Dean Koontz

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GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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The copy of Funhouse I have has a postscript by Koontz (I'm fairly certain it's this novel) where he speaks about the childhood abuse he endured and how it shaped his adulthood...
...His father was an abusive alcoholic, a con man and essentially a waste of skin....that's why Dean was so close to his mother-they tried to shield one another...."dad" even threatened to kill them on multiple occasions....
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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Cambridge, Ohio
I have had so many false starts with Koontz. I really liked Lightning but many others i have just became irritated with. To me he seems extremely uneven. For me often things start to happen so fast you never really get to know the characters which makes you care less about them and makes them unreal which in turn makes the story uninteresting. Not always of course but often enough.
....his later works don't give as short a shrift to characters...
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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Cambridge, Ohio
I'm about halfway through reading The City and I'm really liking it. This is the first novel by Koontz that I've read since the third Frankenstein book was released and I'd forgotten how much I love Koontz's mysteries.
....this is one of his better ones, especially since he works within another color skin.....
 
Mar 12, 2010
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Texas
....this is one of his better ones, especially since he works within another color skin.....

I liked how Koontz didn't immediately describe Jonah and his Mom as being black. And the hints were so subtle, I didn't pick up on it until shortly before he actually said they were. I continued to think Tilton was white up to the very end lol.
 

Mr Nobody

Well-Known Member
Jul 9, 2008
3,306
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Walsall, England
IMO, he hit a purple patch between (IIRC) 1995 and maybe 2003. Before then things seemed a bit patchy, but for me Strangers and Watchers hinted at what was to come. I can't say I reckoned much to Lightning myself - at least memory tells me that, while I got through it and it killed a few hours easily enough at the time, it didn't stay with me as a Great or Highly Enjoyable Read. The period where I thought he was at his best probably started with Dark Rivers of the Heart (which seems both quaint and prescient now) and ended pretty much around the time of The Taking. Pretty much anything in between is a good read, IMO, and False Memory will always hold a bit of a special place because it was one of the two books that got me through a very sticky spell in early-through-late 2000 (the other book was by some other chap - King, I think his name was - and the book was summat to do with Hearts and Atlantis ;)).
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
IMO, he hit a purple patch between (IIRC) 1995 and maybe 2003. Before then things seemed a bit patchy, but for me Strangers and Watchers hinted at what was to come. I can't say I reckoned much to Lightning myself - at least memory tells me that, while I got through it and it killed a few hours easily enough at the time, it didn't stay with me as a Great or Highly Enjoyable Read. The period where I thought he was at his best probably started with Dark Rivers of the Heart (which seems both quaint and prescient now) and ended pretty much around the time of The Taking. Pretty much anything in between is a good read, IMO, and False Memory will always hold a bit of a special place because it was one of the two books that got me through a very sticky spell in early-through-late 2000 (the other book was by some other chap - King, I think his name was - and the book was summat to do with Hearts and Atlantis ;)).
...I agree muchly with this.....Koontz can be VERY uneven in his work, though I give him props for very cool plots and his turns of phrase are usually pretty epic i.e.:
“Humanity is a parade of fools, and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton.”
 

Christine62

Well-Known Member
Nov 7, 2013
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There are some very fun Koontz books. There are also some stinkers...same with anyone who churns out so much stuff, and King ain't no exception. Folks that get turned off by one of the mediocre Koontz books should try another. I like The Darkest Night of the Year and From the Corner of His Eye. The Odd Thomas series has ups and downs.

I lurk here, so you can tell where my allegiance lies.

I would name my next child Stephen King Bollerud if I had a uterus and have never read Koontz but I will be the first to tell you I hated Desperation, couldn't make it through IT and read a three pages of The Stand and put it down. Ah...but 11/22/63, Low Men In Yellow Coats, From a Buick 8 and Lisey's Story...don't they shine!
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
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Atlanta GA
...I agree muchly with this.....Koontz can be VERY uneven in his work, though I give him props for very cool plots and his turns of phrase are usually pretty epic i.e.:
“Humanity is a parade of fools, and I am at the front of it, twirling a baton.”
I'm unlike lots of members here in that I can't tell when Koontz's being uneven, I just know what I like. I never finished Dark Rivers but loved Lightning, Tick Tock, The Bad Place, and others. What I appreciate most about Dean Koontz is that he was my first "horror" author (he's said he doesn't consider himself a horror author, or any other specific genre of author). He turned me on to horror literature and I love him for that.