Watchers

Rating:
Summary: What a weird book
Review: I barely know how to describe this novel. It contains a Scrabble playing dog, an infanticidal psychopath, and even a deadly mutant baboon. The book changes repeatedly from cute and playful to violent and gruesome, and at one point there's even a graphic sex scene straight out of a cheesy romance novel.

Unfortunately all of these quirky elements are held together by Koontz's flat, styleless tone. Although many of the characters are borderline crazy and a few completely insane, they are all utterly predictable. After the first few chapters, it is very apparent what the obligatory climactic showdown must be, and the novel plods steadily towards it.

If this book had an interesting style or a decent theme to tie everything together, it would have been a great book. Instead it's just your standard thriller with some of the weirdest random elements you will ever come across.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST I've Read!!!!!!
Review: When one of my co-workers suggested this book to me, I was intrigued with the concept and went out and bought it. A few weeks passed before I actually picked it up and read it....and once it was in my hands, I couldn't put it down!!!!!

The two main human characters are endearing and you cheer from them from the get-go....the two non-human characters are nothing but sheer genius!!!!!! This book made me laugh, cry, and kept on the edge of my seat so much I practically fell on the floor.

This is truly the BEST book I think I've ever read....as Dean Koontz himself puts it....other books I have written are as good, but nothing has been better than Watchers!!!!

Rating:
Summary: This book is terrible!
Review:
I read another Amazon review of this book that made some good points. The reviewer gave Watchers two stars and said it was Koontz's best. He has a point there. Koontz is a very frustrating writer because you can see he has all the tools to be a great novelist (at least in supermarket fiction), but all of his books are mediocre and unsatisfying. A two-star review may very well be Koontz's best, but I disagree that Watchers is it.

This is an awful book. It starts out great, with the one guy feeling lost in life, whereupon he comes across a super-intelligent dog, with the hint of a monster coming after them. Then there's the woman who has to deal with a stalker. But things fall into place so easily and quickly after that: Travis and the dog save Nora from the stalker without breaking a sweat, then Travis and Nora fall in love and get married, all without a hitch... The dog Einstein is written in such a corny way that only winsome housewife readers (sorry!) could see it as cute and endearing.

But the monster is still out there! If you've ever read a Dean Koontz book before, or one by any other bad supermarket fiction author, you'll probably guess that everything comes out in a happy ending. All of Koontz's books are basically the same. I thought I was reading Soul Survivor at times, because the formula is identical: characters overcome suffering, discover something that could bring new insight for the human race, have to survive a deadly menace, have the happy ending and predictable positive character development, and of course the good guys all live and the bad guys get it...

This book became so predictable, so corny, so formulaic that I started to get that feeling that often comes when one ODs on pulp fiction: I started wanting the monster and the cool killer to waste all the good guys, including the genius dog, and then go to Vegas and celebrate. End of story.

Someone needs to tell Koontz that he can't write dialogue, his "humor" is not funny, there is NO SUSPENSE WHEN WE KNOW HOW IT WILL END, and that all of his books are the same thing, over and over again. I was astonished to read the author's afterword in this book, when he brags about how he's always writing radically different works every time, whereas other writers just put out the same thing in order to get sales. I almost choked on my Diet Coke when I read that. This is a man who has no self-awareness. I'm one of those readers who will finish a book I start, no matter how bad it is--and I've finished some bad, bad books in my life--but honestly, I couldn't finish this one. After 365 pages I said, "That's it." Back to the library with you.

I couldn't finish this book, so how do I know that the good guys live, the bad guys die, and all is well and beautiful in the end? I can say it with authority because this is Dean Koontz. Only if you've never read a paperback thriller in your life can you possibly be surprised. The characters in this book sucked, I wanted them to die, I wanted the bad dialogue to die as well, and I wanted the cops to die in their dumb sub-plot, and I wanted the dog Einstein to die--and I love dogs.

And I want Koontz to write something different for once, and actually use the tools and potential he has. No sunny ending, no black and white simplicity, and no generic title that sounds like all of his other books.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: Im a teenage girl, and I've read this book more than once. I think that this book is amazing and the journey that Dean Koontz takes you through in the plot is so sudden and you never really expect it. I liked the way he would switch back and fourth between the two sub plots, and how in the end it all came together perfectly. Im a sucker for puppies, so this book made my day.

Rating:
Summary: One of Koontz's finest
Review: Those reviewers that have characterized this as one of Koontz's finest works are absolutely right. Those reviewers who have characterized this effort as mediocre (or worse) are equally correct: with very few exceptions (this is NOT one of them), "mediocre" is the highest praise reasonably afforded to the body of Koontz's work.

I bought a copy of Watchers in 1988 or '89. The teaser on the cover was one word: "spine-tingling." Or is that two words? Regardless, the story evinced nary a tingle. We've got a super-smart dog, and a super-smart animal of no particular biological classification, and an emotionally hermetic, lone-wolf hero, and a fragile heroine in need of rescuing, and some FBI agents, and a serial killer. If the condensed version just offered sounds a little jumbled, trust me, the full version is no better. The plot manages not to be confusing only because it's so simplistic and silly.

Really, this is more of a "boy and his dog" story (a la Where the Red Fern Grows); note the number of reviewers who enjoyed the bonding between protagonists (and who doesn't love the image of a Golden Retriever wearing a Santa hat at Christmas?). I guess somewhere along the line, someone realized that this didn't really fall into the horror category; maybe they were afraid it would be placed in the "Pets" section at the bookstore. So Mr. Koontz had to come up with some monsters in a hurry. Okay, how about a super-smart monster to go with your super-smart dog? Not enough? How about a psychopath? Why is he in the story? Who cares? How about some morally ambiguous government agents--everybody's scared of the government, right?

Still not enough? Did I mention the film version stars Corey Haim? He's dreamy! Or at least my big sister said he was. In 1987.

Koontz has a formula, and it obviously works. Read two or three of his books, however, and you start to forget which characters belong in which story, and which plot devices lead to which "spine tingling conclusion." Rule of thumb: a book is rarely "good" if you can't recall the title after reading it. People tend to characterize Koontz's works as "the one about the aliens," or "the one about the crazy guy who killed all those people." The only problem: that's pretty much all of his books!

Notable exception: read "Phantoms." Reading that one, I felt my spine tingle a little.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read!
Review: I happened to come across Watchers when it was mentioned in an issue of DogFancy. It seemed interesting enough, so I bought it. I never realized that it would be this good! I'm only 17, but I've read plenty of books, and by far Watchers is one of the best. The story got me hooked right from the beginning. The suspense in this novel is amazing. I was at the edge of my seat throughout the whole thing. Koontz does an excellent job making each character unique and I've become so attached to the main characters. I definitely recommend Watchers to anyone who loves a good book. Whenever I finish a chapter, I can't put the book down and end up staying up as late as I can reading it. The action, romance, mystery, and suspense is enough to give this book 10 stars, though I can only give it a 5.

Rating:
Summary: Briillllliannnnttttttttt
Review: Watchers is the first book of Dean Koontz that i have read, and it has put a want for more of his work in me. The story is about two science projects, planned to be used as government defences, that escape from their lab.
Travis Cornell runs into the first of the two, a golden retriever with extraordinary intelligence. He keeps the dog, and soon finds out jsut how smar he is, and eventually finds a way of communicating with it.
The other is a beast! it was mixed with several animals, but i wont go further into detail because Koonts seemed to have tried to let our imaginations run away with us as to what the thing looks like in detail, then reveals it at the end.
Then theres the reclusive, beautiful woman who has been sheltered by her not too mentally stable aunt since she was a child, literally looking out on the world with fear. She meets Travis and the dog, who saves her from being raped by a man who was trying to take advantage of her ignorance. She grows to have a relationship with Travis and the dog.
Then theres the assassin. A man who kills both for immense pleasure, and for money. But mostly because he thinks he absorbs the life energy of every person he kills, thus thinks that once he hits the limit he'll be immortal. You can make your own mind up on him, ithink he's a plain wacko!
Then, last but not least, theres the cops. One about the project of the two animals, the other has suspicions. the one who knows has to try and find them both before it becomes public.
Truly a masterpiece of great proportions. The characters are all uniquely different, equally interesting, but by far the dog is my favourite. I gaurantee you you'll fall in love with it yourslef, and wish something like that would happen for real. Who knows, it might have already, as the book shows just how ignorant the world can be, and how blinding the government can be.
And, before i forget, apart from all the character dilemas, and heartfelt suspense, there is unforgetable horror. The book will have you turning on lights befreo you get into bed, looking behind when your walking down your hall or up your stairs and will have you leaping at your own shadow!
Okay, i've talked too mcuh, so just go out and buy it, sit down and take a deep breath, coz this is not a book you'll forget and one you'll most definitely read again and again....


Rating:
Summary: A Great Book.Quite Possibly One of the Best Books I've Read
Review: I've read only one Dean Koontz book before reading this and that book was "False Memory" which was fast and entertaining.
That was one of the best books of that year.But then a friend of mine kept telling me to read "Watchers" but told me very little about the synopsis.I finally picked up a copy and it sat on my shelf for about 6 months before I finally picked it up.
I was on page 100 by the time I put the book down that night.It was engrossing.The story is about 30-something Travis Cornell who has lost any meaning he had in his life after the death of his wife Paula.While hunting in the woods he meets a beautiful golden retriever.The dog seems to be warning him about something in the woods.Travis takes the dog home and after learning about the dogs astonishing intelligence names the dog Einstein. Meanwhile a young shut in named Nora Devon is being harassed by sexual predator.At first Nora seems to be merely a subplot but eventually turns into a extremely large part in the story.Einstein not only brightens up these peoples lives but actually brightens your life. You like the characters in the story.You feel their pain, you feel their sadness.Koontz writes the characters very well.A.

Rating:
Summary: One Of The All-Time Greatest
Review: An unbelievably good book that delivers all one could ask for and more from a horror novel, a suspense thriller, a romance, a tragedy, an inspirational drama, or a current-events-relevent 'cautionary' tale a la "Frankenstein" or "Jurassic Park". "Watchers" is the story of two humans,Travis and Nora, who start the novel in states of metaphorical isolation from the world, and two other sentient beings, a genius-IQ'd golden retriever named Einstein and a 'brand-new-under-the-sun' creature totally outside of nature, The Outsider. Travis and Nora, brought together by circumstance and Einstein, are instantly likeable and empathizable as is par for the course for many Koontz protagonists, the kind of people one might willingly trade a few blood relatives in to have in the family; Einstein is entertaining and fascinating and endearing, still the lovable, playful dog despite an intelligence on par with his namesake Albert; and The Outsider is terrifying and probably the most tragic nemesis in horror literature. A host of supporting characters, good, evil, and somewhere in the middle, fit into the story perfectly, and the author creates a highly detailed feeling of 'being there' with clear but concise descriptions of everything relevant, from architecture to the weather to the meal of the day without ever once becoming obtrusive. Impacts on almost every level a novel can hit, one of the greatest stories ever told.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: It is truly amazing that so many people buy so many books from such a talentless, hack of an author. "The Watchers" started off (for about the first 90 or so pages) as an interesting enough story about a lab that makes a cloned dog and its mutant evil twin. Then Mr. Koontz bores us with a man/dog bonding story for nearly the whole rest of the book. In the end the mutant evil twin dog shows up and is dispensed with in about the last 20 pages. Needless to say I felt that I had been ripped off for Dean building up to such an anti-climatic ending. I've read that Mr. Koontz says that this is his favorite book of all those that he has written. Maybe he knows the exciting parts of this lacklustre, limp story and simply forgot to put them in the book. And as always, Dean Koontz's characters are so dull and underdeveloped that I can NEVER remember their names or anything that was distinct from the characters in the last Dean Konntz book.

For a much better horror writer please read a H. P. Lovecraft or Stephen King book. They know how to deliver a horror story that does not leave one wondering "what did I miss?".