The Face

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Writer
Review: This was my first Koontz, and I have to honestly say I can wait for the next one. His creativity keeps the reader wanting more and more. A very descriptive that almost makes you be in the scene.

Rating:
Summary: Face It, Koontz has done better!
Review: As usual, in Face, Koontz gives us a heavy dose of good versus evil. There are three main characters in this novel, Fric, the precocious son of Hollywood's biggest star, Channing Manheim, known in the business as the 'Face'. Being rich beyond imagination, Manheim owns a sprawling estate in Bel Air, with a staff in the dozens including a twenty-four/seven security staff headed by former policeman Ethan Truman. That takes care of the good, now for the bad we have a character, Corky Laputa an avowed anarchist who in his spare time from being a college professor, spreads the seeds of chaos and dissension any way he can.

Another character that needs to be mentioned is Ethan's wayward and somewhat estranged childhood friend, Dunny Whistler, who after fighting for his life for three months in the hospital after four thugs held his head in a toilet bowl for several minutes finally succumbed. Or did he?

When Ethan went to the hospital to identify the deceased Dunny was AWOL and Dunny appears occasionally throughout the story as a person/ghost of importance.

The Story

As chief of security Ethan starts receiving small wrapped boxes containing strange divergent items, a warning of sorts, which Ethan assumes portends some sort of pending attempt on `The Face's' life, but the sender made a mistake on this last package. Previous packages were delivered anonymously by delivery services, like UPS but this time the perp (Love those cop terms) was caught on a security camera, well at least his car and license plate was.

So, after tracking down the license plate, Ethan is off to confront the perp whereupon he is killed, yes shot dead by the perp who suckered Ethan and had a gun hidden is a potato chip bag shooting him several times.

At least that's what Ethan is sure happened when he is back in his car in front of the perp's house. Was it a premonition? Should he go in? A bemused Ethan finally drives off continuing a twilight zone of sorts of bizarre events leading up to the nefarious Corky Laputa's forewarned assault at the Manning Estate.

Conclusion

The Face was certainly a fast fun read, despite its lengthily 557 pages but I would not count The Face among Koontz's best novels. Yes, it's an interesting story but not a compelling story. Koontz's writing as usual flows well and is user friendly, though he does go off on tangents and sometimes puts emphasis on minutia. If I have a fault with this book it is that to me the story seemed forced like he decided out of the blue to write about a movie Idol. Though The Face was well written it was not, at least for me, a page turner.

It took me a couple weeks to finish this book and though I was not disappointed, neither was I ebullient. I suppose the character of Corky Laputa and his lack of motive was a problem for me and even though he was a mean, nasty individual, he never seemed to pose the overwhelmingly ominous threat Koontz tried to impute and which have permeated many of his other books. Still Koontz sets up an interesting overall scenario and carries it off quite well, shortfalls and all.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though I don't consider this to be an exceptional book it still is a worthwhile read, especially for die hard Koontz fans.


Rating:
Summary: A great author but this is not one of his best.
Review: First let me say that Dean Koontz is one of my favorite authors. He never fails to grab my attention early on and keep it until the end. One of the things I love the most about his books is his sometimes warped sense of humor.

That said, I have to say that this book is not going to make my "favorites" list. It wasn't bad and parts of it were very intense and captivating but there was just something about it that made me feel that it was a little bit off. I didn't like the ending at all.

I normally don't write reviews unless I really loved the book or really hated it. I wanted to write this review for the people who may have read this as their first Koontz book and felt like me about it. Don't give up. He has written some amazing books. My favorite book of all time from any author is Watchers. Everyone I know who read it says the same thing. I know that Dean Koontz doesn't need me to defend him but he doesn't deserve some of these negative comments.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible!
Review: My First Koontz and the last...simply terrible... Wooden characters, wooden dialogue...wooden suspense...the writing is simply sloppy...flowery,laughable language...too poor to be compared with Stephen King. I have read only two books of him (SK): Misery and The Dark Half but you can see the difference from the first sentence...I mean miles away. How does this serious-writer-wanna-be (I mean Koontz)get published? This is the only suspense one gets from this book...
Avoid if you have a sound mind and your time/ money worth something to you

Rating:
Summary: A good idea for a long flight.
Review: I fly maybe a couple of times a year, and before boarding it's pretty standard for me to visit the kiosk and check out the #1 rack. Koontz is usually one of the names on the rack, and this being my first experience with his work, I can't doubt that I was impressed. Although, I did think about putting it down after the first two chapters, but I wasn't about to watch the American Airlines version of "Erin Brocovich" for the third time. After going deep into the villian character, Corky, the book was impossible to put down. I'm not sure what it is about such an evil character that ropes you in, but I found all the chapters told from his view point to be more than just interesting. I'm kind of new to the crime-mystery genre of books, but I've always had a thing for science fiction. Seeing the two intertwined made the book addictive.

The sections from the boy's perspective were also very fun to read. I found it funny in comparing his actions to what I think I might've done at the age of 12. His need for a father figure also stood out to me, and I really enjoyed the sections of bonding between Ethan and Fric. Fric is a very knowledgable young boy, who strives to have the most random knowledge possible. His character also provided very enjoyable chapters to read.

The main character, Ethan, was kind of bland and didn't offer much about himself to allow the reader to analyze him. But this also provides for a good suspensful read, not being sure what he might do next. Corky on the other hand, can be read like a card, and you always know he's thinking up something sadistic... for the good of society of course, however twisted you must be to offer that as an excuse for crime/rape/murder.. etc.

However I think the ending could have been more suspensful. Don't worry, I won't ruin anything for you. I just think the villainous Corky would've had more up his sleeve to throw a harder curveball at Ethan.

Very enjoyable book, a must have for your Dean Koontz collection.

Rating:
Summary: I don't have time to read what I already know happens
Review: I'll be honest. I didn't read the whole book. I've read much literature before, and I've always read the books fully. But not this one. I read an entire nine (9!) chapters, a total of about 91 pages before putting the book down. Why?

I might be wrong, but the story just oozed with cookie cutter-ness. It felt like it was the same basic idea that was used over and over sooo many times, the auther was getting bored. It starts out slooow. And boring. And predictable. And... it didn't get much better. I heard echoes of "it was a dark and stormy night" and felt as if I was reliving a cheesy black and white murder mystery. Because from what I read, thats what it was. Too many useless descriptions and words littered the pages. The writing was... dare I say, sloppy? I've had classmates with better written works. The story itself is way too predictable, and I can easily tell you what happens next. But perhaps worst of all, it doens't stick with you. You put it down, and forget it. Just like that, *snap*, and you never even read it. Maybe i'm being too harsh, and should have finished this. Maybe there is a good book under all the sludge I read through. But, you know what? I don't have time to read about what I know will happen.