From the Corner of His Eye

Rating:
Summary: from the corner of his eye
Review: Once again dean koontz has brought forward another winning publication, I found it hard to put this book down as it kept me involved in the story line. Feeling to scared to leave and unnerving to stay, I have read Mr koontz,s books for years and I never fail to get so involved in his pages as to redily want to put his publications to sleep.
I am eagerly awaiting the newest of his terror and intreige.

Rating:
Summary: Lame ending, misleading description of book on the jacket
Review: As other readers have already noted, the ending was a real let-down, very lame, almost like the author himself just wanted to get it over with, was tired of the story... as I found myself tired of the story after the first very good two-thirds.

I think what bothered me the most though was the description of the plot on the jacket - it led me to believe that the primary character was Barty, I thought it was going to be about scary and wonderful things that happened to Barty as he regained his site and the time afterwards... the jacket leads you to believe that the majority of the story takes place after Barty is 13 when in reality only 5 or 6 pages take place when Barty is 13.

Instead it was primarily about Enoch Cain, the mass-murderer, a very well developed character who I just wanted to strangle myself. How he gets what is his due was a HUGE let-down... if you missed reading a single line of text, you'd have missed the whole thing. (It would have been cool if the author spent a chapter on Cain's first moments in the place he ends up!)

I also felt like sometimes the story _skipped_... like it goes from Cain being in the hospital to Cain being in the room with Angel, without really fully explaining the process Cain went through to find out where they were...How did he figure out they were in Bright Beach? How did he figure out that Tom was still alive and that he was staying with Paul? The story also touches on the horrible event in Tom's past but it's almost like it was thrown in as a second-thought, instead of being an event that advanced the story, or even twisted the plot more.

I definetly missed a Dog character!

Overall, this book has the style of Koontz without his usual excellent substance... it was the first Koontz novel that I was actually able to put down while reading ... every other one of his novels I have always had to read through to the end from the moment I turned the first page.

Rating:
Summary: Halfway done, on hiatus.
Review: I've read a few Dean Koontz novels, and my favorites have been "Watchers, Midnight, False Memory, and Phantoms." I liked Kootz' style--colorful, fleshed out characters, great villians, and true suspense.

However, I read this book and I think, "Why are these characters so lame? Who the freak can relate to a cast of characters who would make even a Catholic martyr look nasty?"

I mean it. The "good" guys are so loaded with Sugary-Goodness that they should be distilled, packaged, and sold as artificial sweetener. And the villian is a little humorous, but I tire of Koontz using him to point out "Randian ethical egoism bad, pies good." Cain doesn't carry on any of the great mental-monologue of the demented psychiatrist from "False Memory," and the only really good character gets killed early in the novel.

Gee, and let me guess, the names are SYMBOLIC, perhaps?! Oh, and please describe everyone's eyes some more. Don't forget to pinpoint the details of some more trees for our botanist friends out there. Phimie's "channeling" was too remniscent of an episode of Oprah (Celestine--"she had to be SOMEWHERE"). Great analysis of anatomy and physiology, Celestine. Even Barty grates. I don't find a child prodigy a good protagonist. It would have been cool if the KID displayed boundless love and affection towards others, despite imperfect surroundings. Instead, we read of him folding blankets and using a harmonica. OH yeah, purity incarnate.

I kind of want to read more, and I only bought the book yesterday and am halfway done. It had a compelling beginning that I thought would get more complex. I had planned to finish it for my own pleasure and put schoolwork on hold a couple of days. Sadly, my schoolwork now looks more appealing. Nothing like bad literature to make an honors thesis call your name...To be fair, I'll try to finish this when I have time, but I just couldn't read any longer during the descriptions of SuperKid. I'm actually a very optimistic, positive person, but really, the whole situation we're presented with is just too much.

Frankly, I actually feel a bit betrayed, even violated, for having such an expectation set up for this book, and for it to prove to be as sorry as it is. It's not absolutely horrible, but compared to what I expected and what Koontz used to write, it's pretty bad. As soon as I saw it, I grabbed it off the shelf and bought it, I had so much faith in Koontz' abilities.

Maybe it will get better, but judging from the other reviews, the ending is actually the worst part. How could this have happened? Perhaps Koontz has sold out to the "Chicken-Soup", Thomas Kinkaide crowd of readers. Too bad if he has. Good literature is priceless, and unfortunately, I believe I paid too much for this paperbound-letdown.

Rating:
Summary: Another great Koontz book to keep you glued.
Review: He has done it again. This book was another great Koontz
book. The only reason it lost a star from me was because
toward the end, it started to lose something. I can't quite
put my finger on it, but the ending came and went too fast (in
particular with the Cain character). Aside from that however,
I recommend this to every Koontz fan as you won't be
disappointed. I have read almost every book of his and this is
certainly up there with the best. I want to know where he gets
his imagination from!!!

Rating:
Summary: For Koontz fans only
Review: "From the corner of his eye" does not have the Koontz brilliance of "Intensity" or "Fear Nothing", but it is still a very enjoyable read. I was not as caught up in the characters of this novel as I have been with many of his other novels, but I did enjoy the character of Junior Cain. I moved from horror at the death of his wife, to laughing out loud at his misery of the reaction he had, and his subsequent preparations when he killed again. So, while I did not really 'care' about the other characters, I did want to find out what happens to Junior!

Rating:
Summary: Bad ending
Review: I'm a Dean Koontz fan. This is a fantastic book up until the very end of the novel. He builds up so much suspense in the book that it's truly dissatisfying to actually know the end. But a very creative piece of work,nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting read
Review: On the back of the book, all it mentions is a child losing his sight to cancer, getting his eyes removed and then regaining his sight at the age of 13, despite being eyeless. But this doesn't happen until three-quarters of the way through the book. It's about much more than this. Enoch "Junior" Cain is a man with a warped mind. He's egotistical and suffers from delusions of grandeur. He's obsessive, but, most of all, lacking in conscience. "There are no good or bad choices, there are only morally neutral choices."

I really enjoyed this book. A bit too long, but that could just be because I wanted to know the ending.

Rating:
Summary: Not scary... still cool.
Review: Many people grab up Dean Koontz's books because they're scary. This one's different... but try it, you might like it.

"From the Corner of His Eye" begins as parallel stories. In one, Agnes Lampion gives birth to a prodigy son, Bartholemew. In another, Junior Cane pushes his wife off a fire tower. In a third, Seraphim White conceals a rape and resultant pregnancy.

Soon, the stories and their many characters are interwoven, and miracles begin to happen. It's an engaging, entertaining read, with very likeable good guys. The bad guy is a bit underdeveloped, which is too bad. Ultimately, though, the story isn't about him (even though this may be what we started reading the book for). Rather, this is an other-worldly tale of love and hope.

The audio performance by Stephen Lang is very good.

Rating:
Summary: Best Dean Koontz yet!
Review: I've read many of this author's novels and really enjoyed most of them. This was my favorite. I don't usually read books twice, but I will read this one again.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read!
Review: I love a good scary horror novel as much as anyone, and this isn't it. There is something very different about this book. Yes it isn't a horror novel, but a story of hope. I didn't quite know what to expect with this book, and was a third of the way through it before it started to fall into place for me. I couldn't leave it alone, I had to know how these wonderful people (and one very bad one) finished up. I wasn't disappointed.

This is a fun book to read on a chilly evening in front of a roaring fire. It will warm you from the inside and it scares you, and leaves you with a spark of mystery.