fear came from a world full of new authors published in new ways that broke tradition all around. I had become an old man, in a way, scared of a brave new world where the authors didn’t have the last name King, Barker, Lovecraft, Poe, or Rice (amongst others).
Kind of shameful, really.
So, yeah- I was a little unprepared for the onslaught of wholesale badassery that is The Fearing. If this badboy, in its entirety, doesn’t get the proper treatment someday as a full-on, hardcover, overpriced, collectible novel in the future I will call it a tragedy (though I will cherish my four installments of paperback terror in the same way I do my 6 original Green Mile serials). Now…on to the final installment.
The Fearing: Book Four - Earth and Ember is the last stage of the race against fear and the death of all mankind at the hands of Adam Sigel a.k.a. the Archetype of Fear. The various groups of survivors finally coalesce into one under the brutal rule of Tim Jacoby, a Trumpian nightmare who fashions himself the savior of the remains of the human race. He’s but one obstacle to be overcome on the way to the proverbial Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. These are the final fears of the world, the ones that hew the heart and soul of our survivors. Reverend Mark Hubert is anointed the de facto leader. With Adam’s mother and polar opposite, Monday, at his side, he will close the book on this turn of the wheel. Everyone has a deepest fear, though- can Mark conquer his? Can any of us?
Book Four is lean and mean in its pacing. The first third or so is spent firmly under the thumb of Tim Jacoby, a despot very clearly modeled after our current Commander-in-Chief. He’s blustery, uncouth, lecherous, and entirely without scruples. He’s also brilliantly manipulative and single-minded of purpose. The relevance of the character is necessarily jarring and works because of (not in spite of) the heavy-handedness of the presentation. It’s not subtle just as nothing about Trump is subtle; you’re meant to draw that conclusion. Hell, you’d be blind if you didn’t. He is the face to the moral of the story; it’s as simple (and nasty) as that.
Once the push to Armageddon steamrolls forward, you feel more carried than participating. It’s the best kind of finish- the one that blows you back in your chair and demands all of your attention without skimming or speed-reading a thing. The devil, as they say, is in the details, and Taff gives you tragedy and ugliness that makes you stop a handful of times and say, “Goddamn! You’re not pulling any punches, are you?” The reveal on Jelnik and ensuing nightmare sequence made me legitimately uncomfortable. Also, Lovecraft (or any of those giants of the genre previously mentioned) would be jealous that they didn’t write the horrors under the Gateway Arch. My God. I was transported back to the first time I read “The Mist” or “The Colour Out of Space”.
There’s a truly beautiful thing that happens along the way though (as you’re processing all that awful shit). You will see the warmth and power of the human spirit in the face of insurmountable odds. Even more than that, you’ll see (in a very visceral way) that the inevitable isn’t to be feared but embraced. Isn’t it amazing that what we can’t handle in real life can be presented in a fictional story? Let alone one that’s equal parts hideous, painful, terrifying, graphic, and patently dark? Monday’s last words will haunt your dreams while they captivate your soul. I didn’t expect to be moved in that way.
I’ll reveal nothing. I wouldn’t dare spoil this for you. I will say, however, that the neatest trick of The Fearing: Book Four - Earth and Ember is that you get a fully satisfying finish that still manages to punch you in the balls (or lady parts, depending on your equipment) with the Boxing Glove of Universal Truth. Even cooler? You’ll feel comforted when it’s all over even though that bowl only serves one purpose: to be filled.
So, don’t worry about all that bad shit out there. It’s just another fear, after all.
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