Rating: Summary: We need more Tick-Tocks in this world. Review: I enjoyed this book, and the characters. The time stopping,
hell raising Golams were especially bad, good dog, good dog!! This story is like but not like a fine wine, Red like but not like a robe might be.
Rating: Summary: Dragon Tears makes you grip your steering wheel! Review: "Ticktock. Ticktock. You'll be dead by dawn."
Want to make a long commute, easy? Listen to a riveting
book like Dean Koontz' _Dragon Tears_. My work commute is two and a half hours round trip. I like to make this lengthy
ride easier by listening to a good book. I can't read anything that I need to move slowly through, reflecting on passages - quick, action-packed stories are the best recipe. Detective Harry Lions and his police partner Connie Gulliver
fight the battle against evil, supernatural powers, and keep
the reader (or in this case, the listener) gripping the car
steering wheel. Especially innovative is the 'pause in time.' It is like being in a nightmare that you can't wake
up from. The only negative on this suspenseful thriller is the ending. Koontz takes the reader through minuscule details for almost every confrontation but the final one. In contrast, it is a quick, almost abrupt resolution. Even with this shortcoming, there are plenty of scenes to keep the reader entertained for 13 hours of drive time.
Rating: Summary: Dean Koontz--Dragon Tears (1993) Review: On the precipice of being a fine horror novel, Dean Koontz's "Dragon Tears" attempts to convey a very admirable message-that dire events or situations that may occur throughout life are only as horrible as they are perceived by those who they occur to-but falls flat on its face because of an outrageously dubious plotline. Similar to his last couple previous works such as "Hideaway", this work attempts to use an inhuman, prophet-like murderer from the Dark Side to torment the protagonists.Police detectives Harry Lyon and Connie Gulliver are partners but could not be more different-Harry is consumed with order and balance, from his perfectly crafted color-coordinated closet to a strict daily routine that involves voluntary tedious paper work, while Connie embraces chaos, using it to fuel her aggressive craving to stop evil and make the world a better place. A Tuesday afternoon seems harmless enough, but Harry and Connie are summoned to stop a raging killer in a restaurant, leaving Harry to eventually shoot the perpetrator numerous times with his gun. Harry's day only gets worse from there, as a huge, disgusting street vagrant foretells him that he is going to die by sunrise and that all the people and things he cherishes are in danger as well. As dawn ticks closer and closer, Harry and Connie must comprehend all of these bizarre convictions before it is too late. What they discover is than a callous force believed to possess the strength of a god is out to make severe changes to the current world, one change being the exodus of the two detectives. "Dragon Tears" brings in too many extraneous and fairly inconsequential characters into the narrative, especially the repeatedly used canine personification that is speckled throughout. Koontz has a large heart for man's best friend, but "Dragon Tears" does not benefit from the half-witted dog psych-analysis, causing the piece to seem campy and less resolute. Koontz perhaps created this yarn to promote how increasingly petrifying the world is becoming and how two completely different cops revolve around this premise (which is a commendable idea), but he could have created a much more believable, plausible tale to get the point across. Some may truly enjoy this supernatural thriller, while many others may conclude "Dragon Tears" a disappointment.
Rating: Summary: Koontz Formula...Engaging First Half Review: Harry and Connie are L.A. homicide detective's ala the "Odd Couple." Harry is obsessively neat, and Connie is a messy dirty Harry type. Both characters are tracking a serial killer who brutalizes women. Harry's life takes an unexpected turn, when he encounter a strange hobo who tells him "Tick Tock You'll Be Dead By Dawn," thus begins a 12 hour Odyssey wherein Harry, Connie, and a rag-tag group of homeless pit their wits against a psychic serial-killer with a God-Complex. Okay, I liked the first HALF of Dragon Tears. But after that it devolved into sheer Koontz formula. For readers of Koontz, there really are no surprises in this novel. He uses the same formula in numerous other books. Lessee: There is a best friend who is a Hispanic cop. A Saintly single mom character. Quotations from the 'book of Counted Sorrow,' a sentient dog, ranting about the apocalypse, mistrust of the psychiatric profession, and a serial killer who collects body parts... *Yawn.* How many Koontz books have elements similar to this? The disappointing thing was I actually enjoyed the first HALF of the book. I liked the characters of Connie and Harry, but the second half contained way too much deus ex machina to be believed. And whatever happened to the first case Harry and Connie were working on? This subplot was dropped entirely. Disappointing. This was average Koontz. It might entertain readers who haven't read his backlist and for whom many plot elements are new...But for Koontz fans it contains no surprises...
Rating: Summary: Dragon Tears makes you grip your steering wheel! Review: "Ticktock. Ticktock. You'll be dead by dawn."Want to make a long commute, easy? Listen to a rivetingbook like Dean Koontz' _Dragon Tears_. My work commute is two and a half hours round trip. I like to make this lengthy ride easier by listening to a good book. I can't read anything that I need to move slowly through, reflecting on passages - quick, action-packed stories are the best recipe. Detective Harry Lions and his police partner Connie Gulliver fight the battle against evil, supernatural powers, and keep the reader (or in this case, the listener) gripping the car steering wheel. Especially innovative is the 'pause in time.' It is like being in a nightmare that you can't wake up from. The only negative on this suspenseful thriller is the ending. Koontz takes the reader through minuscule details for almost every confrontation but the final one. In contrast, it is a quick, almost abrupt resolution. Even with this shortcoming, there are plenty of scenes to keep the reader entertained for 13 hours of drive time.
Rating: Summary: Good up to the end Review: I enjoyed 99% of this book. It was fast paced and the characters were well developed. The ending however was pretty bad. I don't want to spoil it but the book was so fast paced and full of action then he just stopped. It almost seemed incomplete.
Rating: Summary: Nice bad guy conecept Review: Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others
STORY: Two Southern California police detectives track down a demonic serial killer with paranormal abilities
MY FEEDBACK:
CONTENT ¡V More profanity than most of his books contain. Demonic scenes try to portray true Evil and may be more graphic than some might want to read. Jay O. Sanders is very good reading the audiobook version. All characters (even Woofer, a dog who plays an important role) are fully voiced
CHARACTERS ¡V Protagonists are the grey type of characters that leave you liking them but also not liking them at the same time. Some of the ¡§minor¡¨ protagonists are much more likeable as we feel for their helpless plight. Bad guy is evil and it makes sense why he does the things he does. I really liked the bad guy concept, sort of a melding of genres (can¡¦t say too much more without giving it away). But there were some scenes with the bad guy that I didn¡¦t feel was showing me anything new so why have the extra pages?!
SETTING ¡V Southern California, where else would Koontz place one of his novels. ƒº Setting works as usual
PLOT ¡V I felt the beginning dragged. I kept asking myself, where is this headed and why is the author taking the scenic route vs. the direct route? After about the first 35% the story took off for me and I really enjoyed it.
OVERALL ¡V Well done, I enjoyed it and wouldn¡¦t mind listening to the audio book again in about a year.
Rating: Summary: Would be good is it was a first draft Review: My review of this book will be mixed. I really wanted to give it 2.5 stars because I am divided on this 50/50. I thought it had great potential, and if it were presented as a first draft I would give it 5 stars as a starting draft. First of all, if you are going to start the beginnings of a love interest, then you should finish it. He started to show the main character's feelings for this girl-cop, and then it was dropped - not good to do. The characters, all of them, were never really fully developed so the book appears flat and pulpy, like a cheap novel with cheap writing. The main character was only about 6% developed, and his sidekick was about 8% developed. And what happened to the story about the sidekick's niece? It was like sub-plots were started, then dropped. The antagonist wasn't fully developed either. If anything, I think this book should have been longer to give more development to the characters, or at least cut out all the static description and use the space for character development. And that's another thing - a good writer doesn't statically describe things (allot of that in this novel). However, it was an interesting idea, which is why I did like it as little or as much as I did and it had great potential. I just think he should have taken more time re-writing it. Still, it did hold my interest, even though I couldn't fully enjoy the story because of the flat characters. The ending was pretty bad for an ending. Again, more time should have been spent on the ending. It looked like he just wanted to get it over with, which really robs the reader of any kind of satisfying resolution or climax. But I would still recommend this book because of the interesting plot idea.
Rating: Summary: Very good and exciting; TYPICAL KOONTZ Review: This book was great. It wasn't one of his very best, but it was right up there with the very good ones! It has the supernatural touch, lots of suspense, very well done characters, one of his typical whack-o crazy guys, and the dog! Dean's imagination is working overtime in this one, which makes for his best books! As with most of his books, if you tell much that happens it takes away the fun for the reader. So I won't give you a synopsis. But it is DEFINITELY worth the read!!! (This one is not in the class with Lightning or Strangers, but is in the next notch just below!)
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