The Face

Rating:
Summary: An uplifting jaunt into the supernatural
Review: Dean Koontz is known for his defiance of genre, with story themes ranging from alien invasions, homicidal machines, ghosts, murderers, and the world of the spiritual. While his latest novel, The Face, feels somewhat more low key in comparison to his other recent novels, it still manages to retain that feel that anything could happen at any moment. It's this feeling that the unexpected and amazing lies around every corner that makes this book an easy read.

The story revolves around an ex-cop named Ethan Truman who is now the chief of security for the world's most famous movie star. When strange gifts and messages begin finding their way onto his employer's estate, Ethan is plunged into a world he never knew existed, but that is closer to him than he could possibly imagine. As usual, the character development is moderate to good, and the characters themselves are fully fleshed out (most noticeable among them is young Aelfric Manheim, the son of the movie star himself, who is the latest in a long line of great child characters found in Koontz stories). Even the villain of the piece, Corky Laputa, is interesting and fun to read about. And hey, you'd be evil, also, if your parents named you that.

Koontz's lyrical writing style helps keep things fresh. It's always interesting to see what new metaphors he'll throw in. And while the story takes place over the course of only two days, there are so many characters and so many different events happening that it feels like weeks have passed by the time you reach the end. This can also be a drawback to some readers. Because the story moves slow and takes its time, some less patient readers might give up. The story does pick up near the end, however, and the theme of the novel is uplifting enough to make it feel more than worthwhile.

This is a book for fans of Christian and spiritual fiction who want to branch out into more mainstream novels. I wouldn't necesarily suggest it to horror fans, as there isn't much to make you shiver here until almost the story's climax. All in all, though, this is a safe story with moderate violence and tasteful dialogue. If you're a longtime Koontz fan, or looking for a good book to pick up and read off and on, you couldn't do much better than Dean Koontz's The Face.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!!!
Review: This book was so good, that I only put it down to sleep, shower, etc... This is classic Koontz all the way. If you like Koontz, this is a must read and a must have for any collector!

Rating:
Summary: The Face
Review: This book was so full of metaphors, adjectives and the like, it made the reading unbearable. It was nothing like any Koontz books I had read in the past and I was extremely disappointed. The storyline revolves around a little boy and the man who saves him from a physcho killer. Half of the book could have been left out. I won't stop reading Koontz but hope this new styling of writing doesn't last long.

Rating:
Summary: Five Stars Just Ain't Enough!!
Review: What's not to like? I won't get into the story itself, it can be read elsewhere, but come on!! The descriptions, the plotlines, the characters, the riddles, everything. This has to be The Masterpiece of Dean Koontz's career thus far. This is a perfect story, almost as perfect as they come, it even outdoes my faves such as 'Whispers', 'Intensity', 'Sole Survivor' and 'From the Corner of His Eye'. To those of you who didn't even get through half of the book: Give it another chance!! This is perfection.

What's not to understand? True, the lead character, Ethan Truman, gets killed off in chapter two and is back in chapter three, but if you guys'n'gals just hang in there, by the end it will make perfectly sense, and if you don't get touched and aren't filled with hope and joy when the last page is turned, then I dare say that your heart is made of stone. And yes, there is a large cast, but not as large as in, say, 'Strangers' or 'From the Corner of His Eye'.

This is a darn good novel; it has everything, love, horror, terror, hope, redemption...and in spite of the 600+ pages it is a fast read, immensely gripping, and not easily forgotten (but I'm also one of those guys who found that 'Mulholland Drive' has lots of meaning, and who never have found a movie going by so quickly).
Highly, highly, highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Not his Best
Review: I hesitate more and more when I purchase books by Koontz. Though you will never find fault with his technical abilities and it's clear that he has a love for words, but oftentimes it painful waiting for him to get to the point. The ending of this book was simply anti-climatic. I found it hard to believe the child in this book had no other famous friends who had the same problems as he; lurking in the shadows of their parent's fame. The 'bad guy' in this book is such a caricature of the other bad guys in his other books is almost sad. I'm bad just because, I'm evil just because...is just weak and lazy writing. Oh well, on to the next book...maybe.

Rating:
Summary: Surrender to the masterful writing abilities of Dean Koontz
Review: Surrender from the start --- that's the best way to enjoy this book. Just let yourself go into the baroque, moody atmosphere created by a master of his craft. You'll have no regrets, because halfway into the 600+ pages of THE FACE, you will be completely caught up and so absorbed that you will have forgotten you ever wondered (as I did for a bit early on) where the heck the plot was.

Dean Koontz has been writing for a long time. He has, if I counted correctly, 40 books to his credit, this one being the 41st. In a market long dominated by Stephen King, with occasional invasions from Peter Straub, Koontz has nevertheless steadily built the kind of faithful following that consistently puts him on the bestseller lists. Nobody works harder, or is more deserving of success, than this man who, from the start of his career, has never been too busy to give help and advice to new writers. I've read about half his books, but this is my first in five years, and I'm glad to be back with Koontz. THE FACE has an enviable maturity of style. Not all authors who write long and prolifically also write better as the years go by; in fact, judging by many popular authors today, most don't. If there is anyone who enjoys the horror genre but hasn't read Koontz, THE FACE would be an excellent place to start.

The time is the present, the place is Hollywood --- in boldface with a capital H. "The Face" is what an adoring public calls Channing Manheim, Hollywood superstar yet all-around nice guy. Channing is in the book's background, though. Like many of Koontz's novels, this one revolves around a boy, Channing's son Aelfric, whose age hovers just on the edge of the teens --- with all that implies. Fric, as he prefers to be called (and so would you if you had a name like that), is intelligent, brave and unspoiled. He has pretty much raised himself, due to the continual absence of a father who makes three movies a year, most of them on location, and a mother who is a jet-setting superstar model. He's a great kid, and a believable character too.

Ethan Truman is The Face's head of security. He lives on the star's estate, in the big house called Palazzo Rospo --- which Fric, who likes to know stuff and makes it his business to find out, tells us is Italian for Toad Hall. Truman's suite is on the first floor, while Fric's is on the third. There are a bazillion rooms in this place, and hearing about it in great detail from Fric's point of view is fun. There is a lot of Hollywood lore, in fact, scattered throughout THE FACE and all of it is fun. The author, who has lived most of his life in Southern California and has had several of his books made into movies, obviously knows this territory well and has a sense of humor about it.

But back to Ethan Truman: he's a former L.A. Robbery-Homicide cop who decided to go private after his wife, Hannah, died a few years before our story starts. He has a friend named Hazard who is still on the police force, and another friend from childhood named Dunnie, which is short for Duncan, who became a criminal but repented. Dunnie was also in love with Hannah, and it was after her death that he finally understood loving her could have saved him from his meaningless life of crime; if he had only let it, he might have married her instead of Ethan.

Both Hazard and Dunnie (yes, in spite of him being dead) are trying to help Ethan Truman who, by virtue of his job, must protect The Face from a creep who is sending some very odd packages Truman intercepts. But nothing is necessarily as it seems, so is Dunnie really dead and does he really want to protect Ethan? The Face is off location somewhere, but the sender of strange gifts doesn't know that. It's a few days before Christmas, and Fric expects Dad to come home for the holidays. The big house is being decorated, and Fric's wisecracks about that are as amusing as his observations of his parents' lifestyle. Less amusing are the phone calls Fric starts getting ... and less amusing still are the calls that come in to the big house's one line of 12 that is dedicated to receiving phone communications from the dead. Only Ethan knows about these calls, due to his security job, but even he can't listen in --- he can only see by an indicator light when that dedicated line is engaged. Nobody except Channing Manheim and his spiritual advisor has access to that phone.

We meet early on a man named Corky LaPuta, who is a professor of English by profession and an anarchist by vocation. Corky has many truly inventive ways to sow anarchy; he's a creative genius. He is also, well, just plain evil. Koontz takes his time in showing us how far Corky will go and how he ties in to those odd gifts for Channing Manheim. He also takes his time in showing us the that role Corky plays in the alteration of reality that slowly, subtly, and very scarily builds as the book's pages mount.

Dean Koontz's real skill comes in the way he takes you in, so that you believe these things could really happen, no matter how strange they are. First you believe the people in the book can be real people, then you begin thinking that they can believe these things are really happening to them, and eventually you're believing it yourself --- all of it. And you don't want to leave your cozy chair underneath the reading light to walk all the way down that long dark hall to the bathroom, and you especially do not want to look in the mirror once you get there.

As I said at the beginning, surrender! You'll be glad you did.

--- Reviewed by Ava Dianne Day

Rating:
Summary: Great Koontz, with great characters
Review: Dean Koontz can hit home runs or he can hit for average but rarely does he strike out, this one is a "round-tripper" for sure.

I enjoyed this nearly as much as "Lightning", "Twilight Eyes", or the Christopher Snow books.

Fric and Ethan are two great characters - Fric had me laughing out loud, but I guess I was a geek as a kid too, and probably still a geek :-)

Rating:
Summary: I miss the "old" Dean Koontz
Review: When I first started this book, I had to check the author's name again to make sure it was Dean Koontz. While I've always enjoyed his writing flourish (we use to bet how many pages in we would find the word "macadam"), his newest style is definitely overgrown. Too many metaphors and adjectives take away from full character development and the plot. While the message is heartening, I'm not convinced that the journey was worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Back to the old Koontz
Review: I enjoyed this koontz book more than any I've read the past few years. It was hard to put down. I found myself liking the characters and caring about what happened to them. I just love Fric! The ending was ... you'll have to read it to find out! What a twist! The best book I've read in a long while!

Rating:
Summary: A FACE TO DIE FOR
Review: Dean Koontz, one of the most prolific "suspense" writers of our generation, sure knows his words..and he uses them copiously in his latest best-seller. The book is way too long and filled with too many flamboyant descriptions and attempts at satire..a little bit of the satire would have been enough, but the book reeks with it. Koontz has sabotaged this book with his "over-writing."
However, if you can strain through all the superflous flowery narrative, you'll find a great story and some strong characters in security chief Ethan; the precocious Frik; and the staunch detective, Hazard. The villain, Corky, is way over the top but deliciously evil, to say the least. Unlike most Koontz books, there is no strong female presence in this novel; and why, oh why, must EVERY hero have a dead wife or fiance haunting him? This must be the fifth book in a row that the poor hero is mourning his lost love. Koontz is a great writer overall and I've read almost all of his books, and they've all been meritorious in one way or another. Fans will like this, and the ending is sufficiently upbeat, considering all our heroes have to go through. It's interesting, too, how "The Face" of the title is not who you might think it is. Check out the last scene in the elevator.
All in all, it's a ponderous read, but I still recommend it---it's better than a lot of other pretentious [garbage] out there!