Dark Rivers of the Heart

Rating:
Summary: riveting
Review: Koontz is a master at the hero and villain conflict "chessboard." In this work the "hitech" investigative resources utilized by both protagonist and antagonist lend an added dimension to the suspense. Only Koontz's superior abilities enable fulfillment of the readers anticipated EXPLOSION when the inevitable moment arrives.

Rating:
Summary: I highly recommend this book!
Review: One note of caution, though - This book is definitely NOT for the paranoid! Koontz has me looking over my shoulder now! ;-) I could barely put this book down. Koontz' style makes you feel as though you are right there with his characters. I also appreciated that he did not take the easy way out and cleanly wrap up every loose end - life doesn't work that way and neither does this book. I could never guess where the story was going - it was full of surprises. I'm hoping for a sequel so that we get to spend more time with Grant and his colleagues in their fascinating world.

Rating:
Summary: KOONTZ' BEST TO DATE!
Review: Dean Koontz is an excellent writer, and he proves it in Dark Rivers of the Heart. This is about a solitary man by the name of Spencer Grant who is attracted to a beautiful waitress. He decides to pay her a housecall, and realizes he has made a deadly mistake. The moment Spencer shows up at her house, he is thrown into a government conspiracy with only one way out: fleeing. At the other end of the chase is a cold-hearted and sadistic government operative named Roy Miro, who will stop at nothing to retrieve and eliminate the two fugitives. The race is on, and anything can happen

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, and realistic, mixed with "real life" intrigue.
Review: I have been a big fan of Dean Koontz for many years. You can never pick his best, but this ranks right up there on the top of my list. Just as you think you have it figured out everything changes. There is not a single "dead space" in this book as the tension mounts

Rating:
Summary: RECLUSIVE HERO LOOKS FOR LOVE--FINDS KILLER BUREAUCRATS
Review: Spencer Grant, a man concerned only with his privacy and his dog, becomes obsessed with a friendly waitress. Grant is drawn out of seclusion, into the shadow world of a renegade government agency more sinister and lethal than Stephen King's "Shop." Koontz' timely portrayal of bureaucratic surveillance and terror resonates well with the deepening American fear that the real enemy lurks within the gates.

Rating:
Summary: Koontz's best yet, new style is great, couldn't put it down!
Review: His new style of writing is fantastic! He creates such suspense and mystery without the horror, one wonders why he stuck with horror for so long. He has really come into his own with this book

Rating:
Summary: Great Suspenseful Story- Too Long
Review: Dark Rivers of the Heart was a great story, very suspenseful. However, as much as I love Koontz, this story was way too long!

In this book you've got two lonely people who find each other, and find out they have similar pasts, each running away from something. They get tangled up in a mess and are now running for their lives against a master force out to destroy them. It's spooky, the characters are likeable, there's many great passages that provoke thought, you'll find yourself biting your nails until the end.

My main complaint about this book is that the story is nearly 600 pages and I feel Koontz could have summed it up in 350-400. The adventure is exciting, but at times it just drags out and you're ready for the end. Anyway, I still enjoyed the story & found it to be in line with a lot of Koontz's older works. Great book!

Rating:
Summary: Departure for Koontz (sort of)...
Review: Koontz starts out pretty good in Dark Rivers Of The Heart, spinning the tale of a man with a childhood secret who, with the help of his trusty dog (of course) and computer hacker girlfriend must return to his birthplace and solve the mystery of his missing memories.

Even better, Koontz weaves in a refreshing political slant that sees our heroes running from a mysterious government agency with incredible powers. This is the first Koontz book that I've read in recent memory that is not based in the supernatural world at all, although there is still much that is far-fetched. I even enjoyed the lengthy and pointed jabs against big government, although they aren't hidden too well and don't mean much to character development.

The big downside in this novel is the dreary pace that it takes. It is a shame that a Koontz novel that strays so far from his usual patterns has to be so mired in description and endless "chase" scenes. Suspenseful scenes don't stay that way after dozens of pages have gone by without action.

As we follow our hero's quest to find the woman of his dreams and clear up his childhood regressions, Koontz lets the story get dragged down again and again with idealistic chatter and meaningless explanation. Even interesting turns in the plot involving government satellites and space lasers can't stay that way for long when the main character stays unconscious for a huge chunk of the middle of the book.

Koontz has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, and I can put up with the latest retread of his handful of plotlines. What I can't put up with is a novel this long in which so little happens. Start with another of the author's novels, end with this one.

Rating:
Summary: terrible
Review: first problem: im a computer guy, and he has it all wrong. why, oh why, dont writers consult computer people and ask, "Am I saying this right?"

second problem: the dialogue sucks. hard. tell me, when was the last time you heard a furious lawyer, upon finding out about a framed family member, yell out, "Those..Those morons! Those geeks!" uhh, yeah..

or how about when the lead finally means the girl? they one-line it, back & forth, for pages and pages. oh, so witty they are, that pair. uh huh. thats how strangers interact.

and the villian. boy, he's sadistic, and *crazy*.. why, he's a certified Bad Guy(tm)! so chilling. not. just laughable. all these tired, shallow characters.

sigh. i could go on. i bought it overseas and was forced to read it. i even came up with a pretty good essay on how it sucked, but.. why bother.

my first and last koonz novel.

Rating:
Summary: That Roy Miro is a riot, he's hilarious, a laugh a minute
Review: The best part about this book is the looney goverment agent Roy Miro, who kills out of "compassion" which in reality is pity. Koontz really gives Roy a personality, and you can't help but laugh at him, and his zaniness, I mean come on, he kills someone because they are too good for this world, then he turns around and kills someone else to chop off thier hand and "collect" it. Then the affiar with eve, that is hilarious, because Roy doesn't believe is bodily fluid exchanges, so he won't even kiss her! Then our hero Spencer Grant and his dog/sidecick Rocky are patheticly sad creatures, who just want to do the right thing and be happy. This book is a compelling read, for it shows the secret goverment for what it is, greedy, dishonest and sneaky.