From the Corner of His Eye

Rating:
Summary: One of Koontz' Best
Review: I just finished this book and, as I usually do, I logged on to Amazon to see how other people reviewed the book... This book had so much humor in it. Jr Cain was a riot even tho he did terrible things. I just wish Mr Koontz had given us a bit of a glimpse of what Jr. found in the "other world" Angel pushed him into. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Wont pick up a Koontz again !
Review: When I picked up this book at my local "Borders" a few weeks back, it was with the eager anticipation of reading my first Dean Koontz. He is clearly a very reputed author and I have heard and read a lot of praise for his work. The reviews for this particular book sounded promising and I thought it would make a good introduction to this writer's works.

By the time I was about 100 pages into the book, it became really hard to ignore... there is a peculiar sullen deliberateness to the writing in this book. The word I am searching for is "uninspired". In any other kind of book, I might have tried to overlook this. But with a story that rests on the supernatural, this is a definite show-stopper.

The story is rather well planned, maybe too well. There are many many characters and atleast 3 parallel interconnected plots. Most of the characters are well developed and hightly unrealistic. Combined with conveniently timed magical happenings and high school composition style writing, the net result is a heavy feeling of wasted trees. Its a fat book too!

I hate abandoning a book ... and I wasted a lot of time trying to finish this one. The author's unfortunate attempt to invoke "quantum physics" in a "supernatural thriller" broke my already damaged mood and left me feeling cheated towards the choppy ending of this book. I should have known something like this would happen when a character called "Vanadium" walked into the story.

This book has uninspired writing, unbelievable characters, inappropriate use of scientific reasoning, poor estimation of its readership and more pages than it deserves. For all these reasons, and a general distaste for poor quality work, I award this book only 1 yellow [Amazon.com] star.

Rating:
Summary: Not his best work
Review: This is certainly not his best work to date. It took a while for me to get into the book. About half way through is when it all comes together. Typical Koontz introducing the characters and it is all needed background but just long winded. The middle to the end of the book is when I couldn't put it down. Wonderful ending and the last half of the book was the best part of this book. I enjoyed it once I got to the middle when the characters started to come together.

Rating:
Summary: A gem in paperback
Review: I always enjoy Koontz, but his latest books have shown a maturity and depth of characterization that his earlier works lacked. You've already read about the characters and plot twists in earlier reviews, so I'd just like to encourage you to read this book for it's humor and elegant (in places) writing style. Koontz is becoming less like Stephen King and more like Peter Straub in his description and character development. If you enjoy irony and occasional laugh-out loud humor, you'll appreciate this treatment. The poor antagonist Junior - is so utterly narcissistic that you almost feel pity for his predicament. The protagonist Barty - is so good that you wish he had a bad habit or two to balance out his pristine personality. At any rate, I enjoyed reading this latest Koontz effort and I'm guessing that devotees of this genre will too.

Rating:
Summary: Truly Clueless People!
Review: Junior has no idea he's a serial killer! In his mind, he is a brave, evolving art mavon with a knack for needlework and the bad luck to be haunted by people who constantly want to drag him down with the past!
Agnes and Barty are two people, mother and son, who are so compassionate that they render invaluable aid and comfort to others less fortunate in the normal course of their day without a thought of how uncommon they are.
And the aged, broken fingered magician touches all of their lives in ways no one ever truly deduces, especially he, himself.
And God watches over all from the corner of his eye!
A truly uncommon book with Koontz's trademark warmth and unique wit, this is one of those books that, when finished, leave you missing the characters as though they were real family and friends.
As with all Koontz's books, I cannot recommend it enough.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely amazing!
Review: After reading several of Koontz's books, some that I thought were only so-so, I decided to pick up "From the Corner of His Eye." From page one, I was absolutely hooked. I flew through the 700+ pages in this book in less than 24 hours.

There are many plots going on in this book, all which are linked together in the end. Not much can be said about it, without giving some of the most wonderful parts of the book away. I focuses on an extraordinary boy named Bartholomew. He was born a prodigy, but loses his eyes to cancer at age three. In another state, a girl is born at the same time, one linked to Barty in some mysterious way. And an evil man, believing to have an enemy named Bartholomew, begins his search to kill.

I honestly cannot say much else about this book without giving things away, but I will tell you that I highly recommend it. It is one of the best books I've read. My only wish is that it was longer.

Rating:
Summary: This Momentous Book
Review: This is one of Dean Koontz's best works. Characters that are easy to love and easy to hate. The battle between good and evil is taken to the next level in this thriller.
Don't take my word for it...READ IT!

Rating:
Summary: Quantum Leap!
Review: After reading Dean Koontz's previous novel, "False Memory" and becoming utterly disgusted with his writing syle, I wasn't sure if I would like this book. I borrowed this one from the library because I didn't want to waste my money if this book turned out to be more alliterative drivel and metaphoric monstrosities like the last one I read. However, I ended up liking this book a lot! I was actually hooked and interested from the very first chapter. The book is about a man named Junior Cain who commits many senselessly evil deeds throughout the story. It is also about a boy named Barty who is somewhat of a child prodigy and the epitome of goodness. The story revolves around their lives and the bizarre ways in which each character is interconnected. One of the things that I really liked about this book were the themes that ran through it. The story ,of course, was about the nature of good vs. the nature of evil. It also elaborated on the ways that we are all connected to each other by many threads whether we realize it or not. What each one of us does affects every single other person or creature on this planet; therefore, it is better to spread goodness rather than evil. The universe, while seemingly random, is actually a complex web of patterns that affect us all. Pretty basic themes, but very thought-provoking. I rather liked the smattering of quantum physics throughout the story (actually less boring than it sounds!). Another theme that I liked was that things aren't always what they seem. This theme was seen in many ways throughout the story, but I really enjoyed the way the bad guy was a very handsome and debonair man that was into culture and art and attractive to the ladies, while the good guy was physically handicapped and a bit repulsive(he had no eyes).I also liked the biblical monikers given to the characters and their symbolic meanings.
As far as the characters go, they were not 100 percent realistic or believeable; but, they were interesting and even somewhat comical at times. I liked the way that different characteristics of man were personified and made into characters. For example, evil is portrayed as being senseless, unintelligent, bumbling,violent, fearful, and cowardly (Junior Cain) and goodness is portrayed as being intelligent, kind, trusting, innocent, and encompassing warmth and love (Barty).
Maybe I'm analyzing a bit too much into this, but I have to say that this was a much better book that some of the others I've read by Koontz. I'm not sure why so many of his books are so hit or miss, but this one was a definite hit with me! I would definitely recommend it to any fan of suspense or mystery novels.

Rating:
Summary: Koontz lost sight of the plot!
Review: I read a lot of books, all genres, & used to be a big Koontz fan (back in the Watchers & Strangers days) but this book was awful. The description on the back cover did not jive with the book at all. Whatever was the point in Bartholomew losing his sight? Too many details that had no bearing on the plot. I couldn't take one more verbose paragraph about Edom & Jacob and their penchant for disasters...enough already! It appeared as though Koontz changed his direction midstream. Very disappointing & I do NOT recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: One of his best!
Review: This is one of Deans best. Who else but Dean could write a story around Quantum Physics so that it is so easily understandable and intriging.
As always he brings all of the pieces together in a very awsome way in the end. It makes you want more...