Rating: 
Summary: Not his best, but I like his writing style...
Review: Also while on vacation, I started and finished The Taking by Dean Koontz. This is his latest supernatural thriller novel, and it's not bad. Not his best, but I still like his style. A couple wakes up in the middle of the night as a strange torrential downpour starts. It feels oppressive and doesn't stop. Even some of the wild animals in the woods around them (like wolves) start acting strangely and seek shelter in their house. News stories from around the world show that this is not a local occurrance, and pretty soon TV and radio stations starting going off the air, along with the power going out. They go into town to try and band together with others, but people are acting strangely. There are odd creatures that are starting to grow out of fungus that isn't natural to the area (or anyplace else), and these creatures seem bent on evil and killing. They can even animate dead bodies and communicate through them. Throughout all this strangeness and killing, the couple is safe, along with the dog that is helping them find children that have been abandoned. Although they don't know why, the creatures seem to be unable to harm the children or the people/creatures that are helping them. The story progresses through the buildup of the alien creatures and what will happen to earth when they are done. While this isn't probably his best work, I still like his style of writing. He paints vivid scenes with his words, and I enjoy building the story in my mind as he writes. The plot line seems to be a little short, with a lot of writing about not much action. If I didn't like the writing so much, I'd probably give it an average. But since I learn a lot about style every time I read a Koontz novel, I'll bump it up one star from there.
Rating:
Summary: The real "Left Behind" book
Review: As I read Left Behind and some of the books in that series that followed, I realized how badly the writing and their understanding of certain biblical principals is. Being an avid Koontz fan I was very happy to see him address similar subject matter with his brilliant writing style. His descriptions for despair and evil's hold on this world were only equaled by the elaborate façade of an alien invasion. It's a wonderful work of fiction, well written, and with a spiritual message of hope. Its always a pleasure to see these different directions that Koontz takes such as with Dark Rivers. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: A New Look at Alien Invastion
Review: First let me say that I am a big Dean Koontz fan, that being said, the begining pages of this novel were painful sentimental garbage. But once he gets to the actual story the overbearing describtions stop and I really enjoyed the book.
The centeral character is likeable with a good colorful past that haunts her throughout the book. And the apparent love for dogs that Koontz has shows up again as they play a major role in this book.
Much of this book reminded me of my favorite book of Koontz Phantoms in that fear of a small town being left to only a few.
This book like any good Koontz book is a good quick read to amuse yourself for awhile capturing your undivided attention.
Pick this up when you have an afternoon free.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing and Preachy
Review: I have never read a Koontz book before, and know very little about him other than his name. I picked up this book because it promised a spooky read. The opening was very good (though other reviewers have alleged that it is a "rip-off" of an SK novel - I've never read the novel in question, so I don't know). I settled in to be engrossed and entertained. HOWEVER, as I moved farther into the book, I began to realize that the plot was moving towards a preachy, insipid, eye-roll-inducing conclusion. Ugh! I will never pick up another Koontz book. What a waste of time. (PS I completely agree with the other reviewer that mentioned the deeply weird "global warming" rant that happens in the beginning of the book - that little scene serves as a warning for the Far Right nonsense still to come.)
Rating:
Summary: where did the old Dean Koontz go?
Review: I have read all of Koontz's books and I anxiously awaited this book and after reading it, I knew the wait wasn't worth it. I had just read Odd Thomas and so hoped this new book would be better. Alas it wasn't. Where of where did our Dean Koontz of Dark Rivers of the Heart and Watchers and Dragon Tears, etc.go? He would so carfully craft a story and draw you into it so deep that you couldn't wait to finish it but you didn't want it to end. This book was so formulaic that you really didn't have to finish it to know what was going to happen. In his early books, every word he typed seemed important to the story. In this book, you have page after page of almost nothing but adjectives. I want my old Koontz back. This book was not worth the read.
Rating: 
Summary: errr....
Review: I have read some Kootnz books and this one seems no different. "The Taking" is bland and will not stick out in my memory of books to remember.
My beef on Kootnz himself is that is one, WAY TOO obsessed with dogs. Does he own like 20 or something and each has to be the star in his book? In all his books he has the dogs be some kind of special, powerful, force of good. Not that that's not true :) but it can be really annoying.
The other thing that is a repetive theme is his obsession with horrible pasts. If you have read "One door away from heaven", your know what I mean.
I did give it 2 stars because there were times that I was kinda scared. However, the plot lacked any real creativness and it was too short for the problems that it presented. Also the ending was really dumb. The "aliens" just magically disapear because Molly stood them up. Who let him publish this? Don't waste your time on this book, but if you must reading it an audiobook would probably be more interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Can this honestly be the same Dean Koontz?
Review: I just finished The Taking. What a waste. I mourn not the money spent on this book, but the time expended in wallowing through it. I honestly though Intensity was one of the scariest books I ever read. Excellent. This however, almost appears to have been written by some other, lame writer, under his name. Aside from characters who were so unappealing that I honestly hoped they'd all be done away with, the monsters here were silly beyond words. And I was floored by how many needlessly large words were used that only a few linguists would even begin to understand. This actually appeared to me to be a novice writer (not someone so acclaimed) who was trying to show off their vocabulary. In short, I thought this book stunk, and don't waste your time or money on it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not your average alien book...finally!
Review: I just got done reading this book, then came online to check out what everyone else thought about it and wow, I can't believe how many people disliked this book! I, on the other hand, loved it. In fact, I couldn't put it down. It took me merely two days to read the book and I'm a slow reader.
I have to admit, the first couple of chapters worried me. Koontz's words were too syrupy...too many metaphors and descriptions, almost turned me off but I kept on going because I believed that his wording would calm down a bit and it did.
I really enjoyed this book because his twist on an alien abduction was quite refreshing and the end didn't disappoint me at all, which I read here that it did for many people. Actually, half way through the book I was excepting it to turn out sort of the way it did. It's not your "normal" alien ending, which is a huge relief. Koontz has an amazing imagination. And the fact that he kept on quoting T.S. Eliot was a nice touch as well.
This book is defiantly not his worst, by far. It's a very good read!
Rating:
Summary: Scarey but deeply flawed as well
Review: I struggled for a long time over what rating to give this book but finally decided on a 4 because it was the first book to give me nightmares in a long time. The beginning is great - truly disturbing especially the clocks and the freaky mirrors - the end is great (though not a great surprise to anyone who bothered to find the biblical quotation quoted by Neil's brother) the middle sags a bit.
Probably the worst things are the all-knowing 'divine dogs' - I seriously felt like putting the book down when they turned up - but it could have been worse - at least none of them can talk! Molly and Neil are also the stereotypical Koontz couple - so saintly I expected them to be caught up to heaven at any moment. They don't feel real to me either just like puppets for the author to express his own prejudices. He uses weak devices to carry the plot along - Molly just 'has a feeling' that a whole family who live near them (containing two kids and a dog!) are all dead - later on she plunges into the most unlikely places to rescue kids whose existence she can only speculate about. The whole thing 'dogs as divine guides' is an especially lazy device and kills suspense - how likely is it that these bands of saintly dogs/saintly children and saintly hero/heroine will be harmed in any way?
I also found it puzzling that NO-ONE put a religious 'last times' interpretation on the events - even Neil who is an ex-priest? Why don't they look up the biblical quotation mentioned by Paul? I kind of felt the whole alien invasion theory was forced on us like a card, so Dean can make this astounding revelation in the last chapter.
Still for all that the book is readable enough and in a strange way Dean's lurid prose works well with the subject matter. However time and time what started out as beautiful poetical prose goes way way over the top and I found myself skipping forward to where the action starts again. We are told that Molly - who is a writer - savagely edits her own work - what a pity in this case that she didn't write the book. Dean still has a lot of talent he just needs to be a bit less self-indulgent and excise some of his favourite whimsy about self-aware dogs and personal prejudices about modern life... Books should be fun for the reader not the writer - after all we're the ones who pay hard cash for them!
Rating:
Summary: Worth Trudging Through
Review: I was originally disappointed when I started reading "The Taking." The sentences are verbose and nebulous. If it weren't for the author, whose books I've enjoyed so much over the years, I never would have finished it. I'm glad I did.
By the time I reached the end of the book, I found his writing style had changed from metaphoric to literal, corresponding to the revelations made to the characters. I was pleasantly surprised as I found an interesting purpose in the vagueness of the beginning of the book, and also the not so subtle hints dropped in the story, i.e., the dog named "Virgil", ala Dante's Inferno, which also happens to be a German "Shepherd"; and the rain, pestilence, and evil.
This book is more than just a good story. It's a fresh, enjoyable experience in reading.
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