Beneath the gorgeous exterior, there’s a vacant husk of humanity.

So, I quite enjoyed the first book in Moss’ Fear Saga, Fear the Sky. I thought it was a fairly unique take on the alien invasion story, and was built around the foreboding notion that we would be able to watch the encroachment of our doom for a solid 10 years leading up to the armada’s arrival. The fact that it was structured like an espionage/spy thriller sold me on the series, despite qualms over relatively bland, uninteresting characters.

Fear the Survivors continues in much the same vein. The remaining alien agents ensconced in the nuclear capable countries are left to be hunted down by the burgeoning multi-national coalition attempting to fast forward humanity’s technology to meet the impending war. It’s a fast-paced, taut thriller….that’s fairly emotionless and uninvigorating. There’s no humor, or passion from the characters, just a stale recitation of technical details and strategy. Where’s the wonder? Where’s the awe at the amazing technological marvels? Diseases are wiped from the planet, and subtracted from the travails of human existence – and it’s treated as barely an afterthought.

There’s much to like, here. The political in-fighting is fairly complex and realistic (Russia invades Ukraine in this book, just like it did in real life. Published in August, 2014, I wonder if Moss did a quick re-write), and the issues Neal Danielson and company face are overwhelming and believable….but Moss seems to gloss over some pretty important aspects of how the world is changing.

As engaging and imaginative as this book was, I feel like the people are there to serve the plot rather than the plot acting as an agent for character development. This is not a character driven story. If it was, I think a lot more people would be talking about it.

None of which is to say I won’t read the third (and final) book in the series, but I am in no rush at this point.