One of my favorite genres has always been science fiction. Some of the best novels I have ever read fall into this category. Sci-fi has always intrigued me.

When I received the opportunity to read and review The Fold, by Peter Clines, I wasn’t all that excited, to be honest. It was science fiction, and I love the genre, but I usually stick to the tried and true authors that I know and love. Most of the time, a new author just doesn’t cut it.

So I wasn’t too thrilled. And The Fold sat on my shelf for a few weeks. A couple of nights ago, I picked it up and began to read it. It is a fact paced novel, and before I knew it, I was a hundred pages in. The story line kind of grabs you and suck you in. Before you know it, you are hooked.

As I read, I was somewhat engaged by The Fold. Not completely, but enough. The book was both a hit and a miss for me. Let me give the areas it was a hit first.

As mentioned, the story line was good. The plot was well-developed and the characters were portrayed in detail. Convincingly so. And due to the nature of the inter-dimensional science fiction plot, when something in a character’s profile shifted, it was ok, because it fit the story line.

In that regard, The Fold was fun and easy to read, and difficult to put down.

But there is another side to the coin here. This book was also a miss. First of all, the sci-fi plot was a bit far-fetched. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because it is science fiction. But the more the plot developed, the more over the top it seemed to get. That wasn’t that great, in my opinion.

But the major negative was the language. There was a lot of gratuitous language that was flat offensive. I do not believe that crude language makes a book better. In fact, I believe the opposite is true. Obscene and crude language is simply a smoke screen for a limited vocabulary. Dialog can take place without such words, and a creative writer will find a way to do so. Because of the overuse of such words, I will not give this anything more than a mid-range rating, and I won’t recommend that you read The Fold.

My conclusion is this: The Fold is a book that had the potential to be a landmark in science fiction. But it falls way short of its potential, and, as a result, isn’t nearly the novel that it could have been. That is disappointing. I wish I could have enjoyed it more… I wanted to enjoy it more… But the negatives were just too large to overcome.

So, as a result, I do not recommend that you read it. But if you choose to do so, at least you can go into it with your eyes open.

Question: What science fiction authors are your favorites? Which one have you found to be disappointing? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

I received this book free from Harper Collins Christian Publishing as part of their BookLook Bloggers review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.