From the Corner of His Eye

Rating:
Summary: A Remarkably Woven Tale
Review: Throughout From the Corner of His Eye, author Dean Koontz masterfully weaves multiple storylines in a remarkable manner. His initial storyboards must have been amazing, as all characters and their actions, no matter how remote they seem, have a profound affect on every other character. Their paths loop and twirl around each other, sometimes coming in direct contact, sometimes inadvertantly coming to near misses, but always changing the course of those around them.

Though this book is loosely based on a portion of Quantum Theory, this is also a fascinating look at "Chaos Theory" - you know, the one about the butterfly flapping its wings in China causes a California earthquake - in that actions that seem random may have dramatic consequenses on the near or distant future. Koontz reveals small portions of these connections page by page, keeping the reader anticipating how in the world this is all going to work out. Koontz's tone is so steady that he can flip from one character's storyline to another, and the reader will almost automatically jump into the other character's train of thought. His development of the main "bad guy" is nearly perfect as you watch him decend on a track of rational/mental instability into near madness.

You may have to muscle your way through the first 50 pages or so, while Koontz is "setting the mood". He continutes to drive the story, but some of his metaphors and similies are a little over the top - he labored over them like a woman giving birth to a 12 pound baby. Though it's not "high art", it might be the next best thing. Some suspension of disbelief is required, but hey, it's fiction. It had me reading wide-eyed until the very end.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I've done my fair share of reading and I have to say this is the best book I have ever read. The scene with Naomi and Junior was the most shocking thing I have read in a novel. I hated Junior more than any other villian he's written about. I was deeply moved and inspired by this book as it is so powerful. I cried and laughed and cried some more. The ending was just so beautiful and so touching I had to reread it. I've recommended this novel to everyone I know and now I'm recommending it to you.

Rating:
Summary: Koontz in Top Form
Review: I've read about 6 Koontz books to-date and this was by far my favorite. This is a story of epic proportions with an evil character that is so real it gives you shivers. I am so dissapointed in some of these reviews that think the book too long. I suppose you could shorten "War and Peace" by a few hundred pages as well. The thing is this book is great as is (with all the pages intact) as Koontz takes the reader on a fasinating adventure of good versus evil. And unlike some of the negative reviews here, I think the characters are very well developed, interesting, and their dialog revealing. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Gripping Page-Turner
Review: Corner... has ascended to my favorite Koontz book to date. It is a maze of intrigue and suspense that ties together in the end. A lot of characters are introduced throughout, but it is done so masterfully.
You will absolutely hate the villian, which is the reaction I'm sure Dean Koontz was going for.
I've suggested this book to everyone I know who loves suspense, and they have been positively intrigued by it. The downside of a page-turner, is that they are over before you know it.
I agree that the antagonist's outcome in the end could have been elaborated on, but I let that slide.
Helluva tale, Koontz! It taps a myriad of emotions.

Rating:
Summary: This might be my last Dean Koontz read
Review: If this had been the first book of Koontz that I had read, I might have enjoyed it more. But after reading most of his novels (including his science-fiction books and short stories of more than 30 years ago) I found the same characters inhabitating "Corner of the Eye" that I had met dozens of times before: 3-year-old kids that are wiser and have more insight than most adults, koooky (but harmless) characters, and couples that have, and I'll grossly understate my opinion, very improbable conversations.
The saving grace, in my opinion, of this book is the "bad guy." He does truly evil things to people--things that readers will think, "I'm not like that." But then he'll drop out of a French class because it is "too hard." That is shown as yet another defect in his personality but yet who among us hasn't done something similar? He seems to be the living embodiment of any bad thought that anybody may have had at one time or another. And THAT is truly the frightening part of this book.
Now that I think about it, though, even that is not especially original. Albert Camus's "The Stranger" has as its main character a man that Junior Kane could have been cloned from. And people abound in science-fiction that have been in contact with "parallel worlds."
As to the title of my review, it is probably wrong. No doubt, I'll see a new title of his in a book store, read the first two pages, and find it so compelling that I will buy it. Whatever else I might find to criticize in Koontz's books, they all have a tendency to grab the reader on the first page.

Rating:
Summary: Laughable at best...
Review: This is the third Koontz novel I've read, and it will probably be my last. The thing I don't understand is his inability to make characters anything other than black and white cardboard cutouts with emotional motivations as realistic as four-year-olds playing house.
All of his protagonists (and especially those in "From the corner of His Eye")are highly religious (and he can't let us forget it, with names like Celestina, Angel, Grace, and Seraphim all from ONE FAMILY), and all of his antagonists are atheists, if not downright blasphamous.
The characters are all so syrupy sweet, and so optomistic its almost unwholesome, that you actually begin to identify with the antagonist, a man by the name of Enoch Cain. But its hard to identify with him anyway, since his motivations for doing ANYTHING are unclear, whether its pushing his wife from a fire tower or hunting down the main character (and, as we find out through rediculous and highly coincidental plot developments, his nemesis) Bartholomew Lampion, who was born on the same day that Cain killed his wife.
I gave this book 2 stars, however, because without the laughable, underdeveloped characters, the plot would have actually been pretty good. And it was, believe it or not, very funny and inspiring in some places. Not enough to justify the 800 page length or the horribly anti-climactic ending, but enough to keep you reading.

Rating:
Summary: The pages kept turning
Review: Well, I enjoyed reading this book, the pages flew by! I enjoyed the characters, the writing, the humor, suspense, i enjoyed hating the "bad guy"...but I do have to agree with the previous reviewer in saying that plot was glossed over a little bit.
I mean, at the end, it's sort of a tidy-up ending, and you are left feeling like maybe a bigger explanation is due. But I think you can see what Koontz was using for the premise of this novel.
I think what it needed was a longer conclusion when it came to dealing with the "bad guy". I still really liked the book though and I can say that the 730 pages went fast.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good!
Review: I'm a regular reader of Koontz novels, and spend a lot of time scouring airport bookstores looking for something suspenseful to read. When I picked this up and looked at the length, I thought it would keep me from being bored on a couple of long haul flights, at least.

It did. I'm a nut for dickens-like description, and I get a kick out of page-turners. I'd say this one was the patient person's page turner.

I'm also a nut for novels with meaning. Koontz made a statement with this novel - the ending was a pretty striking suggestion about the relationship between quantum physics and miracles, specifically those miracles described in the Bible. It was a bit of a stretch, but I found it inspiring, in any case.

If fantastic and unlikely characters bothered me, I wouldn't read this. If I wanted an action packed suspense novel, I wouldn't read this. This is a great book for someone who's got time on their hands, and likes a slow build of suspense. I'm kind of disappointed that koontz wrote 729 pages worth of material - he could have shortened it significantly. I think his intent in making it long was to attempt to detail deep character development...but I don't think he did a good enough job. Koontz's writing style doesn't have the power to absorb the reader into the character's persona.

As a devotee to Carl Sagan's beliefs, I also found the book's message enticing; not in the sense that I'd end up believing it, but in the sense that it was actually made. in the words of C&C music factory, it really made me go "Hmmmmmmm........." Especially since i finished the book just after reading about scientists creating the first antimatter particle. :-)

Rating:
Summary: A tiny steak and an enormous sprig of parsley
Review: Oh, boy...I'm actually stunned and amazed to find so many people giving this book a good review. I have nothing against Mr. Koontz, and have read and enjoyed many of his books. His plots have always been good, and his writing style has become pretty amazing over the past five years or so. In fact, it's almost worth reading this book just to marvel at some of the cleverly-crafted sentences that he puts together. But this book is basically a tiny steak with a huge sprig of parsley next to it on the plate. The plot is the steak---tiny, undercooked and tough to swallow---while his flowery prose and engaging characters are the parsley decorating the plate and hiding the fact that the steak is actually so tiny. We're basically given a plot of "boy with magical powers is fated to have huge battle with evil bad guy," and the readers go through nearly 800 pages to get to this huge face-off, but it never really happens. Instead, this book offers a watered-down plot which is never really explained, leaving us guessing what this book is actually supposed to be about. I don't need an author to spell out his details in huge black magic marker, but I tend to think that even Koontz himself has no idea what this book is really about. Either that, or this was originally a 1000-page megabook which was attacked by an editor who snipped out most of the important parts. Either way, most readers are bound to be disappointed after wading through nearly 800 pages only to be left scratching their heads. I'd recommend one of Koontz's shorter books for a safer read.

Rating:
Summary: A fabulous book
Review: This book is a fascinating read. The plot - compelling throughout - becomes so gripping for the last 150 pages or so that the book becomes impossible to put down. The characters are unforgettable. You will find your own favorites among them. Are these characters realistic? No - but who cares? It is the singular uniqueness of each (I guess that's redundant) that makes each person so unforgettable.

You will despise the villain for 50 pages or more when you first encounter him - but after awhile, you discover he has his own troubles. He doesn't always get his own way. That makes it much easier to tolerate him. He even becomes somewhat amusing in spite of being always dangerous.

Beyond this, Koontz presents a view of the universe that underscores his imaginative side. If you only have time to read a few books during the year - try to make "From the Corner of His Eye" one of them. Then you, too, may be able to appreciate "all the ways things are." J.T.