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Cold Fire

Cold Fire

List Price: $40.95
Your Price: $27.03
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: DON'T LISTEN ALONE!
Review:
Ever notice that when you're getting ready to listen to an audiobook you often choose one to fit your mood? For instance, if you want to be a little cheered up you may choose a comedy or if you would like a bit of history you opt for one that tells exciting stories about the past. Further, you may even select a place or time of day to listen. At our house I do not listen to Dean Koontz when I'm alone at night. This master of the macabre dispenses chills and shivers faster than a surprise winter blizzard.

Cold Fire is a case in point with its frightening dose of the paranormal . It's read with authority and skill yet little of the "performing art." That's not needed - Koontz's story does it all.

Jim Ironhart is a man obsessed - compelled to save people's lives. He's saved a dozen from certain death in the past three months and reporter Holly Thorne knows there's a story here.. What's driving this man? He has strange, unexplainable visions. Holly and Jim look to the past in their effort to find answers.

However, that past is a dark, frightening place. Don't go there (or listen) alone!

- Gail Cooke

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dean Koontz--Cold Fire (1991)
Review: A truly compelling story from beginning to end, "Cold Fire" might win "Dean Koontz's most bizarre novel about plane-crashes, stigmatas, aliens, psychic visions, and God" award. Set in sunny California, Jim Ironheart plays the protagonist, a regular school teacher who mysteriously sees visions of people who are supposed to die and then miraculously comes to their rescue. When Ironheart flies to Portland, Oregon to save a young child from getting pummelled by a drunk driver in front of a school, reporter Holly Thorne witnesses the feat and automatically becomes intrigued by the hero.

When fate brings the two together on a flight from California to Chicago, Holly realizes that her need for the nation's top story is getting her in over her head--Jim is on board to save a mother and her child on the flight because it is supposed to crash. The events after the plane crash are superior, with Jim and Holly diving into the extraordinary abilities that our hero possesses, but also the dark secrets about his past that he is keeping locked up inside.

Koontz uses his endless imagination to twirl his characters around with superb dialogue, mixing regular human fears (such as plane crashes, murderers, being alone in the dark, and guilt) with miraculously enigmas (such as telekinesis, psychic powers, religion, and psychological terror) to create stories that do not only scratch the surface of his readers, but also explodes into the very fiber of their being. The novel does get simply too outlandish at points and does not tie up enough loose ends (mainly because they are so many intangible thoughts and questions expressed throughout the piece); however, "Cold Fire" is another haunting tale that is so outrageous that it hits extremely close to home with its audience--something that no other author has been able to do so brilliantly in the past quarer century.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Dean Koontz--Cold Fire (1991)
Review: A truly compelling story from beginning to end, "Cold Fire" might win "Dean Koontz's most bizarre novel about plane-crashes, stigmatas, aliens, psychic visions, and God" award. Set in sunny California, Jim Ironheart plays the protagonist, a regular school teacher who mysteriously sees visions of people who are supposed to die and then miraculously comes to their rescue. When Ironheart flies to Portland, Oregon to save a young child from getting pummelled by a drunk driver in front of a school, reporter Holly Thorne witnesses the feat and automatically becomes intrigued by the hero.

When fate brings the two together on a flight from California to Chicago, Holly realizes that her need for the nation's top story is getting her in over her head--Jim is on board to save a mother and her child on the flight because it is supposed to crash. The events after the plane crash are superior, with Jim and Holly diving into the extraordinary abilities that our hero possesses, but also the dark secrets about his past that he is keeping locked up inside.

Koontz uses his endless imagination to twirl his characters around with superb dialogue, mixing regular human fears (such as plane crashes, murderers, being alone in the dark, and guilt) with miraculously enigmas (such as telekinesis, psychic powers, religion, and psychological terror) to create stories that do not only scratch the surface of his readers, but also explodes into the very fiber of their being. The novel does get simply too outlandish at points and does not tie up enough loose ends (mainly because they are so many intangible thoughts and questions expressed throughout the piece); however, "Cold Fire" is another haunting tale that is so outrageous that it hits extremely close to home with its audience--something that no other author has been able to do so brilliantly in the past quarer century.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Already forgotten
Review: Another forgotten and not-exciting item in Koontz range. I had read it when I still had the hope that Koontz would be a real writer but this was the last attempt and I left him in the prcoss.

I don't remember it much except that as usual there was a man and there was a woman and they met somewhere and tried to save something against something which is not memorable in the least. The same summary is applicable to: Watchers, Srangers, Dark Rivers of the Heart, House of Thunder, By the Light of the Moon..pufff.

I don't remember this meaty thing and is there anyone? It is forgotten long time ago though it was published recently. Pity for trees.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very smooth, friendly read.
Review: From the very start this book rip-roared right into the action, with Ironheart stammering the words, "Life Line," while grocery shopping, which, of course, is the signal for a rescue. Throughout, we get to see clear into the past and present lives of Ironheart and his admiring journalist Holly Thorne. We get an understanding of why his life has suddenly been driven to it's current string of events -that have ultimately changed his life forever.

While surely not one of Koontz best books, the novel breathes much fire. It's filled with suspense that keeps you turning the pages with haste, and then, reluctantly putting the book down, which helps to make this book a fast read.

Rightfully the book delivers, and is clearly worth the price. This, despite the somewhat stale ending which seems to discredit everything else that happened.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Come on now, Koontz
Review: I didn't know that Dean Koontz was into writing supernatural romance novels for Harlequin readers - until I read this book.
The main character is a psychotic and emotionally cold character who runs around saving people like some knight in shining armor, while shunning the spotlight.

And of course the female character, Holly, is obsessed by this mysterious stranger with a dark past, determined to psychoanalyze him, save him from himself, and fall madly in love with him.

The book starts out with typical Koontz humor and fast-paced action, but then turns into the type of smut you always see middle-aged women buying at Kmart. The characters and the plot are awful, with a totally predictable ending. I had to force myself to finish it because I could tell exactly what was going to happen, and I complained to my fiance about how bad it was while reading the last 100 pages.

But then I decided the book was almost so bad that it was good - to laugh at!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: DK_fan
Review: I ENJOY READING KOONTZ'S BOOKS AND "COLDFIRE" WAS ONE THAT GOT
ME GOING,I COULDN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN.BUT I HAVE TO SAY THAT I
STARTED GETTING A LITTLE BORED WITH THE BOOK WHEN I REALIZED
WHAT WAS HAPPENING IN THE STORY.BUT I FINISHED THE BOOK AS ANY
DK_fan WOULD DO.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Too Scary to Read on a Plane
Review: Teacher Jim Ironheart has a shadowy past, a troubled present and every now and then forces beyond his control show him someone who is about to die violently and he seems compelled to save them. Journalist Holly Thorn is on the spot when Jim saves a child and she attaches herself to him like a leech, wanting to know how and why and that's the beginning of a troubled relationship that will keep you burning through the pages.

A word of caution. Don't read this book on an airplane. My dad told me the DC 10 scene was drawn from real life. It's pretty scary in the book, I can only imagine what it must have been like for real. Anyway, I have a hard time deciding if this or "Watchers" is my favorite Dean Koontz novel. "Cold Fire" is a five star fun read, one that I have read again and again and thrill at each and every time.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Disappointing but not bad
Review: This book had an interesting premise, with suggestions of a supernatural battle between good and evil, but around the midpoint of the novel it starts to stumble. The overly psycho-analytical therapeutic touchy-feely stuff at the end of the novel feels like it was written by a different author from the more action-oriented gung-ho beginning. The supernatural mystery aspect of this novel also suffered from this disjoint. A good mystery author misdirects the reader but still creates a logical chain of events. The "solution" to the mystery is a borderline deus ex machina that's totally unsatisfying. Many things that were suggested or built up at the beginning of the novel are rendered pointless by the end.

Having said that, Koontz's prose is certainly readable, his characters are interesting, albeit implausible, and the book was such a quick read that I can't feel too bitter about the ending.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Suspense, Mystery, Terror...
Review: This book has it all. If it keeps you up at night reading, you know it's good. I am a huge fan of Koontz and this is a classic of his. If you're looking for something that will pull you in & won't let go- Cold Fire is it!!


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