Rating: Summary: A decent read but nowhere close to the author's best Review: This novel may suffer more by comparison to the other works by Koontz than it does on it's own merits. Having read most of Koontz's book this one seems routine and formulaic, as though the author were going through the motions and is somewhat impatient about getting the thing over with. While many of Koontz's book use a very similar formula they nevertheless succeed in maintaining the attention of the reader and creating sympathy with well drawn characters. One character in this novel is a female stand up comedian who drives around a plant that she talks to. She is never quite as endearing as the author intends. There are many tense and amusing moments as there always are in a Koontz novel but overall this is not one of his best.
Rating: Summary: Entertaining but a little too Fairy-Taleish Review: This story starts out great. 3 characters are brought together by chance and circumstance and injected with an evil substance of God knows what by a mad scientist type of man. They have to do research to find out what they've been injected with and also exactly what is at store in their future. They come to learn that each of them has developed some type of supernatural-like abilities which will come in handy later while dodging reckless gunmen. However, later on the story kind of fizzles out because every time the author develops a jam for the characters or a tough situation they just seem to solve it by the snap of their fingers..Kaput..Over. I don't have a problem suspending disbelief but I found the childish solutions and happy-sappy endings to be a little more than I could fathom. There is no doubt that Dean Koontz is a master of suspense and story-telling but I feel some of the scenes should have been condensed to avoid getting glazed-over eyes and that the intensity of the story faded later on in the book. The book would have been far better if the author had cut out some of the more frivolous parts and stuck to the compelling story that started at the beginning of the book.
Rating: Summary: Suspence, Action, Thrills, and ALOT of Fun! Review: This was my first Dean Koontz novel. I enjoyed it very much and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.
Surprisingly, this novel spins a tale of suspense around characters that are pawns in a sinister plot of a madman to create a race of super-humans, who will worship their creator. The characters are coincidentally thrown into a plot together against their will and find that their fantastic new abilities tie them to links from their past which were always voids of questions.
Koontz does a great job of character development, realization and evolution from quiet citizens to team leaders. I look forward to venturing into more of Mr. Koontz's novels in the weeks to come!
Rating: Summary: An exact cross of Creighton's "Prey" and King's "Dead Zone" Review: We stopped reading Dean Koontz about 20 years ago as his plots and often very long stories were just a little too fantastic, in the supernatural sense, for our taste. We see in the two decades since, he has been a prolific publisher, with the now some 40 novels to his credit implying a bazillion fans."Moon" gets off to a fast start: Dylan O'Connor, a struggling artist and caretaker for his semi-autistic brother Shep, and a struggling comedienne, Jilly Jackson, heretofore strangers, are all accosted in a motel by a "mad" doctor-type guy who overwhelms each and injects them with some sort of "stuff" featuring his life's work. He also warns them his enemies will be seeking them out. It turns out the payload was a zillion nanotechnology machines that influence brain function (ala the nanotechnology cameras and such in Michael Creighton's latest "Prey"). Each of the recipients is affected with different supernatural powers: Shep can "fold" people (teleportation); Jilly has strange visions (and learns to fold), and Dylan has sightings based on touching things (ala King's lead character in Dead Zone). The action unfolds as the three run from the chasers while acting on Dylan's need to make things right from the visions he is getting off people and objects. A somewhat poorly crafted ending, almost in the Superman style of good over evil, brings the tale to a somewhat abrupt end. Like King, Koontz has a vivid imagination and apparently can put his ideas into writing without difficulty. He seems to love to turn a good phrase, with at times prose better suited to poetry or some other genre. We thought that except for the fast start, much of the book dragged along until the second half when everybody, including us, has a better idea of what's going on and then the suspense really builds. The ending will probably disappoint most readers; we weren't at all sure it was a natural denouement of events. For our taste, we still think Koontz is a little too "fantastic", but note that in a not too crowded niche he seems to enjoy great success.
Rating: Summary: No More Koontz for Me Review: While searching for new books to read, I picked up about 5 books, 2 of which were from Koontz. I had never read anything from him but I was willing to give it a try since I had read an excerpt from 'Odd Thomas' and it seemed kind of good. I picked up 'By the Light of the Moon' and 'Tic Toc'. The former starts of pretty good and quite intriguing, but as the story unfolds it turns to crap. I'm not going to say what the book's about 'cause quite frankly, it's not memorable and so, I don't remember much.
As for 'Tic Toc', it's far, far worse. Here's the premise: An alien hides in a doll and tries to hunt its master and manages to kill a whole bunch of people in the process, except of course, the master. It's a comedy. I admire the fact that he played with fire trying to mix horror and comedy but I'm sorry, Koontz got toast 'cause it's just not good. I should say though that the main character's mom rocks, but she's barely in it so...
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