Fearless by Robin Parrish

I've just had THE most frustrating reading experience of my life!!

Robin Parrish has written two of three novels in what is called "The Dominion Trilogy" and they are by far the most fascinating stories I've ever had the privilege of reading...with the exception of maybe The Lord of the Rings.

Think Heroes meets X-Men meets The Last Jihad meets...well, meets J.R.R. Tokien:-)

For my review of the first book in this series, "Relentless", click here.

Grant Burrows is a modern day superhero of sorts. As we saw in "Relentless", he is not quite himself, and he doesn't know why. That story unraveled the "who" of this trilogy.

"Fearless" unravels the "how" of it all. It seems that while Grant and his band of makeshift heroes are attempting to save the world (and no, there's no cheerleader in this series:-), something else is at work behind the scenes.

Hopefully, "Merciless" will explain the "why" of it all.

There's a lot about destiny vs. free will, prophesy vs. fulfillment of such, and I see more of an allegory in this installment for God and the end-times...I think. But I'm not sure...mainly because...

...while I absolutely adore Robin Parrish's writing, he does have a tendency to do the unexpected. When I expected him to zig, he zagged. I thought he was turning; he was twisting.

And just about the time I thought, "AHA!! I know where this is going!", he'd pull up his own version of Mapquest, Dominion style, and go another direction, expecting me to follow...

Which I did, eagerly! With writing like this, I'd follow this author anywhere...referring to storylines, that is (speaking of which, I can't imagine what Mr. Parrish has cooking after he wraps up this trilogy...but I can hardly wait to find out!!)

So why is this THE most frustrating moment of my reading history???

Because I have to wait until Summer 2008 to find out how this whole mess ends up! Talk about a cliff hanger...let me tell you...nope, you'll just have to read it for yourself.

"Fearless" gets 6 out of 5 bookmarks from me, and while I didn't think it possible, I do believe I enjoyed this novel more than his first...but just by a hair. And that is how he's left me hanging...by a hair!! Oh, how could you, Mr. Parrish!!

Be assured, I will be eagerly awaiting the arrival of "Merciless" in 2008...unless I can wheedle and beg an advanced reading copy:-) For now, I'm voting this the best series of 2007!

Excuse me, Mr. Parrish...couldn't you have at least given us a SNEAK PEEK IN THE BACK OF "FEARLESS" FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!! **sorry about yelling at you, sir...my anticipation got the better of me:-)

One word of caution: DO NOT PICK THIS UP IN THE EVENING, UNLESS YOU CAN STAY UP ALL. NIGHT. LONG.

Don't say I didn't warn you:-)

Happy Reading!

Deena