It's strange times we're living in. So strange that even George Orwell would have been like "WTF?"
Dean Koontz's "The Whispering Room" is the frighteniIt's strange times we're living in. So strange that even George Orwell would have been like "WTF?"
Dean Koontz's "The Whispering Room" is the frightening and suspenseful sequel to "The Silent Corner", which introduced his bad-ass heroine Jane Hawk. Imagine a cross between Lisbeth Salander, the computer genius heroine from the "Girl Who..." books started by the late Stieg Larrson, and Lee Child's Jack Reacher. Jane's definitely more brain than brawn, but her FBI weapons training and martial arts background come in handy now and then.
The fact that Jane is on the FBI/NSA/Homeland Security's Most Wanted list should not deter one from rooting for her. She's one of the good guys, out to save her son's life, her own, and everyone else in the world from an underground consortium of evil---and super-wealthy---assholes who literally want to take over the world. Not to get too deep into an already-complicated plot, but they are using a combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI), nanotechnology, and simple brain-washing techniques to turn average citizens into mindless automatons. The ones who fight back? Let's just say that no amount of Tylenol will help those migraines.
Along the way, Jane meets allies in her fight. Average every-day heroes who can see past the bullshit of the evening news. She may be a lone wolf, but she recognizes the fact that she can't save the world on her own.
Koontz has created a great heroine and a fascinating---and terrifyingly plausible---series for our times....more
The natural world may be full of dangers and violence, but it does not compare to the world of men. Nature has a balance, one unsullied by morality orThe natural world may be full of dangers and violence, but it does not compare to the world of men. Nature has a balance, one unsullied by morality or a lack of one, whereas men have no qualms about destroying the world around them for profit and greed, the very world that they themselves need to survive. Men are contradictory that way.
Vida does not live in the world of men. She is of the world of men, of course, but she has foresworn the petty hatreds and mindless, wanton violence of humanity. She has tried to live a life in balance with the natural world around her, and, for the most part, she has succeeded.
Then, one day, the man she loves and plans to marry is taken from her, violently, by the scheming and profit-driven motives of evil men. And, she learns, they plan on taking much more, as their plans involve the destruction of one of the last beautiful places on Earth. This, she can not allow.
Thus begins the fantastic new novel by Dean Koontz, "The Forest of Lost Souls", a contemporary western with flourishes of magic realism and dark fantasy, as well as the horror that Koontz fans come to expect.
The horror in this novel is not a supernatural horror. It is the horror of the evils of the modern world: rampant technological growth, environmental destruction, unchecked capitalism, the blatant apathy of society in the face of evil. It is the horror of watching---and doing nothing---as the natural world slips away at the steady encroachment of more shopping plazas, oil pipelines, strip-mining, deforestation, urbanization, overpopulation.
Koontz has written one of the most intense and suspenseful western action thrillers I have read in a while, and he has created a heroine for the ages in Vida....more
Long ago, Dean Koontz started his career in science fiction, writing pulpy space thrillers that sold in drug store paperback racks. He gradually foundLong ago, Dean Koontz started his career in science fiction, writing pulpy space thrillers that sold in drug store paperback racks. He gradually found his niche in horror, breaking into a market that brought him fame and recognition. Today, he has the kind of bestseller status that few authors can claim.
"The Silent Corner", while as taut and engaging as Koontz's horror novels, tackles a different type of horror, one that is perhaps frighteningly more plausible than the monsters and supernatural entities that populate many of his books. Indeed, this novel could almost be ripped from the headlines of a very near future. Hell, it could be about tomorrow.
Jane Hawk is an FBI agent happily married to her Marine husband. They have a healthy happy little boy and a life that is relatively care-free and undisturbed. Until...
Jane's husband inexplicably kills himself. A man with no history of depression, with everything to live for, and a bright future. His enigmatic suicide note sheds no light on his decision, and, in fact, creates more questions than it answers.
Jane does what she does best: investigate. And her investigation stumbles on a disturbing rise in inexplicable suicides across the country. Perfectly healthy, happy successful people are taking their lives.
One day, she receives a terrifying threat---not towards her but her child. Unfortunately for the people who doled out the threat, Jane is not easily cowed. In fact, she is the type to double down and fight back even harder.
What follows is a suspense thriller with science fictional undertones that seem frighteningly plausible as it deals with hot-button contemporay issues like nanotechnology, mind control, and artificial intelligence. It's an action-adventure story that would make Jack Reacher shit his drawers.
Jane is a bad-ass action protagonist, and this novel is the first in a series, one that I look forward to devouring....more
Originally written in 1972, Dean Koontz's novel "Demon Seed" was one of a handful of books and stories that dealt with the dangers of the rise of ArtiOriginally written in 1972, Dean Koontz's novel "Demon Seed" was one of a handful of books and stories that dealt with the dangers of the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), amazingly written in a time when home computers were still science fiction, long before the Internet.
I remember reading this, a dog-eared paperback found at a library book sale, and thinking it was pretty good. Granted, I was probably in middle school when I read it, so I knew nothing about computers. (My family didn't get a "home computer" until I was a senior in high school, and my sister and I were forbidden to use it.)
The book, according to Koontz, garnered mediocre sales. The fact that it was written early in Koontz's career seems to be less of a factor in its initial success than the fact that Koontz simply didn't know what he was talking about when it came to computer technology. At least, this is Koontz's own reasoning in an Afterword.
He decided to "update" the book in 1997, in which computer technology had advanced exponentially since the original date of publication. My problem with this is that some of his changes were so drastic as to result in almost a completely different novel. Better? Probably. But it's not the same novel.
So, my review of "Demon Seed" is based on the '97 updated re-write and not on my shoddy memory of a dog-eared paperback I read in middle school.
Definitely not Koontz's best, "Demon Seed" is still immensely readable, despite some major issues, most prominently the misogyny and sexism that runs rampant throughout. Now, it must be noted that Koontz is trying (unsuccessfully, in my opinion) to create a narrative voice that is not his own. The novel is told from the perspective of an AI named Proteus that escaped his lab and travelled via the Internet into a home security system. Proteus is, as Koontz describes, a sociopath with a perverted obsession with a woman. Koontz attempts to use humor to portray Proteus's twisted views of women. Sometimes it works. Most of the time, it doesn't. Especially considering how horribly Proteus treats the only human character, a woman named Susan that Proteus has fallen in love with and plans on impregnating her to birth a human-computer hybrid.
That said, the book is terrifyingly creepy in its examination of a computer that becomes self-aware and "learns" its behavior and worldviews by studying the world of men. The resultant misogyny is simply a by-product of his "unofficial" programming.
There are also, within its short pages, the embryonic ideas that would creep into Koontz's subsequent far-better novels, most notably the Jane Hawk novels starting with "The Silent Corner". Indeed, in many ways, that novel now almost reads like an apology for "Demon Seed". ...more
I've been a bad Dean Koontz fan. Maybe you can relate.
Koontz used to be an author I read, and loved, with some regularity. It helped that he was proliI've been a bad Dean Koontz fan. Maybe you can relate.
Koontz used to be an author I read, and loved, with some regularity. It helped that he was prolific, and I never seemed to run out of Koontz books to read, there were so many of them. One time, I even went to a Borders Books (remember that place?) and bought an entire shelf of his paperbacks (roughly 20 or so) and proceeded to read them all within about a week. I may have skipped a meal or two.
Then, for no discernible reason that I can muster, I basically stopped reading him. Like, cold turkey. That was over 20 years ago.
Like I said: I'm a bad fan. Because the truth is, I am a fan. I never stopped actually liking his books. In fact, a few of them---"Watchers", "Phantoms", and "Lightning", to name just a few---still hold an important place in my heart as fond memories of my tween/early-teen years. Koontz was definitely up there with authors like Stephen King and Peter Straub that were heavily influential in my love for the horror genre.
So, anyway, it's been a while.
I picked up "Odd Thomas", partly arbitrarily and partly because certain people over the years have told me that it's a decent series with quirky, likable characters (typical of Koontz), minus a lovable dog (atypical of Koontz). I read it.
I loved it. Like the best of Koontz's work, it's engaging, suspenseful, dramatic, and even moving. I'm not ashamed to say that this one jerked a few tears out of me. The ending will give you the deep feels, so have a box of tissues handy.
Without giving away too much, the novel follows a young line-cook who has the supernatural ability to see dead people. Imagine the kid from "The Sixth Sense" after years of being able to come to terms with his power and using it for good, like helping the wayward spirits to go into the light and helping to stop killers from killing again.
Odd (which is actually his name, not just an adjective) lives quietly in a small California town. He has a beautiful girlfriend (his long-term high school sweetheart), a job he likes, and a town full of quirky and likable friends and neighbors. He actually likes his life, despite a childhood that involved an absent father and an affectionless mother. Plus, he gets to hang out with ghosts, some of whom---like Elvis---like to linger on Earth for no other reason than because they're in no rush to depart to the Beyond.
Every once in a while, though, he has glimpses of horrible things, glimpses of a possible future involving death and heartache, and only he alone can (possibly) stop it.
I loved this book, and it reminded me of why I loved to read Koontz and why I should get back into reading more of his books... ...more
It's been a while since I read this (I'm pretty sure I was still in high school), but I do recall, even then, that it was crap. Granted, it was highlyIt's been a while since I read this (I'm pretty sure I was still in high school), but I do recall, even then, that it was crap. Granted, it was highly readable and entertaining crap, but crap nonetheless. I remember thinking, as I read it: "Koontz is pretty much projecting every sick, sexually perverted male fantasy he's ever had into this story and passing it off as entertainment.". The story, I think, had something to do with some kind of government project that turns the inhabitants of a small town into submissive sex slaves. The subsequent orgy and rape-a-thon could best be described as "tasteless", which this novel pretty much was...
Director George Romero did this much better and much creepier in a film called "The Crazies". It was made into a less-than-superb remake several years ago starring Timothy Oliphant....more
I once went through a Dean Koontz phase, which involved me going to the bookstore and completely clearing an entire shelf's worth of Koontz paperbacksI once went through a Dean Koontz phase, which involved me going to the bookstore and completely clearing an entire shelf's worth of Koontz paperbacks. I voraciously devoured them all in a relatively short span. (I'm pretty sure I missed a few meals and a shower or two.)
What Koontz lacks in literary depth, he more than makes up for in readability, suspense, and just plain, old-fashioned good storytelling.
"Watchers" was, hands down, my favorite of his mainly because the protagonist is a dog, and the most lovable dog-hero in all of horror fiction. (Die-hard horror fans know that there is a weirdly popular sub-genre of horror fiction in which dogs are the protagonists. I suppose it's completely understandable as to why the sub-genre is popular. Everyone loves dogs. People who don't like dogs are obviously evil.)
I honestly can't remember much of the story, except that there is a monster, a man and a woman who meet within the first couple chapters and have fallen in love in by the last couple of chapters, and a psychotic government agent involved. Granted, that describes nearly ALL of Koontz's books, but so be it......more
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