Rating: 
Summary: The Face lacks a body
Review: The Face is Dean Koontz's second book in six months. One thing I immediately noticed was that the storyline seemed extremely quick. The book was typical of Dean Koontz, separate story lines for each character, then they all meet up in the end for a chase. However.. The chase lasts for for a few chapters. Most of the book is spent building up to the short chase. The Face is an actor. He is mentioned throught the book, but he is not a main character. His child, Fric, calls him the ghost dad. That's what the Face is.. A ghost character. Ethan is the former cop who is a bodyguard for the mansion in which Fric lives. The story itself is somewhat confusing and complicated. There's a dead guy, who is not really dead. The guy is Ethan's best friend, but they haven't spoken in years because Ethan married the girl that the dead guy was in love with. And a man in a yellow slicker who wants to cause chaos in the world, even though he hates no one. Ethan dies, but he does not really. At first, Koontz gives a chapter to each character. Then, halfway, he switches into using a squiggly symbol to divide a page and start anew with a different character. The book is way too long for the story. He jumps around and just throws random things. However, I appreciated the book when I finished it. The ending completely sums up the story. While the face lacks a strong body, the ending makes up for the confusing plot. The ending explains everything and satisfies the reader. There is a strong spiritual touch to the book, and overall the book is a pleasant read.
Rating: 
Summary: HOPE vs. DESPAIR - LOVE vs. HATE - LIFE vs. DEATH,
Review: BE PREPARED for a marvelous story, full of clever wordplay, stunning images, clever plot twists, violent action sequences, thought provoking occurences, riddles to be solved, weird occurrences and even weirder characters. This is typical Dean Koontz, a simple story told in a leisurely convoluted way that invariably incorporates some elements of the supernatural or extrahuman powers. The mood is set almost immediately, you will soon be hooked by the story and the images which the lush verbiage provkes or you will rapidly conclude that it is a verbose waste of your time with a plot too unbelievable to warrant your interest. This is about good versus evil, the vanity and frailty of human beings and the redemptive power of love, but it is also a classic thriller. It reads incredibly rapidly for a book of over six hundred pages, the images evoked and the language used are so clear and enjoyable that that I found it difficult to put the book down. I consider the mood that it evokes and the impression that it leaves with the reader a stunning achievement. The story is very straightforward, and the fact that the narrative is told from the multiple viewpoints of the major participants works well in this case. Channing Mannheim is THE FACE, the most famous Hollywood star of the era and wealthy beyond measure. His Bel Air estate includes the magnificent Palazzo Respo (whose wonderful translation is known only to his son and the readers of this book). During Channing's brief marriage to supermodel Freddie Nielander they had a son Aelfric (Fric) who resides with a huge and wonderfully described staff on the estate as Channing films his hugely successful movies and Freddie pursues her career. Ethan Truman is the estate's security chief, whose job includes anticipating all possible threats to the compound and its residents as well as overseeing Channing's personal safety. While Channing is on location for his next film (the only appearance by the face is at the end of the book), mysterious and theartening packages arrive anonymously at the compound. As Ethan tries both to puzzle out their meaning and track down the sender, he finds it increasingly hard to separate reality from illusion. The remaining cast is gradually assembled, including the strange Rolf Reynard, whose whole existence is a study in black and white, and Corky Laputa, master of chaos and perhaps one of the few incarnations of pure evil in Ethan's experience. Hazard Yancey, Ethan's old partner who is still on the force gets entangled in the case and provides a resource that allows Ethan to obtain some help and also maintain his belief in his own sanity. Ethan seems to be facing impending doom, and perhaps not even the help of the walking dead (or the appearance of guardian angels) can avert the tragic sequence of events that seems to unfold with a seeming inevitableness. What made this book so enjoyable for me were four interrelated elements: first, the character development, which is especially wonderful with regard to Fric; second, the sophisticated messages implicit in many of the characters, especially Corky; third, the philosophical discussion of the most basic metaphysical issues such as the meaning of life, hope, love, truth and reality as well as the space-time continuum; and last, the wonderful use of language. Hopefully, the following examples will provide sufficient illustration "Premonition. Precognition. Psychic Vision. Clairvoyance. The TWILIGHT ZONE DICTIONARY turned its own pages in the library of his mind, but no possibility that it presented to him seemed to explain his experience." (Ethan) "Every palace and every work of art is only dust as yet unrealized, and time is the patient wind that will wither it all away. Nevertheless, men and women ... hope, against all evidence, that their lives have meaning and that in their talents lies a purpose larger than themselves." (Duncan Whistler) So, I highly recommend this book, whose incredibly enthralling and entertaining message is that our hope is indeed not without foundation, and that love and friendship are perhaps the eternal verities rather than chaos and entropy.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and confusing...I couldn't finish it.
Review: I was taught that if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all...so, I will keep my review of 'The Face' brief. At the heart of the novel is Ethan, an ex-cop now doing private security work. Ethan is an assigned bodyguard to a huge actor. The actor is receiving disturbing packages from a fan. Each package becomes more intense, until the final package hints to an attack from the madman sending them. Throw into the mix a LARGE cast of characters, all with their own plot lines, and you have a heavy epic of good and evil...one that makes absolutely no sense. I could not finish 'The Face', I was 200 pages into the book when the mess that was unfolding became so tedious to read I gave up. I found myself flipping back to previous chapters to try to follow what was going on, and just as I thought the novel was staying on track with a main plot line it veered off into different directions making things crazy. I have been a Dean Koontz fan for years, but have to say that over the last few years his novels have become weaker and weaker. The Koontz of years ago was a powerhouse author whose novels were suspenseful page-turners, but lately he is painting too broad a canvas with his stories, and the result is a novel less suspenseful, confusing and boring. Koontz has not had a great novel since 'Intensity,' and at the rate he is going I'm not sure he will. Better luck next time. Nick Gonnella
Rating:
Summary: Among his best... almost
Review: "The Face" is an intriguing, exciting novel and definitely worth your time and money. It has all the signature themes Koontz fans have come to expect over the years: the commonplace yet epic struggle between the forces of love and basic goodness and the forces of evil and chaos.
Typical of Koontz, and refreshingly unique to him, he portrays evil not as a thing of hatred, which would imply some kind of engagement with humanity no matter how negative, but rather as a thing of emptiness, a complete absence of feeling for anyone but oneself. His villains are classic sociopaths, blinded to their own evil as they construct absurdly nihilistic world-views to rationalize their destructive self-indulgence. His protagonists are either the couple you wish you were or, if you're like me, the only people in modern fiction you really, honestly identify with (not to be boastful, it's just that my husband and I have been blessed with the kind of love Koontz so often describes in his books).
Although this is an excellent book, my favourites are still "From The Corner Of His Eye", "False Memory", "The Bad Place", "Night Chills" and "Demon Seed" - in that order. Only after these five comes "The Face".
P.S. *SPOILER* I liked the little note at the end about "Saint Duncan", a subtle dig at the practice of "petitioning" or praying to so-called saints who are, after all, just dead people - a practice forbidden in the Bible, which tells us we are to worship and pray to God alone. Typhon, the devil, was trying to get Dunny to commit the sin of idolatry by praying to someone other than God.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific read! Really made me cry!
Review: Koontz really made it a great read with this one! Evil and scary all at the same time! It's almost as good as the new author's book I have just read-Evil Debts by Terse Skirritt! Now there was a scary and surrealistic story to be had! Couldn't put it down-alot like this book! I was constantly looking over my shoulder the entire time! Read this book by Koontz but give Evil Debts a try-you might find you like it better!
Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Must Read
Review: WOW! Just finished the book, grabbed me and wouldn't let go, cried my eyes out at the end, page after page of tears!! Absolutely the best book ever! To all Koontz fans this is a 'must read' to all other readers, your about to become a FAN!!
Rating:
Summary: One of his best out of his recent novels!
Review: Take it from a Koontz fan who's been reading him for over 10 years. I can spot a good Koontz story vs. a bad one. I can spot one that drags on & on; and one that might be long, but it's completely enjoyable. Koontz has come up with forgettable characters & many that are unforgettable. "The Face" is most definitely one of his best books that has come out in the past 5 years. Yes, it's long at 600 pages, but not once was I bored! And believe me, I'm not shy to say when I did not enjoy a Koontz book, which has happened on occasion. So I can't understand why some of the other reviewers did not seem to read the same book I did. I didn't agree with a single thing they said...which is odd. But I honestly couldn't find one comment I agreed with. I especially disagree that this book had a lot of "flowery" commentary; to the contrary, this book stayed on track MUCH more than other recent works of his!
On to the PLOT: We meet Ethan, who is head of security for a famous movie actor ("the face") and his son Fric. He's been receiving threatening and weird packages for "the face", and is currently trying to decipher them. Within the house we meet a cast of characters from a cook, to a chef to a guru...And we meet Fric, who has also begun receiving strange messages via the telephone from someone who seems to know his every move and swears Fric is in danger. At the same time this is going on we read about Corky- who is an anarchist and seems to have many plans of disaster up his sleeve...At the height of suspense we wait to see if whoever is out to destroy "the face's" home and family will be able to succeed.
Like I said, this is a long book, and at 600 pages there's a lot going on to keep you busy & in suspense. What I wrote above is just the beginning of the plot. Many of his recent novels have many sub-plots and underlying stories, and The Face is no different; which makes it hard to quickly sum up in a few words.
Like most Koontz books, underneath all of the murder & mayhem, the heart of the story was about the human spirit and survival. That's why I enjoy him, there's always much more to the story than what would be in the average "horror novel". And when I finish, I can't believe that I often find myself disappointed in the fact I will be missing the characters- they can be that special.
If you like Koontz, or you like suspense, I don't think this book will disappoint! It has so much more to offer than just a suspenseful plot...
Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: Koontz with presumably a straight face, has his chief villian in The Face refer to one of his torture victims as "stinky cheese man." How lame is that?
I have not read a Koontz in a long time, but reading the other reviews I see that Koontz has written many good books. I'm sure that's true, The Face is not one of them.
Do yourself a favor and skip this stinky cheesy book. I found myself skipping paragraphs at a time in order to skip the overly descriptive and flowery language. Give me a break, if I want to read Shakespeare, I'll read Shakespeare. Instead I was looking for a suspenceful page turner and I didn't get it.
This book was at its height of stupidity at its end -- which couldn't come soon enough.
Rating:
Summary: Face your fears, buckle up, and hold on! He did it again.
Review: One wild ride indeed by Dean Koontz. He includes everything but the kitchen sink in this thriller! It is easy to figure out why there are people out there that consider Koontz one of the best!
I can imagine being the person of Ethan Truman, and sometimes feeling the anxiety. But then you think also of what it might be like to Fric. Koontz throws a lot of stuff together. From Broadway roses, to Jewish food, maybe even a dead body here and there, right? I enjoyed the NO FEAR attitude of Hazard Yancy. Corky Luputa made kind of an obnoxious villain, yet a worthy opponent.
While it kept my attention, it was easy at times to put down. However, near the ending, it goes nuts, and you find yourself saying, "He did it again." So, all in all, Koontz does not disappoint. He thrills us, entertains us, and for some people, he actually inspires us. No harm done there.
Rating:
Summary: Simply awful
Review: What gives. This is a slumming effort by Koontz. It reads as if it were inspired by a bad TV movie. Lacking in origniality, interesting characters, meaningful insight, character development, etc. Of course, not everyone requires these, but I think that they would have been nice.
Avoid this. Read one of his other efforts - many are worth it. But not this one.
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