The Agony of Survival is the first book in a trilogy in which Spyros Vrettos addresses the vital issue of survival in its entire manifestation as well as the fate of the modern humans. The advance of technology, the degradation of the environment, the neglect of nature, and the exploitation of natural resources have brought upon humanity multiple imminent dangers and threatening disasters: natural disasters, pollution of the environment, mass murders, epidemics and deadly diseases–mainly cancer, destruction, failure of the worldwide economic system, and other extensive horrors that afflict our planet. Despite the threatening visible or invisible dangers, Vrettos is optimistic that there is hope; there is still time to save our planet and the human race, by seeking intelligent avenues of escape and rebirth. The plausible question of whether human intelligence suffices to prevent the course to destruction is the related theme of The Incredible Machine, the second book in the trilogy (published in Greece in 2009). The last book (in process of writing), The Peacemaker, addresses the general conditions which could salvage our planet by diminishing the agony of human survival and creating the global passage to an optimistic future.