Rating: 
Summary: An epic tale that's a bit too epic
Review: This is a really good book--the characters are well-drawn, the scenes are well-set, and the plot is intriguing. And this book will scare you, not in a monsters-under-the-bed way, but in a wow-stuff-like-this-really-happens way (well, some of it, anyway!). The primary theme of the book is the sacredness of life, in contrast to the bioethics view of the utility of life. The main villain is a bioethicist, and yes, he is a typically creepy Dean Koontz villain. The other villain is more pathetic: a junkie who has, ah, some mental problems. The other heroes are many, including a disabled young girl, a depressed young lady, a quirky aunt, a down and out detective, an unusual boy, and a dog. The story weaves around their lives and how they all come together in a common battle. The tale is overall well-crafted and entertaining. The characters are both amusing and likable, as most of Koontz's characters are. However, the book is a little long for my taste, and Koontz spends too much time on the unusual young boy and the dog. I would have liked to probe the character of the detective a little more. But I highly recommend this book as an epic tale of life and a really good story.
Rating:
Summary: He's baaaack!
Review: I have been a long time fan of Dean Koontz, and have read just about all his books. Over the last couple of years, he seems to have lost the edge he had at the beginning, although his writing style has continued to improve. What I'm trying to say is that he had lost the ability to make me HANG ON to the book and be completely unable to put it down...until now. I couldn't wait to turn the page and see what happened next. It's been a long time since I felt that way about his work (sorry, Dean) but now I'm excited again, can't wait for the next one! I was somewhat surprised to learn that these bioethics jerks really exist. As someone who works in healthcare, I plan to learn more on how to shut the door in their collective faces.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic Quality
Review: This is the first book I've read by Dean Koontz, and it did exactly that - intrigued completely! At first, I was intrigued by the title and the professional reviews, and then I was equally and thoroughly intrigued by the story - from the moment I started reading. The prose has classic qualities, and the character studies are well-done and in depth. The many references alluding to other bodies of knowledge added to my enjoyment of the story and made me feel like an insider. Wry humor had me laughing in the midst of frightening situations, something many of us do to keep our sanity when things become too difficult to handle. Make no mistake, however, - the fear and horror of the situations were truly riveting. Koontz takes you into the minds of his characters so successfully, you feel their fears, hopes, and disappointments. In the case of the villian, you feel the "dirt" and evil on him and in him, and you shudder at the knowledge that not only does *he* think the way he does, but that there is a huge body of thinkers in the world at large that agree with him. Koontz is successful in his portrayal of the 9-year-old child-genius just by the reaction alone the character elicits from other reviewers. The child thinks academically as an adult, but feels the emotions and fears of a child. The scariest element of the story is how in her adult-mind, she truly understands what is happening, but that there is nothing her child-body can do about it. It is the ultimate horror, because just as other reviewers responded, almost no one believes her, since she is a child. What could be more horrific? The way Koontz weaves the individual characters and their stories into a cohesive unit is brilliant. I kept wondering how he was going to accomplish his goal, and I was not disappointed. I became totally involved with the characters and never guessed how the outcome of the story would be achieved, something I am able to do often with other books. "One Door Away From Heaven" is a page-turner,indeed!
Rating: 
Summary: I expected more
Review: To be honest, I was very dissappointed in "One door away from heaven". I had to force myself to continue reading it so that I could finish it. In the past, I have greatly enjoyed reading books by Mr. Koontz. However, this book was dry, slow, and held no suspense for the first 500 pages. I was hoping the that the last 100 pages would redeem the book, but sadly the last 100 were about at suspenseful as the first 500.
This book is about a little girl who's mothers a drug addict and a father who is a murderer. She befriends her temporary neighbors who fall in love with this innocent girls personality. When they believe that the girl is in trouble, one of the women follows the girl and her parents to where the girl believes her father will [end her life]. Mixed in is another story about a young boy who has his parents murdered and it running from the 'bad guys' who are out to catch him and [end his life].
The book goes back and forth between these two scenerios until they are brought together near the end of the book.
While I don't want to spoil the end of the book, I must say it was also dissappointing to me. The whole book just seems uncomfortable from the beginning to end. While Koontz fans will want to pick this book up, I think that someone new to Dean Koontz would be better off reading "By the light of the moon" or "Watchers".
Rating:
Summary: Aliens, Drugs, and Dogs
Review: This is another disappointing Koontz novel. He seems to have lost his edge. The strong intensity that marks my favorite books by him, such as Lightning and Dragon Tears, has vanished in his latest efforts. Sure it has its good moments, but unfortunately they are few and far between. I think Koontz's weak point as an author is characterization. When he focuses his efforts on plot development, he can spin an incredible yarn. But when he gets sidetracked by pointless character development.... yawn. I don't find the personalities of any of these characters particularly engaging. And as at least one other reviewer has mentioned, you feel like you're being force fed sometimes. Heaven forbid that we should draw our own conclusions on just how spectacular and "radiant" Leilani is. I found most of her clever banter to be rather annoying, and hardly suited for a believable nine year old character. And Mickey.... Koontz spends at least two hundred pages trying to develop her as a character. I found myself skimming over all the [material] about her inner conflict. There were exciting moments, those moments that are the reason we read Dean Koontz. But the big finale, the final showdown, left much to be desired. When you spend an entire novel building up a portrait of a villianous mastermind, you don't knock him down at the end in a single shot! (sorry for the plot spoiler there). And as much as I love dogs, I wasn't awed and moved by the spectacular out-of-this-world revelation at the end either. What is it with Koontz and dogs?
Rating:
Summary: Choose another Koontz door and you'll find better reading
Review: This another Koontz novel where separate stories link together at the end. A deformed little girl Leilani tells her neighbour's niece Micky about her stepfather's murderous spree and her belief that aliens will take her away before she turns 10. Meanwhile another young boy named Curtis with strange powers is travelling around the USA helping strangers while being chased by those who wish to murder him. The stepfather's adventure is also a separate story. His and the boy's are the most interesting of the book, you are tempted to skip the Leilani ones as they're pretty boring until the end. When the stepfather takes Leilani away Micky of course assumes she's about to be murdered and tracks them down. Of course the boy Curtis links in, in the final chapters as well. Not the best Koontz novel out there but the step father and his revulsion for the deformed including his step daughter is an interesting villain. Curtis' adventures are also somewhat interesting but this book could have been edited better with a lot of cropping of boring parts especially Leilani's chapters.
Rating: 
Summary: Shallow and Trite
Review: Dean Koontz's new novel One Door Away From heaven is one of his worst efforts to date. With shallow characters whose personalities are forced upon you, and four plots that don't intersect in the least until the end of the book, it's nearly impossible to fight your way to the end.
Firstly, the characters in the novel are very 2 dimensional. There is a crippled girl who doesn't let her disability hold her down, she's so strong and brave and smart and independent...*tear*! The problem is that Mr. Koontz doesn't allow the reader to come to this conclusion simply watching her actions, he shoves it down your throat by making every main character regard her as being so strong and independent and moving, even after they've known her for about five seconds. She's supposed to be 9 years old, yet she's rambles on like a 30 year old. Of course to compensate for this she's given an IQ of 180, which doesn't show in the least, except for the fact that she's able to blab on and on about a myriad of drugs and how she likes being called a mutant for a reason that is wholely incomprehensible, but is meant to soundd intelligent simply b/c it IS incomprehensible. And no 9 year old talks like this, I dont care how high their IQ is, and believe me this is something I understand personally.
The same problem shows with the main character, Michelina. Mr. Koontz drolls on and on, forcing us to see her in a very specific light, but not by taking the time to show her act in a manner in accordance with his description. Instead he says things like: "she had long resisted such explorations, perhaps out of fear she'd find a haunted house within herself, occupied by everything from mere ghosts to hobgoblins, with mosters of a singular nature crouched behind doors from the attic to the subcellar...." This continues for another page and a half! All this nonsense can be sumarised with something as simple as "she had long resisted self exploration for fear of what she might find within herself." Stupid analogies like this are littered throughout the book. Metaphors shouldn't be used so often that it's impossible to distinguish b/w them and the actual action. And every single one of them not only doesn't add to the description, it detracts from it.
At another point in the book, a snake lashes out at the crippled girl Leilani and she freaks out, not b/c she's afraid of the snake, in fact she knows it ins't venemous, but b/c it "struck at her face!" She's going nuts b/c her face is the only part of her that isn't crippled, she thinks it's all she has. Fine, that's acceptable. But then a page later he says "Pride had nothing to do with it either. Considering all her other problems, a pleasing face wasn't just about looking good; it was about SURVIVAL!" What kind of nonsense is that?! Survival?! Please! When you spend all night trying to kill something simply b/c it COULD have hampered your beautiful looks, then you aren't concerned with ANYTHING but pride. An dcan ANYONE explain how a beautiful face has ANYTHING to do with survival? Last I checked, people aren't murdered in the street simply b/c they aren't pleasing to the eye.
I can't even believe this is the same man who penned Fear Nothing. I am a huge fan of Dean Koontz, which is why this novel is such a let down. Don't waste your money, don't waste your time, don't bother at all.
Rating:
Summary: I thought it was his best yet
Review: While I am a great fan of Dean Koontz and have read every book of his, I don't like every book he's written...too much serial killing, too much gore, etc., but still, he's a superb writer. I read them anyway and they all hold my interest equally. One Door Away from Heaven is a bit different. I loved the alien story. I gave this a 4, because it was a little slow in the beginning, but about a third of the way through the book, the pace picked up. It was delightful to me, from the "runt"/underdog precocious little girl bitterly unhappy with her life but making the best of what she had, to the alcoholic ex-con attempting to find purpose in her life. Of course the plot seemed to be pretty predictable in that all characters would come together to fight the antagonist, but it did hold a few surprises for me. I'm a [fan] for happy endings and "save the world" stories, so to me it was a great fantasy. How much though, was this a fantasy? How accurate was he? Are you a believer of alien life on Earth? While our little alien emphasized that there was no promise that the "killer aliens" would not prevail in the end, it was uplifting to believe, if you will, that there is a kinder, gentler species with superhuman abilities who also believe in love, peace and a higher power throughout the universe. This story is not for everyone. :)
Rating:
Summary: Read another Koontz book!!!
Review: This book was really difficult to finish. All the action is compressed into the last 1/5 of the book. And so much information is given at the end that would have been so helpful in the beginning. You would almost have to read the book a second time to really appreciate some of the things that happen in the beginning. Also, having four separate stories that don't merge together until the final chapters was very disappointing. It was a really frustrating book to read and I wouldn't recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: It's A Bumpy Journey
Review: Dean Koontz has been on a roll for some time now. He went through a period when I was becoming increasingly restive with his novels, but with the last several that has changed. "False Memory", after having a slow beginning, took off and grabbed my attention to the end. "One Doorway Away from Heaven" took off fast and pulled me along from beginning to end. Koontz has become the master of incorporating Dickensian style into a thriller. In this book we have no less than three separate stories plus sub-stories that are eventually meshed into one. The story begins with Micky Bellsong, a woman who begins the story with no job, and very little past. We quickly meet Leilani Klonk, an extremely intelligent and very pretty nine and a half year old child with physical deformities. Leilani tells stories so outrageous that any adult would be unable to believe them. Just as quickly we are introduced to a private detective, and find that he has a mentally handicapped brother. The brother is not critical to the story, but is used with a couple of early incidents to enhance our understanding that the detective has a very well defined and strong morality. Next we meet a boy running from a murderer or murderers unknown. We know very little about the boy or why anyone would want to murder him, and how those persons are tracking him through deserts and mountains and a good portion of the west for a large portion of the book. Dean performs a literary trick used effectively by Tom Clancy in his books. Dean creates substantial activity around the boy to hold your interest while developing the characters of Leilani and Micky. The details that are revealed to the reader by Leilani as the book progresses contributes to a sense of unease that also feels urgent because of the often dramatic action scenes involving the boy, Curtis Hammond, that intersperse the chapters about Leilani and Micky and the detective. Ultimately all the stories are tied neatly together for a climax that should hold your attention, and a rather satisfying ending. A few small provisos: Bioethics is a central theme of this story, and Koontz makes it very clear that he is against bioethics, at least in its extreme form. Koontz is a dog lover, and if you do not like dogs, particularly golden retrievers, then you may as well not bother to read this story, because golden retrievers are instrumental to the story. Koontz gets to do this because he is the story teller, and he likes golden retrievers. There are a few small semi-implausibilities. Curtis is chased all over the west by assassins and the government, and then suddenly they stop chasing him. While the book provides logic for the lack of pursuit, Koontz could have handled the ending differently. True, the book would have been longer, but the pursuit stopped so suddenly that you feel like pursuit was swept under the rug. Koontz' characterizations of certain government individuals seems a bit off to me. In my state a low-level government official would love to go after a "famous" person if they thought they could; nothing like fame to make you a target. There are perhaps other places where Dean was a bit weak, but in general I'm pointing out minor lapses versus serious problems. If you live in a trailer park and you believe aliens may abduct you, or your wife, or sister, or whatever, or if you believe Elvis lives with aliens, then do not read this book because portions of the book heavily satirizes people who fall into these categories. Probably the part of the book that will upset the most people is the ending. I personally liked the ending up to a point, and then it got a bit cutesy. Did the cutesy portion make the book bad? No. However, the cutesy portion felt a bit juvenile and a bit out of place. I give the book four stars because I enjoyed it, and I always have soft touch for happy endings. Furthermore, I appreciated the science fiction influences. Some portions of the book perhaps could have been smoother, and certainly this book is not his best. Because of the provisos listed above, I would need to be careful recommending the book without knowing someone's personal tastes and beliefs. However, if you have an open mind, and you enjoy reading something different, you might give this one a read. Good luck!
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