Rating: 
Summary: Definitely started off great
Review: Joe Carpenter has never recovered from the grief after a plane crash killed his wife and kids. He meets a woman who claims to have survived the catastrophe, but their weren't any survivors. When she disappears, Joe tries to track her down and verify the things she said. This is another Koontz book with a shadowy conspiracy and government secrets, and it has one of the best openings of any books I read in 1997, when it was published. The book gets lots along the way a little, but it comes back together near the end. Four stars out of five.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not that good.
Review: I thought this book got off to a great start - I was hooked, and interested to know what happened to cause the death of Joe's family.
When Joe discovered new evidence from the airline crash that killed his wife and daughters, the book rolled right along. That was until I found out the true cause of the plane crash, along with the identity of the mysterious 'sole survivor'.
The ending was very disappointing and not at all believable - with vague, new Age mystical mumbo-jumbo. If the ending had been more credible, this could have been a really good book - but it seemed that this time Koontz was afraid of meeting his deadline and the ending was abruptly cut off.
That said, this book is still fairly entertaining - just prepare for a somewhat unfinished rushed ending.
Rating:
Summary: not one of his best
Review: I have a hard time with Dean Koontz novels, I either love them or hate them. This is the first one I have read that was neither great nor terrible. A man is mourning his wife and two daughters who were aboard Flight 353 when it came plummeting out of the sky, crashing into the earth leaving only trace remains to be identified and buried by family members. Joe feels as though his life is no longer worth living and is basically just existing, hoping death will take him soon, when he stumbles onto the news that there is a sole survivor of that crash, and the crash may not have been an accident. Joe comes face to face with Rose, the only survivor, and the story she has to tell about some mysterious experiments she was involved in, send his head reeling. Soon after meeting Rose, and while trying desperately to get to the bottom of it all, people around Joe, other family members of dead passengers aboard the same flight, start dying, commiting suicide actually, all around him. What does all this mean? Is Rose really a victim, or a monster? Well, jump into this book and find out. The story was a little lame, but I'm not sorry I took the time to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Eh nothing great
Review: I just finished reading Sole Survivor. The first 3/4's of the book was great. But when the plot unfolded I was majorely disapointed and wish I hadnt wasted my time reading it. I thought it was going to unfold into something better. But I guess if your into robots then you wont think this is that bad. Thats all I can say. I recommend definately getting this from the library then the books store just in case you had the same reaction I did.
Rating: 
Summary: One of Koontz's best
Review: An improbable but well-written novel by Dean Koontz borrows heavily from the Hindu philosophy of eternal soul to give a bizarre end to what starts as an investigative mystery. Koontz displays all his good traits as a writer, but this is not one of his better accomplishments. Recommended reading on a flight though.
Rating:
Summary: WOW !! - One of Koontz's best
Review: The story focuses on a man named Joe Carpenter who lost his wife and two daughters in a plane crash. A year after the crash, Joe has quit his job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Post, and done nothing with his life except sit around and mourn the loss of his family. One day Joe pays a visit to the graves of his wife and daughters only to discover a strange women taking pictures of their graves. When Joe apporaches her, the woman claims to be the sole survivor of the crash that killed Joe's family. Before, Joe can find out who she is or what is going on, he is forced to flee the scene when mysterious men begin shooting at the woman, who also manages to get away. Joe becomes convinced that the crash that killed his family was anything but ordinary, and sets out to discover who the woman is, and how she could have survived. Unfortunately, things only get worse for Joe when he begins to realize that he has stumbled into a conspiracy regarding the crash, and that the people involved are willing to kill to keep their secrets safe.I have been a fan of Dean Koontz's work for many years now. While I usually enjoy most of his books, there are some that are better than others. Sole Survivor was a book that I always put off reading, because it has always received mixed reviews. I finally decided to put my doubts aside and read the book. After I finished with Sole Survivor, I wanted to start over and immediately read the book again, because I did not want it to end. This may be one of the best books Koontz has ever written. Koontz manages to get you hooked into the story right away, because he does a great job at establishing the hero of the story Joe Carpenter and what he is going through. Then when you throw a woman who survived a crash that supposedly left no survivors into the mix, the story only gets better. But what really makes the story exciting and hard to put down, is the fact that Joe soon discovers that the plane crash was no accident, and that there is a conspiracy surrounding it. Joe is forced to fight for his life and put his reporter skills to the test to find out what is going on. The best thing about Sole Survivor is that Koontz manages to combine elements of a conspiracy story to add paranoia, and elements of a chase novel that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall, this has to be one of Koontz's best books. Sole Survivor showcases Koontz's character development at its best and an exciting and suspenseful story that makes the book impossible to put down once you have started. I think that this book would even be enjoyable for those who do not like to read. From beginning to end, it almost feels like you are watching a movie play out. Hopefully a movie of Sole Survivor will be made one day, because this is the perfect type of story to be brought to the big screen.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Read but Nothing Deep
Review: SOLE SURVIVOR by Dean Koontz (or Dean R. Koontz if you are a traditionalist) is a book that only those who buy Koontz reflexively or those who have read/heard reviews would buy. The book itself offers no clue as to what might be found inside. But hidden between the covers is a rather entertaining tale. On the anniversary of his family's death in a plane crash a man discovers that he is being watched by some sort of police or government agents. At the family's grave site he meets a strange woman taking pictures of the site and is then interrupted by the watchers. He discovers that they are from a pharmaceutical company and that they have planted a tracer on his car. Slowly he becomes convinced that there was a survivor of the plane crash. He finds evidence that she has visited with the families of other crash victims. But for some strange reason these families wind up committing suicide shortly after her visits. Her visits make them happy and convince them that their loved ones are o-kay. He digs more deeply and finds that a lot of shady things have happened in connection with the crash and its investigation. He is eventually led to the woman who did survive the crash. But unlike the title suggests, there were two survivors. The other was a young girl. He then learns the truth behind their identities. She had worked at a secret genetics lab and the girl was one of the results. The project was trying to code for psychic abilities. They had some success. One was a boy who could take over a person's body. He was the cause of the strange suicides. The other was the girl. This girl was unique. She had an ability to tap into the other side. She was proof of life after death and she could deliver that message in an instant. But there are forces that are out to stop her from spreading the message. The story climaxes with the man protecting the girl and hiding her so that she can grow to full power. This is a good conspiracy story. The evidence builds at a good rate. Unfortunately, as with most stories of this type, there is no real resolution at the end. Instead we know of things that are in motion and what could happen. But since this is supposed to be the real world very little can be done to really alter things. But it is still a good book and one that is hard to find out about.
Rating:
Summary: Dean Koontz--Sole Survivor (1997)
Review: Time and time again, Dean Koontz has the uncanny ability to re-invent himself with courageous, outlandish stories that captivate his readers with every riveting page. After brief hiccups with "Winter Moon" and "Icebound", Koontz delivers the strangely gleaming piece "Sole Survivor". Using the incredibly common fear of flight, he reels the audience in with a tale of despair, curiosity, corruption, and hope. The protagonist of "Sole Survivor" is Joe Carpenter, who is still trying to relieve himself from his grief-stricken world a year after the tragic plane accident that took the lives of everyone on board--including his wife and two daughters. He feels he has no reason to live, no purpose to continue, and shows no effort to communicate with others. While paying his respects to his beloved, deceased family at the cemetary, Joe encounters a strange woman named Rose, who claims to have been the sole survivor of the crash. Joe is exasperated by such a claim, but before he can get further answers, Rose vanishes without a trace. The events following his unusual encounter with Rose lead Joe to investigate numerous possibilities--perhaps Rose was not the only survivor on the plane, perhaps his wife and daughter could be alive somewhere, and if they are not alive, why was he spared? As Joe gets closer and closer to the answers, an awful truth becomes more and more clear. "Sole Survivor" is a tense, thought-provoking masterpiece that undoubtedly will be a supreme favorite for fans of not only Koontz, but the genre. Joe's emotions and actions are marvelously rendered in a brilliant web of dialogue, terror, and humor. With yet another tour de force work, Koontz again solidifies himself as a genius of suspense, creating one of his most moving and poignant efforts to date.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most suspenseful of Koontz's
Review: Sole Survivor was one of the most suspenseful Koontz books I've read, and I've read them all. Joe Carpenter's wife and two daughters were killed 1 year ago in an airplane crash. He's quit his job, moved and not given any friends his forwarding address...he's in a deep depression trying to cope with his families demise. That's when something strange starts to happen: people appear to be following him, a bizarre lady is at the graves of his family taking a picture and friends of his are committing suicide for no apparent reason. He's in a race against time to figure out why he's being hunted, what this lady has to tell him and how this relates to the fatal plane crash a year prior. One reviewer commented that they did not like the character of Joe, that he was whiny and annoying- for me, Joe was a likeable character and well-developed. I think his feelings of loss were realistic- what do you expect after he just lost his entire family- to have moved on in 1 year's time? I thoroughtly enjoyed Joe's ponderings and the deep-thought that was put into this character and his feelings put into words. There were many sentences and paragraphs that I wanted to take a highlighter too, they seemed so profound. I can't say the same for every Koontz book... I'd recommend this book for Koontz fans. I enjoyed every last bit of this book, up until the ending, which was not as exciting as I expected...but still worthwhile.
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