By the Light of the Moon

Rating:
Summary: BLUE MOON
Review: Having read 98% of Koontz' books, I feel a little sad in having to say I find this book one of his worst. For me, the fault lies in the overworking of the autistic young man, Shepherd. So many scenes are drawn out to unreasonable lengths by the redundancy of not only Shep's dialogue, but you know that each scene will go on for a couple of pages and ultimately brother Dylan and friend Jilly will get what they want out of them. Dean has come to be a writer who is getting too involved in his own skills. He overwrites, not only his usual descriptive blabber, but in much of the dialogue. There ARE some wonderful scenes, though: Shep and Dylan revisiting the murder of their mother; Dylan helping out an old cowboy locate his long-missing daughter, and the climactic wedding scene. They're very well done and if the rest of the book had matched this kind of writing, I would have been impressed. Needless to say, it looks like "The Moonlight Club" may be coming? If he can focus a little more on making a tighter narrative and not overdoing his characterization (as with Shep), he may return to his higher level of writing.

Rating:
Summary: different in a good way
Review: this story isn't quite as intense as the dean koontz thrill rides i'm used to- but i loved it all the same for the gentle message of hope it contained. positive and uplifting AND you can let your teenagers read it.

Rating:
Summary: Koontz keeps getting better
Review: It is rare that an author's works continue to improve over the number of years that Koontz has been writing. I've read almost (or maybe all - can't keep track) of his books and I couldn't put this one down.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, not bad
Review: Koontz is good. I always read his books and wonder, 'how on earth did he get himself into this mess? (meaning, did he get himself so involved in writing the story that he got himself in such a deep puddle) Then I wonder, how is he going to get himself out? Unfortunately, with an abrubt ending. There have been a couple of his stories in which he ends, or wraps up everything in a chapter or two. Much too soon. By the light of the moon falls in this category. The story itself is great. It's a little farfetched, but hey, it could happen in the near future. The ending is too quick. And I felt the characters, though fleshed out excellent - as always - tend to see thier situation too casually. They have been injected with God knows what, and they're cracking jokes? They're dialogue is too kiddish. But it's still enjoyable. And it gets even more enjoyable a little more than halfway past the book, with a shocking twist. Oh, and the excerpt of Odd Thomas (at the end of the paperback) looks promising.

Rating:
Summary: Not the best Dean Koontz
Review: I usually can't put his books down but this one I kept leaving. The lead characters weren't nearly as compelling as many of his others. For anyone who has never read Dean Koontz - please don't let this be your first! He is a terrific writer but this story just isn't as good as his other stuff. I trudged through this book wondering when would it end. Thankfully it wasn't very long.

Rating:
Summary: A superb book, even better the second time around
Review: I just re-read By the Light of the Moon for a second time, this time in paperback, and found it just as satisfying as the first time in hardcover. If you enjoyed his older books like Cold Fire, Lightning, Watchers, and others, you'll find this a welcome return to that type of story. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A Satisfying Return To The Famous Koontz Style
Review: By the Light of the Moon is a terrific return to the types of stories that attracted me to his books in the first place. With its liberal use of humor, suspense, and action, I found it to be on par, albeit in a different style of writing, with Watchers, Lightning, The Bad Place, Cold Fire, and other titles by this remarkable author. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: mediocrity personified
Review: This could be a good book but it desperately needs a better editor.

Rating:
Summary: (Slightly) Above Average Suspense
Review: There are few major authors as dependable as Dean Koontz. While rarely writing anything that could be considered "great," he is at least consistent with turning out good work. Unfortunately, at times, this consistency is also harmful; there is sometimes the sense that Koontz is always putting out the same book with just the names and plot device changing.

As is typical with a Koontz book, this story deals with a nice guy and a nice woman who are suddenly placed in a horrific situation and must pair up. In this case, each is forcibly injected with an unknown substance by a mad scientist. Complicating the situation are the shadowy (government?) forces chasing them and the guy's autistic brother who is brilliant in some ways but limits their mobility (many Koontz books have some sort of "special" person or in isolated cases, animals).

This particular book deals with the dangers of nanotechnology; in this way, it is similar to Michael Crichton's Prey (which I read right after this book). For Crichton, however, the ideas behind nanotechnology are the driving force in his book and are explained in great detail; here it is merely a plot gimmick to move the story along and is "explained" in a page or so.

Once again, this is a good, not great book, maybe three-and-a-half stars if such a rating was available. New Koontz readers will not be overly disappointed, and for Koontz veterans, this one once again shows that he is nothing if not reliable.

Rating:
Summary: A very lazy effort by Dean Koontz
Review: I guess that I would call myself a middle-of-the-road Dean Koontz fan, but I used to be a much bigger fan of his. Books like Whispers, Watchers, Phantoms, and Nightfall made me a fan, and much of his newer work keeps me coming back. "By the Light of the Moon", however, is probably his weakest effort. If ever there was a book by a major author that did not deserve to be published, it is this.

There is no plot to speak of, the storyline is ALL over the place, and, most unforgivable of all, its boring. In addition, its very frustrating to spend 10 pages reading the unchanging ramblings of the autistic charachter, Shep. When the 2 main characters, Dylan and Jilly, are speaking to Shep, try to count (a.) how many times Shep repeats the same phrase over and over, and (b.) how many times Dylan calls him "Buddy" and Jilly calls him "Sweetie".

Also, lately every Koontz book is a good vs. evil struggle, with evil represented by a mad scientist that always has a very high IQ. Why has he done this so often? He has also used the female comic charachter one too many times and tries very hard to make the dialogue humerous, but believe me, it isn't. Worst of all, Koontz clearly fancies himself somewhat of a techno-buff lately, but by writing about technicalogical details that he unfamiliar with, he only suceeds in exposing his ignorance to the details of technology.

"By the Light of the Moon" is just a lazy effort by Koontz, well below the level that he has shown that he is capable of. Koontz fans will probably read this book, but if you are new to Dean Koontz, start with something else.