Molly Fyde and the Fight for Peace (The Bern Saga, #4)

I made it to the end of the Molly Fyde saga, and was disappointed by the final book. Hugh Howey has produced some great works (all of Wool, the first book of this series), and I will absolutely continue to read his boks, but this was a rare miss.
After developing a really fun, ambitious, and expansive universe, set of characters, and plot Howey needed to tie it all together in this climax. Unfortunately, he spent a large chunk of the book doing flashbacks to develop the backgrounds of characters I guess he didn't think he was ever going to get to write in the first book. Almost a quarter of the book was about Walter. It was alright, but it was a huge distraction from the rest of the book.
Also, there were a couple plotlines that diverged for what felt like waaaay too long. Cole and Molly didn't reunite until the last couple pages after being separated for 2 books. You knew exactly how Walter was going to betray Molly for a book and a half and were just waiting around for it to happen, which is too long to be in that kind of suspense with the hyperdrive such a key plot device. The fact that the Drenards stopped their war so easily was never fully explained given the war mongering of Anlyn's ex.
Things just came together too darn quickly right at the end after being all over the place for a long, long time. Also the wedding was cheesy. And it sucks that Molly ended the series in such a darker mood.
I still really enjoyed the series as a whole and the universe that Howey created. This last book just didn't do it for me in tying the whole thing together. It felt a little like he bit off more than he could chew, or at least more than he could chew in one book to sum everything up all at once.

I was both sad and excited when I read Fight for Peace a last book in the Molly Fyde series. I really loved this series and now very unhappy that this is the end. On the other hand my addiction to these books led me to ignoring all the other books on my "to read list", which is really no good. So that is why I'm just a bit excited that I finally free to move on to something else. But really Hugh Howey writes such an addictive prose, it's ridiculous!
Most of the action is taking place on the planet Lok and its orbit. Most of the main characters are finally united in their fight against Bern. I'm not going to go into the details as to how they were planning to destroy the evil aliens. However I must say it was quite a brilliant strategy. And to find out whether or not the plan was successful you'll just have to read the book. Trust me it's very thrilling and will keep you on the edge of your seat.
However, to tell you the truth even my love for Hugh Howey is not going to stop me from lowering my rate to 4 stars. Just to be clear, I was in no way disappointed with the book, it's just was not as perfect as it could have been. I really didn't want to start the review with the bad but here it is.
Main reason why the rating is not 5 stars is because concluding several chapters of the book really confused the hell out of me. Perhaps I'm simply not smart enough to get it, but the explanations of who is the Bern Seer and what her real role was, were really not clear to me. Overall her purpose in the book is a mystery to me. I think the reason why I didn't get it is because the ending was sort of rushed and a lot of things should have been clarified more, especially the aftermath of the main conflict. Just a bit more details and explanations in couple of more chapters would definitely make a difference for me.
Another reason why this book wasn't as satisfying is because a lot of the plot is taking place in the past. There are 3 main flashbacks, well I guess 4 if we count Wadi's. Reasons for these I assume was to give more color and background to the main characters. However in my opinion this should have been done as characters are introduced to the plot in the previous 3 books, as oppose to in the conclusion, almost as an afterthought. By this point I've already established attitude towards the characters and it was too late at least for me to form any other opinion.
I believe out of the 4 flashbacks the only one I enjoyed was Walter's. I mean as it is, I disliked Walter immensely. However the flashback really revealed the true nature of this Palan kid as someone who is absolutely without conscience and immensely greedy. He had no regard what so ever for human life. This really did reinforce my already very low opinion of him.
Other than negative points above I must really say that I loved the book, even if I misunderstand few things. It was as action packed as the other books in the series. But I found that this particular book is really about many things, but most importantly it's about sacrifices that people make for others. It's truly been a very emotional read and the very first and last book in the series where I actually shed a tear. I will truly miss Molly Fyde and her friends. Thanks Hugh Howey for introducing such a wonderful universe to your readers.

Possibly...better...than...Wool
Idea for the end of Wool - book crossover! Molly & crew land outside the silos, become super best friends with Juliette, then they all go out for space ice cream.

The Molly Fyde books suffer... or make you suffer a little. Conceptually, these should be YA books. Howey is a master at creating a universe and wrapping a plot and multiple story lines into a clever arc. His writing, however is messy and confusing. I found myself irritated at the array of flashbacks throughout the last book.
I get the impression that at the end Howey is patting himself on the back and saying "look how clever I am, how I tied up all the ends", and yet instead I sit here and think "wait... what just happened?"
Howey really has a habit of not describing the action well enough, and I feel like especially in this book he made some jumps of logic that I couldn't follow. Events happen that make me sit wondering if I missed something earlier in the books.
I'm glad I finished the series of books, but I can't recommend them to others.

It was a little bit better than the 3rd book. It seems that the scenes and character of Cole are shallow and purposeless which might explain why all the battles with him are mind numbingly boring. It still didn't do a good job at plot advancement. If the wasted story was replaced with more on character development, it would have been a more interesting read. The ending was good so it that's why I gave it 2 stars.

Disappointing Compared to First Two
The first two books of this series were masterfully written, and memories of them kept me going through the last two.
The character arcs did all come to (mostly) satisfying conclusions, and were very well done. They felt coherent and realistic.
The most glaring problem with this book was the one other reviewers have commented on: the backstory. It felt out-of-place, and seriously derived from the tension and pacing of the book. I was full of excitement to see how the grand threat that had been built up for three books was going to be resolved. And then impatient and disappointed when the story kept slamming on the brakes and wasting half of the book's precious pages that should have been taken up with the climax. And most frustrating of all was the way you'd get a few chapters of current action, and just when you were getting back into the flow of things, you'd slam into another section of backstory.
So the pacing and backstory were far from flawless, but overall, this is still a decent book. If you brace yourself for the backstory and don't set your expectations too high, you can still enjoy a satisfying end to the series. Had I not spent so much of the book being frustrated, I would have given it four stars.