Posted on 01/14/2011 7:03:46 AM PST by Onelifetogive
***It's not at the link. It's from his latest book.***
Dean Koontz has been slipping conservatism into his recent books. This year, with "What The Night Knows", he does us one better. The villians are all leftwing crackpots. Here's an excerpt:
"When she was twenty-four, Melody killed her three children - ages four, three and one - after deciding that motherhood is limiting and boring, and after she learned that humanity is a vile planet-killing plague that Earth can't survive. She saw it on TV. A documentary about the end of the world and about how it is unavoidable. We all have a responsibility. As each brat died, Melody kissed it, inhaling its final exhalation, which symbolized that she was participating in the salvation of the planet by eliminating the CO2 breathers who were polluting it every time they exhaled. The planet is a living thing. We are lice on the planet."
Later:
"This success (getting away with killing her family) has enhanced Melody's self-esteem. Self-esteem is the most important thing. You can't make the life you deserve if you don't have enough self-esteem." and "She realizes that, after all, she is interesting, just like Dr. Phil and so many other famous TV hosts have been for so long telling her she is."
(Excerpt) Read more at deankoontz.com ...
I can’t think of one Koontz book that I hated. I think I still like Watchers the most. I was also pleasantly surprised by the Frankenstein novels.
I’ve run out of the worthwhile Stephen King stuff. Is Dean Koontz any good?
LSAggie (posting on hubby's account)
Mine too. I love when he puts a twist at the end. (Odd Thomas with Stormy dying.)
My favorite twist off all was in "Servants of Twilight." Thru the entire book, "crazy religious nuts" are chasing after a sweet young woman and her toddler son. They are claiming that the little boy is the anti-christ. The crazy nuts are eventually all killed. Turns out he was the anti-christ.
In the current book, our hero goes to a Priest about the entity that is after him. The (leftie?) Priest doesn't believe in the supernatural and refers him to a psychiatrist.
I’d like to see more movies made from his books. I actually saw Shattered before I read the book. Which was how I was introduced to him. Just like all his other books, “Nothing can prepare you for the end.”
I’ll have to check that out.
I swear I saw elements of hillary in the villainess in that book.
King’s been uneven lately. He’s capable of creating amazing writing like the Dark Tower series (all seven books), and then follows it up with average stuff like “Cell” and just plain bad stuff like “Under the Dome.” My wife is a big Stephen King fan and couldn’t even finish “Under the Dome” due to all the political slams in it against conservatives.
}:-)4
For horror Koontz is the Master, King the student. Start with “Intensity” and see if you don’t agree.
A good friend of mine is a Koontz fan, and loves his stuff, but I’ve never read anything he wrote; based on the little bit I had seen, Koontz sounded like a rip-off of Stephen King, who never really interested me.
However, based on the comments here, I see I’ve been mistaken about Koontz. He sounds like my kind of guy!! A trip to the library is on my agenda for the weekend!!
Which Koontz book is the best one to read first, or doesn’t it matter?
And thanks in advance!!!!!!!
He's my favorite writer. He's all over the map. Good guys almost always win. Generally, no recurring characters or themes, except in the Odd Thomas series and his Frankenstein series.
His writing is brilliant! He paints a picture of the scene and mood better than anyone I have ever read.
Like:
"What year these events transpired is of no consequence. Where they occured is not important. The time is always, and the place is everywhere."
"Suddenly at noon, six days after the murders, birds flew to trees and sheltered roosts. As if their wings had lanced the sky, the rain fell close behind their flight. The long afternoon was as dim and drowned as twilight in Atlantis."
That's just grabbing the first two paragraphs...
The hero being a dog is pretty common for Dean Koontz - one more reason to like him.
I didn’t know that about Koontz. Makes me like him even more.
The reviews on Amazon for this one have been mixed. I’ve held off ordering it for my Kindle.
Doesn't really matter. Odd Thomas is a favorite. Frankenstein is a series, it should be read in order (as should the Odd Thomas series.) Other than those, everything is standalone.
I love when he sets up a scenario so implausible that you have to say, "Oh please, he can never get out of this" or "There is no reasonable explanation for this." and then the book unfolds and you say, "Well, of course. I should have known that."
“Dark Rivers of the Heart had a big impact on me in college in terms of political ideology and big government authoritarianism.”
I bought numerous copies and distributed them to friends and family.
Thanks, Onelifetogive, I’ll see what my library has on the shelf, and will give Koontz a spin.
You may have made my weekend...!!!
The thing about Koontz is that his evil is REAL, very little supernatural stuff in his books. Not to say that it isn’t there, but, I find real monsters like Voss or the Psycho lovers in Dark Rivers to be MUCH more scary than say Pennywise or some of King’s other baddies.
I personally think ‘Midnight’ was the scariest, but, Intensity and Dark Rivers were close second.
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